The General AKB48 Fanfic Discussion Thread

[AshuraX]

^Am I the only one who LoL'd at the last line?

But seriously, to me, that works for more ways than running. It's also good to look at some pairings' photos. Like how I always search for AtsuYuu pics out of boredom, or when I stumble across old photos in my phone which I never knew I had, it would bring me some ideas of what to write. And also watching anime or drama ain't half-bad. I found an ending to one of my fics by watching How I met your mother . Then everything comes down naturally. Like as the others call, In the Zone.
Well, that's me, anyways.
Oh yeah. I don't agree in songs bringing us ideas. Whenever I listen to a song while writing, I would ALWAYS sing along, not minding the fic at all. Two hours and still not a thing. *sigh*

Edit: Wait, I'm a newbie as well

[Seigus]

Though writing fanfics is a hobby, it can feel like work sometimes, especially with on-going fics (which usually takes me a month to update a chapter  )

I feel you right there, melon-lover. As much as I love writing, I can't deny that it feels like work at times because it takes so much effort and brain juice to churn out an update. But that's how the satisfaction kicks in after we've completed it. No pain, no gain

Anyway, I usually don't force myself to write unless I find that I have procrastinated way too much (which happens every once in a while). Distractions aren't necessarily a bad thing as they can help to reinvigorate the mind and I find relevant distractions to be very helpful in obtaining inspirations. By relevant distractions, I'm talking about activities like reading other fandoms' fanfics. Now, I'm not suggesting that we go and steal other writers' ideas and try to pass them off as our own. That's a big no-no The demographic of other fandoms' writers can be very different from that of AKB48 fanfic writers, hence the way they write, their ideas, etc. are a welcome change to what we are used to reading in the AKB48 fandom. Reading those fanfics tend to spark off some lightbulbs in the recesses of my mind and they make me think out of the box, making sure that I'm not constantly stuck in my own narrow world.

However, if your distractions issue is really serious, then you may just need to strap yourself to your computer and start typing away. Procrastination is a common problem for many writers so we have to be determined to instill discipline in ourselves. One thing to take note of to avoid letting it affect the quality of your writing is not to rush. If you have wasted much time on other things, you should make up for that lost time instead of speeding through the update. It is alright if you post your update later. Refrain from compromising quality for speed.

What I do to keep myself on task:
1. Listening to music that helps to bring out the mood of the scene I am writing. If it's a sad/tragic scene, listen to tear-jerking songs. If it's a comedic scene, listen to something fun like Wasshoi B! or Koisuru Fortune Cookie. But if you are like AshuraX and can't stop singing, please go for instrumentals.
2. Imagining the characters' interactions if I lock them together in an empty room. Doing so forces out each character's true personality as there are no external factors influencing their actions and speech. It helps me understand my characters better so that I am more motivated to write their scenes. This method is used by Azuma Kiyohiko, the manga artist of the classic slice-of-life manga "Azumanga Daioh".
3. Drink coffee Though honestly, it doesn't help to keep me awake physically but I brainwash myself to believing that I am more focused.

@kurumi: Anyone can participate in this thread - both new and experienced writers and even readers! We can all learn from one another's inputs so feel free to join the discussions anytime!

[LoyalFlutist]

How do you stay on task and write?

It's always the music for me. I literally LIVE off on listening and playing music (blaming the fact that I use to be in band). So like seigus stated up above, I listen to the music that fits the mood of my fiction. It makes me want to brainstorm more ideas about progressing certain fictions  thanks to the song, so I end up listening to it while writing.

Now on the other hand, inspiration and motivation needs to kick into my system before I'm able to write. There are some days where I feel like I want to write... But can't simply because I don't have a single clue on how to write. Then there are other times where I know what I'm going to write, but I just don't feel like doing anything... It's somewhat weird, but when the two criteria are met, that's when I'll be able to write well without too much worries or concerns. Like everyone said up above, it's the mood that sets me to stay on task.

If I can't think of anything and need a little break, usually being with my dog and playing my musical instruments would clear my mind.

