How Penna got into fanfiction

I tend to go through phases in my reading habits. For several months I'll devour mysteries, and then it will be on to science fiction, or fantasy, or romance, etc. In the summer of 2012 my mother told me she had breast cancer and asked if I would travel to where she lived to be with her for the mastectomy. I wanted something different to read during the travel and the wait in the hospital. There'd been a lot of press about fanfiction recently, and I decided to explore that. White Collar was one of my favorite TV shows, so I selected it as my starting point, and downloaded several stories to read during the trip.

As with any other genre, I found a great variety. Over the next several months I explored the options, discovered which tropes and authors I preferred, and even sent some finds to my mother, who also liked White Collar. She especially enjoyed short, comic pieces featuring the character Mozzie. Over time, however, my own imagination had taken over with specific scenarios I wanted, and I couldn't find what I was looking for.

For a while I simply imagined the stories I wanted, with no intention of ever writing them down. Then about six months after becoming a fanfiction reader, I started to write my own White Collar story, which became "Caffrey Conversation." It was partly for fun, and partly an exercise to see if I could do it. I'd allowed my job to consume my time and energy for a long time; I often complained about how much I missed writing, but didn't do anything about it. "Caffrey Conversation" allowed me to dip my toe back into the waters, so to speak, and reminded me of the joy and satisfaction that creative writing brought to my life. It gave me the courage to try more, and I set goals for myself of increasing quality and complexity in my stories. I told myself that if I reached a specific milestone, I would tackle the idea for a novel that had been lurking in my brain for years; I hadn't believed that I could handle it, but my experiences with writing fanfiction have given me the practice and confidence I need to make the attempt.