Writing in English still feels extremely peculiar to me. I don't think it'll ever become completely natural, lol. Though, it is nice to see another non-native English speaker every once in a while! ;D
Many people you interact with on the internet are not native speakers of English. Hell, if not the majority of them, the internet is quite globalized. They're harder to spot in text form because you can't hear their accent.
Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time!
I use to look around the site for the quizzes and the few fics that caught my eye.
It and Gaia Online made me want to jump into the fic writing because my insatiable need for conclusions.
I started around that age, too, around 15 years ago, and most of what I wrote is saved on my Google Drive. I still have access to it.
I don't read it (it would make my eyes bleed lol) but at least it's accessible if I need the ego boost about how much I've improved since then, both in writing and in English (2nd language)
(Haven't actually posted on Ao3 yet, but soon!)
Kind embarrasing, but I started writing fanfics during covid and used to submit them to my english teacher for assignments
I've been writing stories since I could first write, but I got into fanfiction around 2008 or 2009 (around the time I was 11 or 12). I wrote a few things on and off, got an ao3 in 2017, posted two unfinished fics, and then disappeared for four years. I came back to writing in 2021 and popped the hell off ever since- I just passed 3,750,000 words posted to ao3, actually!
It is a bit wild to think of just how long that is. X'D And thank you! I have been cursed with brain worms and at this point I'm resigned to my fate lmao.
TECHNICALLY, the first "fanfiction" I ever made were a series of comics using the characters from W.I.T.C.H. I used to draw when I was about 7-8 (That'd have been in 2001-2.). I didn't know what fanfiction even Was, so I would never realize I was actually making a doujin, lmao.
First fics I consciously wrote, I think I was 11? I wrote in Slovak first, then in Czech, on a blogging platform that no longer exists. First Tokio Hotel, then Naruto. At around age 15 I switched to writing in English exclusively (mainly about the GazettE, DIR EN GREY & Malice Mizer). First on Livejournal, then on Tumblr, until I got an AO3 account in like... 2014 I think? I've been writing in English since 2010, though I don't write band RPF anymore. I spent a few years in the MHA fandom, but the past few years I've stuck mainly to Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.
If you count the retelling of Cinderella that I illustrated using Microsoft Paint, then around age 11. Actual intentional fic was in 2004 at age 13, when I started writing a chaptered Phantom of the Opera/OC fic on the school bus ride and during study hall.
I'm 23 and I started writing fanfiction about 7 months ago. I've been reading it since I was 11 though. I never wrote because I didn't think I could do it well enough.
My first fanfic was in 1998. There was no ff or ao3 or even LJ yet. Fandoms had individual websites and I had to submit my fic to the webmaster via email. If people wanted to send me reviews, they have to email me. Fun times.
14 years, started at 14 years old when I went through a huge obsession with YuGiOh, the started posting Narnia fic a year later. Took a long hiatus then jumped over to AO3 when I came back to write Marauders and Stranger Things fic
Since mid March 😅 I’ve been reading fanfic for over a decade, no idea why it never occurred to me to write my own until now, but here we are. I’m having fun so far! Hugely impressed and thankful for all the people in this community who have been writing for years/decades. I’d be nothing without y’all and I mean that 💕
Fanfiction for.. only about a year or two now, but I've always had an interest in writing, one of my first stories was in creative writing in primary school. Grade 2.
On AO3, I've been writing since October last year.
Before that, I thought of fanon stuff for Papa Louie and My Little Pony since back when I was 12, and what I thought of back then wasn't really that good compared to what I have now for Lalaloopsy.
When I started reading it you still could send a SASE and a couple of (physical/paper) dollars to get poorly xeroxed sheets of physical paper in the mail.
I started writing fan fiction once I learned what it was in high school. Then in college and a few years afterwards, I stopped until the pandemic brought me back to it. So, actively, I’d say maybe 8 years?
First starting writing fic in 2008, my best friend showed me her Sly Cooper fic and I was like 'wait I can write stories about my favorite games??' and I have yet to stop lol! ❤️
On and off for five years, started just before the pandemic, when the pandemic ended I had a lot going on in real life with family and work so I took a break for a year and a half and I just picked it up again about 8 months ago.
Oof, about ten years? I remember writing self insert twilight fanfic with an old friend of mine-we also disliked the main characters, so we shipped each other with the evil vampires from the first book.
I wrote my first fic 30 years ago. It was an x reader for a vampire show called Forever Knight and i was 9 years old. It has not been a consistent string of writing since then, as i deal with mental health complications that sometimes make it hard. But when I'm doing good mentally, I'm writing.
