Just some thoughts about fanfic....
Nov. 15th, 2002 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandolinI've been doing a lot of thinking recently, about fanfic in general. (People who remember my gafiation threat in February, breathe. I'm not going there any time soon.) I was reading an interview with a television writer whose work I particularly like, and he had this to say about fanfic:
"At the risk of incurring people's wrath I think fanfic is a huge waste of time. If someone wants to take the time to actually write a story why not create a story out of your own imagination and experience rather than using someone else's model? ... If you have the time to write, look into your own heart and brain and find what's there."
Now this didn't incur my wrath, because although I love reading and writing fanfic, he raised a good point. I've often wondered if writing fanfic hasn't been counterproductive to my development as a writer. I sometimes wonder: if I never got into fanfic, would I be better off as a writer for it? I honestly cannot say. I think my writing skills have steadily improved since I started writing fanfic in the summer of '96. Just look at one of my early attempts and compare it to one of my more recent forays into fan fiction. There is a marked difference. Even I can see it, which is saying something.
So is fanfic a waste of time? Depends on what you want to get out of it. I write fanfic primarily to get the ideas out of my head so the creativity demons leave me alone and let me focus on Real Life. I also consider fanfic to be a way of practicing, working with a net.
When you write original fiction, you have to create an entire world - even if that world only encompasses, say, a child's bedroom, you have to create it all from scratch, in your head. You've got to build up the foundation, create the characters, work to make them real... and sometimes by the time I've done that, the demons get bored and won't help me write the actual story even if I threaten them. (Class deadlines will at least spur them on, but that's about it.) It's hard to practice writing if you just can't get the hang of the follow-through.
With fanfiction, the foundation is already there. You have characters already defined and a world to build your story upon. The challenge here is to build that story without messing up the pre-existing foundation. You can always add on to the foundation - extra character development is always a good thing - but the basic underlying structure shouldn't be messed with. Good fanfiction must stay true to the characters and the source material. Oh, there are some exceptions, like weird AU fanfics, but there's got to be one heck of a good reason why things are out of whack.
I refuse to post original stuff online for a very simple reason - it's too easy for someone to snap it up and claim it as their own. Copyright laws as they apply to the Net are difficult to enforce, especially if you're an individual as opposed to a money-grubbing corporation *cough*20th Century Fox*cough*. With fanfiction, it's different. It's not entirely my own - the foundation is borrowed. I can't profit off of it, and I doubt anyone else could profit from stealing it. (And I really doubt any of the writers of the shows I write for would actually take any of my bizarre story ideas.) So I can post it without worrying about copyright issues. I put disclaimers on everything, and I don't profit financially from it.
What do I get out of it? Well, I actually manage to complete the stories since I haven't exhausted my inspiration on building the foundation. But what I really get out of it is feedback - Unbiased opinions from people I don't even know.
Now this was always a problem I had in my Creative Writing classes. We'd have to critique a story written by someone who was even more over-sensitive about his or her stuff than I was. (Or by someone who just didn't like me on principle.) It's hard enough to give good, constructive criticism, but it's even harder when you have to criticize the work of someone who might take your words the wrong way. Or someone who might take your words personally because they know you, no matter how hard you try to separate the writer from the work. I'm not saying all the feedback I've received has been thought-provoking literary criticism - I've gotten monosyllabic put-downs (I hate it when people take the time to say "this sucks" but never bother to explain why), and praise that's really just intended to encourage me to keep going. I like the latter too. But every once in a while I get some feedback that really digs into why someone did or didn't like what I've written, even if it's something like an overuse of adverbs. It keeps me writing, and it lets me see what I've done wrong and what I've done right.
I've met a lot of online friends through fanfic - through critiquing each other's stories, encouraging each other and plugging one another's works. Selma, Missy, Chris, Dagmar, Christina, Meg, Don, Christine, are among some great fic writers I'm glad to have met through fanfic writing. It's definitely preferable to meeting people in chat rooms where half the people can't spell and the rest want to have cybersex.
