Forum - View topicGeneral consensus on fanfiction?
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Meiaminkbell
 Posts: 109 |
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Please delete or move as necessary, I do not want to waste space.
I won't delve into my past or my own stories, this is a general review from everyone and what their opinions are. I've been writing fanfiction for some time now, off and on as I felt. Yet lately, I have noticed a decline in the...well, I'll just come out and say it and I'll apologize where I need to. I've noticed a general decline in the intelligence and attention of the average fanfiction reader. I enjoy writing, and hope to write a true novel someday. But whenever I get a response from one of my readers from ff.net, the usual response is "OMG please CONTU!!!!" Though I do enjoy praise and flattery, I would much rather prefer constructive criticism to help develop my own writing skills, and finding nearly the exact same responses on stories that should be granted no amount of time from anybody, it's sort of disheartening. Granted, I realize I am "publishing" in a section of webspace that holds no true gain in either the monetary field or the fame field, but it feels like, at times, I am wasting my own time. What I'm asking of everyone, is what are YOUR opinions on fanfiction? Not about any specific field, I mean fanfiction as a whole. I thoroughly enjoy a good story, when written decently, and I encourage and promote fanfiction, especially as a means of beginning a writing field, even just to blow off steam. Whatever the general consensus is, it's probably not going to affect my writing at all. Neither am I asking anyone to read my work, though I doubt you'd find it without me telling you. I am just looking for a worldlier view from people who associate with fanwork on a near daily basis. Thank you for your time. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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You absolutely are wasting your time. If you're interested in actually developing your writing ability and even going on to write professionally, then for goodness sake stop writing fan fiction. I mean, I guess it's better than not writing at all but still, you're not really going to get too far doing it. You need to try actually writing your own stories. Not just ripping off other peoples. That's why you don't get any actual constructive criticism. You may be more serious about this but the bulk of fan fiction readers and writers don't really know anything about writing. They're not even amateurs, they're a step bellow. At least try upgrading from a fan fiction based community to an original writing one. Really though, you're best bet is to get off the internet altogether. Take a creative writing class. Show your work to friends and family. Odds are they know just as much (very little) about writing as your average user on ff.net. The difference is that they're probably willing to take the time to actually give you a thought out answer. |
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arachneia
 Posts: 415 Location: On the wings of Bob Lennon |
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El-oh-el. All stories have already been told, at this point we're either retelling them or deconstructing them. Hero with a thousand faces? Jung? OP, if you feel like you have captured the essence of the original author's characters and their intent, and wish to tell their stories further, go for it. Often, the first thing I'll do after finishing a show is look for fanfiction to see what other people had gotten from it, how they have interpreted the characters, and how they have translated them from an animated medium to a written one. We all realize that 99.99% of fanfiction is total crap. What many don't realize is that the same percentage of insipid, talentless writing is among the published works as well. I say you should keep writing for the sake of your story and the characters that you are clearly invested in, and even if it does not seem like you're getting any meaningful feedback, rest assured that there are many people such as myself who appreciate fanfiction, even if they don't do much by way of feedback. |
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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I like fanfiction. One reason is because the implied couples that are in anime/manga and never end up together, they often do in fanfiction. Ones I hate GL/BL/slash/femslash/male pregnancy, and crack pairings that don't have any manga evidence and don't seem compatible at all.
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Maryohki
 Posts: 526 |
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I also enjoy writing fanfiction. IMO it's a good writing exercise. It won't help you in how to develop your own characters, but it's great for developing your own writing style, coming up with plots, etc. arachneia also brings up good points on the subject.
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Mistypearl
 Posts: 517 |
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I have to agree with ikillchicken on this one, try making your own stories, or doing an event such as NaNoWriMo, which starts in November. I've never done it personally, but I know you can post your material so far and people respond (intelligently) about it. Also, if you want to continue writing fan fic, try after each chapter or however people do it say "Please feel free to leave constructive criticism, thanks!" And see how that works.
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I personally think fan fiction is a great way to practice and improve your writing. While you aren't necessarily creating your own characters, it's another challenge altogether to properly match ones that have already been created.
Plus the biggest benefit from fan fic is that you have a built-in audience to read it and give feedback. And sure, a lot of it will be less than useful comments, like what you noted, but every now and then you really get a good, constructive comment and it is excellent. Also, depending on what you want to write, even working with characters that aren't your own could be useful. I'm currently taking a course on writing for television and the work I'm hoping to do would have me writing characters I didn't create and matching their voices/coming up with in-character scenerios for them most of the time, at least when I was starting out. |
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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Personally I hardly ever read what might be considered "true" fanfiction, so I may not be the target of OP's questions, but...
While I can't blame people for having alergic reactions to any fanfiction based on seeing crap at places like ff.net, I also think that there is a lot that can be gained by writing fanfiction--general writing practice as well as room to experiment with voice, perspective, word usage and sentence structure, as well as non-technical aspects such as structuring plots and adding original characters. My writing projects (which are not common, really  ) are about 50/50 split between original and fan fiction.
