Poll: FanFiction, your opinion

[Rooster893]

Some of its good if you want to read a good story, or to just have a good laugh.

Take pairing fics, for example: I'll admit I'm a shipper of most characters, just like girls are.

Ok, back OT:

Some are actually great, genuine love stories that do make you feel good. And the occasional lemon isn't too bad either.

But then there's the bad ones. Sometimes its funny, sometimes its bad, and most of the time its just horribly done, awful stories crapped out by a 12 year old girl.

Sturgeon's Law -- 90% is shit, the remaining 10% is worth dying for.

 

[MetroidNut]

I just wanted to link you to an actual gem. Shamus Young did a System Shock novel that is very much worth reading. If hundreds of pages of what is, basically, fanfic is your thing. It can be found here [http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/]

I second that recommendation. Or possibly fifty-seventh it; like you, I refuse to read through seven pages scouring for links.

But yeah, Shamus Young's story is incredibly well-done. I've never played System Shock, but I know a lot about it, and the novel really does seem like an improvement over the game's story.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Since I do find myself, technically classifying RP's I make based of other material to be Fan Fictions, and having written a couple side ones myself and seeing some that friends have done, I find a few to be alright.

There are several horrible ones though. The best idea I find for them though is to stick as far from cannon and set characters as possible without leaving the same universe. The occassional reference to that character that only showed up for maybe a couple minutes is fine if you can work with them, but going directly against what has been set and working your own version of things in normally just makes for something dreadful.

 

[Donttazemehbro]

Fanfiction is like videos made in GMod. Almost all of it is complete and utter shit, but there are a few gems.

Unlike Gmod videos, I have yet to come across these gems.

Possibly someone has already linked this, but I'm NOT reading through 7 pages of fanfic discussion.

I just wanted to link you to an actual gem. Shamus Young did a System Shock novel that is very much worth reading. If hundreds of pages of what is, basically, fanfic is your thing. It can be found here [http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/]

I agree with you, if i read fan fic its short has hell.

 

[brinvixen]

I support fanfiction. I even dabble in writing some myself. As said before, some of it can be bad, but some can be good. And it really isn't hard to separate the good from the bad. A lot of people give away their writing styles in the blurb, so if you aren't sold on that (or if you see the spelling errors right there in plain sight) then you know to stay clear. Because nothing ruins a fic than someone writing the word "waste" when they meant to write "waist". I'm not much of a grammar nazi, but bad spelling can really ruin the immersion of a story.

But once you weed out those obviously bad pieces, all of the stuff that's left is pretty decent. Even in that "soap-opera like, teenage dream" sense. I mean, the story could be a little formula, maybe trite, but if it's presented in an entertaining enough way, it isn't painful. That's how romantic-comedies get made every year: so long as they're funny enough, who cares that its all plot we've heard before? (Of course, if you don't like romantic comedies, then you may be a little harder to please in the fanfiction department. But I promise, there's even good stuff for your type.)

Interestingly enough, I find Twilight fanfics to be rather delightful to read. First and foremost, let me say that I detest Twilight, so it's not out of fandom love that I say this. Twilight itself is horribly written, with flat characters and needless story arcs. Which is why it's fanfiction is so good, since just about anything is an improvement over the original stuff. And then you run upon the very well-written Twilight fics, and it's just amazing that anything good could come out of this garbage. So, if you take the chance to delve into material that you originally thought was tripe, you're likely to find vast improvements in the fanfiction.

Just some thoughts. Sorry for the wall. I won't hate anyone who doesn't read this.

 

[l3o2828]

I find some Fanfics to be amusing and even REALLY good, but there are no middle grounds really, either they are Very good or Absolutely horrible.

 

[kelsyk]

Fanfiction quality is the same as non-fan fiction quality, a lot of it is crap but there is some good. The best fanfics are those that explore some minor illexplained portion of the fandon or take the plot in a different drection from the official canon.