[melon-lover]

Hi everyone; from viewing the discussion forum, I feel like I want to be more involved so here's a wonderment of my own 

This hasn't happened to me, but from all the stories out there, I was wondering if anyone has ever found a story that is startlingly similar to their own. And I don't just mean themes and a characteristics, because undoubtedly there must be some stories that are similar especially when they contain the same characters or are the same genre. What I mean is a plot/storyline that is so frighteningly close to yours that it might have been the same story.
And to make it more awkward, find the story and realise the author began it sooner than yours (dun dun duuun)

Also, has anyone felt anxious about your unwritten stories/one-shots. I know this is going to sound quite bad and I might lower other's opinions of my self but I always feel nervous that if I don't finish my fics, someone else is going to start a similar idea and I won't be able to do it in fear reader's may think I copied that author. Although those opinions won't matter in the long run, it makes me worried. And I know if I change the way I write, as not everyone's methods are the same, it won't be the exactly the same but people may draw from the close plots and themes.

So just wondering if anyone else is as paranoid as me   

[imteedee]

@melon-lover with your post, I started to get paranoid too... ohmy. But ohwell, in the world of fanfictions we gotta think outside the box, not necessarily but, in the long run it'll help you find some other good ideas. We have no limits, like from a fairy falling from the heavens up to falling in love with a beggar...we have such a wide range.  With the similarities you said, never happened to me though, I just think it's so rare to have such close commonalities with different fictions, unless done in purpose and if so happened, in my opinion, It doesn't really matter if your fiction is just that close to the other ones. What matters to me is the effort and sharing.

^ yeah I was talking as an avid reader there. 

okay, enough of my blabber. 

[LoyalFlutist]

This hasn't happened to me, but from all the stories out there, I was wondering if anyone has ever found a story that is startlingly similar to their own. And I don't just mean themes and a characteristics, because undoubtedly there must be some stories that are similar especially when they contain the same characters or are the same genre. What I mean is a plot/storyline that is so frighteningly close to yours that it might have been the same story.
And to make it more awkward, find the story and realise the author began it sooner than yours (dun dun duuun)

Also, has anyone felt anxious about your unwritten stories/one-shots. I know this is going to sound quite bad and I might lower other's opinions of my self but I always feel nervous that if I don't finish my fics, someone else is going to start a similar idea and I won't be able to do it in fear reader's may think I copied that author. Although those opinions won't matter in the long run, it makes me worried. And I know if I change the way I write, as not everyone's methods are the same, it won't be the exactly the same but people may draw from the close plots and themes.

Hm... I've actually never thought of that before. I mean, I've always wondered if anybody has ever stolen/copied my work, but never in an unintentional fashion. As they say for literature and even writing in general: Our work isn't quite as original as we think it is.

Now it sounds weird, but I remember reading from a literature book that all of the work from famous authors do come from a source that has been used so many times in the past. Like one of my stories, "Hidden Truth", I'm sure somewhere far far far away from this forum and maybe even internet in general, someone might end up writing the same fiction-related work as mine. Then there could be a chance that back a good decade or so, someone decided to write the same exact plot as mine with only different characters. (Which might lead to a debate then that I have stolen their work, LOL) That necessarily isn't copying since we both don't even know about it, but hey, ideas that are considered original isn't technically "original." Guess history plays a huge role in this.

Ideas are ideas and both they are original and unoriginal. It's a confusing concept, but that's usually what I think about sharing the same plot ideas and stuff.

[Seigus]

@melon-lover: Your fears aren't unfounded and you are not alone. Nobody likes to be accused of copying when the similarities are purely coincidences. This is an issue that I've considered and eventually moved on from. I believe that the important thing is to build a reputation of being a writer with original ideas. We can't help it if one day, one of our stories happen to be almost the same as another writer's but what we can do is to build the readers' trust in us. The readers can tell from our past stories if we swear by originality or if we tend to use ideas from others' fanfics.

In addition, even if the plot and characters are similar, the writing style and delivery can never be the same as those are the factors that truly set each writer apart.

Bottom line: Don't worry too much as coincidences are out of your control. Do what is within your means to make your own writing stand out

[Shinoki]

Everyone: Thanks for the advice!

[Yuki88]

Hahaha, I am always scared of the possibility that I'm unconsciously copycatting other people's idea/style. There are times where your source of inspiration (if it's another literature) might get into your own fic in a way.

