Let us consider the issues of fanfiction in general and my own writing in particular.

When I write, it is generally unplanned and without function. I throw together some random ideas, thinking "wouldn't it be cool if this character could do this" or "What if this character ended up here" and then explore the results. However, what I write is generally AU fanfiction. AU fanfiction by definition is not the same setting as the canon setting, it changes things and makes everything different. Often, the characters end up having entirely different personalities. This is fine, but it seems odd to think of them as the same character. After all, they are so different from what they are in the writing of the author. In some cases, the character becomes so different that it feels like almost a crime to give them the same name. "This is Naruto, the silent, suave assassin who poisons his enemies" causes something of a logical disconnect. This is not the Naruto that we know.

What I have come to realize about situations like this, at least in my own case, is that I don't want to write canonical characters. Yes, I turned Naruto into an assassin and Sasuke into a reluctant superhero. But that's really not who they are. After thinking about it, I realized that I didn't actually want to write fanfiction about Naruto or Sasuke, I wanted to write about the much-dreaded Original Character, but I was frightened, so I built one out of canonical character by twisting him and gave that character the same name. He was the canonical character in name only.

Once I realized this it came as something as a relief. I felt like I should go to support groups or something, saying "Hi, I'm Hidden Amongst the Crows and I want to write about Original Characters." And with that I realized that there are no limits to what I can write. If I want to write about the life of a random quarian and how much it sucks, I can do so, and I don't have to call that quarian Tali'Zorah to get the point across. If I want to write about a ninja assassin with a penchant for sarcasm, then an original name should be attached instead of brutalizing a random character.

In fact, maybe I don't need to write it in the setting at all. I can make my own.

And that, I suppose, is how one starts writing original fiction.

In case it wasn't clear by the dates and the rant above, all of my Naruto fanfiction is dead, dead, dead, and is only still up to remind me how far I've come. I have something in mind for a new work, but it won't be about the cast. It might not even take place in Konoha, and it certainly won't be about the right people in the right place at the right time changing the world. I want to write about the kind of people that aren't seen in Naruto, the ones that end up dead. I want to make the audience care deeply for those random samurai that die so horribly, the Rain ninja that are killed unceremoniously by Gaara, and in a cross-setting twist the nameless Blue Suns mercenaries gunned down by Commander Shepard.

I want to tell a story that hasn't been told before over and over again. I want to skip off the stations of the canon and go veering into uncharted territory. I want to have some fun.

Won't you join me?