What do you think of Fanfiction?
- Thread starter EBHughsThe1st
- Start date
It's not particularly horrible. I've read some very good ones, as well as some amazing fanmade comics.
The absolutely awful fics you really need to go out of your way to find honestly.
The absolutely awful fics you really need to go out of your way to find honestly.
I've read some very good ones that, while they aren't the best written, the characters and sense of setting is so good it feels like canon. Then again, it was an Inu-Yasha fanfic, so not too much can be said about the latter.
I think Fan Fiction is a good thing for people with a sense of character and motivated plot but kind of suck on setting... like, ahem, myself. Or vise versa, of course. But like all writers, some are very very VERY bad, and some are very good. It's all on a case-by-case basis.
I think Fan Fiction is a good thing for people with a sense of character and motivated plot but kind of suck on setting... like, ahem, myself. Or vise versa, of course. But like all writers, some are very very VERY bad, and some are very good. It's all on a case-by-case basis.
The vast majority of it is unoriginal, badly written, offensive and uninteresting.
I have yet to see a piece of fan-fiction that's been worth my time.
I have yet to see a piece of fan-fiction that's been worth my time.
I really don't care about fanfiction. I have heard of many good series/games that have fallen into the hands of...disturbing writers who spew the most nonsensical, badly written...stuff I have ever heard of.
...well, of course, there ARE expections. Me being a fan of the Evangelion series and I dabble in the Warhammer 40K stuff, I happened to stumble upon this, um, better than most fanfic: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3886999/1/Shinji_and_Warhammer40k
It has good grammar, it's quite intelligently, although sometimes confusingly written piece of literature. The combination of Eva and W40K is nothing short of...baffling. It tells an...alternate story of Ikari Shinji, the protagonist of Eva with a W40K flavour. Although this is quite a long, ongoing thing, I encourage you to read atleast a few chapters, if only for the lulz. I sure have been amused so far, hehheh.
As the author stated in the Tvtropes page of this thing "WH40k can make anything awesome. Even one of, if not the, most whiny, pathetic spineless wusses in fiction. This is my creed. The Emperor's hand guides all."
Bwahahahaaha.
...well, of course, there ARE expections. Me being a fan of the Evangelion series and I dabble in the Warhammer 40K stuff, I happened to stumble upon this, um, better than most fanfic: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3886999/1/Shinji_and_Warhammer40k
It has good grammar, it's quite intelligently, although sometimes confusingly written piece of literature. The combination of Eva and W40K is nothing short of...baffling. It tells an...alternate story of Ikari Shinji, the protagonist of Eva with a W40K flavour. Although this is quite a long, ongoing thing, I encourage you to read atleast a few chapters, if only for the lulz. I sure have been amused so far, hehheh.
As the author stated in the Tvtropes page of this thing "WH40k can make anything awesome. Even one of, if not the, most whiny, pathetic spineless wusses in fiction. This is my creed. The Emperor's hand guides all."
Bwahahahaaha.
Sometimes fan-fiction allows people to not have to go through character development and other difficult tasks, and simply play with an existing universe, which saves time and sometimes has marvellous results which can expand and increase the value of that universe. That's its highest achievement, and it's not very commonly seen.
Mostly though, fan-fiction is a way of avoiding real writing, with your own characters, and the risks and obstacles involved with that. It's a method of escape from copyright law, and from the shackles of fixed fictional worlds. With fan-fiction, you can make any two already-created characters, from any fictional universe you care to name, fall in love like you believe they were supposed to. Inevitably, this particular ability creates great works of ugliness when combined with teenage writers, the amateurs among them usually interested in about two things in the world - sex and romance, and neither of them are they particularly experienced enough to write about.
Most fan-fiction, I think it's fair to say, is not up to the standards of published writing. Like any publicly available information, it often lacks the refining influence of editors and the professional attention of critics. However, it gives freedoms that people didn't have before with written material. It allows for expression in old avenues, in new ways. Like with anything, between the best and worst you can see of it lies the average, and I think that more methods of expression are usually a good thing for personal liberty. Maybe writing a fan-fiction has saved a teenager's life, more than once. Or reading one. And that, I think, is laudable enough to pay the rest as interest.
Mostly though, fan-fiction is a way of avoiding real writing, with your own characters, and the risks and obstacles involved with that. It's a method of escape from copyright law, and from the shackles of fixed fictional worlds. With fan-fiction, you can make any two already-created characters, from any fictional universe you care to name, fall in love like you believe they were supposed to. Inevitably, this particular ability creates great works of ugliness when combined with teenage writers, the amateurs among them usually interested in about two things in the world - sex and romance, and neither of them are they particularly experienced enough to write about.
