What do you think of Fanfiction?

[Evie]

I want to add my personal background and perception of fanfiction and what it has brought to me.

I began writing fanfiction about 14 years ago, in the Pokémon fandom. I had ideas and notions about the plot of the series that I wanted to explore so I did (it started with trying to think up what would be a proper grand finale to the anime series...and exploded from there into my own sprawling, longer-than-Lord-of-the-Rings epic.

And the one thing that this got me that I wouldn't have gotten writing original fanfiction instead is this: massive amount of feedback, and feedback from strangers (strangers at first; many of them went on to become friends).

Finding people outside your friends and families to read your original fiction is a very tall order. Friends and families are usually a limited source of feedback - of those who'll read it, only a few will be able to give you useful feedback about your writing, and of those, only a few will actually do it instead of just saying "Wow, I like it".

Fanfiction, on the other hand, gives random strangers a reason to read your story. Most of them won't comment, or will comment in a way that encourages you to keep writing (and that's valuable enough in itself!) but without teling you how to write better.

That doesn't mean there won't be any good advice. There will be. You will get your mistakes and issues with the work pointed out to you. And you will get

And that is simply invaluable in writing. Talk about learning to create characters and settings all you will; learning to plot and write is the heart of writing. Great characters and great settings make a story better but if you don't have at least a reasonable plot, if nothing happens, then you just don't have a story. And even if you have the best story, characters and settings, they're all as nothing if you can,t actually convey them to your readers because your prose blows.

I don't write fanfiction anymore. I wrote my last...I think it was in 2005 or so. I moved on (and many of the characters, plots and setting ideas I developped in fanfiction came with me, though they've been remixed again and again, with new characters joining them in my arsenal over time). But I,d never have gotten to the point of turning to original fiction without fanfiction to get me started, and to teach me. The feedback I got from perfect strangers over my fanfiction taught me things I could never have learned from any audience I could have reached with original fiction.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I apologize for missing that. I am clearly not diligent about consulting the sidebar. I would like to think it is because I accept what is written at face value and don't think knowledge of the gender or location of the writer should weigh on what they say, but it may well be that I was just lazy. Again, I apologize and will be more attentive in future.

Apology accepted.

There aren't many women on this site, and I dislike being referred to in the masculine, since I've never been the least bit shy about stating my gender and age. Older women are gamers, too.


Most of my fanfic output has been in the universe of The Crow: Stairway to Heaven TV series, and part of the reason for that is because that show came out the same year my grandmother died (17 years ago today, actually; it was also a Sunday that year). My grandmother was the woman who raised me, and her death was devastating. So a few months later, along came a TV show that dealt with death in a way that somehow made a weird kind of sense to me, and the stories and poems just suddenly started demanding to be written. Another factor was that the show was filmed in a part of Canada I've been to, and know. It was, and still is, cathartic for me on a personal emotional level, in addition to exploring a wonderful group of characters and trying to figure out what happens next (the show was abruptly cancelled when it became owned by a media company that wasn't interested in a second season even though it had been renewed). So the story ended on a literal cliffhanger, and that's annoyed me ever since. The story was not finished, so if the production company can't wrap it up, I'm going to have to imagine it up for myself.

 

[christos200]

I disagree with the notion that all fan fictions are bad. Yes, there are many bad fan fictions, but there are some very good. For example, I have lately been reading some Swordsman (2012 TV series) fan fictions and they are pretty good.

As for myself, I have written a couple of fan fictions, but as of this year, I only write original stories. While writing fan fictions helped me develop my writing quite a lot, I right now prefer writing original stories for they give me much more freedom with how to develop characters and plot.

Spoiler :

By the way, if anyone cares, here is a link to a story I am writing. Put it in spoiler because its not part of the conversation.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I disagree with the notion that all fan fictions are bad. Yes, there are many bad fan fictions, but there are some very good. For example, I have lately been reading some Swordsman (2012 TV series) fan fictions and they are pretty good.

I think the general consensus has been that fanfiction certainly follows the 'rule' that 90% of anything is junk. I don't recall anyone making the blanket statement that it's all bad, though there is some concern that writing it is somehow bad for you. The idea that it is universally all bad is too easy to puncture, because I would think that almost anyone could point out one good one, at least.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Keep in mind that not everyone agrees on which of the 90% of available material is bad. I read more Star Trek: Voyager fanfic on fanfiction.net than all other varieties of Star Trek combined. So right off, that puts me in disagreement with the fans who plain don't like Voyager.