 

[DarkenedWolfEye]

Did I ever say fanfiction was bad in that post? Reread what I typed, please. Besides, the mark of a good writer is to make his argument in as few words as possible.

I take the phrase 'truly good fanfiction is an oxymoron at best' to be synonymous with 'fanfiction cannot be truly good'. Do I need to explain why? The mark of a good writer is also to make a point, not just state his opinion with no supporting argument.

 

[Sacman]

Unlike Gmod videos, I have yet to come across these gems.

I read one short good one once... for my favoritest show evar, Serial Experiments Lain... it was a tiein into the game that was very well drawn and expressed the appropriate themes while actually doing a good job of characterizing the title character of Lain as a weak and confused little girl which is what she is, but the show never did a good job of characterizing... it actually came in the special edition art book from 2005 with renewed art by the character designer... it was only 18 pages though...<.<

 

[Hashime]

Fanfiction is like soap opera, the stories are convoluted and the writing is terrible, but if you get hooked you are in for the long haul.

I am not a fan, but my sister spends at least an hour a day reading fanfiction stories.

 

[silver wolf009]

Fanfiction is awesome. Nothing more hilarious than a good old fashioned, badly written fanfic. Example:

Now tell me, is that not one of the best things you have ever watched?

Hells yes! Stabe the nay seighers with a nife!

OT: As a writer of some, I think my opinion on fanfic should be clear. I would post my pony story, but the last time I tried to post 65,000 ish characters the Escapist yelled at me and started to cry...

Captcha:
Fluid edisces.

EDIT: Furries in a Blender away!!

 

[crystalsnow]

I would normally say it's the greatest blight to mankind since the Black Plague. BUT there have been 2 fan-fictions that I've read that I genuinely enjoyed. However they were written by people who had exceptional talent as writers, and put effort and thought into the work, rather than just some sick fantasy (neither of the ones I read were sick fantasies).

 

[Giantpanda602]

I wrote some fanfiction about two years ago. It was a different ending to InkDeath because I thought that ending was HORRIBLE. Generally I don't really like fanfiction, but I had a good idea that I really enjoyed writing.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5048803/1/InkDeath_A_New_Ending

I still get reviews and favorites every now and then, even though it is very low on the list. It makes me tear up whenever I read the reviews though. Its kind of what made me want to be a writer.

 

[Zaverexus]

My general opinion is that it is usually not very good. Most creators of fanfiction are more fanboys than writers, and the skill deficit shows.

 

[NickCooley]

I'd definatley recommend the Morrowind fanfic Story of Trey. While it's essentially the games plot it really fleshes out some of the characters.

 

[Klepa]

Mixed bag for me, it's the same as fanart. Every time I see a great fanwork, I secretly wish inside that the artist would've spent his time in creating a great original piece.

I don't really care about it. I can't imagine myself getting so invested in an IP, that I'd care about what random people have written about it, especially when it might not have anything to do with the original, apart from a few names.

 

[Donttazemehbro]

The show i read was Avatar the Last Airbender becasue i felt the series ended way too soon. Some of the stuff i found was decent others were too long and boring

 

[Dr. wonderful]

I actually write fanfiction, it's a nice free way to improve your art and address some situations you want to see handle.


Two of my favorite series to write stories for are Naruto and Neon Gensis Evangelion. NGE is actually very fun series to write for. Easy for a quick deconstruction of a Fanfic trope. Naruto on the other hand is easy for both a Reconstruction and Deconstruction of a trope from both Naruton Fanon tropes and Fanfic tropes in general.

Is most of the writing bad? Fuck yes.

But to be honest, you have 14 years old girls writing this crap.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

The show i read was Avatar the Last Airbender becasue i felt the series ended way too soon. Some of the stuff i found was decent others were too long and boring

...That's pretty much sums up the stories.


To have a big fanon like that, I'm surpised the stories are "only" good or boring.