Foray Back into Fanfiction

The Heated Rivalry craze consumed me wholly and totally for most of December 2025. I watched episodes 1 and 2 without knowing what I was getting into. Then I bought and read Heated Rivalry and The Long Game while on vacation in Thailand and Vietnam to ease the suffering between episodes. I rewatched the show at least four times, and while my parents visited for the holidays, I snuck away for a strategic "nap" on December 26 in order to watch the season finale.

Yet, despite my growing obsession, the only friend who shared my interest was one straight, male coworker who was somewhat uncomfortable by his interest in the show. Thus, I set out to find online commentary from straight men to prove that the show transcended the queer and fujoshi communities.

I found the Empty Netters, a trio of straight male hockey podcasters, who appeared just as obsessed with Heated Rivalry as me and my coworker. Their joy and unabashed coverage of the show felt incredibly wholesome without disingenuous intent. And for the first time in over a decade, I decided to write a fanfiction.

A perfect storm of my hyper-fixation and writer's block for my original stories led to me to write my first ever real-person fic, set in the show's universe, titled Empty Netters: Hat Trick available on Ao3 and Wattpad.

After these last three years of writing close to 700,000 words of original stories, developing plotting skills, world-building instincts, and failing hard at publishing, writing a silly little story was a perfect breath of fresh air for me. It was the probably the first time in 2025 that writing didn't hurt. And while I don't intend to spend much time writing fanfiction, I will be forever grateful that this experience would remind me of why I love writing.

And truth be told, my writing origin story lives in 2010 in the NCIS, Harry Potter, Merlin, and The Walking Dead fandoms, where I published horrifically under-edited stories under a pseudonym I won't share upon pain of death. It was nice to compare what I'd done back then to the six-chapter, five-thousand word story I completed on New Year's Eve.

Progress shows up in the most unique places and so does hope. Writing this story and watching this show and podcast gave me that perspective.