Then I have the unmitigated gall () to enjoy sappy romantic stories about Seven of Nine and Chakotay. Now I don't like Chakotay, but there are two or three authors on that site who can write this pairing very well, and one of them has come up with a lot of variations on how they got together.

Another series of stories I enjoy there is about Tom Paris - how, after returning to the Alpha Quadrant, he works his way up over the next few years to end up as captain of his own starship.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I think 'bad' is usually pretty easy to identify. As was said earlier, if it was torn off and the lack of editing makes it obvious the writer didn't even read their own work...that's bad. If the dialog is so inane or stilted that you just know any actor trying to say those lines would have to either vomit or burst out laughing...that's bad. There's other obvious features. But I would hope most people can accept that something isn't necessarily bad just because they aren't interested in the subject matter.

On the other hand...Voyager?!?

Just kidding. Voyager is certainly in the running for my favorite Star Trek series.

My reading at fanfiction.net is mostly directed by reviewers. I read something I like. I see that someone wrote a good review. I go see what else they have given good reviews of and read some of that. Rinse and repeat. It saves me from a lot of drek.

 

[christos200]

I think 'bad' is usually pretty easy to identify. As was said earlier, if it was torn off and the lack of editing makes it obvious the writer didn't even read their own work...that's bad.

Indeed. Rereading and editing is a must. When I write a chapter, I always reread it many times and edit it. It is impossible not to make any grammatical mistakes at all when you are writing lot of words.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I think 'bad' is usually pretty easy to identify. As was said earlier, if it was torn off and the lack of editing makes it obvious the writer didn't even read their own work...that's bad. If the dialog is so inane or stilted that you just know any actor trying to say those lines would have to either vomit or burst out laughing...that's bad. There's other obvious features. But I would hope most people can accept that something isn't necessarily bad just because they aren't interested in the subject matter.

On the other hand...Voyager?!?

Just kidding. Voyager is certainly in the running for my favorite Star Trek series.

My reading at fanfiction.net is mostly directed by reviewers. I read something I like. I see that someone wrote a good review. I go see what else they have given good reviews of and read some of that. Rinse and repeat. It saves me from a lot of drek.

I don't care what the reviews say. If I like a story, I look up the author to see what else they've written, and check it out.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't care what the reviews say. If I like a story, I look up the author to see what else they've written, and check it out.

Well, yeah. If someone writes something I think is good I read the rest of their stuff. I use the reviewers to find new stuff. I figure if a reviewer likes something I like then I might like other stuff they like.

 

[Cutlass]

Write Through It: The Powerful Influence of Fanfiction
Posted on August 1, 2014 by cherrylara

Last weekend, I attended San Diego Comic Con on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, there was no Haven panel this year due to production/filming schedules since the show got picked up for a double episode order, but there was a pretty awesome Haven autograph signing I went to on Saturday thanks to several messages from awesome fans on Facebook and Twitter telling me to go. The Community panel was on Thursday, so I did not get to go to that either, but there were still plenty of things at Comic Con to keep me busy and occupied.

I was not able to attend the Orphan Black panel last year, so it was a real treat to experience the Orphan Black panel with my friend Lexi this year. While waiting for the Orphan Black panel in Room 6A, one of the other panels we saw was for Outlander, a new Starz television series based on the books by Diana Gabaldon. Though I have not read any of Diana Gabaldon’s books, I am familiar with her stance against fanfiction. This prompted an interesting conversation between myself, a Screenwriting graduate student and disability advocate, and Lexi, an undergraduate fan studies scholar at California State University, Monterey Bay. I told her that I don’t agree with Diana’s stance on fanfiction, though I have tried to understand certain viewpoints of various authors and screenwriters who have an apparent dislike for fanfiction. It was this conversation that sparked the idea for this post and made me reflect on my own journey as a fanfiction writer, an aspiring television writer and the person I am today.

