What is it with people and fanfiction?

[neonsword13-ops]

I think the more important question is...

Joking aside, I find the ploddingly written fanfiction to be hilarious. The dirty and fallacious stuff gets me giggling every time.

And if you bring up Dirty Potter, I'm gonna laugh my ass off. The readings of it on Youtube are fantastic.

The best readers of dirty fanfics are the text-to-speech programs. Most specifically, those AT&T Natural Voices [http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php]. You've heard them in the Pony Thread Simulator videos, and their emotionless voices make for the perfect reading voice.

I've yet to read any good, NON-sexual fanfics, and I doubt I ever will. But I'm perfectly happy with the dirty stuff.

 

[Orga777]

Well... lets see... I read fanfiction... well, attempt to anyway. The problem with it is usually poor structure, poor grammar, poor characterization, poor mechanics, and poor use of established characters. Been browsing fanfiction for well over a decade now, and, yeah, over 90% of what is written is pure unreadable garbage. Too much fanboy and fangirl crap goes on in the fanfiction scene. I hate self inserts, I hate almost every OC, I can't stand OOC characters, I can't stand AU, and I hate head cannon. This is just me, though. The other problems stem from god awful grammar and spelling... So, I have found a way to limit myself to help filter the garbage easier.

Step 1: Limit yourself to things you want to read.

Almost all fanfiction has to deal with romance in some way. No way around it. I like romance (saaaaaaaap <.<) so I stick to only the pairings I can stand... almost all of them are either canon or close enough to be considered canon. This prevents any crazy rabid fangirl/boy from destroying all my sensibilities.

Step 2: Read the Summary

This is a good place as any to tell if you will like the story. I have quite a few limits for this.
1) If it says AU, SKIP
2) If it says OOC, SKIP
3) If it says OC, SKIP
4) If it has other nonsensical pairings listed, SKIP
5) If it has horrid spelling/grammar where it is barely readable, SKIP

Now if it passes the litmus test, we click on the story and start reading.
1) If characters do not act like they should when put in certain situations (usually because of some really stupid fluff), STOP
2) If grammar stays too consistently bad, STOP (Usually I give it 3 strikes for major offenses)
3) If the story pacing is too sloppily put together, STOP

And following these restrictions will yield you the best possible results. Found a whole lot of very well put together Soul Eater fanfiction doing this. No other series that I check up on has shown as many results as that fandom has for me. Each person is different, though, and really, if you want to read the other crap I can barely stand, then that is your business... just do it if it is at least structured properly... no excuses for reading and giving good reviews to crappy spelling, grammar, and plot problems... so avoid 99.9% of Naruto fanfiction. All the limits you put on it and you will still wind up with garbage.... <.< Though I have found a couple stories that did a better job than the actual author of said series at this point, so... I don't know anymore. XD

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Fanfiction is an extension of fanart essentially. It can be good or bad.

I'd say the problem with fanfiction is:

1. Overeagerness to be unique in a fan community.

2. Lack of quality control. You can judge a picture easy enough, you have to actually read through writing to grade fanfiction.

 

[Alssadar]

Fan fiction is used to explore a setting that is familiar. It can be used in two ways: good, or bad.
Fan fiction is good when it sticks to the established lore of the setting, and finds its way to work coherently with the rest of the universe. Most actions that take place fit the setting, and any references to modern/popular culture are sly jokes.
There are good fan-fictions that alter the rules of the setting, but the creator(s) do it so that the reader knows the author is poking at the logic of the universe.

Bad fan fiction is when everything becomes garbage.
For example, I wrote an okay 40k fan-fic, and some guy sends me a message essentially a reversal of the roles that have been defined in the universe, where the humans become tolerant of aliens, chaos ends, and the tyranids become "free creatures." Now, given all the facts about 40k, none of these ideas match up with any of the lore, and, in addition, are completely stupid.
You can usually tell a bad fan-fic, even if you do not know anything about the subject material. Example a, b, and c.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Speaking as a (once well known) fanfiction writer, it comes down to the sad fact that every group of people have those few people that pretty much make the rest of the group look bad. For us, it's the sex-crazed lemon writers and people who think it would be best if what they write should be the canon....and won't shut up about it.