[Sieka]

Sorry for the late reply, but Sieka's advice is really what I needed

It wasn't the emphasis but the part at the end, I just realized it. I forgot to follow-up dramatic scenes and building the suspense, thrills, steps and such. I just realized it after reading that bout days ago
Thanks, man. It helps a lot! OwOb

I'm glad it helped since I wasn't too sure it would.

How do you stay on task and write?

I have a tendency to have a good amount of ideas, but then, for no reason, go off to rewatch an anime that I'm not too interested in or rewatch something weird(Mousou Deka, etc.)... And then, due to the fact that I waste a lot of time(boredom), the quality of my work actually drops quite a lot. (Which is bad.)
So I'm wondering how do you guys (girls and boys) stay on task when writing??

Since I'm not writing anymore, I'll just talk about how I do when I was still writing...so to answer the question.

I don't stay on task and write, it depends on my mood and inspiration-motivation level. I tend to procrastinate a lot, sometimes I'm too busy because of school, but most of the times when I write, I try to do my best to keep the quality because it would be a waste to lay down an idea and let it go to clutter because of poor quality...is what it is for me, so even thought its tideous and boring, I try to do my best to keep up the quality, makes me happy in the end whenever I reread and review it anyways.

Also, I sometimes stay on the tasks if people leave me comments because it serves as a motivator, sometimes, because it means they are urging me to continue on writing instead of procrastinating or pushing the task aside...but then, priorities also comes first and I need to do school and such, or I'm just to lazy and that happens to everyone.

I'm not the type of person who likes to stick to writing only one fic though, since I get really bored easily if I just write one fic, I also write other updates for other fics even though I think that it would be really annoying for my readers, I write other fics just so I won't get bored from writing because staying on just one fic plot spoils my mood...like if I just write angst, I might get sick and unmotivated because I only have one plot, so I do another with a different plot and it helps me to stay interested in writing because I have variations of fics I can do depending on my mood and taste.

Also also, writing while having music always boosts my mood to write because I can gain some idea or inspiration from listening to the music while writing. I find that some of my fics are inspired to songs or lyrics, so...yeah....just a silly trivial nonsensical thing too, since I do listen to music while writing, I also listen to music while studying and it helps a lot, compared to when I don't have any music.

Overall though, I write depending on mood.

This hasn't happened to me, but from all the stories out there, I was wondering if anyone has ever found a story that is startlingly similar to their own. And I don't just mean themes and a characteristics, because undoubtedly there must be some stories that are similar especially when they contain the same characters or are the same genre. What I mean is a plot/storyline that is so frighteningly close to yours that it might have been the same story.
And to make it more awkward, find the story and realise the author began it sooner than yours (dun dun duuun)

Also, has anyone felt anxious about your unwritten stories/one-shots. I know this is going to sound quite bad and I might lower other's opinions of my self but I always feel nervous that if I don't finish my fics, someone else is going to start a similar idea and I won't be able to do it in fear reader's may think I copied that author. Although those opinions won't matter in the long run, it makes me worried. And I know if I change the way I write, as not everyone's methods are the same, it won't be the exactly the same but people may draw from the close plots and themes.

So just wondering if anyone else is as paranoid as me 

I haven't really came across such a thing. If ever there was a story similar to mine then I'd either be flattered or frown. Since a lot of people tend to write and imagine, I doubt everyone can come up with an authentically original plot because we might as well share the same idea or concept with someone else. Though I get the point that its something to get scared about if there's an existence of two fics with the same plot, sounds a bit fishy, but sometimes its just pure coincidence or pure copycatting...not that I'm implying copycatting happens a lot, unless somoene has a motive to copycat a fic/plot...

Ahhh, unwritten stories, I don't feel really anxious about that even when I was writing...I guess I'm more laid back about plots because I get a lot of plots here and there when I think and I basically have more plots that I've never written down unlike those I've actually written and never finished. But again, its understandable to feel scared about that...but you should be more afraid if there's more than just the plot and character being copied, like the content for example, other than that, I find nothing too much scary about it, maybe I'd get upset if I find out that someone copied my whole plot/content, but then its not like I can do anything if we just both have the same idea and concept right? Since there's so many working minds here now, it's not even surprising or rare to see a fic that has the same plot as the others because some are based and inspired from the other fics.