As a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I first dabbled in Buffy fanfiction at least a year or two before I knew what fanfiction was or that this particular writer-ly pursuit had a home on the Internet. At the age of 15, I used to scribble bits of Buffy fanfiction in notebooks and bring it to a local writers group, where it was read and critiqued by adults who had little familiarity with the show. That was okay at the time, but I wanted something more and soon discovered that there were websites on the Internet to post such stories. I was mostly a lurker at the time and came across a wonderful author’s story about Dawn Summers, my favorite Buffy character. Yes! I thought excitedly. Someone enjoys Michelle Trachtenberg’s (the actress who portrays her) work as much as I do! I signed up for the website within the year and began writing and posting stories and interacting with fans. My favorite series Tru Calling was airing at the time and the majority of my fanfiction has been focused on that show. When news of Tru Calling’s cancellation came out, a dedicated group of fans, myself included, banded together to create a virtual season 3 of the series in order to demonstrate our love for the show and hopefully give fans everywhere our own sort of closure. Though this incredible project was discontinued due to time constraints and real life commitments, I learned a lot from it and ventured off to continue writing more fanfiction of my own.

But it wasn’t until 2009 or 2010 when I began to think about disability portrayal in fanfiction. I’ve never written fanfiction for particularly huge fanbases (with the exception of Buffy), so other television shows, movies and books such as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and even Harry Potter certainly have fans writing disability-centric stories. Though I have included characters with disabilities in my fanfiction stories, particularly those for Tru Calling and Haven, I never intended to write the “token disabled character” as a source of “inspiration.” It is fine line to walk (roll?) between due to the overwhelming presence of the “overcoming narrative” and constant bombardment of media images unabashedly proclaiming people with disabilities as sources of inspiration simply because they have completed a task that a person without a disability can easily accomplish without question. While people with disabilities may take a different path in order to achieve their goals and dreams, it should not be considered “special” or “amazing.” Because at the end of the day, talented people with disabilities are just people whose work should not be celebrated on the basis of their disability or chronic illness, but because of their talents themselves. It is something I constantly have to remind myself as a fanfiction writer and aspiring television writer that the character and her worldview and obstacles and achievements come first, not the disability.

In a TED talk by Australian comedian Stella Young, who uses a wheelchair, she notes the various media images we see of people with disabilities matched with so-called “inspirational” quotes as “inspiration porn.” She says that the purpose of these images is objectification in which disabled people are objectified by non-disabled people for sole purposes of “inspiration” and “motivation.” Other comedians with disabilities such as Josh Blue and Maysoon Zayid also discuss their disabilities in their comedy routines, but they don’t do it to be an “inspiration” to others. So how does this affect the wonderful world of fandom and fanfiction that exists on the Internet?

In the field of disability studies, there are two different “models” of disability. For the purpose of this blog post, I chose to focus on the social model of disability. The social model of disability states that negative attitudes, stigmas and various systemic barriers about disability created by society are, in fact, more disabling than the disability itself. Society’s view of disability perpetuates a completely different image of disability than what it actually is and should be.

I believe the social model of disability can be challenged. Through fanfiction and other artistic creations, fans both with and without disabilities, have the ability to change preconceived notions and shift perceptions about creating characters with disabilities – both visible and invisible – and including those with various types of chronic illnesses.

Someday, I hope that people come to view fictional characters with disabilities represented in film, television and online media not as people who are “special” or “extraordinary” or defined by their disability, but rather just as they are… as people.

http://cherrylara.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/write-through-it-the-powerful-influence-of-fanfiction/

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Interesting. There's a Canadian comic strip, For Better Or For Worse, in which one of the younger characters has a school teacher who is in a wheelchair. Not much mention or fuss is made of that fact, and I remember mostly that the teacher was very kind and patient toward April when her pet bunny died.

 

[jackelgull]

As a teenage fan fiction writer myself, I disagree that 90% of fan fiction is bad. Or it could be that I am spoiled. But on my experience, that only pertains to certain fandoms. For example, I dabble in both the Fairy Tail and the Avatar fandoms and I find that as a whole, Avatar: TLA is better than Fairy Tail. More original, better edited and all that.
And there are communities dedicated to sifting through a fandom and picking out the gems. If you really don't feel like taking a chance they are almost always reliable.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I'm thinking, is it possible for a writer to write fanfiction of their own work, even if under an alias? What would that even be called? Has there ever been a writer that's done that sort of thing? If I wrote something well known enough I'd write fanfiction just to mess around with my fans. Also it would be a good way to do silly things with my characters I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

 

[jackelgull]

That is totally what I'd do if anything I wrote ever got popular enough to warrant a fandom.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm thinking, is it possible for a writer to write fanfiction of their own work, even if under an alias? What would that even be called? Has there ever been a writer that's done that sort of thing? If I wrote something well known enough I'd write fanfiction just to mess around with my fans. Also it would be a good way to do silly things with my characters I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

I remember reading how Marion Zimmer Bradley mused about that when she first started accepting fan-written stories for her Darkover fanzine, Starstone. She wondered if a story of hers would be considered good enough to be accepted if it was written under a pseudonym. In the end, she decided against it because she thought it would be too embarrassing if the story was rejected.

