What is it with people and fanfiction?

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I've read good fanfiction, and I've read very bad fanfiction (most of which was written by people I know).

Good fanfiction is fun and exciting, and expands on the universe or series. Bad fanfiction is neither elegant nor plot friendly.

I dabble in it myself. I've been working on an elaborate Mass Effect fan fiction for several months, I may even get around to finishing the first chapter some day.


Captcha tells me that he strongest animal in the world relative to it's weight is the Rhino Beetle. Thanks Captcha!

 

[shirkbot]

I'm a little weird on this issue because in my mind fan-fiction comes in about two distinct flavors, regardless of quality:
1) Actual story continuation/exploration of subsequent events.
2) Wish fulfillment
The first tends to be better, but I MUCH prefer conversations on that sort of thing to another story, so I don't particularly have an interest in reading that. The second just irks me because I hate blatant wish fulfillment stories, or to be more precise, wish-fulfillment relating to people. Wish fulfillment related to politics, or science, or even just the existence of magic is aces with me, but the second you're "hooking up" with the main character, I leave.
Good fan-fiction exists, and good fan-fiction writers tend to be just as talented as regular writers, I just find the actual material better to speak over than read.

 

[Blaze the Dragon]

I'm fine with various forms of fan content, but I tend to avoid fan-fiction because it's mostly horrible. That said I have indeed read a few fics, and they were good, but I still don't actively seek it out. Part of it is like I said, there's a lot of bad, but I'm also somewhat restrictive on what kind of fan related things I even bother with. For one, I don't like AU or anything that changes one of the fundamental parts of the fiction it's based off of for the most part. Whether it be changing the canon history or introducing a character that would never happen, or anything like that. If I'm gonna look at something I'd rather it have discussion value of the show it's based off of. Basically I prefer to read things that cover aspects of the fiction that the original material hasn't gone into yet. For instance in My Little Pony, I might be willing to read something about some of the events that occurred during Celestia's 1000 year solo rule. Or maybe I might read something about a character with no relation to the main characters, but otherwise still happens in the same universe. So maybe something like a Doctor Who fic that is told from the perspective of some random guy during the year of hell or something like that.

Basically I never want to read anything that messes with established canon in any way, and is unlikely to become obsolete with canon that might be established in the future, so stories that take place in the future are also unlikely to appease my taste. Of course naturally because I don't want to read anything that messes with established canon, and I'd rather be able to talk about the plausability of anything that doesn't, I usually end up just discussing the basic fan-theory itself on forums rather than read a story that I can have to input on as I read it.

Now, my exception tends to be when the fanfiction is extended beyond words to something like a comic or even as far as a video like an animation. Doing something like that means that the writer is forced to re-read their work a lot, and as such it tends to be much more refined due to the extra work being put into everything. For example I'm quite fond of the comic series the reimagines mlp as a magical-girl style manga where the population of equestria was shunted to Earth and turned into humans a last-ditch effort to save everyone, and nobody but Celestia remembers the true history of the world; and naturally the villains were transported as well. I also like discussing BrightHammer (an Alternate take on the Warhammer 40k universe with one minor change in it's history) As it is an interesting thought experiment akin to Warhammer itself and has a lot of discussion value. Then on the other hand I have no interest in reading the likes of Fallot: Equestria or things of that sort.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

My response to folks bashing a legitimate form of expression:

Ahem.

I've written quite a lot of fanfiction in my time, though I don't recall an instance where I ever used characters from the universe I was writing in. I suppose it functions as a sort of literary short-hand, since the audience already has a fleshed out idea of the setting, which leaves character development/narrative...


Admittedly, some people use those two foundational attributes of literature in a manner resembling a two-pronged fork, forged specifically for the purpose of jabbing them into the reader's eyes...but there's plenty of good stuff out there too.

Personally, I've built my own worlds, structured histories, even drawn out maps and taken special care to iterate on everything from geographical/cultural-specific nomenclature to statistics, like population figures and gender ratios. I've written quite a bit within that framework, as well as many others, but there's just something comforting about mucking about with someone else's toys.

I sort of liken fanfic to slipping on a comfortable pair of gloves. It fits quite nicely and doesn't impede the use of your hands.

Mechanically.

What did you think I meant?

 

[Lieju]

Fanfiction gets a pretty bad reputation because it's the source of the most horrid literary work you will ever read. I mean there's absolutely no prerequisites for fic writes. Just put some words on a paper. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Or story flow. Or characterization. No. Just shove all the stupid tropes you can into one jumbled mess. And knock off scenes from Naruto in an MLP story. That works too.

The same goes for publishing original work online, too.
Fanfiction just gets a bigger audience more easily, and so the really bad ones get more attention as well. And since you have established characters, people are attached to them and if you write them badly (or have an interpretation that someone disagrees with) people will notice. If you write an original story with your own 'original' horrid cliched characters, no-one cares.

Me, I write fanfiction because I enjoy writing 'what if' scenarios and deconstructing characters and their relationships.
Or having crossovers that wouldn't actually ever happen.
I wrote a Riddler/GLaDOS romantic story, and a Peep Show fic with vampires, because I could. And wanted to.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Yeah, some fanfiction is really good, but there's a lot that's poorly-wirtten, pandering crap that exists to either set up romances between characters at the expense of the actual character integrity, or to inflate the writer's ego and pay service to their own original characters that no-one really cares about, or is given a reason to care about.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

FanFiction gets a bad rep because of the mostly poor writing, the constant sex and the HUGE amounts of mary-sue self inserts and high-school rewrites. They also tend to have lots of problems with OOC, and can write stories that vary so ridiculously in tone from the source material.

It also suffers from the "DeviantArt Problem", that is the community is mostly unable to take criticism without flying into a burning rage.

