McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Fanfiction: Is It Real Writing?
Snowleopard:
^
Practice is practice whether original or fanfic.
Quantus:
I think fan-fiction can be, in some ways at least, Easier than more fully original works. But thats just because somebody else did parts of the work for you (developing a world, a character, etc). That doesnt make it anything less. Shared worlds are common in fiction, so are shared characters. Look at any of the Star Trek, Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, Hardy Boys, or Darkover novels, or any historical fiction for that matter; every one of them borrows from existing sources for characters, setting, or both.
To my way of thinking, most fiction outside of the Sci-fi/Fantasy Genre falls into that category to some degree, because they all borrow an existing world for the setting (IE the "real world") rather than make their own from Scratch. If I want to tell a story from a thief's POV, how does it make the story less legit by setting it in Mos Eisley (star wars reference) instead of the streets of New York City? My answer is that it doesn't.
The flip side of that is that you want to still be contributing. But the more you borrow, the less of an origianl work it is by nature. A story written in the DV but in an unrelated time and place it one thing. Or if its contemporary, but only mentions events in the background, thats perfectly fine, you are just borrowing the world. On the other hand if its a story about Harry and Murphy fighting Vampires, Im just adding events to an existing Character set, world setting and system; im just contributing the episode of the week. Somewhere in the middle would be if it was taking minor but established character and putting them center stage, like the adventures of Susan or Carlos or Elaine, or McCoy's childhood or something.
Paynesgrey:
I found it to be a useful learning tool, trying to capture the Voice of iconic characters for example. I think it helped me a great deal in portraying my original characters and learning to keep their voices consistent. It's a creative exercise, great practice, and to be honest great fun, although I find original work to be more gratifying. I'll keep doing both, because writing is how you learn to write, and I'm just plain having a grand time.
As for it's "artistic merit", that's like any creative endeavor, in the eye of the beholder. I'm a too each-their-own sort of fellow, after all. But I confess, as a matter of personal taste (not a value judgement), I get kind of skeevety feeling when I see stuff where people are someone else's characters to places where those characters wouldn't go. (Kirk/Spock/Data threesomes, for example.) I don't like seeing characters "re-imagined" in a way that makes them something far removed from their original concept. Now, a respectful update or reboot that keeps the spirit of the original is, to me at least, a Good Thing. (BBC's Sherlock being an example of a great update, and the new Star Trek as a good reboot.)
Snowleopard:
If you wanted to write episodic TV - fanfic is actually a great way to practice.
Because you have to know how the standard characters talk and behave.
If you get it wrong - you won't sell your script or if you do - they'll rewrite the snot out of it.
I know an AFI writing teacher and even if she doesn't watch a series - if one of her students
does a script for that show as a class exercise - she makes it a point to then watch a couple
of episodes so she knows whether or not they're doing it right.
Paynesgrey:
That's something I'm going to have to experiment with once I get a handle on basic story planning and telling.
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