Poll: FanFiction, your opinion

[TheIronRuler]

I don't really mind fanfiction. Sure, 90% are horribad, but even those can end up ridiculously hilarious, for all the wrong reasons. I have also written several and though I know they range from bad to worse, I don't really want to delete them. I still write short stories occasionally and it's good to look back and see how much I've improved over time. Some of them can also end being on par with the source material, for instance, there's a Tiberium Wars fanfic that's miles above the official novelization.

That, and it's a good exercise for non-native English speakers, like me.

Maybe they should redirect their creativity to something more productive, like writing an original novel or not writing fanfiction, or perhaps getting a job.

That would work, except for a couple of things:

1: Most people who write fanfics are 13-18. If they had written original novels, you can pretty much bad they'd be horrible, so it's still better if they stick within a fandom. Also, fandoms are a little easier and good for practice, because you at least have a set framework to begin with.
2: Like I said, most aren't really the age to get a job, or even if they are, they might not have the time for it, next to school. Not every single kid needs to or should work.

If you have the time to write this crap (WARNING: I am referring to the hideous and grotesque fan created demon spawn, some MIGHT be good, though I doubt they exist.), then you have the time to get a job, at least a shift three times a week.

 

[Agayek]

The thing that bugs me about the rest of fanfiction is that it's bad, but not bad enough to qualify as hilarious. This category only includes one that I've ever found; a crossover between Dragon Ball Z and (wait for it) The Diary Of Anne Frank. Goku gets magicked into WWII Germany, saves Anne Frank, then does battle with Hitler, who goes Super Saiyan.

I kinda want to see that in the "DBZ abridged" format. Would be beyond epic.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Fan Fiction is like any work of literature. It has the chance to be good, but usually only the big names are anything more then complete and other shit.

And the big names are usually smug about it and dont care to be very varied.

.... Oka, maybe thats a bit too general. I've actually read some really good fan fics and some really bad fan fics, and I've even throwing my weight around with a Soul Cal fan fic thats became such a massive behemoth that I realized I could write an actual BOOK if I wanted to be completely realistic and I just stopped and went to another writing subject to take a break and just havent gone back (which is something I do frequently, which is why I'll have some 5-10 unfinished stories I was writing I can go back to or just make a new one). I dont see anything worng with it, especially not when people who criticize (That I've met) either:

a) Lack imagination entirely

or

b) Like to go on about how they would change a story, or how they want to talk about fantasy sports teams or compare other works of "actually" literature (the stuff published in bookstores), most of which just runs on name power or is equally trivial garbage.

What are your stories and do you need help writing them?

Its not really I need help, I just need to sit down and focus, which is hard when I have good online rp partners (yeah, I'm one of those people) and the Escapist to go to. Plus other stuff like playing pick up games of hockey and such make it difficult. Though I alaways like criticism (constructive) or advice if I get stuck.

Right now though, I'm sitting on these:

1) Soul Calibur Fan Fic - Takes the story of two of my fan made characters and is sorta of like a different continuity, since the main is the ancestor of another character in a large arcing story I wrote though my four years of high school that can be found here with my other stuff. Thats just a matter of sitting down for it, cause I'm at the climax point where its going to go down, whch is roughly the half way-60% done of the whole thing.

2) A love story between a guy who finds a girl that has been kept in something of a hyperbolic sleep with a degenerative brain disease that is flattening the folds of her brain and slowly killing her. I'm stuck at one point where I just dont know how to continue, cause its supposed to be heart wrenching and sad and then we get on towards the end where they make the pained decision to continue living knowing what will happen.

3) Something of a Dark Tower Fan fic (actually, I started one of those, or at least outlined it, but just didnt have the will to keep going or ever really start [though I'd like to]) that focuses on three people who have died and meet in something like the way-station that you meet Jake Chambers at in the first Dark Tower Novel and eventually realize they have died after overcoming some great mental character flaw that allows them to continue to actual death.

4) Something of a psychological horror based on what I wrote for a short story halloween contest in Highschool (that I didnt win, but I accept, mine was rather graphic and rushed and the guy that won was much better), in which a husband snaps and slips between reality and his disturbed state of mind where he goes on a short killing spree in the space of one day in something of a sleepy town before finally dying (not sure how yet, I'd have to read of it again if I had an idea or if I need to make one up [I never draft my stories, I just dont like to which usually makes them suck]).


... And thats about it, I think. I'd have to go look, but I know those are the big four I want to work on and finish. And maybe add in a Dark Tower fan Fic, if I can sit down for it and not feel suffocated by the source material and actually do some justice to both my work and the source.

