When do fanfictions go too far?
- Thread starter Daaaah Whoosh
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I remember back in the late '90's, White Wolf got the rights to publish a bunch of Michael Moorcock's old stuff, and began churning out all of the Eternal Hero mythos books as quickly as they could. Somewhere in there, they had a a collection of short stories about Elric of Melnibone by different authors who were probably all children or unborn back when Moorcock was originally writing those stories.Daaaah Whoosh said:
On that level, fanfiction is perfectly acceptable. Barring that, you have no rights to use their IP. If you wish to make money, you are going to get boned.
Basically, making your own intellectual property is always superior to trying to use someone else's, unless that someone else gives you a bucket of money and a sloppy kiss.
Wait, so people try to write fanfics in Japanese? Why the hell would they do that? I can sort of understand watching anime subbed, but what could you possibly gain from reading prose in a language you don't understand?Puzzlenaut said:
1. My Immortal (but raping the canon)
2. having cameo characters for the sake of having cameo characters
3. having a Mary Sue/Stew
4. spending 80% of the time describing costumes
5. if you set it somewhere in the past do a little research
6. when you're done do a spell/grammar check your readers will take you serious
just read My Immortal and do the opposite of everything she did
PS the art looks very good
2. having cameo characters for the sake of having cameo characters
3. having a Mary Sue/Stew
4. spending 80% of the time describing costumes
5. if you set it somewhere in the past do a little research
6. when you're done do a spell/grammar check your readers will take you serious
just read My Immortal and do the opposite of everything she did
PS the art looks very good
As a Baldur's Gate 2 fanfic/novelization writer *shamelessplug*Tale of the Bhaalspawn, go check it out*endshamelessplug* I'd say there's definitely quality stuff to be found out there, but unfortunately, as many have already pointed out in this thread, it's somewhat few and far between. Sturgeon's Law comes into effect big time here- the more popular the franchise, the more craptastic junk you'll have to wade through to find the good stuff buried in there somewhere.Look at the archives on Fanfiction.net- you'll note that the FF7 archive has at present 34,612 stories in there. While I'm sure some of those are good, just how many are probably absolutely terrible?
But to go back to your original question, there's definitely something to be said for deviating from using the main characters in order to create a sense of adventure and drama that the established canon (which everyone already knows and is familiar with) is going to lack by default. Having said that, you want to avoid the self-insert Marty Stu/Mary Sue trap that a lot of original characters tend to fall into. And any exorbitant amount of grammatical and spelling errors will turn a lot of folks off as well. Since you're not using established characters, you don't have to worry about writing them OOC or ruining canonical relationships, etc...
Other than that, it really comes down to your personal preference. A lot of people find different things acceptable or not in stories, and if it's compelling and believable within the established storyline you're creating, go for it.
Will that be enough to escape the label 'fanfiction' and all the stigma that tends to come with it? Maybe not, but like I said, I've read quite a bit of stories that I'd almost consider as good as or better than canon. So yes. I think it can be taken seriously, if that helps at all.
But to go back to your original question, there's definitely something to be said for deviating from using the main characters in order to create a sense of adventure and drama that the established canon (which everyone already knows and is familiar with) is going to lack by default. Having said that, you want to avoid the self-insert Marty Stu/Mary Sue trap that a lot of original characters tend to fall into. And any exorbitant amount of grammatical and spelling errors will turn a lot of folks off as well. Since you're not using established characters, you don't have to worry about writing them OOC or ruining canonical relationships, etc...
Other than that, it really comes down to your personal preference. A lot of people find different things acceptable or not in stories, and if it's compelling and believable within the established storyline you're creating, go for it.
Will that be enough to escape the label 'fanfiction' and all the stigma that tends to come with it? Maybe not, but like I said, I've read quite a bit of stories that I'd almost consider as good as or better than canon. So yes. I think it can be taken seriously, if that helps at all.
a Manga/Anime fic can be written but it should be done with care to prevent weeabo,s from writing a Naruto Yaoi fic nobody want,sPuzzlenaut said:
When they go too far... porn, somehow everything will always end in porn, and if it's anime then you can be sure to see some tentacle rape.
I'll let you in on a little secret. Writers don't operate in a vacuum, so everything ever written is fan-fiction to one degree or another. Write the story, go as far as you feel the need to. Maybe at some point, face-lifting the characters may seem appropriate, but don't worry about that now. Just write the story. Send me a link, I'll read it and tell you the truth.
Naruto is a good example -- none of them write anything close to an actual fan-fic, they just fill up entire forums with different kekkai genkai because they think they're awesome for knowing that "gan" means "eye"henritje said:
Not in Japanese -- in Engrish -- almost all of it in English with a few mistranslated Japanese words and dodgy names that would get people laughed at if they actually lived there, and it easily among some of the worst Fanfiction out there.internetzealot1 said:
Its not just the case that most of it is laughably bad, as with most fanfic -- literally all of it is horrendously awful because they spend so much time messing around on the translator they have no time to write anything that would ever pass for a story.
it can be done but it usually ends up as a Mary Sue (no bad thing,s and loved by everyone)xXxJessicaxXx said:
I write fanfiction (I'm also a 'real' writer but I write fanfiction to take my mind off things when my own stories are frustrating me) and to be honest the only thing that bothers me about fanfiction is the amount of incest you can find, the horrible grammar and people not understanding the characters they write about.
But as you said you're using the universe as a foundation and not involving any main characters soooo just make sure your own characters stay in character and that you don't have bad grammar. XD
But as you said you're using the universe as a foundation and not involving any main characters soooo just make sure your own characters stay in character and that you don't have bad grammar. XD