It's also of interest to note that the aforementioned writer admitted that he'd happened to glance at a fanfic or two for a show he used to write for (after it was cancelled), and the quality, or lack thereof, turned him off. These weren't the characters he'd written for two seasons. The fanfics didn't have a feel for the characters or an original story. And yes, there is a LOT of bad fanfic out there. There are fanfic writers who don't really try to capture the voices of the characters or the feel of the universe they're playing in. And while that's frustrating, it's also to be expected. There are bad novels out on the market, too (although they at least have editors).
There are also fanfic writers who actually put some effort into their stories, who try to make the characters recognizable, and largely adhere to the limits of the universes they're working in. I try to fall into that category. If I don't like what I'm writing, it either doesn't get posted, gets rewritten, or ends up in the Dust Bin. I'm trying to become a better writer - even if I'm not getting paid for it, I get my payback in the experience, the ability to follow through, the feedback.
So what's the point of this? Fanfic, by and large, has not been a complete waste of time for me. Had I never gotten into fanfic, had I stuck to strictly original writing, would I have improved more? Possibly. But sticking to fanfic writing as well as original writing hasn't impeded my progress as a writer - I have improved.
That said, I think my creativity demons are slowing down with the fanfic ideas. I might let them taper off for a while and spend more time on original things. I'm not going to quit writing fanfic, but when the WIPs and the TGS assignments I have are done... I might just take a break and see if I can focus on the originals.
Provided, of course, that the demons don't smack me with another weird idea.
"At the risk of incurring people's wrath I think fanfic is a huge waste of time. If someone wants to take the time to actually write a story why not create a story out of your own imagination and experience rather than using someone else's model? ... If you have the time to write, look into your own heart and brain and find what's there."
Now this didn't incur my wrath, because although I love reading and writing fanfic, he raised a good point. I've often wondered if writing fanfic hasn't been counterproductive to my development as a writer. I sometimes wonder: if I never got into fanfic, would I be better off as a writer for it? I honestly cannot say. I think my writing skills have steadily improved since I started writing fanfic in the summer of '96. Just look at one of my early attempts and compare it to one of my more recent forays into fan fiction. There is a marked difference. Even I can see it, which is saying something.
So is fanfic a waste of time? Depends on what you want to get out of it. I write fanfic primarily to get the ideas out of my head so the creativity demons leave me alone and let me focus on Real Life. I also consider fanfic to be a way of practicing, working with a net.
When you write original fiction, you have to create an entire world - even if that world only encompasses, say, a child's bedroom, you have to create it all from scratch, in your head. You've got to build up the foundation, create the characters, work to make them real... and sometimes by the time I've done that, the demons get bored and won't help me write the actual story even if I threaten them. (Class deadlines will at least spur them on, but that's about it.) It's hard to practice writing if you just can't get the hang of the follow-through.
With fanfiction, the foundation is already there. You have characters already defined and a world to build your story upon. The challenge here is to build that story without messing up the pre-existing foundation. You can always add on to the foundation - extra character development is always a good thing - but the basic underlying structure shouldn't be messed with. Good fanfiction must stay true to the characters and the source material. Oh, there are some exceptions, like weird AU fanfics, but there's got to be one heck of a good reason why things are out of whack.
I refuse to post original stuff online for a very simple reason - it's too easy for someone to snap it up and claim it as their own. Copyright laws as they apply to the Net are difficult to enforce, especially if you're an individual as opposed to a money-grubbing corporation *cough*20th Century Fox*cough*. With fanfiction, it's different. It's not entirely my own - the foundation is borrowed. I can't profit off of it, and I doubt anyone else could profit from stealing it. (And I really doubt any of the writers of the shows I write for would actually take any of my bizarre story ideas.) So I can post it without worrying about copyright issues. I put disclaimers on everything, and I don't profit financially from it.
