Fanfic writers - SHORT POLL QUESTION

[timepiececlock]

I've been reading some interesting stuff about fanfiction today. I read a great deal of stuff about the "Cassie Claire Is A Plaigarist" wank, and had to quit at part VIII of the timeline archive because it was just that long and messy. Right now I'm reading this article and its predecessor, and for the most part I'm finding them fair and enjoyable, if a bit on the shallow side information-wise.

In reading some of the CC wank stuff, which featured quotes about fanfic from various authors (particularly fantasy), I was left wondering if there was a giant list somewhere that maybe showed how a lot of the more famous authors feel about fanfic. I know the obvious ones like Anne Rice and JKR, but if the article I linked above is true and some professional authors are/have been fanfic writers themselves, I'd love to read various opinions present by them with regards to the issue.

The article I linked also says this about fanfic, which I admit applies to me as well:

"I was fifteen years old when I invented the genre of fan fiction, a form of writing where the author takes characters or universes created by someone else and writes stories about them. ... ... ... Fifteen was also the year I attended my first convention, where I learned that fan fiction had thrived for years before me."

Although for me it was more like 14 and I discovered fanfic through a Sailor Moon fan website and not a convention, the experience was basically identical: when I wrote my first fanfic I didn't even realize I was entering myself into a long-standing fandom tradition. I just had this mental image that I *had* to write down. That urge to write the next step after the credits closed. It wasn't until a while later that I stumbled upon internet fanfic and it clicked in my brain. In many ways I've never felt guilt about the "allure" of the internet and fandom because for me, fandom and fanfic was something, first and foremost, my own individual invention. Learning that there were thousands of others out there who made that same leap was, if anything, a massive rush.

So, I have a poll for you guys on my flist who write fanfic. And I'd like to ask you to link this poll to others if you want to, because I'd really love to see what a large sample will respond with. Most of my flist I've known originally from Jossverse fandom or anime fandom, so I'm sure it will be a far from legitimate sample of LJ fic writers. But I'd love to see, anyway.

[Poll #788168]

Comments

[easytodistract.livejournal.com]

About the Claire wank thing, several on my flist have mentioned about it. I looked at the plagiarism comparisons and basically thought - isn't it kind of harder to do all that rather than writing your own story from scratch?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

No kidding. I looked at a multi-page break down of the stuff she lifted from lines to entire passages, and it was really a big complicated mess. I'd rather write my own dialogue than try to synthesize so much disparate stuff into a coherent whole. But I guess in this case it seems the author knew what would make her popular and went to great effort to incorporate into her stuff, which I would normally assume was accidental/subconscious until I saw the degree of effort. But this is apparently all old news for fandom. I had heard of her from reading the Very Secret Diaries and the computer-buying charity incident via fandom_wank, but most of this happened either before my time or while I wasn't active in HP fandom. When I was reading I was more interested in the account of plaigarism and how it was handled by the various fandom sites and groups than in the actual fanwank.

[easytodistract.livejournal.com]

Big complicated mess = good analogy. It must have been like putting together a puzzle. Since I write from scratch, I don't approve of what she did though I have to admit that THAT takes some skill too.

I heard of CC when I read about that ?MsScribe? mess. I also learned what a BNF was and what a sockpuppet is. Lol.

I'm not certain how polls work in LJ, but I voted no - I did not know what fanfiction was when I started writing fics. I think I was about ten (maybe younger). I think it was about Rainbow Brite. Either that or Disney's Robin Hood.

(was very very very young)

For some reason... I want to see an AtLA quote archive all of a sudden.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

A quote archive? Hm. I actually don't find the dialogue of A:TLAB to be all terribly inspiring out of context. Most of the humor of the show works for me because its in tandem with the animation, and usually the characters' expressions or gestures add physical comedy that makes it funny, more than the dialogue. Like Sokka's ~~watertribe~~ thing; that was my favorite joke in the whole show and it's completely unfunny as a quote.

But I'm sure you could get some good stuff. And there's plenty of nice dramatic dialogue to quote too, I suppose. Part of me just invariably associates quote archives with humor.