Most of the ones I wrote down were relatively good, in hindsight. But the ones I didn't write? Hoo-boy. Sheer canon-raping horror. (Especially where certain male canon characters were concerned...) I thank myself for never having written them down.

I wrote a Pern piece, long ago. This was before words like "Mary Sue", "self-insert", and even "fanfiction" were even in my vocabulary. I remember giving it to a teacher to edit. I think she thought it was an original piece.

At least I still knew back then that it wasn't fair to have my main character automatically the best at everything. Still, it was pretty boring.

http://z8.invisionfree.com/Transcendence_Forum/index.php?showtopic=1727

Not really too proud of it.

I remember one piece that I started...featured a Zelda Stu that was a Gerudo male.
If you know anything about Zelda races, that's really ...ed up.

...well, most of my badfic stayed in my heasd, thank [insert deity of choice here]. Mostly Sues, though.

I didn't start out my writing hobby with fanfiction. I went through a stage where I wrote bad original fiction, but luckily I took down the small percentage that I posted. I did write a short, unfinished fanfiction in the sixth grade. I have it in a notebook somewhere and I could probably dig it up. I wrote it because I disliked the fact that A Series of Unfortunate Events ended without all of the mysteries solved (although I like the ending now). It didn't go too far OOC, but I didn't know how to write well, so my grammar and style butchered it. The entire idea was that I would write a sequel to The End starting from the very moment after the canonical ending. I was going to have them go on an adventure and solve the mystery that has been bugging me for ages: the Great Unknown. Meh, I've moved on from that fic, though. I have no desire to go back to it, even though it would be fun to think up answers to all of the mysteries Snicket has out there.

I remember some awful crackfic I wrote with Blayze in seventh grade about the Greek Gods. It's still in The Pit, if you look me up under my full username. We also have a joint account with some Van Helsing and Phantom of the Opera stuff.

I like to pretend those stories don't exist, but I do find it absolutely hilarious when people favorite them or give reviews saying how funny/good they were. -_-

I didn't write down most of my fanficish stuff; I just kept it in my head. Thank Eru. Anakin's twin sister and Fëanor's granddaughter both come to mind.

I do have bits of original fic with blatant Sues. I remember one of them was basically rip-off of Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series. I don't know where it is, or I'd post bits of it. It was awful.

I've got some ugly skeletons in my writing closet as well. Most of it from before the Pit existed, and the very worst of it before Geocities or I even had internet access worth mentioning, but that didn't stop me from dropping the stuff out.

I've saved my work, since there's often decent Plot Bunnies under the horrible pacing, consistently interrupted tone, and non-existent characterization, but I've rarely posted since someone lifted a pretty non-trivial part of one of my older ones. He's welcome to have it -- horrible, horrible writing -- but I don't like having stuff that's unfinished out there nearly this long. I have no idea how anyone managed to make a politically charged supernatural thriller with an odd take on who is hunting and who is hunted lack conflict, but a younger me did.

Whether that just general pathetic output, or depressingly clinical and artificial, a lot of stuff is painful to look at. It took the better part of a year of practice to get anything where the result wasn't a given and where the pacing worked out. I've gotten to the point where I can look back a good few years and not be horrified, even if there are places for polish and improvement.

I was about twelve, maybe younger. It was for Star Wars, and it was awful. I think I wrote three little stories at once at that point, and they were all just plain BAD attempts to 'fix' what I didn't like about Padme and Anakin's story. I can't remember the titles I gave them anymore, and I most certainly deleted them - along with the author account and the related email address. I wanted to completely wash my hands of it.

I also remember making up an original character, Ciorina, who was a standard Lord of the Rings Mary Sue, at about the same time, and to my own credit, I looked through the hobbit family trees in order to find a plausible great-grandparent for her, but she was half elf and half hobbit, so I grovel in shame nonetheless.


(That said, missions should be FUN! If you're avoiding them, then they're obviously not being fun. Make them fun, or put them aside. You're not on a deadline.)