Are you an addict?

Most writers of fan fiction have been there. It's 3am in the morning and you have work or school the next day, but you can't stop writing. Your eyes feel like little hot, dirty pebbles but the ideas keep coming, and they have to be written down. You're going to pay for this late night, but it's worth it to get some extra writing time.

The occasional all-night binge session isn't a problem, but the question is: when does your hobby become something more serious: an addiction? Is it when the phone rings and you ignore it because, damn it, there's writing to be done? Or is it when you continue to torture innocent characters well past their ability to survive it in the real world because you just don't want this story to end? Or is it when you crave reviews so much that you feel high every time you get one, even the bad ones?

Drogna Tech has put together a simple questionnaire to answer this vexed question.

If you answer "yes" to five or more of the following, you have a problem; nine or ten and I am afraid you are probably pathological. Luckily, support groups are available across the internet, full of like minded individuals.

1. Are you preoccupied with your fan fiction, constantly reliving past successes, trying to find new places to post your past works, or planning the next story arc?

2. Do you need to spend increasing amounts of time writing in order to achieve the desired results, tweaking every little phrase, and sending your story to your beta editor multiple times?

3. Have you had repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop your fan fiction writing?

4. Are you restless or irritable when you have to cut down or stop?

5. Do you write fan fiction as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (eg feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression)?

6. Have you sat at you computer, hitting refresh on your browser multiple times in the hope that more reviews of your latest post will appear?

7. After having a story receive bad reviews, do you try to repost it elsewhere, again and again, in the hope that the reviews will be better?

8. Have you exaggerated your previous good reviews, or advertised your own stories in online discussions (perhaps pretending to be someone else) in order to gain new reviews?

9. Have you lied to family members, or others to conceal the extent of your fan fiction? For example, staying at home writing while pretending to be going to the pub or "out clubbing", or denying that you write fan fiction at all.

10. Have you jeopardised or lost a significant relationship or social opportunity because of your chosen pairing or fandom?

Of course, as Drogna herself will tell you, there is one certain cure to this fan fiction addiction. However it involves procuring a small child (the smaller the better) and letting them turn your life upside down. Obviously there are a significant number of drawbacks to this approach to ridding yourself of the addiction.

You may ask "is the cure worse than the disease?" and the answer may well be "yes". And, as Drogna herself will also tell you, it may not be a parmanent cure.

If you score 9 or 10, we'd love to hear from you - you might even get a special badge to put on your website to proclaim how hopelessly addicted to fan fiction you are.