#I'm also still surprised that Chowder was my gateway fandom of all things

[fanfic-inator795]

OKAY SO- this is really random and VERY cringe but screw it, it's funny to me in retrospect so let's get cringe.

I just watched one of those reddit answer compilation vids with the topic being "Your First Writing Mistake". Whiiiich got me thinking about my first writing mistake as well as my first fanfics.

So, thinking it over, I'm pretty sure that my first 'mistake' of sorts (outside the typical grammar and pacing mistakes of a writing newbie) was trying to insert angst into a series where it didn't really work or fit. And yeah, I get that's fairly common (especially for young writers) but I think I did it in a pretty 'unique' way, lol.

I was either in 8th or 9th grade (so in other words, prime teenage angst/edginess phase) when the CN show "Chowder" came out. I loved its silliness and the bond that the characters had with each other, but I also wished that it could be more "serious" and "dramatic" given how often the characters were in danger. (Because even back then, lil' Andrea's favorite genres were hurt/comfort and family fluff)

I had also started reading the "One Last Wish" series at that time (which, for those who don't know, is a series about kids with serious and/or terminal illnesses who get sent $100,000 checks by some unknown person). You guys can see where this is going.

My first fanfic was about Chowder getting some sort of disease (I think it was Malaria, I remember hearing about it on one of the shows my mom watched at the time) and getting treatment for it (based on VERY surface level research) plus dealing with the previous mentioned $100,000 check. I also ended up writing an EEnE/One Last Wish fic with Double D getting lung cancer. (I really did like those books, and I had also been inspired by another fanfic writer who was doing the same thing with early/mid 2000s Disney Channel cartoons).

Later on, I wrote fics about Chowder and the gang being on their world's version of the Titanic (was briefly obsessed with that movie as a kid) as well as a hurt/comfort aftermath fic based on that one episode where Chowder gets possessed by a ghost turkey. You know, that ep that was specifically meant to be a silly Exorcist parody? Yeah, I looked at that and was all "but what if it was taken seriously?"

Super cringe to look back on now, but I'm pretty sure a lot of kids shared similar feelings about the show given that (from what I remember, given those fics are looooong gone) they were fairly popular on FF.net. One person even made a book cover of sorts for the Chowder/One Last Wish fic, which I remember being incredibly touched by.

Also for what it's worth, not ALL my old Chowder fics were angsty or involved death/characters nearly dying - I had tons of Chowder/Panini fics (which, oof, that ship aged poorly) as well as a Pokemon AU and a Chowder/Total Drama crossover fic, among others.

But yeah, as much as I laugh and wonder what younger me was thinking, I guess there are worse ways to express yourself during your angst phase than taking a silly cartoon and writing it to be more drama than comedy.