You need to finish your schoolwork, after all.
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Read one fan fiction and liked it? Decided to read another one, huh? Then another. Then another. Now you are a regular at FanFiction.net, SugarQuill.net, and FictionAlley.org? You told yourself you could stop at any time (they're only stories, after all). But...somehow... your Favorites folder filled itself with links to fics. You have so many that you need folders to organize them. You realize you need to stop, or at the very least, slow down. You tried to stop reading, but could not leave this fic or that fic because they were just getting to the really good parts. You gave up and went back to all of them. Want to try again? You need help. Welcome to FanFic Anonymous! |
Step 1 Decide on which fics you can live without. Keep yourself away from fanfics for a day, go out and do something, then come back and look at your lists of fics. You must have some you picked up when none of your favorites had been updated for a few weeks and you were getting fidgety for fresh fanon. Get rid of them. All the fics whose plots you feel have started to drag, whose characters are getting too far away from canon, whose authors are getting too far away from what you were looking for, all of those fics -- get rid of them. Decide to stop reading them. Do not rationalize. Do not say there is still a chance for them to get good; a few probably can get good, but do you really want to wait around for months to find that small batch that do?
Step 2 For all the fics in step one you decided to stop reading, delete their links. Take them off your FanFiction.net account's favorite lists if they are still being updated. Lose all papers where you wrote their titles or authors names. Step 3 You should have deleted about 3/4 of your links stock, at least. If you didn't, go back and drop some more. Leave only your absolute favorites and maybe a few good ones that are near the end. Everything else must go. Step 4 Go back and find unfinished fan fiction that has not been updated in over seven months. Chances are the author gave up on it. Delete those links. Step 5 Remember your life before you discovered fanfics? What did you like then? If it was another addiction, don't go back to it; think of something else. If you were in a club or a sport, though, go back and try it. You should also try something new. Is there anything you always wanted to try, but did not have enough time for? With fanfics subdued, you will have more time. Learn chess, backgammon, and battleboat. Buy a sketchpad and practice drawing. Take up photography. Learn about the diets of different dog breeds. Do something. This step is serious. DON'T skip it! A major part of fighting an addiction—at any degree of seriousness—is getting something to replace it. If you don't, the loss of fan fiction will leave a hole in your routine and you'll end up going back to it. Step 6 DELETE THOSE LINKS! Seriously, you need to cut off easy access to them. Step 7 Visit your local library and go on a borrowing spree. All those novels you've heard great recommendations about? Look for them. Read the back cover or the first half of chapter one. If it sounds at all interesting, include it in your pile of books to check out. You need to start building up your list of "real books." I am not saying fan fiction is all crappy writing. A good stock of fan fiction is written by college students on their way to English majors; it's great writing, but that is not the point. The point is that you read too much of it. You need to replace fan fiction with something. Try published fiction (or nonfiction)!
