The nerdy girl who wrote "X-Files" fanfiction
A look back at where this whole fiction-writing thing began...
As a kid, I liked writing stories, but I didn’t start to consider myself a writer until I was a teen. What changed? I fell in love with “The X-Files.”
As my “X-Files” obsession grew, I joined the show’s official internet message board and discovered a community of people who loved writing stories about the show’s cast of characters. I found fanfiction—and I started to find my own creative voice.
I’d always been an avid reader. I’d taken pride in going above and beyond for written assignments in school. I placed in a local children’s poetry contest in fifth grade! But I’d never experienced writing for readers. I’d never before gotten feedback from people who weren’t my teachers or my parents (or, that one time, contest judges). I’d never had anyone waiting with bated breath to read what I’d share next.
It was addicting.
The way the message boards worked, back in those early days of dial-up internet, was that conversations happened between people posting comments back and forth in threads on certain topics. There were threads discussing recent “X-Files” episodes and speculating on where plotlines might go next. There were threads diving deep into backstory. There were threads about production details, the nuts and bolts of how the show got made. There were threads sharing links to interviews with the cast and crew. There were threads for “shippers” (people who wanted Mulder and Scully to get together—I was definitely in this camp) and threads for “NoRoMos” (people who wanted absolutely zero romance in their weekly dose of sci-fi).
And there were threads for fanfiction. That’s mainly where I hung out.
Most stories were posted serially—that is, a chapter or chunk at a time, every day or couple of days. Posting a new chapter meant getting immediate feedback: “I love this!” “Keep going!” “More! More!” “Gah, you can’t leave us hanging like that!!!” Sometimes, writers would let their readers’ wishes dictate what happened next. Other times, they stuck to their plans, readers’ possible disappointment or outrage notwithstanding. (Watching this process play out in real time was really illuminating to me, as a fledgling writer!)
When I started posting my own stories, hesitantly at first and then exuberantly as the encouragement rolled in, I started to think about things I’d never considered before. Outlining. Character arcs. Cliffhangers. What makes a resolution satisfying for the reader—even if the ending isn’t “happy.” (There was a lot of bittersweet in “The X-Files.” Mulder and Scully went through some stuff.) I began with vignettes and progressed to full-length stories. The first long story I completed came to almost 25,000 words—a novella! It was by far the most complex thing I’d ever written, and I was immensely proud.
Forgotten featured Scully losing her memory and Mulder struggling first to find her, and then to help her recover herself. The memory loss came during an investigation into a mysterious series of murders in which the victims were found missing an internal organ—but with no external wounds. The perpetrator wanted Scully’s heart. (So, ahem, did Mulder. Did I mention I was a shipper??) Reunited, they crack the case.
Here’s a little snippet of my story, from shortly after Scully has been found:
Mulder felt like he was frozen solid, incapable of any movement at all. There was only one way that Scully could have known this much detail about the case and the killer, and it chilled Mulder’s very soul. The wetness of his shirt felt like ice, and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to curl up underneath the quilt that Scully had already wrapped tightly around herself. She had been with that man, been his prisoner, and somehow she had escaped. Escaped or been set free.
“Do you have any idea who that man was?” Mulder asked gently, hesitantly. “Do you remember his face, anything about his physical appearance?”
“No, except…” Scully paused, the eyes coming back to her in another horrible flashback. “Except for his eyes. I don’t think…I don’t think I will ever be able to forget those eyes.” The experience would always be there, there was no doubt about that, but for the first time she felt able to talk about it, able to take action. As she sat in the warmth of this house, with her partner beside her, reassuring and calming her, Scully felt herself begin to heal.
I wrote that in high school! It’s not half bad.
I kept writing fanfiction through my freshman year in college. After that, I began to taper off. I was incredibly busy, trying to fulfill a double-major in dance and English literature. The creative writing courses I was taking monopolized both my time and my creative energy. Plus, the one writing professor I mentioned my fanfiction to…well, to say the least, he did not respond enthusiastically. (Not to mention that “The X-Files” itself was ending after nine seasons.) That era of my life was drawing to a close.
And then, almost twenty years later, I was struck by a bolt of inspiration:
“The X-Files,” but Mulder and Scully are seventh-grade girls doing a science-fair project on crop circles. They’re an unlikely pair. The Scully character starts off working against her kooky partner before begrudgingly coming around to some of the Mulder character’s ideas. They become friends. Sisters in science, my coauthor MarcyKate and I say in the finished version of The Thirteenth Circle. (You’d figured out that I was talking about my next book, right?)
I’ll write more about how The Thirteenth Circle came to be in future posts. Today, I just want to pay homage to the role fanfiction played in my development as a writer. I learned so much about the craft of writing, as well as about following my intuition. Even more importantly, I developed a passion for sharing stories. Some writers are okay with writing purely for themselves, but as much as I enjoy the act of creation, I also crave having readers. Posting fanfiction, especially serialized stories, helped me become a storyteller because there was a back-and-forth. A give-and-take. A relationship between writer and reader.
Stories are meant to be shared.
Have you ever written or read fanfiction (or created fan art)? What’s your fandom of choice? Let’s nerd out together!
~Kathryn
Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating right now! If you’re looking for a small gift to round out your eight nights, remember that you can currently get the Class Critters books for 50% off on my publisher’s website. That’s $3.50 per paperback! If you want signed books, your best bet is to order from my neighborhood bookstore, Terrace Books. Or, you can write to me and ask for a signed bookplate!
I love giving—and receiving—books during the holidays. I have fond memories from childhood of curling up on Christmas afternoons, in the lull between the present frenzy and the festive dinner, with one of the new books I’d received. Maybe you can make a similar memory for the kids in your life?
See you next week!
This is my favorite newsletter to date! I want to read all of Forgotten!