McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Fanfiction - Good or Evil?
Darrington:
For many years wanting to be a published author and now managing to hold the position, I have a great hate for fanfic. I've never read any, so it's not necessarily for the potential of a story and characters being butchered or misrepresented, but for the pure and simple fact that you can't really do anything with it. Which, I suppose, is half the fun of it. You just throw it out there for fellow fans to read and enjoy, or keep it just to yourself. I think it's more the idea of me doing fanfic myself, the fact that I could throw so much into something and not really be able to do anything with it.
On the other hand, perhaps in a touch of hypocrisy of sorts, I'd feel flattered beyond words if someone wrote fanfic on my book and characters. Well, I'd probably say that until I saw some horrible misrepresentation of all the characters and some critical point to the story being ignored or some such sort. I suppose the hypocrisy continues as a good friend of mine (storyteller) and I plot writing up stories on our game based off the Dresden universe. Other than that, though, I've never touched fanfic.
trboturtle:
--- Quote from: Darrington on August 29, 2006, 01:58:55 AM ---On the other hand, perhaps in a touch of hypocrisy of sorts, I'd feel flattered beyond words if someone wrote fanfic on my book and characters. Well, I'd probably say that until I saw some horrible misrepresentation of all the characters and some critical point to the story being ignored or some such sort. I suppose the hypocrisy continues as a good friend of mine (storyteller) and I plot writing up stories on our game based off the Dresden universe. Other than that, though, I've never touched fanfic.
--- End quote ---
Personally, I try to stay with the series I'm writing in -- the characters, places, situations, and expand on them. A prime example is BubbleGum Crisis (Four babes in battlearmor fighting robots that look like the Termanator's big blue brother in a Tokyo ruled by a megacorps on the 2030's). It's cyperpunk, with influences from Blade Runner, Streets of Fire, and others. When I write those Fanfics, I stay in that world, adding things where needed, but relying on the establish story background first and formost.
Others have taken those characters and taken them either into the past, or the future. They have killed them, reserected them, turned them into cyborgs, or based them in a fantasy setting., If they want to do that, that's their problem. But for me, their world and the problems in that world are the backdrop for these stories of mine. To alter things so much as to make it unrecognizable doesn't feel right to me.
To me, Fanfiction is a sharpner, allowing me to hone my craft and get a feel for the writing process.
Craig
Belmonte:
I voted 'Useless'. I hate it. Hate it with a passion. I have a friend who likes to sift through fanfic for the very, very few gems--they're far more stubborn than I am, and willing to /look/. Most of it--yuck. I get a synopsis now and then, and the majority is the most puerile tripe I have ever heard of. I won't even get into the self-insertion fantasies or the sexual fantasies people write, pairing and slashing various characters.
Yes, vociferous. I hate fanfic. :)
whoknowswhy:
I write fanfic. I have stories on several fanfic sites, and I am proud of (almost) everything I have written. I am not a teenager, far from it. What fanfic did for me was to give me a starting point. With characters already created, I was free to concentrate on my own plot and dialogue. Once I had developed in that area, I felt confident enough to put down on paper some characters of my own. Without fanfic, I doubt if I ever would have come to the place where I can call myself a writer. Now I have original stories in the works. I've submitted several to different publications and begun the watiing game to see what happens. If I were ever lucky enough to become a published author with a following and someone wrote a fanfic based on my characters, I would think of it as a compliment.
thomasfan:
Fanfiction is something I love to do. I write ones about Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and some others. But, I have been writing short stories for years and have some cool ones. My newest one is a spy story. The three main characters are a brooding agent, with a dark past, his partner, a British cool guy, and this computer super hacker. He's Scottish and is really fun to write. Why? Because I based him on one of my favorite actors. The other two are based on the guy that played Spike, the brooding guy, and my favorite singer, that's the British one.
But, when it comes to fan fiction, I don't like the over sexual ones. Give me the fun ones, with a little sex, and I'm happy! :D
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