by Mayv 'SpearBourne' Amaia

Created on: March 28, 2010   Last Updated: March 31, 2010

I started writing fanfiction for the same reasons I think a lot of people do: namely, because I "fell in love" with a television show and wanted to expand on, or sometimes change, the way the storyline went.

Even during my pre-teen years, when I watched an episode of a series or a movie, I would imagine what else happened, either between scenes or after the ending.

Then again, I already loved writing narratives and poetry by then.

But I had no idea what fanfiction was in those days, or that it even existed, so I never wrote any of them down. It didn't occur to me that there was an entire world of fanfic writers out there, online.

As a teenager in the latter half of the 1990s, two of my favourite shows were, and still are, Highlander: The Series and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I was quite saddened when one of my favourite characters was killed off on each show.

It just happened that the characters the "powers that be" killed off were the very ones that led me to love the shows. Granted, there were other reasons I kept tuning in, but I got attached to certain characters.

When they were gone from the series, I'd continue watching to see if they might resurrect them somehow - or if, at least, the actor might return as a new character.

That was when I began imagining "what if?" scenarios, or what are commonly called AUs (alternate universes) or ARs (alternate realities) in the lingo of fanfic writing.

I was still in high school then, and didn't take much time to compose my ideas and expand them into full stories.

It wasn't until after I graduated that I began going online for fun and not just for research. That was when I discovered the fascinating world of fanfiction.

I tried writing my stories, but it was still so new to me, and I was so self-critical, that I never let anyone else see them.

When I began what would become a four year relationship with my now ex-boyfriend, he monopolised much of my time. I didn't really have any time left for my hobbies. He even got me to quit the two jobs I was working.

But after a few months of that went by, and we were living together, I realised that I needed to make time for what I enjoyed, even if it meant sacrificing a couple of hours of sleep.

Writing became an escape for me. Whether it was an entirely original work or a fanfiction whose characters I borrowed from television shows, I could get lost in a story. It was a way for me to get away from the dreadful life I felt trapped in, until I could actually get myself out of that abusive situation.

It has been three and a half years since that hot summer of 2006 when I ended that relationship.

It wasn't until he was out of my life that I was finally free to be myself again. I not only started writing more, I joined social networks, including helium.com. I even created websites to publish all that fanfiction and the serial short stories I've come up with.

There is nothing else I can imagine doing besides writing. Fanfiction is just one of the outlets I use as a way of exercising my creative muscles.

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