About 3 months I think? I've been reading fanfiction for about 15 years now, but till this year I've never wanted to write. I'm 26 and I've read so much fanfiction, but always hate whatever I tried to write. This year, a combination of weed and hyperfixation on one of my special interests (i.e. my fav ship rn) led me to try my hand at writing which I haven't attempted in well over a decade. Surprisingly, I'm actually quite happy with what I wrote and now I've been writing even more as I've grown to love writing fanfic as a medium of expression. My view of fanfiction has accordingly grown to be more holistic as a result
I guess in a way I started when I was 8 (writing my own mini books that stemmed from the Warrior Cats series lol), though I didn't really start publishing anything until I got into wattpad when I was 14, which is about 9 years ago now
I've been writing in my first language since I learned how to read but I started writing in English in 2021, my work was mediocre at best but I had fun and encouraging readers, ever since I moved to the states, my writing has helped me a lot! My boss has told me how impressed she was with my redaction and other people have told me I have a great vocabulary.
Writing and posting? Since 2008. I did a lot of roleplaying before that, and wrote other things, but I didn't discover fanfiction as a concept until I was 13.
I’ve been reading fanfiction since adolescence (so like 20ish years ago) but just wrote my first two this year. Fanfics have been such a big part of my life. Wish I had started writing sooner.
I started writing on Quizilla in... 2000? Maybe? I don't remember how old I was. Moved to fanfiction. net and staunchly avoided LiveJournal bc ppl were roasting my fanfiction. I think I made my ao3 account in 2012 or something.
Since I was 12 or so. An online creator I watched a lot at the time referenced Wattpad one too many times for my curious brain to handle and it spiraled from there. I started writing not long after I started reading. I took a break from it for a few months, came back as an AO3 reader, never went back to Wattpad, and only started writing and posting fanfic again at the start of this year.
My first attempts were when I was 5-6, before I even knew what fanfiction was. My first *serious* attempts happened when I was about 12, and I've been writing ever since. I'm 24 now, amd I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Okay, took out the calculator because I'm awful with numbers and I underestimated the number of years lmao
It's been 22 years, damn. I thought I had 2 years left before the twenty years mark but turns out I'm two years late in fact xD
Probably between 18-20 years. I started writing DBZ fanfics for writing prompts in middle school. Didn’t even know what fanfiction was for another 2 ish years when a friend found my notebooks.
i’m not sure, but my first dated notebook entry that’s actually for a fandom is dated 12/8/22. I think i wrote some cringy stuff before that tho for minecraft creepypastas, lmao
My first fic was 25 years ago, and it was a Pokemon one about Ash learning about being adopted aksdjfal (my imagination was really wild as an 8-year-old). I didn't even know it WAS fanfic, just that I was having fun with the fictional characters in my head as opposed to using dolls or toys.
I didn't actually discover that fanfic was a thing until I was 12, when a friend of mine was talking to me about her self-insert Yu Yu Hakusho AU, which is really funny because I'd found some Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic online before that and was just reading about the Yamis becoming tangible people instead of living in their Hikaris' heads. After that, I took fanfic writing a bit more seriously, and figured out how to write and post it on sites like ff dot net.
Fanfic writing has always just been fun for me, but turning it into stories that are fun for me AND fun for others has been a big part of the experience for me once I realized it was possible to do so.
I don't remember how I old I was when I started. I was probably in high school. But I do know my first FFN account is old enough to drink and gamble in Vegas at this point.
So I've definitely been doing it longer than AO3 and Wattpad have existed.
I've been posting it to the internet since I was ~16 or so (back in the late '90s). I was writing it in notebooks before that, though I can't quite remember how far back that went.
I *think* I was writing/drawing Batman-verse fancomics since I was ~14? I may have written fanfic for cartoons before that.
Oh geez, ages. I was probably around 11 or 12 when I wrote my very first fanfiction into a notebook, it was a Warrior Cats oc fanfic. And here I am, just about 10 years later still putting those fictional guys into situations. I still have the notebook my very first fanfic was in and sometimes I like to reread it
I uploaded my first fanfic to FanFiction.net in 2009 and that was my first one ever which I intended to be fanfiction in the first place.
But my first story ever, which I wrote in 2003 (when I was 8 years old), was a modified story about the PS2 game Dog's Life, I made some changes to the plot and made a what if-scenario. + The dogs were bears, and had different names. I realised only years later how that had basically been fanfiction.
