Do you know that feeling of having something special and wanting to prolong the moment?

Like maybe a box of your favorite chocolates that you just want to savor piece by piece even if it’s tempting to just gobble all of them in one sitting? Or a really good book that you’d like to read slowly, even if you want to skip to the last page already to see how it ends but you don’t want to spoil it? Or a trip to your favorite city, savoring each moment not wanting it to end?

Well I’ve been feeling that way a lot every time I discover a blog or site that contains fan fiction on my sushi and kimchi OTPs. How much more if the stories there are so well written that they are as good as published works. I recently found such a site and I had to read slowly as if savoring the flavors of a really good dish. That was how I spent the past weekend and I felt sorry when I finished reading especially since it’s very rare to come across fan fiction that makes you feel you’re reading an actual novel.

I guess I’ve always been a nerd bookish that’s why reading suits me and it doesn’t harm when it’s got something to do with fangirling. I also used to write a lot of fan fiction on my ex-OTP. It was a a way to release all the creative ideas and nothing could be more satisfying than finishing a chapter as a means to de-stress. (Equally satisfying was reading all the feedback from the readers.) It’s weird but true, I edit for a living, and occasionally write, and I still write to de-stress. And so, in the process of writing, of course I also read a lot of fan fiction and believe me, I have read more than a fair share from the good to the cringe-worthy.

Over time, I have become picky when it comes to my “reading choices”:

– I only read fan fiction on my OTPs (ex-OTP before though I cannot even bear to take a look at those that I have written now; sushi OTP and kimchi OTP);

– While I used to write AU on my ex-OTP, I prefer reading real-life-based fiction on my current OTPs;

– I can tolerate minor grammatical mistakes. I mean, who’s perfect? But serious grammatical mistakes as if the writer did not go to basic English class? I also absolutely cannot tolerate the lack of punctuation marks (surely, the keyboard is not broken and the writer knows how to breathe?).

– I hate trying-hard writing. You don’t have to write like Bronte or Shakespeare, not even Helen Fielding to be considered good. The key is to be riveting and readable. Why do you write anyway? Reserve the artsy fartsy writing for the Nobel.

– Sex? Smut? Let’s admit it, sex sells. But without plots? You end up like a porn movie.

– Unfinished series. Okay, you come across a really interesting multi-chapter story. You start reading and is really into the story only to find out in the last chapter that it’s not completed yet and the last update was months, or worse, a year or two ago. Frustrating.

I know it’s free reading so I shouldn’t complain, right? And there are more talented and good fan fiction writers who deserve the support and encouragement.

So excuse me while I go back to my current favorite fan fiction site.

© Yasminka Lee (blogging since 2001). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the contents in Orange Jasmine Purple Yam without permission from the author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Yasminka Lee/Orange Jasmine Purple Yam with appropriate link to the original content.