Fanfic writers - SHORT POLL QUESTION
Aug. 8th, 2006 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockI'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]
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]
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The Birth Of A Fanfic Writer
Date: 2006-08-08 01:59 pm (UTC)The seeds of my fanfic writing were planted early on. In the 60's, paper and pencils being beyond my dime allowance, I did it in my head. I had 'Kimba the White Lion' fanfic. I told myself new stories in my head with the characters I loved so much on tv. When I love any kind of work, I tend to process it through a fanfic kind of consciousness, where I add original characters or crossover characters to a scenario because I wish I could see the interaction. I wrote original fiction, but in the late 80s I got into roleplaying, and one of the worst offenses in roleplaying was to steal a commercial character concept wholesale. You were supposed to make your own original characters. A lot of the animus lay with the people who tended to make a copycat character and did it both badly and with the apparent attitude that they were 'special'. To this day I really can't enjoy rpgs where people play the characters from tv or movies.
Fanfiction is different. With the Rise Of The Internet, I found archives of fan stories. I could enjoy these much more, even when they were pretty bad, because they seemed to lack the aura of 'I own this character and have a special relationship that you don't' that roleplaying the character feels like. I liked seeing that other people wanted to read stories that the canon never tells. I have a special love of crossover fanfiction. One of my favorite crossover stories ever is Hellblazer X Oh My Goddess! (It worked surprisingly well. :) )
In the 90s, I became a Buffy fan and started cruising Buffy fanfic. Then the Lord of the Rings movies came out. Tolkien's writing is one of my deep, great loves in literature. Yet that didn't stop me from having a strange love for Buffy/LOTR crossover fanfic. Finally, I wrote one of my own. No, it was not a 'ship fic. I can enjoy it in others, but couldn't do it myself, though Buffy does feel a certain attraction to Eomer. Maybe it's that horsey smell.
Then the new Doctor Who series came out. I have enjoyed Doctor Who since I saw it in the 80s, but the new series sparked my true fan love, and it extended to the entire series, not only the new. I watched 'Parting of the Ways' and immediately went looking for fanfic because I had to have MORE. I read nearly the entire archive at Teaspoon. Finally, I had to start writing. Fanfiction began clawing its way out of my brain and it hasn't stopped. I have written more than 100K words of fanfic since November '05. Still, my need to have more Who has not abated. The only way to stop the flood may be to send Christopher Eccleston to my house to physically prevent me from reaching the keyboard. Feel free to do this.