Eh, I like reading fan fiction, as long as the story is good. There's too much crappy stories out there, it's just a matter of sorting though it all... or by just going to TV Tropes fan fiction recommendation page.
Fanfiction - Your thoughts
- Thread starter thejboy88
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I read quite a bit of fanfiction and anime fanfiction at that. I've found some great stories at are way better than the original both in terms of story and characters and I reread them from time to time and I mean giant novel sized fanfictions with dozens of chapters.
Most of it is suprisingly well written in terms of grammar and spelling but not in other aspects; too many mary sues, author inserts, and horrible characterization. Some of the little stylistic, I guess you would call it, things that authors that read a lot of fanfiction get also annoy me greatly.
Most of it is suprisingly well written in terms of grammar and spelling but not in other aspects; too many mary sues, author inserts, and horrible characterization. Some of the little stylistic, I guess you would call it, things that authors that read a lot of fanfiction get also annoy me greatly.
I think it's hard to grade fanfiction as writing by itself, there is no problem with taking an existing setting and using it (I mean as long as credit is given of course)
But fanfiction as a label exists as a stigma, because the grand majority of it as seen as "what the fans want" rather than competent writing. Which isn't to say those two things are mutually exclusive.
I mean even pornographic scenarios can be granted an art to them. It's just for the sake of porn.
I was kind of into fanfiction when I was much younger. But I was kind of uncomfortable with the following:
1. Original (ie. fanmade) characters
2. Retcons to existing plots ("X didn't actually happen, you were just brainwashed")
3. Crossovers
Which I guess is arguably a double standard on my part.
But fanfiction as a label exists as a stigma, because the grand majority of it as seen as "what the fans want" rather than competent writing. Which isn't to say those two things are mutually exclusive.
I mean even pornographic scenarios can be granted an art to them. It's just for the sake of porn.
I was kind of into fanfiction when I was much younger. But I was kind of uncomfortable with the following:
1. Original (ie. fanmade) characters
2. Retcons to existing plots ("X didn't actually happen, you were just brainwashed")
3. Crossovers
Which I guess is arguably a double standard on my part.
This, which is part of the reason why I don't usually bother with Fanfiction. I think the problem is that it takes virtually no effort to sit at your computer and type words for an hour, especially compared to something like drawing fanart. So naturally people who aren't good at writing can easily write something and believe it's good. I recognize that there are people who actually know how to write that write fanfiction, and that there are good reads out there, however the other reason I usually don't like fan content like that is that I prefer things that could actually happen on the show. What I mean is, if someone wrote a fanfiction where 2 of the characters had a relationship, and it was extremely well written and everything, then sure it might be "good," but if it's between 2 characters that we know will never hook up on the show, then I see no merit to entertaining the idea of it happening. I'm fine with discussing possibilities, like what characters might do in the future, like if the show (or other source material) were to make an episode that took place 20 years from now, what would it be like? Or maybe just ideas on how the current villain will be taken down, or whatever. But the thing about that is that if we're just going to write about fan theories and things that might happen on the show, I'd rather discuss them in person or on a forum, rather than read someone else's thoughts on it in a fanfiction. Even if we came to a conclusion, I'd maybe want to post our results on another forum to see if I can get more opinions on it.Gameguy20100 said:
Strangely though, if the fanfiction is reworked to another medium, like an animation or comic, then I'll watch/read it. I think that part of it is that doing something like that requires a lot more effort, which means more time spent working on it, and more revisions to refine it into a better result. Plus most comics and animations are really short, just for a quick laugh, but there are a few longer comics that I follow.
Fan-fiction is fine. Most of it is pretty shite, but so are most novels, that's just because writing well is very hard, and writing both well and interesting is even harder, writing well and interesting without being cliche is almost impossible.
I use fanfiction as a means of finding stories on background characters that the official stuff doesn't delve into much, really well developed main characters are usually explored enough that most fanfics will seem out of character.
Well, this is pretty easily balanced out by only looking for the heavily recommended stuff instead of randomly dipping into the default fanfic lists.Blaze the Dragon said:
If you would walk into a bookstore and entirely randomly pick one book from the shelves, it would likely be crap, but just a basic amount of attention to bestsellers, to popular books in your social circle, to books from your favorite author, etc, is likely to drastically increase you chances of finding something likeable.
I'm not saying that you should actively start looking for such fanfiction, just that likely you have never got deep into the kind of fandom where you would be almost automatically directed to some good fanfiction.
The thing about fanfiction is that it's not just another medium that you "get into" in general, but a thing that you meet when you are spending a lot of time with the fans of something, and you start to notice that they are praising some non-canon writing as much as the original story.
While shipping fics have a likelyhood of beeing crap that way, some of the most meritorious fanfics out there are also explicitly Alternate Universe or Crossover stories, or at least heavily shifting the genre of the original.Blaze the Dragon said:
I think there is a difference to be made between fanfics that are trying to be show-accurate and failing at it, and the ones that are only fanfictions in the technical sense, but really, only using the fandom's setting as a launching pad for a story that intentionally also tries to be it's own unique thing. (such as Fallout: Equestria)
The former is just failed copying. The latter is just literature, that's existence happens to be illegal due to shitty copyright laws.
If you think about it, it's not even just the comic book industry, but also pretty much every other medium.Spot1990 said:
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry, and HBO's Game of Thrones, are all producing creative work while in one way or another, leaning on someone else's earlier work, except that they are conforming to the demands of the current copyright system, (like waiting for public domain, or buying the rights), instead of just writing about whatever they want.
The definition of fanfic is not "a type of literature that uses someone else's characters", but "a type of literature that is deemed illegal by IP law".