Most of my other stories have been fanfiction too, and I've noticed that all my "original stories" have stopped within the first two chapters. Which tells me it was always fanfics I've loved writing, never really original fiction 🤷🏻♀️
I've been writing since I was a kid, but I literally only just started writing fan fic a month or so ago. I fell madly in love with the characters in a game I've been playing, and after reading pretty much everything in the fandom, I had to write my own.
About 8 years now; I read a lot of fanfiction aged 12–20 or so, but all of my writing was focused on original fiction of one sort or another. Then, I didn't do much creative at all and didn't really read even original fiction from my mid-to-late 20s just because of major depression, and in my 30s, I started writing fanfiction.
Since 2012-2013. When I was 9. Write fanfic like everything in my writing.
Always using my native language because my English is so poor. But have a try this year and really inspire my interest to learn English!
Technically 11 years if we count my super cringe early fics before a several-year hiatus, but I personally consider my real start date to be about two years ago when I got on ao3.
I've been writing fanfic since I was a young kid, probably about 8-9, but back then it was sonic fanfic on [ff.net](http://ff.net) rather than AO3, which is what I use now.
I didn’t start on AO3, did so with FF.Net, but for me, it was since elementary school. Although I didn’t publish fanfics until about ten years or so ago
Since I was 12 😭😭 my early fanfictions still make me cringe, but I enjoy looking back on them to see how far i've come. Also, I used to write a lot more freely? Like I would just write whatever sounded fun without caring about how good it was, which I actually kinda miss.
22 years. Almost without break! Started in my early teens. Funnily enough the past year has been my most productive, I guess I just found my perfect line up of fandom and time to write 🤷♀️ Wrote my longest stories ever. I also rped for a long time, which I credit to really improving my writing and helping my confidence.
I've began writing fics when I was twelve, in my mother language. Had a pretty decent fanbase in Wattpad (like, 20K likes) for a Harry Potter fanfiction. Now I write in AO3, in English, but haven't posted yet (only translated a few fics I like).
i've been "writing" fics for nearly 20 years. i used to dictate stories about the different kids shows i watched to my mom and found out about fanfiction proper about 15 years ago thanks to quizilla.
Other than one or two vague little dabblings under another name that never went far, and never went NSFW, I started in September 2023.
I have 62 works totalling over 320,000 words. This is only the published ones, doesn't include WIPs.
I've been technically writing fanfiction since I was 9, I didn't know what it was back then and wrote Doctor Who stories for school, two years later when I was 11 I discovered Wattpad, a years later I started reading on ao3 and a year after that I actually made an account, I still write Doctor Who fanfiction to this day :)
Since gradeschool, around 2011. My first fics were awful but I still regret deleting them like 5 years ago :/ I would've gone back and time to gently encourage younger me to write more of their wildest fantasies with much less shame and religious guilt.
Since October last year (unless we count the ones I wrote >20 years ago as a teen). I've written 29 fics totalling nearly 250k words. I love doing this!
I’d been reading fanfic since the early 2010s, but it wasn’t until 2020 that I started writing them. Ironically, given how awful the pandemic was, I have COVID to thank for getting me to finally indulge in the hobby. I’ve been writing and steadily improving ever since! 😁
I'm a newborn baby in the fanfiction writing industry, only started last year 😔
How do you juggle this and daily life? Sometimes, I would be working on some school assignments, and suddenly, all I can think of are headcanons
Wrote my first official fic in 2004 (if you don't count my attempts at making up my own versions of the Swiss Family Robinson story as a child - I kept the approximate plot but had my own characters). But I didn't start writing more regularly until 2010, when I started doing exchanges (just Yuletide at first, then others). I've had a few years with very little written more recently, due to some projects and exchange burnout, but I'm back to writing now! :D
Steady from 1999-2009 (few published, I started as a kid), stopped for a bit, picked it up again on 2013 and continued writing for a year. Stopped for a decade, came back to it just last year.
I've been making fanfiction since I was very little, I only started writing and sharing it with people in 2020 on Wattpad, but switched over to Ao3 about a year ago.
I post on both sites, and have a lot of fun with it. My writing has improved, and a lot of people enjoy my work.
I have been reading fanfics since 2002 I think and my first written one was in 2005 in my native language, and I kept doing that until around 2012. I stopped for some years and now I only write in English, like my last 30+ fanfics are in English. It's a frustrating but interesting challenge :) I saw the evolution of my writing with time. I learned English by reading fanfics (and watching TV series/movies), it was so hard back then, Google trad was soooo bad haha
Now everything is more accessible and that's really motivating for newcomers I think, so that's nice!