EDIT:

OH! And I have a fifth one.

5) A trilogy based on a vampyre character I wrote that started before the Twlight crazy got huge, and is something of a combination of an original idea of mine (the main character, his conflicts for him), and some of some online rps I've been part of (the accompanying characters) that I have to finish the third on of. And then after that I want to do something of a spin off, where its a continuation of after the end, but focuses more on one of the characters my rp partner gave me permission to use and something we talked about and she thinks i could explore... in a better way, then she could if she wrote it because of I'm not bothered if my writing is good or bad, and I want a story to be told if I feel strong enough about it.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

If you have the time to write this crap (WARNING: I am referring to the hideous and grotesque fan created demon spawn, some MIGHT be good, though I doubt they exist.), then you have the time to get a job, at least a shift three times a week.

You don't think that young people should practice their writing skills?. There are surely worse things that they could be doing.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Before MLP I avoided and hated them with a passion since the ones I had read were shipping and awful (make me think the author is very lonely).
When MLP came around again I avoid it until I read some good recommendation on certain stories and one boring night I gave it a go. Ok so I admit that a couple of them are very good or decent but I haven't read any new one lately. Good thing about this time round is the fan fic info indicate if it's a shipping or grimdark etc saving me a lot of time to checking all of it out.

 

[Zay-el]

If you have the time to write this crap (WARNING: I am referring to the hideous and grotesque fan created demon spawn, some MIGHT be good, though I doubt they exist.), then you have the time to get a job, at least a shift three times a week.

I get that. Still, if it's fun for them, let them have that little bit of fun. You can't expect everyone to care only about school and/or work. A lot of fanfic authors are still in high school and while I'm not sure about how they are at your place, here, they don't usually allow you the time for even a part-time job. Sure, their work might be crap, but hey, they could waste their time on a lot worse things, too.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I usually ignore it completely and don't care either way. However, there was one Haruhi Suzumiya fanfic that I really really liked (a KyonxYuki story). After that, I stopped caring again.

 

[Bags159]

Eh, there's a few good ones for every hundred terrible ones. I read a Portal x Pony crossover fanfic that was fairly well done. Not perfect by any means, but it was entertaining.

I'd imagine a rule of thumb is to steer clear of any sexual fanfics.

Nothing is worse than reading through one and finding a lot of spelling / grammar mistakes; I can understand one or two but when every sentence has a miss spelled word or a bad tense it because embarrassing.

 

[gregitaly]

That's just mean,dude. We have freedom of speech and I say give it a chance. Because you're acting like a sonic fanboy that thinks Sonic 4 is crap because they made his eyes green. Stop it. ANd yes it does matter if it's well written,you jerk. Did'nt you used to use your imagination when you were a kid? Lighten up.

Way to abuse that freedom of speech by abusing another person's world, characters and story. I'm sorry, explain to me how hating an entire medium devoted to theft of another persons creation and therfore stagnating your own creative growth, is comparable to hating a slight cosmetic change to a spiky cartoon mammal? Actually don't explain it to me, I don't want to witness you butchering the English language like the rest of your FF filth.
Why is it when you literally have the ability to create anything (yes there are some constraints with the written word but whatever) and literally have the entire world as your audience (teh intarnetzorz) you instead decide to steal ideas from someone else and "elaborate" or whatever on them?
Cripes I'll lighten up when you all brighten up.

 

[KiraTaureLor]

99% of fan-fiction I read is weird sex themes that have ruined my love especially for the Simpsons, he other 1% are amazing because they do no try to make a new story or add to the old one; they simply take the character's personality and have them interact in scenarios that are outside of the original story plot, and setting.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I hate it. 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% is absolute garbage that bastardizes it's source material. Also most fan fiction writers are hypocrites.

Why? Heres a good story: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2507548/1/Edventure_of_the_Thousand_year_door

Does anyone actually READ the stuff,or are you just insulting it because everyone else is?

Why what? Why is most fan fiction crap or why are most fan fiction writers hypocrites?

Yeah. I've read some stories that A. Are good stand alone stories: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3053213/1/Ed_Edd_n_Eddys_Nightmare_Before_Christmas
B. Are adding something good to the source material or fixing something the creator of said material screwed up. C. Have promise, but the authors just plain gave up on:http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2771410/1/Edventure_II_The_Fourth_Relic
or D. Are really crap or deal with a subject I'd rather not read about (Yaoi)

A. I did say that 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% was actually fair to good.
B. Fans cannot "fix" anything the original creator "screwed up" because the original creator only "screwed up" in their demented delusional opinions.
C. Can't comment on that one.
D. Yes, 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of falls into this category.