I think that if there are people who copy the premises of other peoples fics (because they got inspired from their ideas), they should at least ask for permission from the author of the fic so that they know that someone is using it. Guess it would be really unfair to the actual author who made the concept find out that there's a fic that uses their concept (due to inspiration from reading their fics) and are more popular than their own fics.

[melon-lover]

Thanks for everyone's advice and replies! It's really interesting to read what other people think.
It makes me grateful?/glad? that I'm not the only one that's kinda paranoid 

P.S. @ imteedee: Sorry! I didn't mean to make you paranoid too 
P.P.S @ Rukaeru: Haha thanks, I'm glad you like them   

[AshuraX]

Ah... like the new fic I'm writing... I just realized that it's sorta similar to Chobits, according to someone. ==''

[LoyalFlutist]

Going to throw in this question just because I'm curious of the answers everyone else is going to answer. This though mainly pertains to writers, haha.

We like writing and I get that. However... What made you start writing in general? Especially with the 48 Group? And if you want to, I guess share the time when you first started writing and if still writing, how you got to this point. (Kind of like a little timeline to you first writing till certain points.) The lengthier it is, the more we get to know about you and that creative mind, haha~

----------

I started writing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when I was in my middle school years (which was... back in 2008... five years ago, I believe?) Anyway, my close friends had just read a book with the rest of my English class, "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. At that time, as they are girls who fangirl so much about Ponyboy, Johnny and Sodapop (as silly as the characters names' sound), they wrote down countless stories about them being with the boys. And at that time being, I never knew they were writing fan fiction. After they were writing and sharing their stories with me for a good couple months, they have motivated me into writing my own so-called 'stories' that were actually fan fiction. (Which I didn't know the term till a few years afterward when I made my second comeback.)

Don't laugh. I ended up first writing some... Naruto Shippuden crossover with Okami fan fiction. I didn't know anything better to do, so I don't know why I chose that fandom, LOL. Go ask my naive 11-12 year old self. Probably because those are one of the better shows at the time and I was slowly being introduced into the otaku world. It was terrible as expected from a middle schooler. And when you add the fact that I still speak 'Broken English' since English isn't even my first language... That didn't turn out well. Even to this day I shudder when I remember those days. Not to mention wanting to burn up all evidence of that story, LOL... It even spawned out with more than 20+ chapters...

After 2008, I thought I would retire from writing. I didn't expect for it to be a hiatus at all since I lost all motivation to write. Nothing new came to mind and those silly thoughts were thrown at the back of my mind; gathering cobwebs. I just didn't care anymore and rather focused on both music and art. But even during those times, my friends were nagging me to continue writing. They were really a fan of my writing and I even managed to gather a few people I don't even know to like my work due to my best friends yapping all the time about it. I didn't listen to them and instead, focused on something else.

Mmm... It was the summer of band camp and the introduction of my freshman year in high school when I actually started picking my pencil up and grabbed my laptop again. I didn't start off at all with writing stories like before. Rather I was writing poems. Since I was part of a music forum called 'Ichigo's Forum,' there was a small section where I was able to post my work. Short poems soon motivated me to write dialogues and theater play techniques for my ideas. I started writing in dialogues within the 'FXN Forum,' writing all sorts of Final Fantasy stories that mainly were on the comedic side around... 2010. However, my writing styles soon turned back into paragraphs. It was tough trying to make my piece not sound like, well, in my personal opinion, CRAP. And it was thanks to a fellow member on the forum that inspired me to revert back to my original style that I started off with. (Though she didn't continue her story anymore and was cut off short, that Ace x Deuce fiction made so many readers cry; including I. And I tell you it's hard to make me cry for real. )

I barely visited the forum afterward and... once again, dropped writing. I stopped writing and thought that there was no point with writing anymore. Art and music was more important to me as of right now. Being in marching band, jazz band, concert band, HOSA and the art club... Not to mention my studies since I entered my first two years of high school. But during the summer of my 11th grade year, that was the time I was introduced into AKB48. And thanks to AKB48 and the blogger 'Black Gekikara,' I made my first move to writing. I was inspired once more by the great stories provided from the owner and I finally made a decision that I might as well give one last try to writing. If it's not going to work anymore, I might as well forget about it.

