Poll: Fanfiction writing and reading

[Fanfic_warper]

Well, you can probably tell which community I'm involved in from my avatar. I've only written one single-chapter fic so far, but I have some ideas for some other fics that I'm trying to develop. I've also read a few Professor Layton and World Ends With You fics that were pretty good.

One of these days, someone's going to have to explain the fascination with the My little pony series.

that being said, I have no doubts that there are good TWEWY fics, I just wish there were more of them.

 

[Flare Phoenix]

Sturgeon's Law: 90 percent of everything is crap. The problem with fanfictions is there is no real way of distinguishing the good stuff (yes, it does exist) from the truly awful. There are no professional fanfiction reviewers so there is no authority to turn to, to find out which fanfictions are good and which are bad. It all boils down to "viewer reviews" and most fanfiction readers adopt the policy of "since the author isn't getting paid to write, there is no need for quality control".

I mean, wouldn't the same thing happen with video games? If we didn't have professional reviewers telling us which games were good and which were bad, wouldn't most of us accidently pick up games that were bad, play them, and come to the conclusion that all video games were bad. Although, I will admit the problem is ANYONE can write fanfiction. With video games, it is a long process just to produce a single title so that does weed out a lot of the crap.

That being said, the biggest problem is the lack of quality control. Since, as I said, anyone can freely post fanfiction online, quality control is completely non-existent. Also, since most people tend to believe that since the writer is not a professional, it isn't proper to provide constuctive criticism. Therefore, a lot of people who start writing fanfictions never improve (I mean hell, if you wrote something and everyone reviewed it with "OMFG THIS IS SO AWESOME!!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE!!!" would you think you needed to improve?).

So I put forward that it's not so much the fanfiction itself that's the problem... it's the fact no one wants to give fanfiction proper constructive criticism. When someone comes along with actual constructive criticism, the author has already heard countless people say "OMFG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVAR!!!" that they pass off the one or two criticisms as the reviewer having no idea what they're talking about (Everyone else liked it, so there is nothing wrong with it!).

Don't get me wrong, if someone legitimately likes a fanfiction I don't (we all have out preferences) I'm not saying they shouldn't leave a positive review. I'm saying they shouldn't leave blind praise. If someone leaves a positive review, and I can look at that review and say "alright, I understand what this reviewer liked about it" that's fine. However, "OMFG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVAR" tells me nothing about what the reviewer liked about the story and why.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I write every so often and read once in a blue moon. It's like rolling dice when you're looking for fanfiction. You usually find mediocre stuff, rarely good stuff and often crap.

 

[RandV80]

It's kind of ironic, as crappy as fanfiction can be and for all the hate that gets directed towards it, looking at the bigger picture isn't it a good thing that the internet has provided such a huge outlet for creative writing? So what if there's a million bad Harry Potter fanfics out there, 20 years ago there wouldn't be anything. No handful of good fanfics that thousands of people will actually read and enjoy, and no forum for young people to take a shot at creative writing and have it peer reviewed by a real audience, and perhaps those with real talent can move on to become real authors farther down the road.

As someone who is an avid reader the more good authors out there the better I say.

 

[Fanfic_warper]

It's kind of ironic, as crappy as fanfiction can be and for all the hate that gets directed towards it, looking at the bigger picture isn't it a good thing that the internet has provided such a huge outlet for creative writing? So what if there's a million bad Harry Potter fanfics out there, 20 years ago there wouldn't be anything. No handful of good fanfics that thousands of people will actually read and enjoy, and no forum for young people to take a shot at creative writing and have it peer reviewed by a real audience, and perhaps those with real talent can move on to become real authors farther down the road.

As someone who is an avid reader the more good authors out there the better I say.

THANK YOU!!!!!!! FINALLY SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS!!!!!!!!!

 

[Optiluiz]

I'm against the whole concept of fan-fiction, and I think the authors that waste their time on it should concentrate on original works. That having been said, I HAVE read some pretty good fanfics, some even better than the original work.

 

[Cheesus333]

Basically, fan fiction reminds me of the X Factor auditions. Sometimes you see a good one and you think "okay, that was great" but for the most part they are utter shit.

This sums it up pretty damn well.

However, playing the part of hypocrisy in this thread, I write them. I guess I do okay. I mostly write Fallout and Bioshock stuff, but it's pretty much whichever game I'm fascinated with at the time.

I'm against the whole concept of fan-fiction, and I think the authors that waste their time on it should concentrate on original works. That having been said, I HAVE read some pretty good fanfics, some even better than the original work.

I was going to say something about your first point, but your second point said it exactly, which I find odd.

