Well, I'm Canadian. And I play League of Legends. Here is my blog. My Blog!

I would like to make note to please leave reviews as I will look at them. And if you have any criticisms, please tell me! I will not take any offence so long as it helps me improve as a writer, which in turn will improve your reading experience.

In all honesty, I used to have a really negative view on fanfiction for years. My first real introduction to fanfiction, was Half Life: Full Life Consequences. That's the video I linked, I could go and find the actual story, but I think I will spare us that.

Then another video definitely colored my vision of fanfiction: (Warning: Although the video is on youtube, it's got heavy swearing. Sooo PG-13 I think? Maybe M for strong language.) The Ultimate Sonic Fanfiction

So for a long time, I avoided fanfiction like the plague.

When I started playing League, about a year ago, it was because of a single character: Irelia. I liked her Lore so much, her characterization and all that jazz, that it convinced me to play a game. I read every League judgement, all the JoJ's, all the champion backgrounds, because when I play a game, I try and read everything that is presented to me and try to decipher and find the narrative, both hidden and provided.

When I ran out of sources to read, I decided to look at the fanfiction forums to try and find more. I was mulling through them, not really liking any in particular, and then I saw the crack pairing thread. I popped in, read a few stories, some made me laugh, some made me cringe, and I decided to roll the die and see who I get.

My first story, was Cho'Gath x Nocturne. I couldn't bring myself to make smutty, because despite what others think, I actually try to sleep at night (I proved myself right when I was dared to make their love story a reality), so I wrote a deal the two make in order to escape the League. This was my first story, I posted it on the fanfic forums, and I felt oddly satisfied.

After that, I decided to sit and plan, and plot my next story. Suddenly, I went into full on research mode. Who did I want to be the protagonist? The antagonist? What did I want the story to be about?

My first story, was about Nidalee because of FriskyKitty's multiple stories on Nidalee x Pantheon which made my blood curdle just a bit, and so I went and explored her options as a character. I quickly found out that at the time I couldn't care too much about her, and after 50 or so pages, I stopped the story, never published it. It helped create an idea as to how I want to portray characters such as Udyr, Caitlyn, Irelia, the League summoners and a few other champions.

So, I tried again, this time I decided to write one about my favorite League champion, because hell, this should be easy!

120 pages later, I looked at my work and laughed at it =p

I hadn't done enough research in her character, in Jarvan's, in Swain's or in the Ionians as a whole, but Udyr's idea became more concrete, and I started to draw my influences from Fist of the North Star and Akuma for his personality, and it soon stuck!

Then, Riven was released. I read her story, I did some research, and I found out that she was influenced by Sojiro, the Heaven's Blade, one of Kenshin's villains.

Then I thought, "Wait a minute, that sounds familiar. Who else is influenced by Kenshin?"

I looked over at Irelia, and boom, there it was. The connection. Irelia is a Hiten-style user, and her Bladesurge is a Kenshin technique. Suddenly, I realized how much more the characters can be, if I treated them with the respect I'd give my own work, and that was when things finally clicked, that all of this writing, I can use it as fuel for my own work, my own idea, to develop my sense of writing, to be able to create drama, to be able to write humor, to create a pace of plot, and so I went into writing.

After about 3 takes, and with my shaky prose, I finally posted my story. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue it, so I made the prologue and chapter 1 the same, and thought that if people didn't like it, if it was still too unrefined, that it would serve as a good short story, and then I could use their criticism to hone my skill more before trying to write another story, despite having the plot planned.

And, something strange happened: People liked my work. They offered criticism, of course they did, but the fact that it wasn't met with, "Why are you writing words, charlatan," and that it was met with enjoyment it pushed me into writing more. It sounds silly, I know, and despite my personality, I'm actually very wary of taking chances so it was a big step for me to take, to put your work on the internet where you can get some of the harshest critiques, comments and insults said to you under the sun.

