(no subject)

[timepiececlock]

How do you describe fanfiction to someone whose never heard of it before, and make it sound cool?

Every time I explain it I feel embarrassed, like I'm admitting that I still sleep with a teddybear or something childish like that.

But it's not a childish topic to me-- it's my hobby! And I take it seriously.

So how do you tell someone about it, without sounding stupid or crazy?

I want actual examples of dialogue suggestions, here. Tell me what to say.

Comments

[octopedingenue]

"You know how Will Shakespeare 'borrowed' the plots of all his plays except 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Tempest'? And then Tom Stoppard felt like a few of Will's lesser-known characters needed a voice? And Sir Walter Raleigh felt that Christopher Marlowe's nymph needed one, too? It's just like that, only with more sex."

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I've used the old "engaging with the text" phrase, and talked about a way of taking a passive medium and transforming it into something interactive. And that's in presenting snippets of fanfiction at the open mike I regularly attend.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Hmm...

I'd probably compare it to Wicked, which is on Broadway now, or Confessions or a Wicked Stepsister, or Grendel, or the Wiz, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, or any other well-known and liked retelling of a traditional story.

I'd say "yeah, we take the basic elements of some pop culture story that we like, and we recombine them and take them in totally new directions. You can turn drama into tragedy, tragedy into farce, you can throw characters together who've never met, you can fix mistakes or jump ahead into the future, you can do parodies, it's awesome. Plus there's really hot sex."

But that's just me.

Mer

[shadowlass.livejournal.com]

"It's like reading [the show] instead of watching it. And you can read it whenever you want, and it's free, and anything can happen."