Much of fanfiction gets a bad rap because it truely is bad writing. However, to dismiss all forms of fanfiction and its authors as crap is unnecessarilly harsh and narrow-minded. Sure, writing fanfiction is not as good for your writing skills as honing them with "original" fiction (a term used cautiously, for reasons mentioned by arachneia), but it's a good place to start and a good thing to keep your muse from going into a coma when you've got nothing else to work on. There are elements and ways of writing that can make a short piece of fanfiction about characters I'm unfamiliar with just as interesting as reading a published short story that claims to be original fiction. To OP, if you feel that your audience is not the kind of audience you want to reach, perhaps you should look for a different audience? This may or may not mean "graduating" from fanfiction to original fiction... The thing you have to remember is that in general your readers for a fanfic are going to be fans of the source material already and are going to be so happy(?) to get more related material that they're not going to have that outside perspective that is usually helpful (if not downright necessary) for a good critique. Because most people with standards higher than the majority of stuff posted on ff.net have long since given up searching for the proverbial needles in the haystacks there, you may well be wasting your time with that certain audience (ff.net) but I don't think you're wasting your time by writing fanfiction--for reasons I mentioned above. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I despise it simply because 99.9% comes off as nothing more than a retelling of a plot, or worse, the idea the original plot wasn't sufficient. There's an incredible air of arrogance in a fan fiction which blatantly screams "I'm doing it better as I see it!" and removes any association to the purpose of the original story aside from the characters. So, "Ben" didn't hook up with "Jerry" in the story "Ice Scream" requires fans to rewrite the entire story such that the two do meet? I stopped reading these works years ago and I have no intent in returning. Yes, there are some good authors out there, but I'd personally rather see them work on original story telling, than rewrite/screw up something already in existence, even if such story premise is similar (but not identical). I'd be careful about stating you're a fan fiction writer. I don't know of many professionals that view this as skilled writing, regardless how well it's written. If you're truly serious about writing, start where everyone else starts: editorials, articles, or other professional entities which requires reading, writing, and editorial expectations which leads to experience and recognition. If this is a hobby for you, continue. It's not going to hurt, but don't be upset if 95% of your readers truly couldn't care less what you wrote as they're only trying to satisfy their insatiable appetite at looking for better stories since they, too, didn't like the original as written/delivered. Good luck. |
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arachneia
Posts: 415 Location: On the wings of Bob Lennon |
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I think that's a very cynical and erroneous view of fanfiction and its writers goals. As a fanfiction consumer, as it were, I like pieces that focus on the characters and flesh them out in ways that the constraints of the original would have rendered impossible - for example, writing a romance for Darker Than Black (which hints at several, but is never quite explicit) does not necessarily mutilate the characters and what they stand for, but uses the allusions found in the canon to work with a scenario whose tone would be out of place for the anime itself. Is someone horribly presumptuous and vain for daring to pick up on the subtext between, say, Yin and Hei? No; in fact, I'd rather say it's the creators' fault for tantalizing the viewer with hints but offering no cathartic fulfillment of an explicit relationship.
I myself am not a fan of unlikely pairings, things that completely contradict the canon, and general bastardization of the characters and their motives, but I really don't think people set out, when they write these things, to eclipse the original with some wish-fulfillment stories that, above all, demonstrate their love and investment in the original work. |
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Veers
Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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PJ, it sounds like you've seen the dregs of fanfiction as written by thirteen year old girls and never looked beyond the horrors you saw to where other fanfiction authors adhere, often very strictly, to the canon, and focus on writing things that could (theoretically) very possibly take place between timeskips in the canon, or after a story is over.
There's more to fanfiction than bastardizing alternate retellings and lemons, and if you think otherwise you've just been reading the wrong stuff. 
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arachneia
Posts: 415 Location: On the wings of Bob Lennon |
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Paradise Lost is a fanfiction. True story.
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I won't discount this for a few out there, but reality sets in. Yes, I've read some exception stuff in the days of old, despite my issues, and quite enjoyed them. But the premise of doing such haunted me. If such styles were exceptional, why not apply them differently. Thus, the arrogance. I did ask one fan fiction writer why they chose to write a remarkable alternate of a story (Parasite Eve, if anyone's familiar with the game) instead of something new. Her (which was a surprise) instant reply was "First rule of writing: Write what you know." Touche, young lady. I certainly hope her dreams of writing came true, but alas, I'll never know. One day, her website was simply gone, never to be seen again. I was enticed, last year, to read one which chronicled another one of my favorite games, Metroid Prime. It was practically linked everywhere as exceptional. I never did visit it. I never did visit it for fear Samus Aran would have been given a voice, and that's a no-no for me. She's mute. Let's keep it that way. |
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Generic #757858
 Posts: 1354 |
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Unfortunately for you, Nintendo disagrees. She had lines in Metroid Fusion and in a few other 2D Metroids IIRC. The next one too. |
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arachneia
Posts: 415 Location: On the wings of Bob Lennon |
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Question: does someone being arrogant preclude their from work being enjoyable? Many authors confident enough to produce good work know that they are producing good work. Is Urasawa's Pluto a miscreant piece of shit because he is both confident in his work, and adapting someone else's?
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