 

[Akytalusia]

i try my best to try to avoid fanfiction as i'm only interested in canon, but occationaly i'll stumble across something that catches my eye. there's nothing wrong with the concept itself, it's just not for me.

 

[Legend of J]

I think the last fan fiction I read was around about the time of saw 3 I should get back into it.

 

[lacktheknack]

I read "My Immortal" and wished I could write as amazingly, but I haven't really tried.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Writer and Reader. I've only got one ongoing story at the moment, based off of Dawn Of War, but I use it as practice. I've been getting rather good at writing fluff pieces, but hands on writing is still a bit of a challenge.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Sturgeon's Law: 90 percent of everything is crap. The problem with fanfictions is there is no real way of distinguishing the good stuff (yes, it does exist) from the truly awful.

Absolutely. I've come across good fanfics in the past, but I could count them on the fingers of one hand. Mostly everything else consists of poorly-written author inserts or long instant-messaging roleplays transcribed word for word. That's actually one of the main reasons I hate fanfic. I've got friends who write pretty decent stuff, but I hate it when I come across something that's formatted like this:

Character 1: *action described between asterisks*
Character 2: ohmigod, I'll act and say somethin with a ton of typoes LOL
Character 1: "I just remembered I need to ues quotation marks!!"
Character 2: ^^;

Come on, people. Fanfiction.net isn't a chat transcript depository. Make an effort, please. Structure your sentences and develop your characters beyond hollow wish-fulfillment proxies. Granted, that's usually how preteens and teens write, but I've seen adults go through personal epics about Maria Robotnik and Eggman and whatnot in that half-assed format.

 

[go-10]

I've never really written/read any fanfiction but the idea doesn't scare me either. Out of curiosity and since you mentioned Code Geass, any fanfic where Kallen takes center stage worth a read? or for somebody that likes mecha, yuri, and action in that order what would you recommend?

 

[scorptatious]

I used to both read and write fan fiction for Valkyria Chronicles.

Looking back, my work really wasn't that great, but at the very least I was able to finish a story. And I was able to receive some great feedback.

I also read a few VC fanfics as well, while some of them were quite good, others were either kind of meh or have never been finished. And even then I'm not really into fanfictions that break canon.

Now-a-days, I don't really read or fan fiction anymore. Although I may come back to it someday, you never know.

 

[Shadu]

I used to write a lot, and read a lot. And then I got interested in my own characters and my own stories and it sort of dropped off my radar.

I got sick of reading horribly written stories, slash fics, and all sorts of nonsense like that. I'll occassionally check out fanfiction if it's a dry period for a certain show and I just need a new story with those characters, but for the most part, I do fine without it.

I still get ideas and dabble from time to time, but nothing published. I don't put most of my stuff on the net anymore. I let close friends and family read it if they are interested. Not to sound arrogant, but I think I'm pretty good at it, I just don't feel like it anymore. As much as I like writing about the Doctor, writing about Sydney Quinn and Sherlock Smith (named for Sherlock Holmes) is much more interesting and fun to me.

I will say, though, I don't think fan fiction is all that bad. Okay, so the stories might be bad, but I mean for the writers. Through writing fan fiction, I learned how to write. How to construct a story and deal with characters. And I think that for anyone who is interested in writing, fan fiction is a good jumping off point. It's a safe way to start because you don't have to come up with the universe, the characters (or at least not all of them) and everything that goes with them, you just have to come up with the plot. And I think that by playing with others' creations, you learn how to create your own, and if everything goes well, move on to original stuff.

I'm not saying that people should start fan fiction and stay there, but I think it's a good place to start. Of course, if you start writing and decide you hate it, then writing isn't for you. I know that because of my fan fiction days, I love creating stories and characters and whatnot. If it hadn't been for fan fiction, I never would've developed that part of my creativeness. And then I wouldn't be getting a minor in writing at college.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

You missed "I would write it, but I feel silly and think no one would read it" option in your poll

 

[Magicmad5511]

Mostly fan fiction of a certain show of an equine nature that has sparked some conflict on the internet. Actually that's the only one for me.
Until recently I didn't care for the idea of fan fics at all.
Though I recently found a site with some pretty good ones. I was a bit of a fan of the show in question but this really exploded me into being a part of the fandom. Many were darker and deeper than I was expecting. Some have even got me close to tears at times and overall have made me more open to emotions.
Confound those ponies. They make me feel emotions.

 

[Detective Prince]

I read "My Immortal" and wished I could write as amazingly, but I haven't really tried.

I wish I could write it...Sexily.

ANYWAY! OT:

I read and write fanfiction. I've written an Okami fanfic, a Persona 3 Portable fanfic (On Hiatus) and I'm writing a Naruto fanfic.

LINK!

http://www.fanfiction.net/~thedetectiveprince