Poll: FanFiction, your opinion
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As a writer, I don't even try fanfiction. I read and watch other things because they have stories and characters I would not have conceived myself. They simply don't fit in my style. So I don't touch it. I don't want to brutalise my favourites.
As for reading it...I've never seen one done well. It's as though they only write these fictions to put themselves in the story, and all the compliments come from their American and Japanese friends who end all of their compliments with 'huggles'...and conveniently enough none of their compliments actually refer to anything specific within the text, and merely say that the author is 'amazingly talented' and 'adorable', and anybody who criticises the 'masterpiece' either doesn't get it, or is just jealous of the writer's incredible skill or stunning good looks.
As for reading it...I've never seen one done well. It's as though they only write these fictions to put themselves in the story, and all the compliments come from their American and Japanese friends who end all of their compliments with 'huggles'...and conveniently enough none of their compliments actually refer to anything specific within the text, and merely say that the author is 'amazingly talented' and 'adorable', and anybody who criticises the 'masterpiece' either doesn't get it, or is just jealous of the writer's incredible skill or stunning good looks.
I suppose really it all comes down to taste; I personally despise attempts to shoe-horn Yaoi into a series where there is no need of it simply because some fangirl saw two guys in it and decided they must obviously be bonking each other.
I just see it as a harmless bit of fun and I have come across some very well written pieces and some very bad ones.
If you hate it then why are you reading it? Is what I would say...live and let live.
Fenris' is some of the very good stuff I have read.FenrisDeSolar said:GreatTeacherCAW said:
I'd offer some of mine up then, if you like Mass Effect. No masterpieces, but in terms of grammar and spelling they're close to immaculate.
Personally I love fanfiction, and I write it myself. However, fanfiction is a dirty trench of innards and filth. It can take a long time before you find any pearls in there.
If you hate it then why are you reading it? Is what I would say...live and let live.
I am not charitable towards fanfiction. Fanfiction is automatically bad until proven otherwise, and I feel under no obligation to give it the opportunity to do so.
In fact, I've only ever read two good fanfictions in my life, and that's because by their very premise they slingshotted themselves out of fanfiction and into the glorious lands of parody. The first is "Those Lacking Spines", which is a parody of fanfiction tropes masquerading as Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. I forget the title of the second, but it's a crossover between the Muppet Show and Star Trek: The Next Generation; as a crossover I would normally say "WE DON'T NEED NO WATER LET THE ************ BURN", except that it very rapidly degenerates into just an episode of The Muppet Show, with the crew of the Enterprise getting sucked into the madness. There's even a scene where Worf is one of Dr. Bob's nurses on a Veterinarian's Hospital sketch, it's a riot.
The thing that bugs me about the rest of fanfiction is that it's bad, but not bad enough to qualify as hilarious. This category only includes one that I've ever found; a crossover between Dragon Ball Z and (wait for it) The Diary Of Anne Frank. Goku gets magicked into WWII Germany, saves Anne Frank, then does battle with Hitler, who goes Super Saiyan.
In fact, I've only ever read two good fanfictions in my life, and that's because by their very premise they slingshotted themselves out of fanfiction and into the glorious lands of parody. The first is "Those Lacking Spines", which is a parody of fanfiction tropes masquerading as Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. I forget the title of the second, but it's a crossover between the Muppet Show and Star Trek: The Next Generation; as a crossover I would normally say "WE DON'T NEED NO WATER LET THE ************ BURN", except that it very rapidly degenerates into just an episode of The Muppet Show, with the crew of the Enterprise getting sucked into the madness. There's even a scene where Worf is one of Dr. Bob's nurses on a Veterinarian's Hospital sketch, it's a riot.
The thing that bugs me about the rest of fanfiction is that it's bad, but not bad enough to qualify as hilarious. This category only includes one that I've ever found; a crossover between Dragon Ball Z and (wait for it) The Diary Of Anne Frank. Goku gets magicked into WWII Germany, saves Anne Frank, then does battle with Hitler, who goes Super Saiyan.
