Poll: Fanfiction: your opinions

[Dimbo_Sama]

I think there's a great playground of characters ideas and universes that a good writer could do fantastic work with (you only have to read Unity by Chuck who does the Opinionated Star Trek Guides to see that) but most people either write about their slash fantasies or rehash stuff from the source material, or have stupid crossovers that are just there for X meets Y and that in itself is cool.

If there was a definitive list of genuinely good FanFic I'd be more open to it but I'm not wading through all the shit there is out there.

 

[AvsJoe]

I'd rather read something done by professionals rather than fans. Not that there aren't high-quality fan-fics out there, it's just that there are very few and they are veeery far between.

 

[Valksy]

I put my hand up and say yes, I have read a lot of fanfic and some of it has been bloody good and sometimes even better than source.

OK so it was all TV/movie related fic, not sure I ever found a video game I with characters I was interested enough in. And OK a lot of it was slash. I even proofed and line-edited for writers in the past (my own creativity having died to a diet of Prozac and other happy meds). I made a lot of mates and had a bloody good times.

If you like it, read it. If you don't, then try not to waste your energy worrying about what other folks are doing.

 

[AgentNein]

Both Stephen Kind and Neil Gaiman have done Cthuhlu Mythos stories (King's abit more straight laced and Gaiman's abit more...out there). Some of the best fan fiction I've read.

But yeah, sort of the ulterior motive of this post (aside from those two honestly being some of the best I know of) is to point out that fan fiction isn't NECESSARILY completely creatively bankrupt. Actually the entire idea of what is now called 'fan fiction' goes back a long, long time. Sometimes it's fun taking someone else's ideas or characters and riffing on them.

With that said, I agree that the vast majority of fan fiction really, really sucks.

 

[Infinatex]

No, no, no! People need to stop ruining good stories with this stuff. Most of the people who write these abominations have the literary range of a 4th grader and the creativity to match. Are you a professional writer.. if no then please don't do it! Leave it to the people paid to do it, I mean, they don't come to your work and try to do your job.

 

[Eggsnham]

I don't think it can recover after My Immortal.

The same way the world would find it difficult to recover from nuclear war.


Just....read it. Read it and cry tears of pain for the death of intelligence.

I never liked fanfiction much anyway, it seems pointless, it's not that creative, and if the makers of the work hire former fanfiction writers or it's remade by them, they end up totally fucking up the series.

Wow, after reading the first chapter; the spelling wasn't so bad, but the.. It just... BAD!

OT: I've never really like fanfiction, it's always seemed like it's trying too hard.. Yeah.. I'll just leave it at that... [small]But ya' know, the sex scenes.. Oh ma lawd, the fanfic sex scenes are what butcher the series that they're fanfic-ing. Really now, I'm just going to leave it.[/small]

 

[Sjakie]

Only time i ever bothered with fan fic was right after AvP 2 came out (the game) cant remember how i got into it, but i do remember reading a few very good stories written by fans.
Other than that i never really bothered. Most of it is sub standard anyway.

off-topic: Should we consider (quest-)mods for games like Oblivion, which try to tell extra story about the world as (applied) Fan fiction?

 

[Snowalker]

I don't think it can recover after My Immortal.

The same way the world would find it difficult to recover from nuclear war.


Just....read it. Read it and cry tears of pain for the death of intelligence.

I never liked fanfiction much anyway, it seems pointless, it's not that creative, and if the makers of the work hire former fanfiction writers or it's remade by them, they end up totally fucking up the series.

Why?... WHY? HOW COULD YOU MAKE ME READ THAT?! I never contemplated suicide until now... Who would write that? Who the fuck would enjoy that? and worst of all, Who would want it to come back?

 

[Grand_Arcana]

Some Fan-fiction is really good. The decent ones are the stories that aren't romance, and when I say "romance", I mean craptastic porn. The General section on fanfiction.com is mostly safe.

Great fanfics explore aspects of canon that haven't been addressed. They use ideas and theories and apply them to the original story.

The BEST fanfiction ever! would almost be so good and blend so nicely with established canon it would almost seem like it was canon. That fic which is locked in the vault of Xerxes would have a great plot, a daunting antagonist, themes that mesh well with canon, and most importantly, characters that are true to their characterization. Writing a fic that gives an alternate character analysis would be fun to read as well.

 

[CloakedOne]

it's awful. People that rely on tv/video games for their imaginations with no writing skills, how terrible is that? In all seriousness, though, some of it actually isn't so bad but, as stated, 99.999999% of it is absolute shit.

 

[katsa5]

Been a fanfiction writer since High School. ^^ Working on Mass Effect 2 stuff, fun fun. But anyway. . .
Fanfiction is what it is; imitation as the surest form of flattery. More or less, writing praises to an idea or arrangement you like. Any writer that digresses from that will only result in crap.

 

[Evilproduct]

I write it, but i do recognize that there is a sea of bad ones. You really do need to search for the really good ones.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

How could i resume all the things that are passing through my mind about your question...

well, i'd say "Bah! i'm neither interested nor upset about it!"

 

[Mortons4ck]

Normally, I stay away from FanFics. But I do love a good parody.