Some of you already know that my first work was the Atsumina fiction "Spending the Moment With You" or something like that on Tumblr... It was only five chapters long, which was a surprise since I only intended to work with two to three chapters. But actually... That was the first fiction in the 48 fandom. I actually wrote my first fiction after so long with a Majisuka Gakuen piece pertaining to Maeda Atsuko alone. It was crappy and weird, so I'm not going to say  much about it, haha. Anyway, I was shocked to see how many people liked my fan fiction and, well, thought about trying another pairing. And that other pairing soon became my number one OTP: Mayuki. Again, I was surprised to see many readers like it. That was the moment when I finalized my decision the moment I finished the series: I will continue becoming a writer. I wanted to freely write and even if no one likes my work, I will continue to deliver my stories out to everyone no matter what.

Though I started writing during the summer of 2012 (I think late July or early August), most of you know that I had only joined the JPH!P community the beginning of this year around early January. And from there... well, yeah. That's where my fictions kicked off and I got to not only be able to read and comment more on my favorite fictions but also make many new friends on here. I'm glad to be a part of the forum and hope to stay like this for a very long time.

So... That's it. That's my little journey from a sprouting writer that still needs to improve to this very day, LOL. Let's just hope I don't lose any motivation in regards to writing like before in this fandom.

[kurumi]

@LoyalFlutist:

Firstly, I would like to say that I really enjoy reading your writing outside of your stories. It makes me think about a lot of things which I usually never stop to think about. Actually, I find it very funny that you consider 2008 to be something "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back" and did literally laugh out loud. I guess 5/16 = 31.25%, so I can see how it may feel like a long time ago. Whoops, am I revealing my age?

My story is fairly simple. I have never read fan fiction prior to April 2013. In fact, I don't think I have written any fiction since leaving elementary school.

I do, however, have some history of writing things other than fiction. At every point in my life, I've always had pen pals. Back in the day (oh no, am revealing age again…), we didn't have this thing called the Internet, and thus I used to often handwrite letters. I recall it being extremely calming and therapeutic. Naturally, my handwriting used to look a lot better back then.

As I've mentioned to you previously, I write a lot of non-fiction. (Think newspaper articles and research papers.) Thinking back now, I recall doing extremely well on an essay titled, "Can art and science coexist?" That was back in high school. Somehow, I've always enjoyed writing those types of things more.

At the moment, Crossroads is kind of an experiment for me, and I am treating it as a personal challenge. I believe that if I manage to accomplish writing this one story, I will feel a great sense of achievement and have renewed confidence in my own writing abilities.

I haven't had any inspiration whatsoever recently, but I hope that Chapter 3 will come to me soon. Despite the slowness of it all, please continue to follow my story as I like reading your comments a lot.

[AshuraX]

Whoa, we're gonna show everyone our exposed secrets which ain't referring to any of Takamina's train of thoughts?!

I'm wondering what everyone's age is once I read yar stories O.O
NEE, WAT'S YAR AGE???!!! >A<

Anyways, I started writing not too long ago. It was back when I was 13. Around 2009. It's kinda like how it was with LoyalFlutist, but back then, me and my friends were crazy about some games called 'Devil May Cry' and 'God of War'. So we usually did crossovers, not minding any stuff bout circumstances, storyline NOR logic. It was a drabble of unknown stories We had real fun back then. We did 30 or so pages of Dante and Kratos's adventures in the kingdom of Camelot~ And me trying to fix my idiotic friend's fangirling over DantexVergil. Now that I think about it, what the hell did I even write back then? O.O'' So that was the start of my 'fanfic' writing, or so they call it. After that, we started diving deeper into hell and took action into writing anime fanfics. From Ranma 1/2 (Well, it was a really cool anime that aired in Malaysia in 2010) to One Piece. We just write what the hell we think

But then, yeah. I stopped writing due to her transferring schools in 2011, due to the offer she had to a better school. Well, her parents just found out she was in a delinquent school so who wouldn't~? My mom >.> Anywho, I stopped with the whole 'fic' writing and focused on music, finally picking up my brother's guitar and started to play it like Yuko in a bar. Meaning, yeah, I suck

