Fanfiction for Dummies

I thought it might be a little fun to discuss how we first got started with fanfiction. How were you guys introduced and what made you write your first story?

I got introduced to the whole concept of fanfiction when I was ten, and my best friend at the time actually showed me her notebook, where she had written a Final Fantasy VIII fanfic. It blew my mind! I never thought that was a thing people did.

I eventually learned about Fanfiction(dot)net, and I remember printing out pages and pages of fanfiction to read, because the internet wasn't as ubiquitous then. (I printed in colored ink and the smallest font, back to back, with 0.5" margins--a weird effort to conserve paper and black ink XD)

As for my first story, well, I always had stories running in the back of my mind growing up, but I never bothered to write anything down. It would take a few more years before I finally gathered the courage to write up a story. I remember my first fic was a Fire Emblem 7 story.

It had all the cringy tropes of a fanfic written by a teenager. It had a Mary Sue heroine. It was melodramatic as hell. I used 'orbs' for eyes and hair color for identifying epithets (I still do, YOLO XD). It had a 'disclaimer' in the very beginning and awkward author's notes. Best of all, it stayed incomplete.

I love it. I still read it when I need a good laugh.

So how about you guys?

(Sidenote: this is my first time posting on kbin, so I don't know if I'm doing this right. Feel free to let me know how to post better?)