In the spirit of Full Life Consequences, a few others come to mind:

The Adventures of Ugly Shepard [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/105/index/1398049/1] (ME2 FanPicFic)

and

Yet another KOTOR Parody (FanScriptFic) [http://www.hawk.kotorfanmedia.com/node/1593]

Spoiler

Act 1, Scene 5

RGN's communicator beeps again as he runs through the ship, shooting Sith right and left.

CARTH: Hi there, it's me again. I'm trapped behind a roomful of Sith here, by the escape pods. I'm not entirely sure why they haven't tried to break in yet, but you're going to have to get rid of them somehow.

RGN: How can I do that?

CARTH: Well, luckily, it just so happens that our power conduits have been engineered so that they can be blown up from any computer terminal on the ship.

RGN: What? Why?

CARTH: I'm not entirely sure. I suppose, when you think about it, under normal circumstances that might be considered a rather poor design decision...

RGN (under his breath): You know, I'm beginning to think the Sith may have a point about the Republic. (Aloud) Fine, fine, I'll blow up the power conduit...

He walks over to a computer terminal and switches it on. Words appear on the screen:

Welcome, unauthorised user! Would you like a hacking tutorial?

 

[Eggsnham]

Wow, after reading the first chapter; the spelling wasn't so bad, but the.. It just... BAD!

Yeah, the first 16 chapters have okay spelling, but that's because they've been proofread. However, after chapter 16, the proofreader Raven falls out with Tara (the writer) and the spelling just...dies.

For example, Chapter 29.

Spoiler

Chapter 29.

AN: sot das fok up!11 ur jus jelouz koz ur prepz so fok u!1111 raven u rok gurl fangz 4 da help MCR ROX 666!111111111111

XXXXXXXXXXXX666XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

?Oh my satan!1? we screamed as we jamped out of da coffin. Snap and Professor McGoonagle started to shoot at us angrily.

?CUM NOW!1!? Preacher McGongel yielded. We did guiltily. We left the room putting on our clothes. Snoop garbed the caramel and put it in his pocket.

?Hey what the fuck!111? Vampire shooted angrily.

?Yeah buster what the fuck are u going to do with the fucking camera?? Draco demonded all protective, looking at me Longley with his gothic red eyes. ?Look, Dumblehor noes your little secret and if u do dis again, then u will go to St Mango?s. So give back da camera!1111?

Hahahaha the Mystery of Mogic thinks he is crazy there is no way dey wil believe him. Snoop laughed meanly.

?Yes so shut your mputh you inlosent fools!? yelled Proffesor McGoggle. She made us cum into a weird room with white stones all around it. There were all these werid tools in it. Draco started to cry all sexy and sexitive (geddit koz hes a sexbom lol tom felnot rulez 4 lif but nut as muxh as gerard ur sex on legz I luv u u fokeng rok mary me!111).

I started to cry tearz of blood (it hapnz in vrampir kroniklz raven sed so ok so fok u!1). Vampire took out a black honkerchief and started to wipe my red eyes.

And then??????.. he and Snoop both took out guns using magic. They started to shoot each other angrily. Non of the ballots gut on eachodder yet. I took out my wand.

?Crosio!? I shouted. Snap stated 2 scram he dropd da gun. But it was too late. Both of them had run out of ballets. I STOPPED DA CURSE. Profesor McGoogle did a spell so that we were all chained up. She took out a box of tools. Den she said ?OK Serverus I?m going 2 go now.? She left. Snap started to laugh evilly. Vampire started to cry.

?It?s ok Enoby.? said Draco. ?Evergreen will be all right. Remember the cideo u took of Snake.?

Snape laughed again. And then...he took out some whips!1!1111

ARGH

I need to go and pour acid on my face to purify myself.

Grammar... So... Bad...

 

[SomeBritishDude]

The VAST majority of it is shit. Really shit. I don't bother to search though the shit pile to find the gems.

I let it live however since sometimes it can be so shit it ends up being good again. Observe.

 

[Zhalath]

My issue with fanfiction is that it's written by fans. If I've learned something from all my time reading reviews, scanning forums, and being a Dungeon Master is that you should never pay too much attention to your fans. Fans have this tendency to think that they know exactly what they want out of you. Problem is, most don't consider the full consequences of their ideas, which results in most of the crud you see. Besides, fanfiction seems to me to be a personal thing, and sharing it with other fans who have differing opinions seems self-defeating and, well, a tad rude.

On a second point, if I want to read something well-written, I can read a fiction. A book. They still have those, right?

(On a personal note, I do make up fanfiction. I just never share it with anyone, unless it's collaborative, in which case, all the contributors know about it. Other than that, it stays in my head.)

 

[mechanixis]

Ugh, I cannot abide fanfiction. It all has this sickly tone to it, a sort of bad taste - like 'I had more fun writing this than you will have reading it.' It's unoriginal, generally quite amateur in terms of writing quality, and there is far far too much of it for any piece to be significant in any way. Also, there's slashfiction, which is just doubly unpleasant in every direction.

My Immortal and Full-Life Consequences are side-rendingly hilarious, though. I think they succintly summarize everything that's wrong with fanfiction: self-insertion, sexual fantasies, assumed worship of certain characters, slavish devotion to unnecessary minutiae...etc, etc.