McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Fanfiction - Good or Evil?

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Sil76:
I've done both fanfic and original work, and I'm an avid reader of published fiction and a very very selective reader of fanfic in a few chosen fandoms. 
I agree that there is some very bad fanfic out there, as well as some absolute gems - sadly, there is a lot of muck to shovel through to find those prizes, and it is easy to see why fanfic gets a bad wrap as a whole because of it.
I can tell you that fanfic helped break me out of a very long period of writer's block; I agree that it can be very valuable exercise in the art of putting together imagination and the written word, as well as the grace to accept constructive criticism along with praise (and indifference :-\) once one drags up the confidence to show it.
When I write fanfic, I enjoy the challenge and the shortcuts that a pre-existing world entails; I find it useful to take new interactions and situations and get feedback on them from fellow fanficcers; I find it pleasant to be able to commiserate with others who like to read and write, and share a particular world we are already fond of.  Writing is a lonely sort of vocation, each piece a labor of individual isolated effort -- with fanfic, well, there is the small comfort that others are right there suffering with you!  ;D 
As to what I'd feel if someone fanficced an original work of mine (assuming I manage to publish someday), well, I'd be flattered that something I wrote was 'alive' enough to jog someone's muse into action.  :)  But at the same time, I understand why anyone would cringe, given some of the results...  Oh the many bottles of bleach my poor eyes have needed over the years!  Often the trick is to find a decent archive with a quality control policy; it can make a potentially painful search much more pleasant!:)


Hmmm... ok, so .02c turned into $1.20...  professional deformation?  ;)

Sil

buckarama:
Fan fic is like when you try to play some one else's song for the first time. Doesn't sound good that's why you do it in the basement away from everyone. The trouble is with everyone writing Fanfic, and posting it somewhere, it's like turning up your guitar's amp to to eleven. (You know what I mean)
Fan fic is fine as a learning tool, just don't expect me to read it, or listen to your guitar playing. :)

*Lady Disappearing Act *:
the problem i have with fanfic, whenever i've been inspired to look for it, is the same problem i have with any group of highly excited people - some of them are Crazy People, a lot of them are just over excited, and maybe two of them have something interesting to contribute. 
unless you can write your own stuff, i would stay out of the realms of fanfic. 
that being said, go write fanfic!  write away, USE those characters like puppets, and then, as someone else said, HIDE IT FOREVER.

Kaos Wizard:
I used to shudder at the thought of Fanfic for a very long time. Just for kicks while I was at work the other night I went looking for some Dresden Fanfic. Man Harry Dresden vs. Harry Potter...made my eyes want to bleed. However, that isn't to say that Fanfic dosn't have it's purposes. I agree that it can be a great way for writers to get some practice. I write for a Star Trek RPG which is basically just a whole bunch of on-going fanfic. I get a lot of fun out of it because of the group of writers/role players I work with. Also we all make original characters, so we don't have a whole bunch of Kirks running around. Also, writing for that RPG has helped me get back into my own writing, by allowing me to flex my creative muscles. Writing for that RPG has been a great way for me to break through my writers block on a number of occasions. And I'll admit it that I've written a couple of little stories in the Dresdenverse just to get some practice at writing in the first person. I've never been big on that, usually can't even stand reading it, but Jim's style has really made me want to reconsider my stance on first person narratives. Fanfic helped to keep the Star Trek franchise alive after The Original Series was cancelled, and even now it's serving some of that same purpose.

The problem I see with Fanfic is that most who write it aren't looking to improve their craft. They aren't trying to get practice. In fact most use it as an excuse to take short cuts. They use familar characters so that they don't have to worry as much about character development and heavy character descriptions. Heck most fanfic writers don't even get the characterizations right. They just want to play in the sandbox. It's a chance for some wish or fantasy fullfillment (How many Buffy and Faith love stories are out on the webs right now?). Which wouldn't be such a big problem if they were keeping it to themselves. The internet has put an end to that though.

Kali:
I write fanfic because (as I've said earlier) there's some question that the actual story sparked in my head.  Some loose end that wasn't neatly tied up or was just brushed off by the author will nudge at my creative side until I write a story to tie things up the way I think they should have been done.

Admittedly, I did write one and a half fics that weren't for that purpose but they were written as follow-ups to a fic that *did* serve that purpose, so I think they count. ;)

Oh, and I did write one Stargate fic that was just to be funny.  Humor's always fair game, I feel.

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