It's not so much a genre designation, as a legal judgement.
Good or bad, no interest in it.
When I'm a fan of something, "what actually happened" is what matters to me. I become invested in the characters, in the stories. With that, canon material is the only acceptable stories, anything else, no matter how good, is as irrelevant as as a dream sequence, and like dream sequences, I'd rather not be exposed to storylines that didn't happen.
When I'm a fan of something, "what actually happened" is what matters to me. I become invested in the characters, in the stories. With that, canon material is the only acceptable stories, anything else, no matter how good, is as irrelevant as as a dream sequence, and like dream sequences, I'd rather not be exposed to storylines that didn't happen.
Well, I couldn't think of an alternative word for bigot.Spot1990 said:
And also, I'm surprised nobody has made this joke yet:
I used to read FanFiction, but then I took an arrow in the knee.
[sub]Sorry couldn't help myself once I thought of it[/sub]
I used to read it a ton, but kinda stopped for whatever reason.
I'm just really bummed, because there was a great Redwall story I was reading, called The Third Star, but it's off FanFiction for some reason.
I was so close to the ending too.....
I'm just really bummed, because there was a great Redwall story I was reading, called The Third Star, but it's off FanFiction for some reason.
I was so close to the ending too.....
does it beat the anon in equestria fics I found on /mlp/? or the trixie falling in love with pinecone? or the one where a guy inserted his sonic OC? oh oh oh or are you talking about them troll fics that try to follow in cupcakes foot steps?Professor Lupin Madblood said:
O.T. I like to read them myself (or hear dramatic readings cause I'm a lazy bastard and don't feel like hurting my brain from bad grammer or bad sex scenes) honestly I don't hold them high on level even for the good ones they're more on the level of guilty pleasure besides it's funny to read a truely terrible one
That sums it up for me as well. If people want to get those "what if/what happens next" thoughts out of their system, good for them.V8 Ninja said:
I've occasionally been bored enough that I went off and read some, and a disproportionate amount struck me as creepy - but it was my own fault for looking at it. My main takeaway in terms of content was that if I was going to look at it, I needed to stick to stories about minor characters in new franchises since there's more character flexibility at that point.
It also taught me is that the value in published work is not that the authors are professionals; it's that the editors are. Most of the stories that I read that had eye-rollingly bad spelling and grammar had supposed been proofread, but obviously most those proofreaders weren't doing a very good job (and I get it, they're just doing it for fun, but still).
This is what makes it hard to judge them . A self-selecting audience who searches for character/fandom keywords will be reading and then reviewing the stories, so something can be mediocre and still get a misleadingly high rating.Entitled said:
And fanfiction that's based off of currently ongoing shows/games/comics/books tends to age poorly - I've seen some decently written fanfiction based off of then-current material that ages well because the character backgrounds were eventually more fleshed-out in the source medium and so the fanfiction stopped being plausible.
There are good ones, there are bad ones... and then there are ones that make you wanna go "UUUUGGHHHWHYWOULDYOUWRITETHAT?!".
An example of a great one is a "A home for Fear", which is a Rise of the guardians fic that delves into Pitch Black's role in the world, and has zany antics. My GF is a HUUUGE Rise of the Guardians fan, and pointed me to that fic. It's fantastic.
An example of a great one is a "A home for Fear", which is a Rise of the guardians fic that delves into Pitch Black's role in the world, and has zany antics. My GF is a HUUUGE Rise of the Guardians fan, and pointed me to that fic. It's fantastic.
It's alright. I've always enjoyed decent fanfiction, not that shipping bullshit, but actual planned out stories with evolving characters and everything. Even if it's all pointless fanon, at least you feel like you're exploring the universe more. Used to be Teen Titans, then it was Mass Effect, and then Fallout and then Warcraft.
Now it's pones. It's not often you sit down for three days and burn through a million words of pastel coloured mini-horse fanfiction. Where the hell did it all go wrong...
Now it's pones. It's not often you sit down for three days and burn through a million words of pastel coloured mini-horse fanfiction. Where the hell did it all go wrong...
My cousin and I take a "meh" to "dear God this is awful" approach to fan fiction. We read a lot if "clop" fiction (pony porn) because we find it absolutely hilarious. We read it to each other over TeamSpeak, putting on silly voices.
I currently following a total of one fan fiction writers on fimfiction.com which is a MLP/Doctor Who cross over which is actually really good. Otherwise, I haven't found much else that I like.
I currently following a total of one fan fiction writers on fimfiction.com which is a MLP/Doctor Who cross over which is actually really good. Otherwise, I haven't found much else that I like.
I like fanfiction. You get a fun and interesting story, but with characters you already know and love! Sure, some are pretty badly written, but quite a few aren't. I even tried writing my own, but I'm pretty sure it falls under the "pretty badly written" category. I used to read fanfiction quite a lot in my youth, but lately I haven't read it at all as I have moved over to doujins. Still, love the concept, think it's great writing practice.
Basically the same as any other fiction, only a little easier because a setting and some characters are already there for you. I've written some in my time, (never did anything with it, just wrote it to write it) and read some in my time as well. Some of it's good, some of it's bad. All that I can really say.
I hope I'm in that 3%...or at least I was back in the day. I've had a LOT of extended universe fare written based on my work.Gameguy20100 said:
I think fanfiction can actually be useful for people who want to explore their creative side by working with something they are comfortable and familiar with. Heck...I never really liked writing in high school and college (and I have the C average in my English classes to prove it), but when I learned about fanfiction I suddenly developed a love of writing. I was actually considering sending in an idea to use fanfiction as a means to get kids to love writing and thus cut down on the illiteracy rate by giving them something they want to write about.
Just my two cents on the matter.