McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Fanfiction - Good or Evil?
pinkdoom:
My original writing had its starts in the fan fiction I wrote when I was a teenager (13 years old to around 16). Like anyone familiar with the fan fiction world, I know there's the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly. When I wrote fan fiction, it was because I was a huge fan of whatever fandom I was writing in, and I wanted to show my appreciation of that world and the people who created it. It was never meant as anything but flattery. But I know people who are frighteningly possessive of these worlds, so much so that they become warped, thinking that they're not just good, but better than the fandom's creator(s). *shudder* It was a tool I used to learn how to plot storylines, use characters, and understand the nature of language. But it was just that: a tool, a way to practice. Eight years later, I think I'm a better writer because of the practice I got.
While fan fiction can be fun, writing your own material is so much better.
spygrl:
--- Quote from: Mickey Finn on June 26, 2006, 12:37:01 PM ---That's being contracted by the owner of the rights to write something ineir universe. It's sort of the difference between being invited in by the owner of a house, or just wandering in and making yourself at home while they're out.
--- End quote ---
The premise is still you writing in someone else's world. Not one that you have created of your own.
Fanfiction has its purpose, it allows a fan to express their imagination... if they were to print on demand and sell their work rather than submitting it to a publishing house with the rights to that world, then yes.. that's the equivalent of stepping into someone's house and peeing on their furniture.
But to write it and share it with other people in the fandom and not for profit, that is more a developmental exercise than flagrantly stepping on an author's toes.
neminem:
--- Quote from: pinkdoom on June 28, 2006, 06:01:01 PM ---But I know people who are frighteningly possessive of these worlds, so much so that they become warped, thinking that they're not just good, but better than the fandom's creator(s).
--- End quote ---
You mean like how Timothy Zahn's Star Wars novels are about a hundred times better than anything Lucas ever made? :P
Tersa:
I am guilty of writing fanfiction. A lot of it. I share only a tiny fraction of it with anyone, including my friends. I don’t really write it for people to read, I write fanfiction because I like the world I'm playing in and bow to its creator, not because I think anything will ever come of it. I agree some people take their stuff waaaaay too seriously, which is probably why most people think fanfiction writers are freaks. :-\
I think that fanfiction has its place and one should NOT expect much to come of just writing fanfiction and not developing their own worlds and characters, but creating a new world and developing a cast of new characters is daunting, especially for someone who has never written for pleasure before. If you start out playing with some premade characters and an existing world, it makes figuring out how to create a little world of your own easier. It makes writing easier to get used to.
Maybe I'm inclined to let fanfiction exist because it's how I discovered writing. I know why people dislike fanfiction and don't want it written. A lot of it is really, really bad, and the author has the right to keep their ideas theirs. I totally understand that. After all, I would be livid if someone stole the two characters I'm currently trying to construct. However, if the author doesn't mind and the fanfiction author is just writing for fun and not profit, I'm not going to say they can't. I think Jim has the right attitude about it, letting it exist as long as it stays out of his sight. :)
*Opens umbrella in anticipation of tomatoes and ducks down behind it*
Kali:
I've written a few pieces of fanfic. Usually I write them because something in a story sparked a question that's never answered by the author. For example, in Laurell K. Hamilton's "Lunatic Cafe", there was a throwaway reference about Edward finding a witch to lift a curse. I wanted to know who the witch was. And, frankly, at the same time I wanted to explore a little bit about how a character could survive in that world and NOT be an uber-everything. So I wrote "Swan Song".
Then, because I liked the interplay between my OC and Edward, there was a follow-up. A third story stalled out, shortly after I realized I was writing it because people had asked me to write a story where my OC and Anita Blake met up. It wasn't the story I wanted to tell, so it died out.
I also don't consider it time wasted when I could spend it on my own stuff. For one thing, I myself do not have an actual well of creativity that can run dry. There's always something to do. Writing fanfic doesn't stop me from having ideas about my own writing. The time sink is the only thing that might apply, and it's irrelevant to me. I have no plans to publish, so it doesn't matter if it takes me two months or two years to finish a story. I love writing, I couldn't not write. I write a lot. But, although I have submitted a story or two (actually, two in the last fifteen years or so) for publishing, I don't really want to. I'm a writer, not an author. I write for the sheer love of it. Having to submit it to editing and deadlines and all the other crap that goes with being published would suck the joy out of it, for me. So I write, and fanfic in no way impinges on my ability to enjoy the hobby.
I don't read much fanfic because, as other people have said, the vast majority of it is terrible. Bad grammar, bad plotting, and don't even get me started on the horrible characterizations. "What if Jack and Daniel were blue, telepathic aliens?!" Then why use Jack and Daniel at all?
If I ever published my own work, I would let people write fanfic, assuming my lawyer or agent didn't have an aneurysm at the very notion. I dunno if she still handles it this way, but for awhile Mercedes Lackey used to permit fanfic IF the writers used an alternate timeline wherein a major character who had died in the "real" timeline managed instead to survive. Since most readers were upset he had died in the first place, that was fine. ;D I'd probably handle it in a similar fashion, if all the legal angles permitted. Make a drastic change, so that all fanfic is actually happening in an alternate universe.
I haven't yet written any Dresden Files fanfic, mostly 'cause Jim's doing a bang-up job of writing it himself. ;) If he leaves a big gaping hole in a story that bugs me no end, I suppose I'd end up scribbling twenty or so pages. But I have a feeling the Dresden Files RPG will give me all the room I need to tell whatever stories I want in that universe. Go MUSH!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version