I stopped for a year, but in the 26th day of March, in 2012, you guys know what happened before that. One of my 'friends' in FB was going insanely crazy and I didn't even know why, but when I asked him, I was targeted O.O'' He started to nag at me for being an anime/manga otaku and not realizing the hottest topic in Akihabara. But, hey, I didn't even know AKB or any of their sister groups back then. Thus he filled a lot of things about the senbatsu members, their experience and Mayu's 'holiness' into my head, which made me into the idiot I am today. So I watched some variety shows and dramas of AKB and liked it a lot. Though the only song I know back then was [BABY, BABY, BABY] and truthfully, I thought it sucked... But then I heard [RIVER] which made my hair stood on it's end OAO

Then I read some fanfics of AtsuMina and TomoAcchan, coz, well, duh. Acchan's my oshii and I didn't think of anything about it. Just, well, it was good. But... yeah... my heart wasn't in it. Then when I looked at one fic, it was some fic which I didn't remember the names. It was a fic of Atsuko's graduation. He didn't start a story, but it was the frustrations each member felt and the loss they had after the Ace's graduation. I was actually crying back then. I didn't know why but it was... seriously touching... I closed the laptop and all, then went back to sleep but when I opened back my laptop, and due to me erasing all the data if I ever closed Firefox, due to the preferences, my history was lost and I couldn't find it anymore...

I, of course, started to write again after I read that, back when it was April, or was it May, this year. I made my own version for her graduation and it didn't turn out so well. My 'friend' criticized it a lot. Of course I was sad, but it kinda made me happy, that somebody actually cared about it. Then I searched for other stories and then I stumbled onto unicorn48-san's YuuAtsuMina story. It tugged my heartstrings, seeing Yuko hurt by the past she had. Then I decided to search more in this forum, but when I searched, I always looked for AtsuYuu. I don't even KNOW why. After reading ALL of the AtsuYuu fics here, and of course other places like people's Tumblrs, I finally decided my OTP and decided to register here, thus writing my own AKB slash fanfic, which was 'Unwanted Feelings'. Truth be told... I thought that it was interesting... At least for me What? Not like I'm Narcissist or anything~ >w>

The fans' good and/or bad comments on the fics kept me going until today. Seriously, when my best friend read one of my fics, which was 'The Game of Life', he said it was pretty good (He knows AKB a little thanks to Majisuka Gakuen), and a good comment from him is all I need to keep going for the year No, I'm not gay, I just kinda have a lot of respect for him. Don't ask why...

Okay, answering my own question, I'm 17, male. *hopes that everyone else will answer so I won't be #foreveralone#*

[Ambenya]

My story is really weird but I guess I've always been weird.

Anyway I guess for me it all started when I was a kid in elementary school... I loved anime (still do actually) and would all ways pair up characters. I decided one day in the fourth grade which was around 2004-2005 to find stories on my favorite pairing in Inuyasha and that is how I came to know the world of fanfics. I would read them whenever I could and I told my whole family and friends about what I read. 

This continued for awhile until one day in like 2007 in the sixth/seventh grade I decided to write some stories of my own but I wrote the different from now back then I wrote like it was play script. I continued that style until somewhere in the eighth grade and switched to how I currently write. The problem that I had was that no one around me would read my stuff and it made me feel like I really suck at writing. (Which in all honesty I was always consider one of worse writer in class unless it came to stories.)

Then one day I decided why the hell shouldn't post one online I mean if no one I knew would read it maybe someone far away would read and like it. This was how I came to post first ever fanfic online in 2009 when school was starting back up. It's a Princess Tutu one called "A True Love's Pas de Deux" looking back it's not terrible but you could definitely tell I was a beginner. If anyone wants to read it it's on fanfiction.net.

After that I lost my inspiration to continue the story and then around the same time I found the anime called Shugo Chara. Well I liked the music and looked up the songs online and end up finding out that a lot of the songs had a dance version. At that moment I looked up dance shots for a lot idols and found No Sleeves and Watarirouka Hashiritai. I thought Takamina in No3b looked the cutest since she was so short and Harugon caught my attention in Watariouka Hashiritai.