 

[maninahat]

Potentially interesting, if somewhat lazy on the part of writers (who take the characters and setting off of somebody else). Most often misused by amateurs.

I have a plan of actually creating a GOOD Harry Potter fan fic (just to see if it can be done):

It will be about a squib girl (squibs in the HP universe are people from magic families who can't do any magic themselves) who's knowledge of everyday muggle stuff ends up becoming useful when a muggle criminal breaks into the magical world and her dad, a desk clerk in the wizard police department, takes it upon himself to examine the case when his superiors aren't looking.

So there it is. There will be no fucking Hogwarts, no main character from the HP series, and no connection to the main plot of the seven books. I am merely using a couple of the locations and the concepts.

 

[Moisture Man]

Most of the comments here are repeating the same claim - that most if not all fanfiction sucks.
The thing is that this principle applies to almost all creative mediums and possibly beyond, that is that almost everything is crap. It's a lot more noticeable in fanfiction because it doesn't have the same roadblocks you'd see for other fiction, and stories that would have been thrown out the window and never seen again were they sent to a publishing house get to sit among the good stuff.

There is decent fanfiction, its just obscured by the mountains of turd that don't get filtered.

 

[crunchieman]

I hate it with a passion. I have yet to come across anything that is written above a 3rd grade level.

Try reading Right Here by R.W and me. Not my type of story but the writing style is good.

 

[ZeroMachine]

The only reason I hate it is this:

I'm currently writing a book that takes place within the Halo universe. If it gets published like I hope (and many people have told me that's a very real possibility because of the quality) it is an official part of canon and is great.

If it doesn't, even if it's just as great, it's fanfiction. And I despise that idea.

 

[emeraldrafael]

That's just mean,dude. We have freedom of speech and I say give it a chance. Because you're acting like a sonic fanboy that thinks Sonic 4 is crap because they made his eyes green. Stop it. ANd yes it does matter if it's well written,you jerk. Did'nt you used to use your imagination when you were a kid? Lighten up.

Way to abuse that freedom of speech by abusing another person's world, characters and story. I'm sorry, explain to me how hating an entire medium devoted to theft of another persons creation and therfore stagnating your own creative growth, is comparable to hating a slight cosmetic change to a spiky cartoon mammal? Actually don't explain it to me, I don't want to witness you butchering the English language like the rest of your FF filth.
Why is it when you literally have the ability to create anything (yes there are some constraints with the written word but whatever) and literally have the entire world as your audience (teh intarnetzorz) you instead decide to steal ideas from someone else and "elaborate" or whatever on them?
Cripes I'll lighten up when you brighten up.

No ones steals them. Most fan fics come with the warning of these cahracters are not my own if they use brand name characters from another person's creation.

Also, after talking to some other fan fic writers, we agreed that, while not always, it can be a good jumping off point, especially if you do one with an original character of your own, because then you can explore that character more outside the fan fiction.

Besides all that, isnt it stagnated creativity with how LotR pretty much defined fantasy with elves and such, and most choose not to go outside it cause they know the cookie cutter formula can net them some change with the audience that buys anything LotR inspired for a chance it can be the next LotR rather then being original? or how most Space Operas are just cooke cutter clones of Star Wars or Star Trek?

 

[jackpipsam]

Depends on the fanfic

 

[uc.asc]

That's just mean,dude. We have freedom of speech and I say give it a chance. Because you're acting like a sonic fanboy that thinks Sonic 4 is crap because they made his eyes green. Stop it. ANd yes it does matter if it's well written,you jerk. Did'nt you used to use your imagination when you were a kid? Lighten up.

Way to abuse that freedom of speech by abusing another person's world, characters and story. I'm sorry, explain to me how hating an entire medium devoted to theft of another persons creation and therfore stagnating your own creative growth, is comparable to hating a slight cosmetic change to a spiky cartoon mammal? Actually don't explain it to me, I don't want to witness you butchering the English language like the rest of your FF filth.
Why is it when you literally have the ability to create anything (yes there are some constraints with the written word but whatever) and literally have the entire world as your audience (teh intarnetzorz) you instead decide to steal ideas from someone else and "elaborate" or whatever on them?
Cripes I'll lighten up when you all brighten up.

You got some issues dude.

 

[pyramid head grape]

Fanfiction I can't be assed with it.

 

[Hoplon]

Fanfic is mental masturbation for the limited.