My opinion: If you are a professional writer who creates your own world-setting, you should leave the fanfic to others. Not only would it piss off the readers to find out you were "messing around" with the fans, but it could result in serious legal problems over copyright. Besides, it just seems undignified. If you want to experiment with your characters and plots, just do it. There's no reason it couldn't be published as a 'it could have happened this way...' kind of story.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I remember reading how Marion Zimmer Bradley mused about that when she first started accepting fan-written stories for her Darkover fanzine, Starstone. She wondered if a story of hers would be considered good enough to be accepted if it was written under a pseudonym. In the end, she decided against it because she thought it would be too embarrassing if the story was rejected.

My opinion: If you are a professional writer who creates your own world-setting, you should leave the fanfic to others. Not only would it piss off the readers to find out you were "messing around" with the fans, but it could result in serious legal problems over copyright. Besides, it just seems undignified. If you want to experiment with your characters and plots, just do it. There's no reason it couldn't be published as a 'it could have happened this way...' kind of story.

The professionalism thing is a good point, I admit. As fun as it would be to mess around with fans, I guess there would be a limit to how far you can go.

I guess one could always do the Tolkien or JK Rowling thing and release supplementary material of sorts, but of course one could only pull that off if one was popular enough.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The professionalism thing is a good point, I admit. As fun as it would be to mess around with fans, I guess there would be a limit to how far you can go.

I guess one could always do the Tolkien or JK Rowling thing and release supplementary material of sorts, but of course one could only pull that off if one was popular enough.

Let me put it this way: How much do you think your agent could negotiate for you in advances and royalties on your contracts if it became known that you wrote and posted (or allowed to be published in print form or electronically) stories or novels for free, that anyone could copy and archive? Your ability to sell books or stories would rapidly plummet to zero.

Some authors don't want fanfiction to be written and shared. MZB took this stance after a fan wrote a story that was far too close to a novel she had in progress, and the end result was that the novel was killed because MZB had read the fan's story and the fan wanted co-authorship since MZB couldn't prove she hadn't used the elements of the story that the two versions had in common. So after that, a directive came that no more Darkover fanfiction was allowed, and if anyone had any sitting around at home, it was to be destroyed or rewritten so it was no longer identifiable as a Darkover story. This was carried on by her estate. Mind you, there are enough fans who ignore that, that there is a small amount of Darkovan fanfic available, although some of it is in other languages. I'm actually considering learning to read Portuguese so I can read those. And I don't let anyone tell me what to do with the fanfic I have in my home that's never been shared with anyone.

Fanfiction.net has a list of authors and series it will not allow to be uploaded for precisely this reason: the author or the author's estate has forbidden it. They have various reasons, usually due to inadvertently stepping on something the author has in progress or at least planned, but some authors think anything a fan has written means less likelihood of people buying their next book. I think that's overreacting (ie. there is a fair amount of post-Regenesis fanfic available, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't jump on a hardcover copy if C.J. Cherryh wrote a sequel, 'cause I want her version of What Happens Next).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Rule number one for authors regarding fan fiction. If you have fans, and they write fan fiction, do not read it under any circumstances, and make sure everyone knows that you don't and you won't. There is always a nutter somewhere with a story scrawled on a napkin that is 'clearly what inspired that best seller', so make sure you don't look too closely at napkins either.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Rule number one for authors regarding fan fiction. If you have fans, and they write fan fiction, do not read it under any circumstances, and make sure everyone knows that you don't and you won't. There is always a nutter somewhere with a story scrawled on a napkin that is 'clearly what inspired that best seller', so make sure you don't look too closely at napkins either.

Yep. That's why, at TrekBBS, we're not allowed to post story ideas or suggestions or fanfic plots in the TrekLit forum, because that's the forum where the pro authors post. There was one time when someone slipped up, and the author who read that post had to scrap the novel he'd started.

 

[Cutlass]

I can believe it. Almost every story I've ever thought to start, I later learned that someone else had written it.