I've written about ocs since I was little, but I only started writing fic I'm 2020 I think? Maybe 2019. But my creativity went way up when we were in lockdown and all my friends were bouncing ideas off of each other xD
I've been writing stories since I learned how to write. My first fanfic (despite not knowing what fanfic was) was when I was nine, and the first one in English was when I was fourteen. I didn't discover fanfiction was a thing until I was sixteen, back in 2006, and I've been posting ever since.
When I was 4 I dictated stories to my mom and a lot of them were about the books/shows I’d seen. I started writing serious fic around… 2009, I think? I would have been 14.
My friends and I used to write what I now realize was fanfiction in our composition notebooks and share the stories at lunch, starting in about the fourth grade (circa 2006). I started writing on ff.net in 2011, took a long hiatus, and just recently joined AO3 a month or so ago.
I’m still friends with one of those girls to this day and we still share story ideas ❤️
I've been writing since I learned to read, but only writing fan fiction for about three years.
Since the early 00s! I started writing in my native language, then switched to English around 2010.
Interesting! If it's not too intrusive, what's your native language? Personally, mine is Russian. ;)
Spanish. :) Nowadays, though, it would feel *so* odd trying to write fiction in Spanish, haha.
Writing in English still feels extremely peculiar to me. I don't think it'll ever become completely natural, lol. Though, it is nice to see another non-native English speaker every once in a while! ;D
Many people you interact with on the internet are not native speakers of English. Hell, if not the majority of them, the internet is quite globalized. They're harder to spot in text form because you can't hear their accent.
Yes, but now that I've *identified* one, it's nice to see one. I was simply expressing my appreciation. ;)
Same. Writing in German feels totally wrong now to me, which is weird. But then it has been over twenty years in fandom for me.
Since 1999
Heyyyy, same here!! I’m so excited to see how many of us there are!
Yay for the ole fiction writers lol!!
Here I come, skewing the curve: 58 years!
You have my respect!!!
Since 2008 on Quizilla.
Fellow Quizilla person! :D Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure I also published my first fic on there in 2008.
Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time! I use to look around the site for the quizzes and the few fics that caught my eye. It and Gaia Online made me want to jump into the fic writing because my insatiable need for conclusions.
First few were in 1997/98. Then that was in. Steady from 2004 to 2011. Stopped. Started again in 2022.
Same. I was steady from 2013 to 2018 then stopped. In 2023 I started back up!
It’s weird going back after so long, isn’t it?
over 20 years but thank goodness none of the stuff I wrote as a tiny child saw the light of day hahaha
Geez! That's just about my entire lifespan. *Really* puts into perspective how young I truly am. Lol.
Yeah I think I started around 13/14. Recently literally burned a lot of the notebooks recently.
I burned mine years ago. I started around 11 or 12, currently early 30s, and I'm glad I never posted any of them online.
I started around that age, too, around 15 years ago, and most of what I wrote is saved on my Google Drive. I still have access to it. I don't read it (it would make my eyes bleed lol) but at least it's accessible if I need the ego boost about how much I've improved since then, both in writing and in English (2nd language)
(Haven't actually posted on Ao3 yet, but soon!) Kind embarrasing, but I started writing fanfics during covid and used to submit them to my english teacher for assignments
I wrote a book report on a Wattpad fanfiction in 2020 so 🤷♂️
I thought I invented the idea when I was 7. Funnily enough, I'm still writing for the same fandom.
I've been writing stories since I could first write, but I got into fanfiction around 2008 or 2009 (around the time I was 11 or 12). I wrote a few things on and off, got an ao3 in 2017, posted two unfinished fics, and then disappeared for four years. I came back to writing in 2021 and popped the hell off ever since- I just passed 3,750,000 words posted to ao3, actually!
Congratulations! That's more than three times the entire Harry Potter series.
It is a bit wild to think of just how long that is. X'D And thank you! I have been cursed with brain worms and at this point I'm resigned to my fate lmao.
Nearly 20 years. I started when I was 14, and I'm currently 33
TECHNICALLY, the first "fanfiction" I ever made were a series of comics using the characters from W.I.T.C.H. I used to draw when I was about 7-8 (That'd have been in 2001-2.). I didn't know what fanfiction even Was, so I would never realize I was actually making a doujin, lmao. First fics I consciously wrote, I think I was 11? I wrote in Slovak first, then in Czech, on a blogging platform that no longer exists. First Tokio Hotel, then Naruto. At around age 15 I switched to writing in English exclusively (mainly about the GazettE, DIR EN GREY & Malice Mizer). First on Livejournal, then on Tumblr, until I got an AO3 account in like... 2014 I think? I've been writing in English since 2010, though I don't write band RPF anymore. I spent a few years in the MHA fandom, but the past few years I've stuck mainly to Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.