I think it's the works written by the badfic writers that the non-writers are seeing more often and have been griping about. Granted, like the TC said, there are some great works out there...but because of the sheer amount of fanfic that IS out there, sometimes it can be a daunting task to find the cream of the crop amongst the crud and the crap.

Strange enough, one of the best things fanfiction can do is actually awaken an appreciation for and a love of writing...even in those that hated it. I used to hate writing in school because I felt unnecessarily hindered by what they wanted me to write about. However, once I discovered fanfic and wrote a few fics, I actually discovered a love of writing. I'm even considering an idea to introduce fanfiction as a means to lower the illiteracy rate in schools by allowing children to acquire a love of reading and writing before the teachers give them something they HAVE to write about.

CAPTCHA: learn. challenge. improve.

I couldn't have said it better, Captcha.

 

[Thyunda]

I would write fanfiction...if I felt I was up to the challenge. I've seen it written in this thread that writing fanfiction is for people who aren't creative enough to forge their own world or characters - and I whole-heartedly deny that claim. I've never written fanfiction. I've thought about it, and then decided that it sounds too challenging. Creating characters is easy, you have only the rules of logic and common sense to follow. Creating a world is easy, just create some social experiments in your head and give them a backdrop.

What's difficult is trying to continue somebody else's story. Stories are not things that you can sit, plan and construct. They are living entities that will only flow if they want to. I have no idea at all how I would use characters I didn't create - I'm 90% sure that everyone who reads it would loudly declare that it is certainly not how the character would have behaved had they been written by the original author and to be honest I'm not sure I'd be able to disagree. We all take our interpretations from fiction but the author generally has only one intent, and I don't think I understand that intent well enough to even dare to create fanfiction.

But then maybe I take it too seriously. It's also why I don't read any. But I imagine it's why well-done fanfiction is rare and hard to find...unless it's expanded-universe fanfiction. That's an entirely different kettle of fish.

My post related only to fanfiction starring prominent characters of the original work.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Step 2: Read the Summary

This is a good place as any to tell if you will like the story. I have quite a few limits for this.
1) If it says AU, SKIP
2) If it says OOC, SKIP
3) If it says OC, SKIP
4) If it has other nonsensical pairings listed, SKIP

Uh...hold on there. Those four items aren't necessarily deal breakers. Here's why:

1. Alternate universes...pretty much describe ALL fanfic. The author is essentially writing his/her own version of events taking place on that world. Strange enough, there have been plenty of AU fic which work well. Best example: Sonic - Other M, a fancomic taking place on an alternate version of the Archie-Sonic universe where Knuckles is the main villian. It was a good read...and apparently Archie thought so too since Ian Flynn, who made the comic, now works for them.

2. Characters going out of character can work if that's the point. As long as it's not being used for charcter bashing, seeing characters act other than they usually do can make for either a suspenseful or even a humorous situation. It all depends on the writing of the fic itself.

3. Original characters are rife even in non-fanmade stuff. After all, even Star Trek needed a few "Red Shirts". Sometimes, having a non-main character in a fic can provide a unique perspective on the world in question. I read a Sonic fic called "I, Robian" which had a fanmade character describe his experiences of being Roboticized and the hell he now goes through being a Robian. It was definitely a well written and emotional piece...and I would recommend it you. Strange enough...some SELF-INSERT characters can also work as long as the author does not make them overpowered or have them out-hero the main hero.

4. I've said time and time again that any pairing can work as long as the story explains (and explains well) how and why they became a pairing. Even if the pairing seems absolutely ridiculous, if the story explains how their feelings developed, then it could turn out to be a great and even an interesting read. Hell, I actually saw a pairing between Sonic and ROBOTNIK that worked! Unfortunately, that fic has gone the way of the dodo so I cannot show you...and I've also forgotten the name since it was a long time ago. However, the fic showed how their battles developed into mutual respect and then...well, you get the idea.

All four examples above only work if the writing is good. A good writer can work with anything and make a very decent story. But...like I said, there's still some mediocre writers out there who don't know how to make it work. I consider myself EXTREMELY lucky that I was as popular as I was way back when, even though my series utilized a blatant self-insert, several other authors' characters, and a few pairings that raised some eyebrows. However, when I asked what people liked about the fics was the fact that I was a good writer. THAT was all it took to make the fics work.