If you have the time to write this crap (WARNING: I am referring to the hideous and grotesque fan created demon spawn, some MIGHT be good, though I doubt they exist.), then you have the time to get a job, at least a shift three times a week.Zay-el said:
Its not really I need help, I just need to sit down and focus, which is hard when I have good online rp partners (yeah, I'm one of those people) and the Escapist to go to. Plus other stuff like playing pick up games of hockey and such make it difficult. Though I alaways like criticism (constructive) or advice if I get stuck.GamerMage said:
Right now though, I'm sitting on these:
1) Soul Calibur Fan Fic - Takes the story of two of my fan made characters and is sorta of like a different continuity, since the main is the ancestor of another character in a large arcing story I wrote though my four years of high school that can be found here with my other stuff. Thats just a matter of sitting down for it, cause I'm at the climax point where its going to go down, whch is roughly the half way-60% done of the whole thing.
2) A love story between a guy who finds a girl that has been kept in something of a hyperbolic sleep with a degenerative brain disease that is flattening the folds of her brain and slowly killing her. I'm stuck at one point where I just dont know how to continue, cause its supposed to be heart wrenching and sad and then we get on towards the end where they make the pained decision to continue living knowing what will happen.
3) Something of a Dark Tower Fan fic (actually, I started one of those, or at least outlined it, but just didnt have the will to keep going or ever really start [though I'd like to]) that focuses on three people who have died and meet in something like the way-station that you meet Jake Chambers at in the first Dark Tower Novel and eventually realize they have died after overcoming some great mental character flaw that allows them to continue to actual death.
4) Something of a psychological horror based on what I wrote for a short story halloween contest in Highschool (that I didnt win, but I accept, mine was rather graphic and rushed and the guy that won was much better), in which a husband snaps and slips between reality and his disturbed state of mind where he goes on a short killing spree in the space of one day in something of a sleepy town before finally dying (not sure how yet, I'd have to read of it again if I had an idea or if I need to make one up [I never draft my stories, I just dont like to which usually makes them suck]).
... And thats about it, I think. I'd have to go look, but I know those are the big four I want to work on and finish. And maybe add in a Dark Tower fan Fic, if I can sit down for it and not feel suffocated by the source material and actually do some justice to both my work and the source.
EDIT:
OH! And I have a fifth one.
5) A trilogy based on a vampyre character I wrote that started before the Twlight crazy got huge, and is something of a combination of an original idea of mine (the main character, his conflicts for him), and some of some online rps I've been part of (the accompanying characters) that I have to finish the third on of. And then after that I want to do something of a spin off, where its a continuation of after the end, but focuses more on one of the characters my rp partner gave me permission to use and something we talked about and she thinks i could explore... in a better way, then she could if she wrote it because of I'm not bothered if my writing is good or bad, and I want a story to be told if I feel strong enough about it.
You don't think that young people should practice their writing skills?. There are surely worse things that they could be doing.TheIronRuler said:
Before MLP I avoided and hated them with a passion since the ones I had read were shipping and awful (make me think the author is very lonely).
When MLP came around again I avoid it until I read some good recommendation on certain stories and one boring night I gave it a go. Ok so I admit that a couple of them are very good or decent but I haven't read any new one lately. Good thing about this time round is the fan fic info indicate if it's a shipping or grimdark etc saving me a lot of time to checking all of it out.
When MLP came around again I avoid it until I read some good recommendation on certain stories and one boring night I gave it a go. Ok so I admit that a couple of them are very good or decent but I haven't read any new one lately. Good thing about this time round is the fan fic info indicate if it's a shipping or grimdark etc saving me a lot of time to checking all of it out.
I get that. Still, if it's fun for them, let them have that little bit of fun. You can't expect everyone to care only about school and/or work. A lot of fanfic authors are still in high school and while I'm not sure about how they are at your place, here, they don't usually allow you the time for even a part-time job. Sure, their work might be crap, but hey, they could waste their time on a lot worse things, too.TheIronRuler said:
I usually ignore it completely and don't care either way. However, there was one Haruhi Suzumiya fanfic that I really really liked (a KyonxYuki story). After that, I stopped caring again.
