Fanfic: some thoughts

[locker_monster]

At my last book club, I'm not really sure how the topic was brought up, but one of my friends asked why bother to write fanfic when you can write original stuff. I'm pretty sure I was the only fanfic writer in the room, though one of the other girls does read fanfic. My friend made it sound like writing fanfic was lame or just for crazy people. The best answer I could provide without really mentioning I wrote fanfic was it gives you a nice jumping off point. You already have characters and worlds and rules set up for you; all you need to do is set up a plot and you're ready to go. If you're lazy like me, then fanfic is perfect. I can write but I don't have to create my own worlds.

But then I started to think more about this. Why write indeed? I haven't written anything original, not fanfic, since my Creative Writing class which was about two years ago. It doesn't bother me. I have no great desire to become a famous novelist so I'm content with the idea of just pounding out fanfic only a handful of people will read. Bu why delve into writing someone else's characters? Do we fanfic writers have a pathological need to make things right or to see things how we want them? Fanfic does allow you to explore areas and paths the TV show or movie or book hasn't. But if it was just about seeing a plot the fandom would never do, then wouldn't it be easier just to read fanfic?

I think that's the reason the other girl in book club reads fanfic. She's big on Harry Potter fic (particularly shipping Draco and Ginny but that's neither here nor there) and with only seven books I'm sure the fans feel a need to expand on the canon. TV shows are a different beast; if you're lucky, your chosen TV fandom has dozens of episodes to draw upon, maybe over a hundred. So why?

I can't remember why I started writing fanfic. I don't think I felt like I could write the fandom better; I was just a kid when Buffy started and I was just awed by the thought of watching a show where a girl beat up demons and vampires on a weekly basis. I think it just comes from a love of writing and a love for these fandoms. Because these worlds are smart and exciting and the characters are witty and have depth and emotions and they're worth writing stories about.

I'm sure we all have our reasons. But we're not all crackpots. :-)

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Crackpot! CRAAAACKPOT! ;)

J/K. I don't really read fanfic, or write it anymore (like I've said many times before, I plot it occasionally, and hell, most of my occasional series on What I'd Do With... is nothing but fanfic-light, but don't usually even start putting figurative pen to paper on work itself).

I think when I did write fanfic _I_ actually started because I thought I could write better. I mostly started with Sliders, when it was a show full of potential that really didn't live up to it. Buffy is actually one of the things that 'broke' me of fanfic, because it was one of the few shows I knew I couldn't write anywhere nearly as good as the show.

And there always is the fact that there's time constraint, that writing fanfic is time I could be using to write other stuff. But that's cause I really want to get into my own stuff. If you're not interested in that, hey, more power to you. But I want to.

The whole idea that fanfic is somehow 'less' than other work hough is kind of silly though. I mean, we never say "OMG the director didn't write the story, and he's not doing the acting, therefore his work of art is inferior!" or "that painter is using a real person as a model! Fraud!" But if you want to, or are best at, writing using somebody else's work as a "base" you're somehow a lesser artist. Part of art is borrowing and sharing and expanding on the ideas of others. Hell, quite a lot of commercial art borrows from previous creations - where would Disney be without Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, the Little Mermaid, and others.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

We're all re-writing a show when we say we don't like something and wish it were another way. Fanfic writing just takes it a step further. It's all about motivation right? Either you're motivated to write it or you don't.

I'm not saying my friend is wrong or anything. She may like geeky things, but she's not hardcore geek like you or me and maybe that's the dividing line. You really have to love a show or fandom.

[littlebatti.livejournal.com]

When you said, "Because these worlds are smart and exciting and the characters are witty and have depth and emotions and they're worth writing stories about."
it really struck a cord with me.

Some people might view using a world or existing characters as not really being a proper writer or a good writer. But what about all the writers out there that write the television episodes? Aren't they writing using the already existing set of characters and environment? Are they supposed to be inferior writers? Is that what we are supposed to think of Jane Espenson, Marti Noxon or Tim Minar. I don't think Joss would think that way.

Like newnumber6 said "we never say "OMG the director didn't write the story." Writing within an established world with established characters doesn't have to make you a bad/poor writer. Just a different type of writer and if we didn't have writers who could write using other peoples characters we wouldn't have series of shows to have fandoms about.

Fanfiction gets a bad wrap because there is bad fanfiction out there. And its bad, because of its poor characterisation, bad dialogue and terrible plot which can happen in original fiction too (It just gets rejected by publishers)

So why write fanfiction? Why write anything?
Because you need to write. Because you want to see a different story that now one else has written. "Because these worlds are smart and exciting" and you have to play in them.

There is no one answer. But they can all be good answers.

Ok. Did that make sense? I'll get off my soap box now.
Viva La fanfic writers!!!1111!!! I salute you.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

But what about all the writers out there that write the television episodes?

I had never thought of it that way. If you're not the head writer, you basically are just playing in someone else's created world.

Oh, there's tons of bad fanfic out there, but mainly because people are lazy I think. They just want a quick solution to a resolution they hate or want their ship in bed together as quickly as possible. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but just writing something for the sake of pleasing your own needs is kind of lame. I think fanfic is a communal thing; it helps people to connect, just like fandom.

As long as there are people who do appreciate fanfic, then it doesn't really matter how others view it. If you like it and other people of similar mind like it too then there's no bad. :-)

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

DEFINITELY AGREED. THANK YOU. ♥

Also I just read this awesome article in Fantasy Magazine that you might like. Randomly, hi. :)

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

But we're not all crackpots.
We sure aren't! tree did a great post about this recently.

I loooooove writing fanfic, but I wish I were as good at writing original stuff. :( I want to be published! I wish I could be like you, content with publishing online and interacting with the fandom world, because truly it seems much nicer than the mean, illogical world of writing for hire.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could ever write professionally. You have deadlines and I have consistently shown that I can never get anything finished. Fanfic has none of the pressures, so you can do whatever you want.

Oh, and I read that article from Fantasy Magazine. Lovely. Sums up fanfic perfectly. :-D