After that I stopped following anything AKB related and honestly there was a time when I was a hater. Then I started to get annoyed when people would say rude things about them and started to defend them. I then came to the conclusion there was no reason to hate them if they never did anything wrong to me or my family. I tried really hard to learn the names but I couldn't since I wasn't really following them. I also kept switching my favorite member like crazy. First Harugon, then Tomo~mi, and then quite a few more.

But what made me finally chose who my favorite was their drama Majisuka Gakuen. I watched it around 2011 and was completely in love with it. I had also fallen in love with Yuko's character and then Yuko herself. I had finally found my AKB oshimen and I don't regret it one bit. I decided to look at a few AKB fanfics around that time too but I wasn't interested in the AtsuMina or KojiYuu pairings and only really cared for WMatsui and Mayuki at the time.

I then watched almost all theater performances I could find online of the teams around 2011-2012. In the Team A ones I couldn't help but constantly notice Takamina and then she just happened to sneak and take second place favorite AKB member. 

And then earlier this year I decided I wanted to see more things that had my top two members and so I decided to look some up. I thought their interactions together were sooo cute and funny that I came to support them as a couple. TakaYuu never moved from my top two spots for AKB became my OTP. 

Following that I decided to look up as much fanfics about them as I could find and read them. I also began to read more couplings and got increasingly interested in AKB and watched AKBingo and learned most of the current members names. Then I had a dream about TakaYuu and the idea stayed in my head until I wrote about it which is how my fanfic "Love Can Be A Complicated Feeling" came into existence. In actuality a lot my fanfic ideas come from my dreams I have also written two H!P fanfics but haven't posted them on JPHiP yet.

And to answer your question AshuraX I'm 18 and a female.

[LoyalFlutist]

I'm wondering what everyone's age is once I read yar stories O.O
NEE, WAT'S YAR AGE???!!! >A<

Though my age is the same from the profile thread, I'm a 16 year old female that will turn 17 this November.

And I know what you're talking about Llyloo, LOL.

[Shinoki]

LoyalFlutist-san~~ I want to join into this conversation~ Thus I shall!
...Actually... I started writing, outside of writing class at least, not too long ago...
My best friend is an EXO fangirl(formerly NUE'ST fangirl) so she convinced me to write something.
As an otaku since 3rd grade~ Yeah... Anime fanfics... but they were horrible... Dropped them minus a AKB0048 one... but... that's AKB enough~~ (haha... somehow I got too hooked onto 0048...)
And then Majisuka Gakuen made me die from happiness~ leading to me searching for Majigaku fanfic...
I saw a certain amazing angst writer's awesome GekiBlack which made me DOKI DOKI....
which led to me deciding to write something actually AKB(real life related~~)

nyaha.... age... tehe~ taboo until next year~ hint... I'm younger than HKT's Boss~ (<- why am I saying this anyways? Well, probably cuz I love to blab)

[Hitobo]

@LoyalFlutist:
Actually, I find it very funny that you consider 2008 to be something "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back" and did literally laugh out loud.

You and me both, kurumi.

Now then: It's been awhile since I've joined in the discussions here, so okay, I'll bite.  Here goes nothing:

-----

Once upon a time, a time just before most of you were born, I was young and bored, but imaginative.  I used to write "plays."  (I used quotation marks there because what I wrote did not in any way comply to the definition of the word "play".)

Fast forward a few years, to about the age of ten or so, at which point I wrote my first non-fanfiction story.  If I remember correctly, it was about eating Oreos.  (I've always written about such important subjects.)  It was about this time that I started to lull myself to sleep by imagining my favorite characters in situations not found within their shows.  I wondered if anyone else did such a thing, and then in middle school I realized: I am not alone.

I had discovered fan fiction.

It was in the sixth grade that I wrote my first fan fiction, and I continued to write throughout middle school.  I wrote about Pokémon, Sailor Moon, and, my favorite at the time, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.  (Is my age showing yet?)  Fortunately, with the exception of one story, I've since disposed of everything that I wrote back then.  Goodness, they were all rubbish.

(On a side note:  Surprisingly, even though I now write yuri exclusively, my first fanfics were almost all hetero-romance stories.)