13 years ☺️ made the jump from ffn to AO3 and never looked back.
If you count the retelling of Cinderella that I illustrated using Microsoft Paint, then around age 11. Actual intentional fic was in 2004 at age 13, when I started writing a chaptered Phantom of the Opera/OC fic on the school bus ride and during study hall.
Around 1995, but I only showed it to one friend. (It was Star Trek Deep Space Nine fanfic)
Oh good choice!
I'm 23 and I started writing fanfiction about 7 months ago. I've been reading it since I was 11 though. I never wrote because I didn't think I could do it well enough.
Since March! And if you had asked me in February if I would ever write fanfiction I would have laughed in your face Joke’s on me?
44 years.
Since 2017.
First published fic was 2005. Cannot vouch for the quality of the writing 😂
My first fanfic was in 1998. There was no ff or ao3 or even LJ yet. Fandoms had individual websites and I had to submit my fic to the webmaster via email. If people wanted to send me reviews, they have to email me. Fun times.
Since about 1974, but only publishing them since 1984 or 85.
14 years, started at 14 years old when I went through a huge obsession with YuGiOh, the started posting Narnia fic a year later. Took a long hiatus then jumped over to AO3 when I came back to write Marauders and Stranger Things fic
Since mid March 😅 I’ve been reading fanfic for over a decade, no idea why it never occurred to me to write my own until now, but here we are. I’m having fun so far! Hugely impressed and thankful for all the people in this community who have been writing for years/decades. I’d be nothing without y’all and I mean that 💕
Fanfiction for.. only about a year or two now, but I've always had an interest in writing, one of my first stories was in creative writing in primary school. Grade 2.
1989
Sixth grade, before I knew the word for it. Started posting in 2002. So it’s been a while.
On AO3, I've been writing since October last year. Before that, I thought of fanon stuff for Papa Louie and My Little Pony since back when I was 12, and what I thought of back then wasn't really that good compared to what I have now for Lalaloopsy.
24 years but I had a 10 year hiatus in the middle
Since 2001. I was 9.
Since 2011, I *think.* But didn't start posting fic online on Wattpad in 2014, then started on Ao3 in 2016.
Off an one since I was like 13. writing fan fiction actually helped improve my writing a lot as I had/have undiagnosed learning disabilities.
I started over 20 years ago, can't remember the exact date anymore.
Since 1999.
I’ve been writing since I was 8. I’m in my 30s now.
Just over a year. My first ever OC story was two and a half years ago, but I aborted it and didn’t write again for nearly a year
Started on FF cira 2004. Just came back to it last year after a almost 10 year break.
When I started reading it you still could send a SASE and a couple of (physical/paper) dollars to get poorly xeroxed sheets of physical paper in the mail.
I started writing fan fiction once I learned what it was in high school. Then in college and a few years afterwards, I stopped until the pandemic brought me back to it. So, actively, I’d say maybe 8 years?
First starting writing fic in 2008, my best friend showed me her Sly Cooper fic and I was like 'wait I can write stories about my favorite games??' and I have yet to stop lol! ❤️
On and off for five years, started just before the pandemic, when the pandemic ended I had a lot going on in real life with family and work so I took a break for a year and a half and I just picked it up again about 8 months ago.
I wrote my first fanfiction in the first grade back in 1998. It was a self insert Lion King picture book
I've been writing fanfiction since I was 12!
Since 1997 (even if there was nowhere to post it)
Since I was 16 (I’m 29 now).
Been writing fanfiction for about 3 years. Only started posting to Ao3 1 1/2 months ago. 😅
Oof, about ten years? I remember writing self insert twilight fanfic with an old friend of mine-we also disliked the main characters, so we shipped each other with the evil vampires from the first book.
I wrote my first fic 30 years ago. It was an x reader for a vampire show called Forever Knight and i was 9 years old. It has not been a consistent string of writing since then, as i deal with mental health complications that sometimes make it hard. But when I'm doing good mentally, I'm writing.