And so, it pushed me to not only write more, but to keep being a part of the community. Since I've been here, I've read every single IMTOOJUICY story and enjoyed them, I've met wonderful authors/people like KuzAnn who writes Ace, Cerubois who writes Guiding Light, Eyowyn who writes Permafrost Diplomacy, HuggableZombie and his AkalixShen story (Hey, I may not like the pairing but dude's a great guy), Haruka Shinigami who I spent countless hours talking to about characterization and storylines, Dorryza who wrote all of those short stories, KneeSurgery whose stuff I really need to read, HappyWaffles and his amazing Renekton Judgement, Yasako who wrote the Ahri x Sona story and also read aloud and recorded my "Varus and Pants" story, and I could go on about the authors and people I've met and interacted with! If I didn't mention you, it's only because this post would become 100x times bigger. Whoever I didn't mention gets to take a free shot on me via a baseball bat.

I'm not even including the fans and audience that we've all accumulated over this time!

So, is fanfiction bad? I don't think so, not anymore.

Should it be published?

That, I say, is strictly up to the creator(s). If they want it to be, then who are we to argue?

What you put into your writing, effort, mindset, your goals, is what you will get out of it. If you put in a laisse faire effort, you will show people you put that in. If you put in your heart and soul, but aren't quite able to communicate it yet? You keep trying, and keep trying to improve. You don't want to improve? It will show.

Fanfiction can be a great catalyst for overcoming that first hurdle to many writers and artists. Hell, because of fanfiction, I'm currently plotting out a book and I'm planning on starting up a comic soon because I gained confidence and have seen my skill improve, my craft become better.

Is writing fanfiction, therefore, bad, since it is not your original work? Quick question, how many people write academic essays without citing any sources? Here's a hint: No one. Are academic papers, therefore, not a legitimate form of writing? Do they carry no weight, because these facts are not what the author devised, but had to take from others and to let them know that yes, these are not his/her opinion, but it helps strengthen their argument?

Fanfiction, so long as the original source is credited, is similar in this sense! We are aware that we are writing in the LoL-verse, or whatever fandom, and yes OC's may be added and may be done so poorly at times, and maybe there are ham fisted erotic stories that make you confused and go, "W-why would Maokai put his roots...and how did Hecarim mount Mordekaiser? Oh God Skarner and Malphite, what is, what is this?! Teemo did WHAT to Gragas!? O-oh God...I'm...I'm going to be sick...", that doesn't matter.

People write for various reasons, and the only way to get better is to keep writing, keep doing research, keep yourself reading other work and becoming more knowledgeable and strengthening your own work in your own way.

Can fanfiction do this if utilized properly?

Absolutely. Would it be great if LoL started to publish their fanfiction? Sure, why would it be a bad thing if the creators themselves allow it to happen?

Writing is still writing, and I can understand why an author wouldn't want to legitimize fanfiction not on the basis that it's "Bad" and "Unoriginal", because in all frankness, it isn't our world, but they can't stop you from writing it and having others enjoy it since their work is what prompted you to write in their universe. If they don't want you to publish it, then fair enough, that shouldn't stop you from writing it because we do have freedom of speech.

You will get just as trashy, if not more trashy, pieces of writing from other sources like celebrity gossip columns and whatever other ridiculousness you can think of, and see that pretty much all of media, literature, art, whatever creative facet you can think of, does have the bad intermix with the good!

The fact that the people of the company Udon, a bunch of Canadians, did extensive fan art for Street Fighter and even made multiple doujinshi's of such high caliber that CAPCOM, when they saw it, decided to make them the official artists/writers for Street Fighters and Darkstalkers, says a lot! Fan art and fan work is what landed them the gig, and really? Good on them!

It's like everything else, it's about how you use whatever medium you have presented to you to its fullest capability and what you're willing to put out there and how willing you are to better yourself in something you enjoy doing! Orrr you can be Edgar Allan Poe and just continually depressed, whatever floats your boat =p

Phew! I think that's a lotta talking on my part. Those are my 2 cents on fanfiction, hope this isn't too much of a bore to read.

Yours truly,

GV (or VoG), the intrepid serpent.