CAPTCHA: point to point

Pretty much, yeah.

 

[McMarbles]

It's because most fanfiction is bad. Like, horrendously bad. Brain-meltingly bad. I oughtta know, I used to write it. And I actually put in the effort to make mine readable, and it was still groin-stabbingly bad. Now imagine the people who don't put in that bit of effort.

And the truly insulting part is... it doesn't matter how bad it is, if you have the right people fuck each other you'll get a billion likes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

My girlfriend loves that crap. I guess it provides emotional closure for your favorite fiction.

 

[Insanely Asinine]

It's because most fanfics I hear about end up being like this, although not as hilariously read:
I did read some good fanfiction that didn't involve re-writing the original story to fit a Mary-Sue, but those are rare.

The ending Oh god that ending. I can't stop laughing. I want more.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Fanfiction, all of it, suffers from the classic "99% of everything is shit" rule but then so does everything else. It is more obvious in the case of fanfiction because there aren't many hurdles it has to jump through to get "published".

 

[Entitled]

Fanfiction, all of it, suffers from the classic "99% of everything is shit" rule but then so does everything else. It is more obvious in the case of fanfiction because there aren't many hurdles it has to jump through to get "published".

I think the infamy of bad fanfictions has less to do with their publishing style, and more with the nature of their appeal.

Let's say that 1 in 100 published noves are good, and 1 in 10.000 fanfics are good. Normally, this shouldn't matter at all. Most people are not reading the average fanfic any more than they are diving into a bookstore and picking random books from the shelves.

It's a no-brainer to actively look out for the most popular, most critically acclaimed stories with the best ratings, and the most recommendations from people whose tastes you trust. As long as there are a thousand great novels, it doesn't matter whether they were built on top of a mile-high pile of shit, or a 100 mile high pile of shit, you could just ignore that.

The real difference between fanfics and published literature, is that while we might occasionaly mock the absolute worst that got released, this attitude is normally dwarfed by our fascination with the best. A Game of Thrones is simply more discussed around these forums, than Fifty Shades of Grey.

Meanwhile, with fanfiction, the appreciation of the greatest, is dwarfed by our mockery of My Immortal and Cupcakes.

I suspect this is because no matter how well-written a fanfic is, it's target audience is limited to the hardcore fandom of a verse who are willing to care about the themes that a fanfic deals with. There is something more universal about showing off horrible grammar and anatomically impossible sex scenes, than showing off a novel that got Princess Luna's emotional state after her return just right.

 

[Jamieson 90]

no excuses for reading and giving good reviews to crappy spelling, grammar, and plot problems...

This is very true for ... wait are you allowed to name popular websites? No? Well it basically involves fans and fiction and is probably one of the most if not most popular website for fan fiction, because there you'll often get reviews which can be paraphrased as "Omg this is amazing update soon," when the story is absolutely riddled with poor English along with any manner of glaringly obvious problems with grammar and spelling. I mean it's not hard to know the difference between your and you're or that it's is the shorthand of it is or it has while its is possessive. In fact that's too advanced for some considering some authors can't even format dialogue properly, and to make matters worse people rarely call them out on it and then they delude themselves into thinking they're good writers.

 

[TheNarrator]

Then maybe you should stop writing fanfiction and work on your unique work.

"Stop doing what you enjoy because I don't like it." - You

Even if the assumption that all people who write fanfiction are by definition untalented would be true; I honestly don't get the deal with all those people saying that if you're not particularly talented at your hobby, you shouldn't be doing it. We're talking about people who mostly write for their own enjoyment, and usually share the product for free. Yes, it's often godawful, but this does not negatively affect your life quality. What are you trying to accomplish by discouraging them? Make them lose a hobby they enjoy? Lower their self-esteem?

I even disagree with the notion that fanfiction is by definition less 'original' than unique work. Most of it probably is, but even unique work doesn't just pop into existence out of nowhere. Human culture is iterative. All cultural works are inspired by or reactions to other work, or other sources of inspiration. Honestly, if your work only shares a setting with another book, but has unique writing style, characters, story arc etc, there's a good chance it has more original ideas than your average 'unique' work.

I don't have any stake in this argument, btw, I've never read fanfiction and I don't write it either.