Poll: Fanfiction: your opinions

[archvile93]

Alot of it is pretty bad, but there are some gems. Anyone here read the misadventures of bass?

 

[GodsAndFishes]

Surprised that no one has so far mentioned Salvation War
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?p=2667481#2667481
Basically armageddon happens, but the humans (who now have far superior technology compared to the forces of heaven and hell) fight back...awesomeness ensues.

 

[awsome117]

I've written a few, based on Halo. For the most part, I genially like fanfiction. It's pretty amusing to see where some will go with stories and stuff like that. Plus, the few people I know who write fanfics are pretty good at them.

But yah, most suck.

 

[Slayer_2]

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.

Gun in mouth. Pull back hammer. Pull trigger.

That was so terrible... I'm probably gonna have nightmares about that

 

[MetaKnight19]

I never really took the time to look out for fan-fiction. It just didn't appeal to me. Also I read the first chapter of that 'My Immortal' fan-fiction. That was a mistake I won't make again.

 

[SkylerRock]

Go into it expecting all of it to be crap and you won't be disappointed. Might even be surprised when you find something readable.

I think fan fiction should not be the sole endeavor people dedicate their writing to. If used it should be used as a TOOL for the following:

1) Cure for writer's block
2) Improving writing skills and proficiency to be applied elsewhere (school work, essays, and other writing in general if/when it applies)

Feel free to add other practical reasons if you desire.

And before you ask how this could actually apply (if you cannot come up with your own conclusion) consider this:

As humans, it is necessary for us to communicate our ideas effectively. Written word can often improve spoken word if applied properly. There will be times in life where we will be called upon to use the English language (rather any language we speak) in a higher capacity than an American 4th grader. Dates, meetings, social outings, child rearing, etc. All of these will not be as pleasant as they can be if you lack strong communication skills.

If one chooses to write fan fiction it should be a tool for improving one's communication skills and a supplemental exercise to other writing endeavors. I'll probably think of other reasons, but that is my two cents on the matter.

I agree, 99% of fan fiction is crap. Here's some friendly advice to some of these authors: edit and read your work out loud. If the material sounds terrible spoken then you probably need to tidy it up. The least you could do is make the content less of an eye sore.

I agree totally, in fact I must confess that I myself have written fan fiction in the past, once as a side story to Thunder Force 4 (many moons ago) and another series based loosely on Planetside (though they were more of a spin-off) and I used these stories mainly as an opportunity to experiment with my storytelling and to work on character development, pacing, etc.

Most fan fiction is rubbish and I don't claim that mine is any better, though I doubt that it is worse than My Immortal, it is unfortunate that the Internet is so heavy laden with the rubbish when there are some genuinely good authors posting stuff out there. For instance a couple of years back I remember reading a fan fiction by a girl who was about 14 based on Battlefield 1942 and I thought it was, for want of a better word, beautiful. It was really heartfelt and very mature for a person of her age, it was a great talent that will probably go unnoticed.

 

[Darth Rahu]

All I will say is I wrote fanfiction back then, now I love to write. Check out my reviews if you don't believe me.

 

[Eggsnham]

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

I hate to say this, as you might feel suicidal afterwards.

*deep breath*

It gets worse.

Wh-What? You'd have to be trying to be any worse than that!

 

[Shock and Awe]

Some are great, most are shit.

 

[Macgyvercas]

It's all right. Some of it is really good, and some is really bad. Mostly it's just "meh" though.

I've been working on a Tomb Raider fanfiction for going on three years now. Maybe I'll post it here someday...

 

[Jadak]

No matter how well it's written, I'm a official canon only kind of guy, and even that works against me sometimes. (Damn you Lucas!!)

 

[Uncreative]

I'm a big supporter of fanfiction.
Yes, most of them are horrible, twisted perversions of stories we know and love, but some of it is really well written. Or at the very least a funny parody.

 

[Kiefer13]

99% of it is absolutely unreadable rubbish. That is true. But there are worthwhile gems out there and I personally think that fanfiction is a great potential stepping stone for aspiring writers to experiment with before they try their hand at writing their own original stories.

That's definitely how I've used it, anyway. I've always fancied myself a bit of a writer, and have written a quite a few fanfiction short stories over the years (very few of which have made it onto the internet, and I haven't put up anything recently). Looking back, yeah, they're not particularly good, but writing them and sticking them up on the internet for critcism and review has definitely helped me learn a few valuable lessons that have allowed me to improve my writing skills.

So don't be too hard on fanfiction writers, guys. Some of us really do try, and the ones that are actually worth anything know their work isn't perfect, or perhaps even good. But that's the reason they upload their stuff onto the internet, so they can seek advice and pointers from their peers.

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

As in others, I'm a fanfiction writer myself, so I'm biased towards liking fanfic. But I have to say that yes, the majority of fanfic authors are idiots who think that people want to hear about how things would have went if the author had been a character in their favorite shows. Truly good ones exist, though.

And as a side note on My Immortal: that was a troll fic, it was meant to get that reaction from people, not as a serious attempt at writing.

 

[Therumancer]

My thought is that it gets people writing, or trying to write. What's more people obviously read it since there is so much of it.

I do not read it because in general there is nothing I'm such a huge fan of (including my favorite animes) that I need more so badly that I go in search of fanfiction for a fix.

 

[Brad Shepard]

theres those one in a million that are good, so ill read those.

 

[GreyWolf257]

I haven't read a good one yet, but I won't say that it is all shit. Come to think of it, I haven't read much of anything that is intelligent on the internet...

 

[LorChan]

I started off writing fanfiction when I was nine. I was awful at it. I've come a long, long way since then! But it is what first inspired me to write, and now I'm working on a novel. I'm going to be biased towards it because I don't know where I'd be without it.

Yeah, most of it's shit, but finding the good stuff has a sense of accomplishment and even the bad stuff often gets to 'so-bad-it's-good' territory. Even the creepy stuff.

On a disturbing note, this one is no longer online, but I found a snark of it. I actually cried the first time I read it, so it's not for the faint of heart, but if you're up to test you stomach, have fun: http://community.livejournal.com/badfic_quotes/134405.html