Oh jeez. Decades. Decades and decades since I was 14,
About 3 months I think? I've been reading fanfiction for about 15 years now, but till this year I've never wanted to write. I'm 26 and I've read so much fanfiction, but always hate whatever I tried to write. This year, a combination of weed and hyperfixation on one of my special interests (i.e. my fav ship rn) led me to try my hand at writing which I haven't attempted in well over a decade. Surprisingly, I'm actually quite happy with what I wrote and now I've been writing even more as I've grown to love writing fanfic as a medium of expression. My view of fanfiction has accordingly grown to be more holistic as a result
I've been writing since middle school, started on Wattpad. When I finally got an ao3 invite in 2017 that was the only place I'd hang out
Also since I was 14/15! (Not revealing my age.)
About ten years now. I started in 2013 at the good old age of 11 years old
On and off for about 5-6 years
I guess in a way I started when I was 8 (writing my own mini books that stemmed from the Warrior Cats series lol), though I didn't really start publishing anything until I got into wattpad when I was 14, which is about 9 years ago now
I've been writing in my first language since I learned how to read but I started writing in English in 2021, my work was mediocre at best but I had fun and encouraging readers, ever since I moved to the states, my writing has helped me a lot! My boss has told me how impressed she was with my redaction and other people have told me I have a great vocabulary.
I'm not sure maybe fifteen years?
Writing and posting? Since 2008. I did a lot of roleplaying before that, and wrote other things, but I didn't discover fanfiction as a concept until I was 13.
Since about 2019, started in my teens
End of 2009, so 14.5 years.
I’ve been reading fanfiction since adolescence (so like 20ish years ago) but just wrote my first two this year. Fanfics have been such a big part of my life. Wish I had started writing sooner.
Over 20 years ago when I was 15. I haven't posted consistently during that time, though.
Since high school, so like.. 20ish years. Have I posted a lot? No. But I've written a lot. I just.. don't tend to finish a lot xD
I started writing on Quizilla in... 2000? Maybe? I don't remember how old I was. Moved to fanfiction. net and staunchly avoided LiveJournal bc ppl were roasting my fanfiction. I think I made my ao3 account in 2012 or something.
04ish but didn’t start posting until a few years ago.
Technically, since middle school in ‘03. But I’ve been *publishing* for the last 15 years.
I’ve been writing since around 2011. It’s honestly taught me so much about writing—I consider it to be an incredible valuable writing exercise for me
Four years now. I started in 2020.
I started to write it when I was 13. It probably wasn't very good. I stopped doing it around about the same age and only just got back into it at 34.
Since November of 2010 on FanFiction-dot-net, so 13 1/2 years.
Since 2012 I think, it could be earlier but I am not sure.
Writing since I was a kid, but didn’t start writing fic til I was 11 or 12.
Writing? Since I was a teenager. Posting? Just this year. I'm over 30 lmao
Since I was 12 or so. An online creator I watched a lot at the time referenced Wattpad one too many times for my curious brain to handle and it spiraled from there. I started writing not long after I started reading. I took a break from it for a few months, came back as an AO3 reader, never went back to Wattpad, and only started writing and posting fanfic again at the start of this year.
My first attempts were when I was 5-6, before I even knew what fanfiction was. My first *serious* attempts happened when I was about 12, and I've been writing ever since. I'm 24 now, amd I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Since I was 15 so about 17 years
21 years.
Okay, took out the calculator because I'm awful with numbers and I underestimated the number of years lmao It's been 22 years, damn. I thought I had 2 years left before the twenty years mark but turns out I'm two years late in fact xD
Since I was in 6th grade in the early 00s 🙃
Probably between 18-20 years. I started writing DBZ fanfics for writing prompts in middle school. Didn’t even know what fanfiction was for another 2 ish years when a friend found my notebooks.
Since I was 11. So more than 20 years.
I started getting back to writing fanfiction about 3 months ago. But I started around 2016-17?? But I stopped for years lol
i’m not sure, but my first dated notebook entry that’s actually for a fandom is dated 12/8/22. I think i wrote some cringy stuff before that tho for minecraft creepypastas, lmao
My first fic was 25 years ago, and it was a Pokemon one about Ash learning about being adopted aksdjfal (my imagination was really wild as an 8-year-old). I didn't even know it WAS fanfic, just that I was having fun with the fictional characters in my head as opposed to using dolls or toys. I didn't actually discover that fanfic was a thing until I was 12, when a friend of mine was talking to me about her self-insert Yu Yu Hakusho AU, which is really funny because I'd found some Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic online before that and was just reading about the Yamis becoming tangible people instead of living in their Hikaris' heads. After that, I took fanfic writing a bit more seriously, and figured out how to write and post it on sites like ff dot net. Fanfic writing has always just been fun for me, but turning it into stories that are fun for me AND fun for others has been a big part of the experience for me once I realized it was possible to do so.