FanFiction isn't inherently bad, but a large portion of FanFiction is awful.

 

[frizzlebyte]

Most fanfiction sucks. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who would dispute that.

I'd say that's because most people who think they can write honestly can't. Most writers create horrid, soul-depleting schlock that should simply remain un-written, and when you have a fandom demographic that probably also includes a fair number of young people, the amount of schlock just increases exponentially.

That said, some of the first stories I ever wrote were Assassin's Creed fanfiction. They were horrible, and I ended up abandoning them, but I enjoyed the process so much I have kept up writing, and I have actually improved over the years to the point where I may send out some of my stories to see if I can get them published.

Basically, I support fan-fiction. I think it is a great way for aspiring writers to dip their toe in the waters of creativity without the need to world-build (a hard-as-hell but necessary thing for all writers, eventually) right out of the gate. Of course, I also agree with George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones author) that it is better for someone to try inventing their own characters instead, but overall I think fan-fiction is beneficial, at least for writers.

 

[The Ubermensch]

I'm in the Touhou fandom

Most of what I'm into is fanfiction, and it's fucking awesome, especially the Fanime. Gotta watch out for the Doujins though...

But it's normally good, and we get to share in jokes, Like how Yukari can bend space and time but chooses to use a normal door.

The issue I think, with fanfiction is too much of it is either author insert where the MC becomes a mary sue or sex oriented with a ship you didn't sign on for.

You get some gems, but there is a lot of shit in between the good stuff. Sometimes people just find too much shit and give up, other times people think its a bit offensive to use other peoples IP.

Personally I'm on team "Its a good way to practice your writing" and "Sometimes it's interesting".

Most of the time it's not, but some times...

 

[Mangod]

OT: For every nine shitty Naruto fics churned out by fourteen year olds, there's one really good DC 'Verse fic.

Of course, if that was true....

Good fanfiction exists, it just takes diligence and patience to find.

This would not be.

You can find good "anything." If you need diligence and patience, that's indicative of the whole.

I can practically trip and find a good book, for example.

Yes, but the difference is that shitty books don't tend to get published quite as often as shitty fanfiction. The big problem with finding good fanfiction is that there's no regulations stopping, for instance, yours truly from publishing a fanfic written in all caps, with no spellcheck, about ponnies getting hatef***** to death by Postman Pat.

You're unlikely to find that kind stuff at your local book store, because no major publisher would agree to sell it.

 

[Mudze]

Because most of it is awful. On the 50/50 chance that it isn't just plagued by plot holes, deus ex machina or obvious grammar/spelling mistakes, chances are it's not going to be a coherent work anyway. No themes, or character development, just plot. Which is pointless and boring.

There are some good ones, they're just so few and far between that it's easier to look for good work in new intellectual properties.

 

[Norithics]

The reason why people tend to dislike fanfiction is the same reason why everybody likes to hear music, but nobody wants to hear a musician practice to get better: presentation. Most original fiction has a gateway between the writer and you or I- publishers. Classically, these are people who have decided that writing, even if it's not particularly good, must at least be passable. There is no such boundary with fanfiction: no publisher, no editor, nothing.

This doesn't suggest that all fanfiction is inherently bad, but rather that because there's no sluice gate keeping the beginners' efforts from flowing in with the well-polished submissions of good writers, the overall impression is much worse than a field that has that standard of visibility.

I actually wrote a book that's original fiction, but I chose my significant other as my editor because he writes stellar fanfiction that takes preset worlds and reimagines them into deep, rich new experiences (also because he is a jackbooted grammar fascist from double hell). What he does is actually much harder than what I do, because from the outset, I got to set all the rules for how my little world works, and he has to operate within a preset framework. So yeah, I have some admiration for good fanfiction writers and the difficulties it represents, but I understand where everybody's coming from.

 

[Olas]

Most people with lots of creativity and writing talent want to tell their own story, so fanfiction tends to be written by the rest of us. The type of person compelled to write fan-fiction is usually the overly obsessive fan with strong opinions about characters and such, a fact which will likely taint their writing. Lots of wish fulfillment, fanservice abounds.


[sub]I've written some fanfiction, [sub]I am not proud of it.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Gameguy20100]

In my experience most Fan fiction is crap or just plain weird.

But damn when its good its really fucking good.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I generaly hate fanfic mostly because it is so not canon and out of characters which pretty much defeat the purpose of a fanfic.
Granted I have read one or two fanfic that was really well made and written that it did almost feel canon like.
In saying so 50 Shade of Grey started out as a Twilight fanfic so overall I still hate fanfic.

 

[A Weakgeek]

Because 90% of it is either a massive ego rub for the author, or text porn to get the author aroused.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

I like fanfiction, it gives you the opportunity to experience an original story with characters you already know and love. I guess most people just don't read enough good ones and therefore assume that they're all crap. Of course, good and crap are subjective, so maybe people just have very high standards.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

alternate universes are the best reason for fanfiction, in my opinion, I recall a very good fanfic about DOOM3 turning into this tense "suicide-mission-to-hell" story of a small squad of soldiers.

The cool thing about it was that the author added things the player himself hardly had to deal with, like hell's air being especially arid and difficult to breath, persistant wounds, losing equipment, sleep deprivation, and also things unique to the marine corp like reinforcing entrenched forces or interact with people you peacefully had coffee with last week.

 

[Dangit2019]

But fuck General Sprinkles dude. There's a special place in hell for that guy.

Who the hell is that?

He made a My little Pony fic about...Well, Hannible Lector was more subtle if you get what I'm saying.

Wait, Cupcakes? If your talking about that, I don't know why you'd get mad, it was the funniest thing I've ever read.