I have written, revised, and edited my fan fiction story in the style of Diana Wynne Jones. It turned out much longer than I had intended. In fact, it is closer to a novella. My beta reader liked it a great deal, so my hope is that other big fans (or fans or just readers) will like it too.

You can read an excerpt when you click through this LINK. The whole story can either be read online or downloaded as a PDF.

I've never written fan fiction before. I've never really felt compelled to write it or read it. That is not to say that I don't let characters that I love live a full and happy life in my head.

Recently, I was rereading the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. I love her books, especially the Howl and Chrestmanci books.  I got to thinking that, as Jones died several years ago, Howl and Chrestomanci would never get to meet, and that made me sad. So I'm writing a story in which two of my favorite enchanters from two different sets of books get to meet.

It is great fun. However, it's a struggle not to jump right to the part where they meet and battle an evil wizard together. I'm really working to develop the story as Jones would have. Working to take it step-by-step and let the main characters drive the story, not let the story make the characters.

I've been on a steady diet of her books. Usually when I'm writing something, I only read books that are of a completely different nature/genre. I tend to emulate the writing styles of what I am reading. This can be a hindrance to writing my own original fiction. (Although, this is a major boon when I'm writing business articles for work.) But in writing fan fiction, it makes it just a bit easier to get the cadence of the language and story pacing to closely match.

Writing the story is turning out to be a great experience--both as a writer and for the nature of the story. I hope it comes out as good as I'd like it to. I know it will not be a true Diana Wynne Jones story, but maybe something amusing in its own right.