Rewriting the Rules of Fiction

Re:what are they talking about?
Their description of fan fic bears NO relation to any fan fic I’ve actually read. Most of it is written by semi-literates pre-teens, perverts, the mentally ill and the obsessed for semi-literates, pre-teens, perverts, the mentally ill and the obsessed.

I’m not sure if you’re referring to just the HP fandom or fandom as a whole. I’m kinda hoping it’s just the HP fandom to which you are referring.

Since I write slash, I probably fall under the “pervert” category. Please note: I do not write or read HP slash as the books held very little interest for me. And I happily admit to being obsessed with the tv shows I write fanfic about…if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t write fanfic. *shrug* While it’s true there’s a lot of dreck out there and, in some fandoms, such as HP or the anime-type fandoms, there seems to be an inordinate amount fangirly teens, there are also very many literate people who read AND write fanfic. We’re outnumbered (as I do consider myself to be at least somewhat literate), I’ll admit…but we do exist. And not all the teenyboppers are airhead fangirls, either–I’ve met a few who are quite mature and even good writers, given their age.

Classifying all fanfic writers as ” semi-literates pre-teens, perverts, the mentally ill and the obsessed” is no different than referring to all librarians as bun wearing, glasses wearing, cat owning women. You always have the ones who make up the stereotype but you also have those who defy it…and everyone else falls in between.

And if you’re looking for good fanfic–then you should totally avoid fanfiction.net. It’s a breeding ground for the annoying fanfic writers, or so it seems. Of course, I don’t actually read a lot of gen–but the view times I’ve actually read anything linked to ff.net? I’ve wanted to spork my eyes out.

Sometimes you really have to look for the good stuff.

Re:the basis of fanfic
Isn’t fanfac essentially lazy and derivative?

Sure, the bad stuff is. But a GOOD fanfic writer, while “stealing” someone else’s creation has to make it seem like the character they’re writing is the SAME as the character on TV/in the book/in the movie. And if you think it’s easy? Go on, I dare you, try it. Try and write Fox Mulder so that people believe it’s him; try and write Harry Potter so people believe it’s him.

And in reality, it’s no more lazy for me to write Hotch or Reid (from Criminal Minds, my current obsession) than it is for me to write a version of Little Red Riding Hood or the Three Little Pigs.

I’ve thought about this before. Both original writing and fanfic have their challenges. In original fic, you have to create the entire universe for your characters–be it the world of space or the world between two people. You get to decide who will be like what, what the personalities are and you basically just have to keep things straight within your story. In fanfic, sure, the “universe” and characters are already created for you–but you have to write those characters so that other people reading it will recognise the characters–in a really good fanfic, I shouldn’t need names to know which character is which (if I’m familiar with the show, if I’m not? Well, names would help). As I said, this isn’t as easy as it seems. Which is why most of us obsess and love the shows we write for–we have to know those characters and know them well–otherwise, we might just be writing original fic.

Can you imagine a movie that takes place on exact replicas of each set and location on “Return of the Jedi”, but was about two bike messengers falling in love against the backdrop of 1970s Chicago?

Typically, in fanfic, it’s the characters that matter, not the setting. Although some people do create original characters to inhabit a certain “universe” it’s not as common. In slashfic (I can’t speak for gen) the characters are the focal point, not the setting. Now, if you took Han and Luke and put THEM into 1970s Chicago, then you’d be writing fanfic. All be it an A/U (alternate or alternative universe). Not saying that people don’t take “universes” and write OCs (original characters) but that’s not quite the fanfic I’m used to.

That’s part of the joy in writing fanfic is in putting the characters in unusual situations, whether it be something they might actually encounter in their own universe or not. That’s why we have A/Us; and technically, I suppose, for shows other than Oz or Queer as Folk, slash IS also A/U.