What do I get out of it? Well, I actually manage to complete the stories since I haven't exhausted my inspiration on building the foundation. But what I really get out of it is feedback - Unbiased opinions from people I don't even know.
Now this was always a problem I had in my Creative Writing classes. We'd have to critique a story written by someone who was even more over-sensitive about his or her stuff than I was. (Or by someone who just didn't like me on principle.) It's hard enough to give good, constructive criticism, but it's even harder when you have to criticize the work of someone who might take your words the wrong way. Or someone who might take your words personally because they know you, no matter how hard you try to separate the writer from the work. I'm not saying all the feedback I've received has been thought-provoking literary criticism - I've gotten monosyllabic put-downs (I hate it when people take the time to say "this sucks" but never bother to explain why), and praise that's really just intended to encourage me to keep going. I like the latter too. But every once in a while I get some feedback that really digs into why someone did or didn't like what I've written, even if it's something like an overuse of adverbs. It keeps me writing, and it lets me see what I've done wrong and what I've done right.
I've met a lot of online friends through fanfic - through critiquing each other's stories, encouraging each other and plugging one another's works. Selma, Missy, Chris, Dagmar, Christina, Meg, Don, Christine, are among some great fic writers I'm glad to have met through fanfic writing. It's definitely preferable to meeting people in chat rooms where half the people can't spell and the rest want to have cybersex.
It's also of interest to note that the aforementioned writer admitted that he'd happened to glance at a fanfic or two for a show he used to write for (after it was cancelled), and the quality, or lack thereof, turned him off. These weren't the characters he'd written for two seasons. The fanfics didn't have a feel for the characters or an original story. And yes, there is a LOT of bad fanfic out there. There are fanfic writers who don't really try to capture the voices of the characters or the feel of the universe they're playing in. And while that's frustrating, it's also to be expected. There are bad novels out on the market, too (although they at least have editors).
There are also fanfic writers who actually put some effort into their stories, who try to make the characters recognizable, and largely adhere to the limits of the universes they're working in. I try to fall into that category. If I don't like what I'm writing, it either doesn't get posted, gets rewritten, or ends up in the Dust Bin. I'm trying to become a better writer - even if I'm not getting paid for it, I get my payback in the experience, the ability to follow through, the feedback.
So what's the point of this? Fanfic, by and large, has not been a complete waste of time for me. Had I never gotten into fanfic, had I stuck to strictly original writing, would I have improved more? Possibly. But sticking to fanfic writing as well as original writing hasn't impeded my progress as a writer - I have improved.
That said, I think my creativity demons are slowing down with the fanfic ideas. I might let them taper off for a while and spend more time on original things. I'm not going to quit writing fanfic, but when the WIPs and the TGS assignments I have are done... I might just take a break and see if I can focus on the originals.
Provided, of course, that the demons don't smack me with another weird idea.
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Date: 2002-11-16 10:20 pm (UTC)example: writers for tv series usually didn't create the characters and world. star trek is the best example of this. there is a whole line of star trek novels which are technically 'fanfiction' but which the authors get a lot of money for writing.
even beyond that, most classical fiction does take characters and world from previous fiction. the illiad and the odyessey of homer had a fanfiction -- the aenied of virgil being the most famous. (forgive my spellings here). shakespeare wrote fanfiction, based on actual events of kings and such. and think about how much fanfiction malory's death of king arthur gets. and how many retellings are there for a lot of classic mythological tales? all of them are fanfiction. all of disney's movies are fanfiction. the bible gets a lot of fanfiction as well (anything that uses characters from it, including the angels and the devil).
i think it's safe to say that there is more that can be classified as fanfiction than can be classified as original fiction, if we go by the definition 'the author created the world and characters totally'. and there's nothing wrong with that, it in no way makes the story unoriginal. i'd rather read originally written fanfiction than a story with original characters and world but written unoriginally.