Fanfiction is the ultimate example of Sturgeon's Law. 90% of everything is shit, 10% is good. The problem with fanfiction is that there aren't any marketing blurbs or adverts or any handholding to lead you to what's good.
I like fanfiction. I write it, I read it, I critique it. The bad stuff is usually easy to spot, so I just ignore it (often you can tell what's going to be bad from the blurb alone), and the good stuff can be fantastic, as good as or better than professional level.
For example, the Mass Effect fandom has a writer called sinvraal, who wrote two excellent pieces called Iunctio and Exitus, which are in my opinion better and more fun to read than any of Drew Kaplan's official novels. And that isn't an insult to Drew, I actually think sinvraal is that good.
And you might disagree with me, but then some people think that Drew is no good, whereas somethink he's the best writer ever. The only thing that sets fanfiction apart is that it's much harder to find the good amongst the bad.
Also, anyone who reads long running graphic novels, watches long running tv shows, or watches almost any movie series ever, has automatically watched or read fanfiction. Officially licensed fanfiction yes, but it is still someone else taking an established character and applying their own interpretation to them.
If you enjoyed Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,' you were reading fanfiction. Technically Watchmen was also Charlton Comics fanfiction with the names changed as well. If you watched and enjoyed Aliens, you were watching fanfiction. If you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer all the way to the end, you were watching fanfiction, watching and enjoying modern Doctor Who is watching and enjoying fanfiction, need I go on?
And finally, obligatory plug of my own fanfiction. I wrote a Mass Effect novelisation!
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2151039/MelasZepheos
I like fanfiction. I write it, I read it, I critique it. The bad stuff is usually easy to spot, so I just ignore it (often you can tell what's going to be bad from the blurb alone), and the good stuff can be fantastic, as good as or better than professional level.
For example, the Mass Effect fandom has a writer called sinvraal, who wrote two excellent pieces called Iunctio and Exitus, which are in my opinion better and more fun to read than any of Drew Kaplan's official novels. And that isn't an insult to Drew, I actually think sinvraal is that good.
And you might disagree with me, but then some people think that Drew is no good, whereas somethink he's the best writer ever. The only thing that sets fanfiction apart is that it's much harder to find the good amongst the bad.
Also, anyone who reads long running graphic novels, watches long running tv shows, or watches almost any movie series ever, has automatically watched or read fanfiction. Officially licensed fanfiction yes, but it is still someone else taking an established character and applying their own interpretation to them.
If you enjoyed Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,' you were reading fanfiction. Technically Watchmen was also Charlton Comics fanfiction with the names changed as well. If you watched and enjoyed Aliens, you were watching fanfiction. If you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer all the way to the end, you were watching fanfiction, watching and enjoying modern Doctor Who is watching and enjoying fanfiction, need I go on?
And finally, obligatory plug of my own fanfiction. I wrote a Mass Effect novelisation!
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2151039/MelasZepheos
I've had a job since I was sixteen, I've written five original 100,000 word novels, two 70,000 word novels and a 40,000 word novella, as well as multiple other in progress works, and I write fanfiction. Am I still not productive in your eyes?TheIronRuler said:
