Fanfiction - Your thoughts
- Thread starter thejboy88
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I will say It simply.
95% is complete worthless crap stupid or just plain weird.
2% is pandering that everyone will praise.
and only about 3% of it is actually good.
95% is complete worthless crap stupid or just plain weird.
2% is pandering that everyone will praise.
and only about 3% of it is actually good.
Hopefully mine is in the three percent, 86 good reviews out of 87 on Fanfiction.net and positive feedback both here and on the Katawa Shoujo forums, along with a recommendation on the TV Tropes fanfiction pages, gives me a fighting chance hopefullyGameguy20100 said:
.On that note, I admit, I have written and still do write fanfiction. I also read it, but not very much as I'm pretty picky. I have a Halo fanfic that I wrote that wasn't read by very many people, and a Katawa Shoujo fic that is basically retelling the game from Hanako's point of view, but that one seems to be really popular for some reason
. My thoughts really on fanfiction are that they can be good if the writer is skilled, but for the most part they're pretty crap. Effectively fan fiction is just the same as any other type of fiction, with the sole proviso being that the base from which you're working was made by someone else rather than yourself. The prevalance of crap is only because the Internet is the main platform for it, there are just as many crap films or novels or whatever that simply aren't known because they exist in a different medium. I write original stuff as well as fan fiction and in general I've had praise for my work whether it's been my own creation or not (plus, it helps that wherever possible I try to come up with unique and original stories and just use the characters and/or setting rather than copy something directly for fanfiction, my KS retelling aside...).I like to think that I manage to be the aforementioned three percent that is good. I managed to rack up nearly 2,000 review on FF.net, so I must be doing something right.
It's mostly crap with a few gems, but isn't that true of every medium? There's potential there?
It's mostly crap with a few gems, but isn't that true of every medium? There's potential there?
Sturgeon's Law on crack. Ninety-nine per cent of it is shit, and the other one per cent has spelling errors.
Special note goes out to the MLP fanfiction community, which is . . . well, they have some interesting ideas of how fiction works, let's just say.
I can do into more detail if people want, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Special note goes out to the MLP fanfiction community, which is . . . well, they have some interesting ideas of how fiction works, let's just say.
I can do into more detail if people want, but I'll leave it at that for now.
I write some. I only enjoy it if it manages to properly emulate the franchise it is being adapted from, or if it takes an "out there" concept and runs with it very well. It's just that most of it sucks or is about people fucking.
Eh, I dunno. TvTropes has a lot of recommendations, and I find a lot of the stories rather crappy.Trivun said:Hopefully mine is in the three percent, 86 good reviews out of 87 on Fanfiction.net and positive feedback both here and on the Katawa Shoujo forums, along with a recommendation on the TV Tropes fanfiction pages, gives me a fighting chance hopefully
It's usually either so awful you want to reach through the internet and slap whoever wrote it, or an obvious attempt at trolling.
On the rare occasions when it's actually bearable, it's a waste of talent that could've been better spent on something original.
On the rare occasions when it's actually bearable, it's a waste of talent that could've been better spent on something original.
Never read any.
Probably never will.
But I get the impression that a lot of it is very disturbing.
Probably never will.
But I get the impression that a lot of it is very disturbing.
[sub]I know the feeling man, I know the feeling. Seriously, only ~5 frequent pairings for Ichigo.[/sub]TizzytheTormentor said:
I generally put people into 1 of 5 categories regarding FanFiction-
1. They frequent the site, and would be honest if someone asked them if they did.
2. They frequent the site, but would lie about it if someone asked them if they did.
3. They have been there a couple times, but it was't their cup of tea.
4. They haven't been there yet.
5. They haven't been there, and being a close-minded bigot never will.
I would put myself in the second category. Usually when you tell people, they look at you funny and their mind gets thrown in the gutter.
Another thing,(and i don't know if this is just with Bleachor not), but what's with all of the Yaoi!?!?[footnote]Japanese for Male X Male stories[/footnote] Seriously, probably around [sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub] -- [sup]3[/sup]/[sub]4[/sub] of all FF's ive seen have been Yaoi.
EDIT: Also recently read a good FF. Was a Bleach and Code Geass crossover (Soul Chess) that did a damn good job at staying true (initially) to the established stories of both, and did an exceptional job of merging the stories. Plus being at (currently) 1.75 million words, yes million, it kept me occupied for quite a while; still is actually with updates every couple days.
EDIT EDIT: Soul Chess was just completed, ringing in at a total of 1,781,594 words.
There is some good stuff out there, you just have to wade through the neck-deep ocean of crap to find the gems. And it's a BIIIIIIIG ocean of crap.
I used to write fanfiction myself, got good reviews too, but the main story I was writing - and the most popular one - was pretty bad in that the story was all over the place. And the grammar was awful. Not to mention the spelling. Oh and the OOC characters! ... Yeah. I never finished it and I deleted it from FF.net a while back because I never will.
But yeah, writing fanfiction can be good practise for other kinds of writing, especially if you can post it somewhere where it'll get good critique and not: "OMG AWSUM, I LUV IT SPESALLY WHEN [character A] DID TEH SEX WIT [character B]!!!11! DAT WAS HOTT!!!!!!111!!!!"
I used to write fanfiction myself, got good reviews too, but the main story I was writing - and the most popular one - was pretty bad in that the story was all over the place. And the grammar was awful. Not to mention the spelling. Oh and the OOC characters! ... Yeah. I never finished it and I deleted it from FF.net a while back because I never will.
But yeah, writing fanfiction can be good practise for other kinds of writing, especially if you can post it somewhere where it'll get good critique and not: "OMG AWSUM, I LUV IT SPESALLY WHEN [character A] DID TEH SEX WIT [character B]!!!11! DAT WAS HOTT!!!!!!111!!!!"
Pretty much this. And I say this as a fanfiction enthusiast and occasional author.Gameguy20100 said:
I like to read FanFics on occasion. A lot of it's bad. Even more of it tends to be very short, usually just revolving around some kind sex fantasy, which is just awful most of the time. For example, Tali was getting banged by Shepard before ME2 was even fucking announced.
About 95% of it (my personal opinion) is just smut. It also seems to be dominated by women (girls?) pounding away at their keyboards for their hawt man on man fantasies. Basically, it's like DeviantArt. What has been seen, cannot be unseen...
About 95% of it (my personal opinion) is just smut. It also seems to be dominated by women (girls?) pounding away at their keyboards for their hawt man on man fantasies. Basically, it's like DeviantArt. What has been seen, cannot be unseen...
I used to write it as an exercise before getting a gig writing articles and I've read a fair few. The majority is shit but if you're part of the whole experience and talk to some of them, there's a lot of fun involved. I've also read some good fan fiction.
Also, people who say it's mostly all smut might have been looking for that. I very rarely run into any dirty fan fiction. I know it exists and I know there's a disturbingly large amount of the stuff but it's not the majority of it unless you're on a site that encourages it.
It has been covered before, many times.
OT: I don't read any, though I've written one [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8299583/1/Tide-Lords-Fanfic]. I have nothing against it (beyond the fact that most of it is atrocious) and in fact, think that if it's the only creative writing outlet for many people then I'm all for it. I've never read Harry Potter books, but one must praise JK Rowling for not only getting millions reading, but writing too.
OT: I don't read any, though I've written one [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8299583/1/Tide-Lords-Fanfic]. I have nothing against it (beyond the fact that most of it is atrocious) and in fact, think that if it's the only creative writing outlet for many people then I'm all for it. I've never read Harry Potter books, but one must praise JK Rowling for not only getting millions reading, but writing too.
I'm pretty much okay with fan fiction. I used to write some.... but it was so so so so so awful. I cannot explain how awful. I was about 12 or 13 when I wrote it and it makes Twilight look like Paradise Lost. I think I've deleted it since then. I hope so. I better double check after this!
However, no matter how awful that fan fiction was I think it ultimately improved me as a writer. Fan fiction is excellent for young writers to find their "voice" when it comes to writing. Fan fiction (tends) to be all about the characters and having them interact in new ways and not having to worry about world building and other things, only focusing on the basics of characters is very beneficial to a young writer. I somewhat pride myself on my character work nowadays in my non-fan fiction stuff and I think that came from one part watching and reading A LOT of books and TV and the other part was those first fan fictions. It's a very easy way to get something written, anything written, and out there for people to critique and talk about, which ultimately helps you as a writer, no matter how awful those first attempts are. And, after all, even if the work isn't original at least people are writing! I think that's the most important thing.
I think I'll one day go back to fanfiction. I haven't put any fanfiction I've written on the internet in about 6 years. Maybe I'll go back one day. I think the MLP fandom has some great stuff out there, although I've only read a few. I considered writing a re-telling of Mass Effect with an original cast of ponies which basically was me attempting to re-write Mass Effect the way I'd have done it but I only wrote a prologue and half a chapter, after realising that I wouldn't be able to get to the stuff I wanted to change for quite a while but I thought the stuff I did write was pretty good. I've considered doing a Fallout Equestria fan fic but I never did.
Whoa, didn't mean to write an essay but there's my thoughts. Well done if you braved through all my rambling to this point.
However, no matter how awful that fan fiction was I think it ultimately improved me as a writer. Fan fiction is excellent for young writers to find their "voice" when it comes to writing. Fan fiction (tends) to be all about the characters and having them interact in new ways and not having to worry about world building and other things, only focusing on the basics of characters is very beneficial to a young writer. I somewhat pride myself on my character work nowadays in my non-fan fiction stuff and I think that came from one part watching and reading A LOT of books and TV and the other part was those first fan fictions. It's a very easy way to get something written, anything written, and out there for people to critique and talk about, which ultimately helps you as a writer, no matter how awful those first attempts are. And, after all, even if the work isn't original at least people are writing! I think that's the most important thing.
I think I'll one day go back to fanfiction. I haven't put any fanfiction I've written on the internet in about 6 years. Maybe I'll go back one day. I think the MLP fandom has some great stuff out there, although I've only read a few. I considered writing a re-telling of Mass Effect with an original cast of ponies which basically was me attempting to re-write Mass Effect the way I'd have done it but I only wrote a prologue and half a chapter, after realising that I wouldn't be able to get to the stuff I wanted to change for quite a while but I thought the stuff I did write was pretty good. I've considered doing a Fallout Equestria fan fic but I never did.
Whoa, didn't mean to write an essay but there's my thoughts. Well done if you braved through all my rambling to this point.