Eh, there's a few good ones for every hundred terrible ones. I read a Portal x Pony crossover fanfic that was fairly well done. Not perfect by any means, but it was entertaining.
I'd imagine a rule of thumb is to steer clear of any sexual fanfics.
Nothing is worse than reading through one and finding a lot of spelling / grammar mistakes; I can understand one or two but when every sentence has a miss spelled word or a bad tense it because embarrassing.
I'd imagine a rule of thumb is to steer clear of any sexual fanfics.
Nothing is worse than reading through one and finding a lot of spelling / grammar mistakes; I can understand one or two but when every sentence has a miss spelled word or a bad tense it because embarrassing.
Way to abuse that freedom of speech by abusing another person's world, characters and story. I'm sorry, explain to me how hating an entire medium devoted to theft of another persons creation and therfore stagnating your own creative growth, is comparable to hating a slight cosmetic change to a spiky cartoon mammal? Actually don't explain it to me, I don't want to witness you butchering the English language like the rest of your FF filth.GamerMage said:
Why is it when you literally have the ability to create anything (yes there are some constraints with the written word but whatever) and literally have the entire world as your audience (teh intarnetzorz) you instead decide to steal ideas from someone else and "elaborate" or whatever on them?
Cripes I'll lighten up when you all brighten up.
99% of fan-fiction I read is weird sex themes that have ruined my love especially for the Simpsons, he other 1% are amazing because they do no try to make a new story or add to the old one; they simply take the character's personality and have them interact in scenarios that are outside of the original story plot, and setting.
A. I did say that 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% was actually fair to good.GamerMage said:
B. Fans cannot "fix" anything the original creator "screwed up" because the original creator only "screwed up" in their demented delusional opinions.
C. Can't comment on that one.
D. Yes, 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of falls into this category.
Potentially interesting, if somewhat lazy on the part of writers (who take the characters and setting off of somebody else). Most often misused by amateurs.
I have a plan of actually creating a GOOD Harry Potter fan fic (just to see if it can be done):
It will be about a squib girl (squibs in the HP universe are people from magic families who can't do any magic themselves) who's knowledge of everyday muggle stuff ends up becoming useful when a muggle criminal breaks into the magical world and her dad, a desk clerk in the wizard police department, takes it upon himself to examine the case when his superiors aren't looking.
So there it is. There will be no fucking Hogwarts, no main character from the HP series, and no connection to the main plot of the seven books. I am merely using a couple of the locations and the concepts.
I have a plan of actually creating a GOOD Harry Potter fan fic (just to see if it can be done):
It will be about a squib girl (squibs in the HP universe are people from magic families who can't do any magic themselves) who's knowledge of everyday muggle stuff ends up becoming useful when a muggle criminal breaks into the magical world and her dad, a desk clerk in the wizard police department, takes it upon himself to examine the case when his superiors aren't looking.
So there it is. There will be no fucking Hogwarts, no main character from the HP series, and no connection to the main plot of the seven books. I am merely using a couple of the locations and the concepts.
Most of the comments here are repeating the same claim - that most if not all fanfiction sucks.
The thing is that this principle applies to almost all creative mediums and possibly beyond, that is that almost everything is crap. It's a lot more noticeable in fanfiction because it doesn't have the same roadblocks you'd see for other fiction, and stories that would have been thrown out the window and never seen again were they sent to a publishing house get to sit among the good stuff.
There is decent fanfiction, its just obscured by the mountains of turd that don't get filtered.
The thing is that this principle applies to almost all creative mediums and possibly beyond, that is that almost everything is crap. It's a lot more noticeable in fanfiction because it doesn't have the same roadblocks you'd see for other fiction, and stories that would have been thrown out the window and never seen again were they sent to a publishing house get to sit among the good stuff.
There is decent fanfiction, its just obscured by the mountains of turd that don't get filtered.
Try reading Right Here by R.W and me. Not my type of story but the writing style is good.GreatTeacherCAW said: