My Wheelhouse

Henry Jenkins article, Why Heather Can Write, is right in my wheelhouse. Fandom and fanfiction are two of my favorite things--don't worry, I'm not one of those fangirls who kidnaps the artists she loves.

I loved the entire article, but I mainly liked how the students proved that something "adults" render trivial and immature can be quite beneficial.
Wait, what? Do my eyes deceive me? I mean, a scholar said that social media and digital writing is good, so it must be.

Do you know how much this would have helped me in high school? If I had known there were online writing communities as some of the students in the article are a part of--with a community I could write, edit, publish, and learn with--I may be more skilled and farther along in my writing career. I knew of Wattpad, but I didn't have the guts to write anything on it until college.

I also loved how the article proved that books are not dying out. Have you heard of this? With the wave of new reading technology such as eBooks and Kindles a few years ago, publishers and older generations were freaking out. They believed that the book industry as we know it would die out. Well, the world proved them wrong--big time. If anything, reading and book access has increased. In addition, there are more opportunities than ever for budding writers because of technology: self-publishing the "traditional" way through Amazon, for example; writing fanfiction on Wattpad or other sites; Nanowrimo; writing on social media; and many others. Some wish that we could go back to good old days where only solid books were published and writers were made after years and years of turmoil. Hate to disappoint, but digital writing, fanfiction, and young thriving authors are here to stay.

And, I would just like to add, there is no shame in writing fanfiction or being heavily involved in an online writing community. This article proved it can be great! Go nuts!