OANST said:
Tom Phoenix said:
OANST said:
It's not that people think that writing tie-in novels (or fan-fiction, as I call it) take less work. The problem is that people (rightly) think that it's not worth their time. There will be nothing of literary value in this book. Nothing to be learned by anyone with a high school diploma. It's drivel.
If you were to take your own feces and write the words "poopy-caca" on a cave wall, I would see more literary value in it than the regurgitation of over-explored themes and stolen ideas that is the best written tie-in (read fan-fiction) book ever made.
It's not that I think that you don't know how to string words together to make competent sentences. It's just that I think your work is worthless.
LET THE FLAMING BEGIN!
p.s. in before screams of "literature snob", "fan-fiction is good practice", and "everyone has to pay the bills somehow".
Well, I won't flame you, beacuse I understand the perspective you are coming from. Afterall, a lot of tie-in novels
are really bad. That said, isn't it a bit unfair to claim that all tie-in novels are bad, period? I mean, most original novels are bad as well. Does that mean that novels in general are not worth reading?
Your comparison of tie-in novels to fan-fiction is justified, but that really isn't saying much. Yes, most fan-fiction is bad. Yet, there are a few examples in which the fan-fiction itself was
superior to the work it was based on. In light of this, is it really
that much of an impossibility for a tie-in novel to overcome the limitations of the original material and become a decent work in it's own right?
Anyway, I thank Matt Forbeck for this article. It is always interesting to learn of another facet of writing.
Again, I won't say that they are badly written. I have no way of determining that. I can however, say in full confidence that they have nothing to offer. The writer isn't writing this story out of the combination of love and ingenuity that is needed to make a good or great novel. They are either doing so for monetary reasons (which is fine, as long as the author is duly embarrassed and uses it as a stepping stool to get their "real" work out there), or they are doing it because they are so void of imagination that they not only steal other people's ideas (which almost all genre writers do to begin with) but they feel inclined to steal their characters as well.
And no, other poster. I'm not jealous. What are you? Nine?
I find your comment interesting, beacuse being a fan of something requires a degree of love and respect for the work by default (assuming the author is a fan). Ingenuity is another matter entirely, though. Still, I find it hard to belive that out of all tie-in authors, there is not one that would have the ingenuity to write a good or great novel.
That said, you are absolutely correct in saying that most do it due to monetary reasons or a lack of imagination. Infact, I think a lot of problems that tie-in novels face stem
precisely out of the fact that authors do not respect the works on which these novels are based. I know that if I was entrusted to write a novel based on a beloved franchise, I would treat it as if it were my own child, my own creation. Unfortunately, tie-in authors seem to lack such respect and I think the quality of these novels would vastly improve if the authors were people who were genuinely excited to write novels for a specific universe.
Also, I find your comment regarding characters hilarious. Not beacuse it's necessarily wrong, but beacuse fan fiction writers tend to be criticised
for the opposite. Meaning, they are criticised for implementing their own characters into an already established universe. And since writers are going to be partial towards characters they created themselves, this often leads to so-called "Mary Sue/Marty Stu" characters.