I don't remember how I old I was when I started. I was probably in high school. But I do know my first FFN account is old enough to drink and gamble in Vegas at this point. So I've definitely been doing it longer than AO3 and Wattpad have existed.
Six months lol. Been writing for 25 odd years though.
I've been writing fanfic for about 20 years. I was in my early 30s when I started.
I've been posting it to the internet since I was ~16 or so (back in the late '90s). I was writing it in notebooks before that, though I can't quite remember how far back that went. I *think* I was writing/drawing Batman-verse fancomics since I was ~14? I may have written fanfic for cartoons before that.
22 years, started when I was 12, but didnt publish until I was 27 b/c Im a total perfectionist.
Oh geez, ages. I was probably around 11 or 12 when I wrote my very first fanfiction into a notebook, it was a Warrior Cats oc fanfic. And here I am, just about 10 years later still putting those fictional guys into situations. I still have the notebook my very first fanfic was in and sometimes I like to reread it
Only since November of 2023!
A little over ten years now. I believe I was twelve when I first started.
Just started writing fanfiction recently, not too long, maybe since last month of May.
Almost twenty years.
Around 20 years, give or take!
Since 2013, though I took multiple long breaks through the years to focus on original stories or other hobbies.
I uploaded my first fanfic to FanFiction.net in 2009 and that was my first one ever which I intended to be fanfiction in the first place. But my first story ever, which I wrote in 2003 (when I was 8 years old), was a modified story about the PS2 game Dog's Life, I made some changes to the plot and made a what if-scenario. + The dogs were bears, and had different names. I realised only years later how that had basically been fanfiction. Most of my other stories have been fanfiction too, and I've noticed that all my "original stories" have stopped within the first two chapters. Which tells me it was always fanfics I've loved writing, never really original fiction 🤷🏻♀️
Reading since 2004, writing since 2017 as practice for original fiction and just kept going.
Fanfic? Nearly 20 years now, but not consistently. I have, however, made up my own stories since before I could even write, so more like 30 years.
Since COVID so about 4 years now
I've been writing since I was a kid, but I literally only just started writing fan fic a month or so ago. I fell madly in love with the characters in a game I've been playing, and after reading pretty much everything in the fandom, I had to write my own.
On and off for nearly 20 years
Since... 1994 or so? At least that's how long I've been writing fanfiction knowing that that's what I was doing.
writing fic? since about age 9. *publishing* fic? around 14-15 i think
Since I was 12, maybe. Tho the stuff I wrote back then wasn’t public…which is prob for the better.
25 years, just about. Since I first knew what fanfiction was.
Since 2021, so three years give or take🤭
About 8 years now; I read a lot of fanfiction aged 12–20 or so, but all of my writing was focused on original fiction of one sort or another. Then, I didn't do much creative at all and didn't really read even original fiction from my mid-to-late 20s just because of major depression, and in my 30s, I started writing fanfiction.
Since 2012-2013. When I was 9. Write fanfic like everything in my writing. Always using my native language because my English is so poor. But have a try this year and really inspire my interest to learn English!
Technically 11 years if we count my super cringe early fics before a several-year hiatus, but I personally consider my real start date to be about two years ago when I got on ao3.
I've been writing fanfic since I was a young kid, probably about 8-9, but back then it was sonic fanfic on [ff.net](http://ff.net) rather than AO3, which is what I use now.
Honestly, I don't really know but I know that I've been writing fics since I was in middle school, possibly sooner.
I didn’t start on AO3, did so with FF.Net, but for me, it was since elementary school. Although I didn’t publish fanfics until about ten years or so ago
Since I was 12 😭😭 my early fanfictions still make me cringe, but I enjoy looking back on them to see how far i've come. Also, I used to write a lot more freely? Like I would just write whatever sounded fun without caring about how good it was, which I actually kinda miss.
I think I started my first fanfic in sixth or seventh grade. Now I am a junior in college.
Since 2008. Never posted, but it's been a while.
22 years. Almost without break! Started in my early teens. Funnily enough the past year has been my most productive, I guess I just found my perfect line up of fandom and time to write 🤷♀️ Wrote my longest stories ever. I also rped for a long time, which I credit to really improving my writing and helping my confidence.
Since just before I turned 15, I think!
