Once upon a time, aspiring fiction writers either found a publisher or
resigned themselves to the fact that no one would ever read their brilliant
prose. But these days, anyone can simply post their stories on the Net. In fact,
as you dig through the fiction sites on the Web, it sometimes looks as though
everyone does.
To get an idea of the sheer volume of stuff out there, go to Brian Winter鈥檚
Guide to Fiction on the Web at www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2465/index.html.
It lists about 200 of the 鈥渂est鈥� fiction sites鈥攚ith pithy comments to help
you choose your reading: 鈥淗e鈥檚 a good writer, but he鈥檚 got to get over this
fixation about hitting women with delivery trucks.鈥� For a slightly narrower
selection, browse through some of the stories at the modestly named BadFiction
site, www.concentric.net/~Brownrd/BadFiction/.
Fancy yourself as a writer? Try out Scott Haartman鈥檚 Black on White site at
www.bfree.on.ca/bow/. It鈥檚 full of good advice and tools to help you get down to
writing鈥攊nstead of just staring at your word processor, guzzling coffee
and chocolate chip cookies鈥攁nd includes a link to a mailing list of
like-minded procrastinators. Remember Haartman鈥檚 mantra: in order to be a
writer, you must write.
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Finally, no column on Net fiction would be complete without a nod to fan
fiction or 鈥渇anfic鈥濃�攚ritten by people who just can鈥檛 wait for the next
novel, movie, or TV episode to come out and decide to write the stories
themselves. Explore some X-Files fan fiction, listed by author at
http://mars.spaceports.com/~acacia/, and wonder at the labour lavished so
lovingly on this stuff. Then check out www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/2390/, a
haven for the truly specialised X-Files fan. It sports entire archives
devoted to stories about minor characters in the series. Who would have thought
that Bill, agent Scully鈥檚 seldom-seen brother, could arouse such interest?
