I pointed out to Cassy yesterday that I have never read fan fiction, to the best of my knowledge. The thing about fanfic is that - as a general rule - you don't tend to make money off of it. That's because fanfic is, under US copyright laws, "derivative work" because you're using the characters and/or setting created by another person, so it's a weird gray area. But I'll discuss that more tomorrow. Back to the point at hand: I don't read fanfic.
I had a period in my life where all I did was write and read fan-fic. From a writer point of view, it's a great way to start out. I took characters I loved and molded them the way that I wanted them to be molded, turned them into the characters I wanted, and come to the endings that shows and books never gave me.
I had a Sailor Moon fic I was going to show you, but I couldn't remember the name of it and all my Google-fu deserted me. Instead, I'm going to link you to a fun exercise in writing.
You may not be able to read it if you're not a Livejournal member. Hell, you might even have to be a member of the community (I don't know: It's been awhile since I've participated in this kind of stuff.)
However, they were called comment fics. Members of the community would write prompts and include the very basics: characters they would like to see used, and a topic/situation/quote they want to see portrayed. Then a different member of the community would come in and write a short fan fic (usually 100-300 words.)
I participated in the particular one that I linked (so if you scroll through and see im_writing, that's me.) It was a fun exercise that really gets your brain juices going and, if you ever have the chance to participate, I really recommend it. This was was particularly fun and was for the TV show, In Plain Sight.
However, I ran across a quote from Neil Gaiman (totally by coincidence, actually) where he said something to the effect that fan fiction is hard to define... a fan of a series writing a part of that series (I think his example was Batman, but I thought of how many "Doctor Who" fans have written for the show's reboot, and in fact acted in it; it was David Tennant's dream job to be the Doctor) is a kind of fan fiction.
So in that sense, I have read a great deal of fanfic. But in the truer sense, I have read none. So that's my answer to this week's favorite: I haven't read any.
I had a period in my life where all I did was write and read fan-fic. From a writer point of view, it's a great way to start out. I took characters I loved and molded them the way that I wanted them to be molded, turned them into the characters I wanted, and come to the endings that shows and books never gave me.
I had a Sailor Moon fic I was going to show you, but I couldn't remember the name of it and all my Google-fu deserted me. Instead, I'm going to link you to a fun exercise in writing.
This was the show I wrote fanfic for... and who wouldn't want to write about that gorgeous hunk of man?
You may not be able to read it if you're not a Livejournal member. Hell, you might even have to be a member of the community (I don't know: It's been awhile since I've participated in this kind of stuff.)
However, they were called comment fics. Members of the community would write prompts and include the very basics: characters they would like to see used, and a topic/situation/quote they want to see portrayed. Then a different member of the community would come in and write a short fan fic (usually 100-300 words.)
I participated in the particular one that I linked (so if you scroll through and see im_writing, that's me.) It was a fun exercise that really gets your brain juices going and, if you ever have the chance to participate, I really recommend it. This was was particularly fun and was for the TV show, In Plain Sight.
I've read a lot of fanfiction, including slash fiction. Mostly about Harry Potter and Star Trek. The tough thing about it, is that a lot of them are well written, but often the characters step out of their original characterization. Its almost like a whole new character, just with a borrowed name and plot fixtures. The best example of this would be the "mature" fan fiction, which is basically sex stories. Especially in the Harry Potter world, we don't know how the characters would act, because they were kids/teens in the series. So the authors do a lot of character personality extrapolation. Sometimes its good, sometimes it bad. I have written half of a fan fiction about the four founders of Hogwarts. I found it easier because we knew so little about them, it was easy to make things up. You can read it if you really want to, PM on Facebook. Its not nearly as good as what you guys write, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and a lot of times, fan fiction writers get a lot of flack for that, making them too out of character. If you find a good writer, though, they can create stories that still gives you a really good feel for the character, makes them ACT like the character, but still put them in a different situation than the book.
DeleteI admit, HP sex stories are a little harder to keep in character, because they're so young we DON'T really know, but like, the Star Trek fandom, it's easier to put them in sexual situations, because they're adults, and it's just an extension of their personalities.