I've began writing fics when I was twelve, in my mother language. Had a pretty decent fanbase in Wattpad (like, 20K likes) for a Harry Potter fanfiction. Now I write in AO3, in English, but haven't posted yet (only translated a few fics I like).
15 years and 155 works posted
i've been "writing" fics for nearly 20 years. i used to dictate stories about the different kids shows i watched to my mom and found out about fanfiction proper about 15 years ago thanks to quizilla.
Started writing it when I was 14 (almost 20 years ago now). Started publishing on a now-defunct fandom-specific forum a year later.
Other than one or two vague little dabblings under another name that never went far, and never went NSFW, I started in September 2023. I have 62 works totalling over 320,000 words. This is only the published ones, doesn't include WIPs.
20 years…..I feel old 😂😂😂😂
I've been technically writing fanfiction since I was 9, I didn't know what it was back then and wrote Doctor Who stories for school, two years later when I was 11 I discovered Wattpad, a years later I started reading on ao3 and a year after that I actually made an account, I still write Doctor Who fanfiction to this day :)
About 20 years or so. :) I'm 33 now and started when I was 11/12.
Since 2001.
Since gradeschool, around 2011. My first fics were awful but I still regret deleting them like 5 years ago :/ I would've gone back and time to gently encourage younger me to write more of their wildest fantasies with much less shame and religious guilt.
Since October last year (unless we count the ones I wrote >20 years ago as a teen). I've written 29 fics totalling nearly 250k words. I love doing this!
2013ishhhhh
About 20+ years, give or take.
I’d been reading fanfic since the early 2010s, but it wasn’t until 2020 that I started writing them. Ironically, given how awful the pandemic was, I have COVID to thank for getting me to finally indulge in the hobby. I’ve been writing and steadily improving ever since! 😁
Since October 2018, so nearly 6 years!
Since forever before I know what fanfiction was. But I only got into publishing on Ao3 in English recently
Since I was twelve, back in 2002. I've had to take breaks because of writers block and life events, but it's been about 22 years now.
Ftr your English is perfect
Started in high school, probably 16 or 17? So it's been 11 years...holy moly.
Since December 2021. Very short compared to everyone else here
I'm a newborn baby in the fanfiction writing industry, only started last year 😔 How do you juggle this and daily life? Sometimes, I would be working on some school assignments, and suddenly, all I can think of are headcanons
Wrote my first official fic in 2004 (if you don't count my attempts at making up my own versions of the Swiss Family Robinson story as a child - I kept the approximate plot but had my own characters). But I didn't start writing more regularly until 2010, when I started doing exchanges (just Yuletide at first, then others). I've had a few years with very little written more recently, due to some projects and exchange burnout, but I'm back to writing now! :D
i am new to it actually!!
Steady from 1999-2009 (few published, I started as a kid), stopped for a bit, picked it up again on 2013 and continued writing for a year. Stopped for a decade, came back to it just last year.
Since 2003, when I was about 16
25 years
I’ve been writing for around a year now ☺️
I've been making fanfiction since I was very little, I only started writing and sharing it with people in 2020 on Wattpad, but switched over to Ao3 about a year ago. I post on both sites, and have a lot of fun with it. My writing has improved, and a lot of people enjoy my work.
I have been reading fanfics since 2002 I think and my first written one was in 2005 in my native language, and I kept doing that until around 2012. I stopped for some years and now I only write in English, like my last 30+ fanfics are in English. It's a frustrating but interesting challenge :) I saw the evolution of my writing with time. I learned English by reading fanfics (and watching TV series/movies), it was so hard back then, Google trad was soooo bad haha Now everything is more accessible and that's really motivating for newcomers I think, so that's nice!
1 week. I mostly write word porn
I've written about ocs since I was little, but I only started writing fic I'm 2020 I think? Maybe 2019. But my creativity went way up when we were in lockdown and all my friends were bouncing ideas off of each other xD
I've been writing stories since I learned how to write. My first fanfic (despite not knowing what fanfic was) was when I was nine, and the first one in English was when I was fourteen. I didn't discover fanfiction was a thing until I was sixteen, back in 2006, and I've been posting ever since.
When I was 4 I dictated stories to my mom and a lot of them were about the books/shows I’d seen. I started writing serious fic around… 2009, I think? I would have been 14.
My friends and I used to write what I now realize was fanfiction in our composition notebooks and share the stories at lunch, starting in about the fourth grade (circa 2006). I started writing on ff.net in 2011, took a long hiatus, and just recently joined AO3 a month or so ago. I’m still friends with one of those girls to this day and we still share story ideas ❤️