Most fan-fiction, I think it's fair to say, is not up to the standards of published writing. Like any publicly available information, it often lacks the refining influence of editors and the professional attention of critics. However, it gives freedoms that people didn't have before with written material. It allows for expression in old avenues, in new ways. Like with anything, between the best and worst you can see of it lies the average, and I think that more methods of expression are usually a good thing for personal liberty. Maybe writing a fan-fiction has saved a teenager's life, more than once. Or reading one. And that, I think, is laudable enough to pay the rest as interest.
I loathe all written base fanfriction and I will strangle anyone who make a impossible shipping (character A fall in love with character B) fanfriction. Seriously how the f*** can someone make a pairing with Midna and Zant from Twilight princess??? (Well ok the e.g. is from drawing I have seen but it still apply).
This is the same with drawings however fancomic is somewhat different (there is this online fancomic I love but again I have only seen one so I can't really say the whole just for seeing one webcomic).
This is the same with drawings however fancomic is somewhat different (there is this online fancomic I love but again I have only seen one so I can't really say the whole just for seeing one webcomic).
Speaking as someone who actually wrote fanfic once upon a time, I do agree that 90% of the stuff on the Internet is crap. Because it is self-published with no refining, and there are people who will praise any piece of writing to the skies and give the author an over-inflated sense of self worth and writing ability. I grew up in the time when, to be a fan-fic author, you had to go through an editor, and I had some pretty damn good editors.
Now, I consider myself more of a writer. But my first published story was a fanfic (A Doctor Who story published by the Prydonians of Princeton newsletter about the editor of the land of Fiction looking for someone to succeed him.), and I have written in the Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Nick Knight and Brimstone universes. I have never written for game universes or anime universes, almost certainly because I didn't get into games that had those kind of stories until my late 20's and Anime into my 30's, long past the time when I had stopped writing fanfic.
If you ever want to read what stuff of mine is on the net (and none of it is on FF.net or any fanfic aggregator that I know of), you can do a search for [email protected]. I know some of my Brimstone stuff is still up somewhere.
Now, I consider myself more of a writer. But my first published story was a fanfic (A Doctor Who story published by the Prydonians of Princeton newsletter about the editor of the land of Fiction looking for someone to succeed him.), and I have written in the Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Nick Knight and Brimstone universes. I have never written for game universes or anime universes, almost certainly because I didn't get into games that had those kind of stories until my late 20's and Anime into my 30's, long past the time when I had stopped writing fanfic.
If you ever want to read what stuff of mine is on the net (and none of it is on FF.net or any fanfic aggregator that I know of), you can do a search for [email protected]. I know some of my Brimstone stuff is still up somewhere.
I've always found fan-fiction interesting and good for a read. There's some really good Soul Nomad fan-fics out there where they get the characters perfect.
Then there's the bad stuff, which is great for a laugh, like...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxyZaZlaOs
Then there's the bad stuff, which is great for a laugh, like...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxyZaZlaOs
It's not really fair to say that fanfiction is alone in being mostly awful, most media is such, the only reason we see it in fanfiction over respected literature is because the bad ideas never get publisher backing, whereas writing a fanfic is free and you can publish anywhere on the internet.
That being said, yeah, a lot of them suck. Like really suck, Dyson's 2025 model sucking prowess. Of course there is the whole 'the-darker-the-night-the-brighter-the-dawn' angle, which allows you to really appreciate the good fanfics, few though they are.
Also, a big part of fanfics not being appreciated is the differing interpretations of canon characters by the author and the readers, some people will flame a fanfic simply because "OMG dude u suk, Kratos would never pet a kitten heddisum disembole kill it instead!!!!!"
That being said, a good fanfic I've read would be Familial Moments, a cute slice-of-life style FFVII fanfic about what happens after Advent Children.
That being said, yeah, a lot of them suck. Like really suck, Dyson's 2025 model sucking prowess. Of course there is the whole 'the-darker-the-night-the-brighter-the-dawn' angle, which allows you to really appreciate the good fanfics, few though they are.
Also, a big part of fanfics not being appreciated is the differing interpretations of canon characters by the author and the readers, some people will flame a fanfic simply because "OMG dude u suk, Kratos would never pet a kitten hed
That being said, a good fanfic I've read would be Familial Moments, a cute slice-of-life style FFVII fanfic about what happens after Advent Children.