A question for Chris...

Hi Chris.

I love your work (esp. Lamb, hence my username, am now working on TSA) and was hoping you could help me with a question I have.

I'm now in the process of looking at colleges (I'm a junior in high school) and my counselor said a few days ago that I should start to put together a portfolio of my writing for colleges to look at, since I want to be an author.

This wouldn't be a problem, save the fact that until a few months ago, I've been mainly a fan fiction writer and didn't do very much original character work. Should I put in a fan fic piece or two (I mean, I do have a year until applications are due) and just focus on original work from now on? My only worry is that fan fiction will look amueter-ish to admissions officers and unprofessional. Any suggestions would be a great help here, since making the switch from fan fiction to original work is really hard!

-Rai

I would advise against including fanfics, but i'm only a high school sophmore, so what do i know? Well, I do know a lot about making the swap from fanfics to origionals though!
Here's a hint to making the swap. If you write a fanfic of a very well known work of literature that the author of is no longer alive, it does't count as a fanfic. Like fanfics of Shakespeare, Dickens, Mythology, Fairy Tales, etc. don't count as fanfics. Take "Wicked" for example. It's basically a Wizard of Oz fanfic, but it's a popular novel and a broadway musical. And there's TONS of fractured fairy tale published novels out there.
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Heck, now that I think about it, Lamb is basically a bible fanfiction, and Coyote Blue is a Mythology one! See? Absolutely nothing wrong with writing fanfics!
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unless the author is still alive. In which case youre screwed.

I say just switch the names around and call it a day. You can always say you were inspired by whoever the fanfic is derived from

but then again what do i know im just a junior in high school as well and my aspirations are no higher than UC Santa Cruz or some art college

They're trying to measure your writing skill. So long as its not slash I see no reason to not include fanfic in your portfolio. You may wish to start working on some original short pieces to include however.
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"Doug's okay." - Deb.

Rai:

If it's your best writing, I don't think it should matter. But then, I never had to apply to a college that could actually turn me down. I don't think that most colleges expect you to have done great character work when you're a junior in HS, but you might take this opportunity to write a really great short story or essay. And don't be freaked by the "really great" description. Write a cool story that you'd like to read. Use your best skills.

To give you an idea of how these things can go...

I was twenty-five, hadn't written anything for about five years, but I kept telling my girlfriend that I used to write. One day she was reading the paper and saw an ad for a writers' conference in the area. "You always say you used to write, you should go to that."

They required that you submit a story in order to attend the conference, so I wrote something and sent it in. Anyway, long story short, I went, they loved my stuff, I found other people who thought writing was a valid and important thing. So being forced to write something for an application paid off, because I ended up really putting my head down and trying to become a writer, after basically dicking around for seven years after high school.

hey, thanks everyone. You actually gave me a good idea about "reworking" an older tale. (Gonna need a bit of help with it, tho.) Plus, I have a few original-character, very short things (the longest is about 2 pages typed) that I'm proud of.

-Rai