In high school I stopped writing fan fiction.  There was no specific reason as to why, but I did discover and willingly accept the fact that I had more talent for writing essays and research papers than I did for creative writing.  I continued to read fan fiction religiously, but for four years not one idea ever prompted me to write my own story.

While a freshman in college (quite some time ago; or, if I may borrow LoyalFlutist's words, "waaaaaaaaaay back" and then some), inspiration struck from out of nowhere.  I was enjoying coffee and doughnuts when I suddenly thought, "What if Hotaru was never reborn?" and thus, my main fan fiction, a Sailor Moon Haru/Michi piece, was born.  I wrote twenty pages before I ever left the café, and in the years before posting it I'd written nearly 200 pages more. (In all that time, I had only completed and posted one other fanfic, a Yotsuba&! one-shot).  I finally started posting my main story in March of 2012.  At that same time, I made the initial post of Portraits, my Atsumina piece.  (Though not years in the making, Portraits is also of considerable length.)  Over the next year or so, I also wrote a few Majisuka Gakuen one-shots.

Though having known about AKB48 for some time, I did not know AKB48 fan fiction existed until after I read a few Mendol stories, in which the authors had used members of AKB as characters.  To be honest, the idea of writing RPF was offputting at first.  Yet as I read story after story, I became more intrigued by the concept.  I spent over half a year lurking on this site, reading stories here and on tumblr before I finally decided, "You know what?  I can do that, no problem."  I took the time to write about fifty pages of my story before I registered and made my first post.

Yet, there was a problem; people actually liked it.  Writing isn't all fun and games.  Others of you might not feel the same, but when I realized that people liked my work, I instantly felt the pressure of having to maintain that level of likability.  I spend extraordinary amounts of time editing my story because of that.  Here we are a year and a half later and it's still unfinished.  (Sorry about that, readers.  Though, in my defense, I did state in my initial post that I am a very slow writer.)

Since graduating from college, I haven't written anything other than fan fiction.

-----

TL;DR:
-I'm older than at least 90% of you.
-I'm a slow writer, yet tend to write long stories.
-When it comes to romance fics, my writings are exclusively yuri.
-AKB related, I have an Atsumina piece and some Majisuka Gakuen one-shots. (See signature.)

That's all folks.
-Hitobo

[AshuraX]

So basically, to sum it all up,

Flutist-san (since ya wrote fics longer than me, so, yeah, honorifics) is the only one that I know in this forum that's the same age(?) as me. Except she's a girl. Oh well. At least I found someone the same age QwQ

There are many of us who started to get influenced by anime.

Llyoo-san is a 21 year old girl who tried to pair up Malfoy and a Weasley (Seriously?) and also has a habit of making a fic into a murderous or sad ending. I've never read any but now I'm curious...

Ambenya-san is an 18 year old girl who once had a dream about Takamina and Yuko (Holy- I didn't even have a dream of Yuihan, let alone Acchan O.O'') I rarely see anyone pairing up their OTP. Or is that just me? I mean, come on. Who'd want to pair up Yuihan and Rena~? Or Acchan and Rena~? Wait... I already thought of doing the latter... >.>

Shinoki-san, come on! Ya can tell us OAO The only thing I knew bout ya was that yar a girl that likes to... er... blab? And I didn't get much into 0048 coz of their Generations, and successors. Kinda turns me off... And I don't mean that in any way that a certain squirrel would understand.

Hitobo-san, yar a guy, right?! TELL ME YAR A GUY!!! And don't tell me I'm the only guy here!!! Anywho, Hitobo-san already made a summary for him/her self so I don't have to do a summary for dat... Kinda long ago, huh? I thought ya'd be around 30 or so, but that's not possible~ And I think I read your story before. The AtsuMina one. I thought it was good, but for some reason the flow of the story is sorta too fast, even though, yeah, yar fic is WAY longer than any of mine Just my comment though~ Don't kill me >w>''

Ashura is a... well... 17 year old (this year) guy who likes to... annoy people??? And he's also a narcissist. Not to mention the... youngest when it comes to fanfics... Reading everyone's works and comparing it to his, he... was beaten single-handedly. Therefore... yeah, not much info on him either.

[End of summary and Ashura's reply/questions]