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[Grinder]

Suddenly I find myself wondering at the possibility that you are 40 years and older, BP. If my grandfather knew his way around computers, he would have used a sentence like that.

[chumloofah]

I don't really write hentai stories either.
It's just believable because, as mentioned, this is the internet.
And BP is wrong, the lowest form of writing on earth is emo "i cut myself" poetry.

[The Fifth Horseman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Blood-Pigggy @ Nov 17 2007, 01:04 AM) [snapback]319420[/snapback]</div>

No offense but I find fan-fiction to be the absolute lowest form of writing on the earth, I place it below spam e-mails with incomprehensible gibberish and people in MySpace spouting what can only be the modern incarnation of Newspeak.
[/b]

Personally, I cannot agree.
There is a lot of pathethic fanfics written by people with no grasp on writing in the first place.
There is a lot of so-so ones that get lost in the sea of mediocrity.
There is a fair lot of ones worth reading.
But when there is a good writer (and there are pro-level writers who do fan-fiction) with a good concept, the result is bound to be something exceptional.

"Good fanfiction" is not an oxymoron - you just have to know where to find it. k:

[rlbell]

The thing about writing is that the only way to completely fail at it is if nobody ever reads it. Fanfic is a way to get people to read your writing. People search the net for fanfic relating to something that they would like to see more of, and they will start reading it merely because it is there. If it is any good, they will finish reading it and possibly ask for more. Of even greater value, they might make useful suggestions about how to make it better.

If I find a fanfic genre that appeals to me, I may go that route.

[Blood-Pigggy]

The reason I hate it is not because of the quality of writing, I can surely enjoy any good work that is written well technically and has proper characters and such, but I despise fan fiction because it is bereft of originality. A piece of fan fiction's morals or theme is plastic and manipulative junk placed into a world not created by the writer. It often attempts to capitalize on existing characters' perceived personalities by the so called "fans" by throwing tepid and embarrassing mechanics in.
Of the fan fiction that I've stomached reading, I've seen everything from having Solid Snake spout some of the most horrendously cringe inducing philosophical bullshit to Max Payne's noir inspired monologues broken with attempts at poking in "underlying messages".

Quite often, fans NEVER understand the characters/settings/theme/intentions of the game/book/movie/shows they are writing off of. There's nothing worse than some moron who can't understand the tongue-in-cheek noir inspired homage that Max Payne is, and attempt to create some dreadfully serious and vapid attempts at doing something similar, when you hear Max wax poetic about some long lost love while lamenting in overly colorful language and throwing in mouthfuls of allusions and references, you die inside.
Seriously, WHEN has this type of writing ever been interesting? I don't see any of the merit in it, I occasionally enjoy the weirdos who attempt to parody or base satires off of certain things, but I never enjoy the serious "installments" to something.
The worst thing I've EVER read in the realm of fan fiction was some moronic piece of drivel on some long forgotten forums based off of A Clockwork Orange. While I might be a snob for mentioning that this pork didn't even know that the film was based off a book, the fact that everyone on these forums was praising his piece of crap only made it worse.

I'm using this as an example because it represents exactly what I think. The story went on about Alex having gotten over his brainwashing and the continued adventures of depravity thanks to this. What bothered me is that it totally defied the point of the book/film, which was that inherently youth will become tired of the ability to hurt or the freedom for excess, it's a phase basically, that comes to everyone, but it can be expressed in different intensities. Although Kubrick's film never really left it off on this note as the book did, it still applies, and when some dipwad online takes it and totally refutes the point of what he's attempting to write off of, it's practically insulting to call it "fan fiction".
The majority of people who write this crap make mockeries of the original work. I must again mention, that this usually means it's not entertaining to read at all. Are the Doom books any good? The Halo books? No, they're washy and exhausting.

For a quick pick or two, they may be fun, but far too many people apply themselves seriously to it. The random rambling stories I submit to my teacher in English class usually befuddles her and she always attempts to get some meaning from it (although they're always pointless) but she always praises me for my work. I don't, the things I give to her is junk, it's bottom barrel crap. The same thing applies with fan fiction, it's nothing substantial, just like my pointless English stories anyone can drape shallow twists or shocking material over whatever they're writing with a little manipulation, and so many people think it's "good" because of these small eccentric things.
But that's all it ever is, you CAN'T apply anything deep or substantial to fan fiction, and that's why it's a waste of time to read it.

I'm not saying everyone needs to be some sort of literary genius who should only display their work if it's perfect, but I am saying that fan fiction is often written in the intent to be taken as serious work, when in fact it's terrible. I don't see any point in reading it. And if you want me to read a story in any form, it must do more than just entertain me if it's not just a straight out comedy piece.
And most importantly in my opinion, most people write fan fiction because they don't want something to end. But that's exactly the reason not to, fan fiction is often boring or repulsive to read because it ruins the sense of finality in the source material. When I read someone going on about Big Boss avenging
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
the Boss's death at the end of MGS3, it totally ruins the previously mentioned sense of finality. This also applies to the Clockwork Orange fan fic I was talking about.

This only applies to fan fiction that directly deals with using characters or such in the source material exactly, although I doubt there's any merit in any form either.

@rlbell - That'd be a terrible way to get noticed for your writing. People are terribly selective and judgmental when it comes to writing, if anything, I'd write an original piece and get people to read that instead, rather than posting a bunch of fan fiction with no evident traces of effort into making original content that's technically well written.
Quite frankly, plot or story most times are minimal compared to characters and development of the theme, unfortunately, fan fiction's sole intent is merely to take existing characters and have them follow some generic plot or story without often putting anything of meaning into it.



Also, on a less serious note, I know what's going through people's heads when they write these things. Personal attachment to characters or excitement over your favorite series/whatever is often hard to get over, but there are better ways to vent off this "creative" energy. If you're having weird fantasies based on whatever, you can often draw pictures or write songs and keep them to yourself.

[rlbell]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Blood-Pigggy @ Nov 19 2007, 12:23 AM) [snapback]319528[/snapback]</div>

@rlbell - That'd be a terrible way to get noticed for your writing. People are terribly selective and judgmental when it comes to writing, if anything, I'd write an original piece and get people to read that instead, rather than posting a bunch of fan fiction with no evident traces of effort into making original content that's technically well written.
Quite frankly, plot or story most times are minimal compared to characters and development of the theme, unfortunately, fan fiction's sole intent is merely to take existing characters and have them follow some generic plot or story without often putting anything of meaning into it.

[/b]

It is not that terrible. Eric Flint has a good slush pile reader who reads the 16XX fanfic. The best of it is editted into The Grantville Gazette. At least one edition of The Grantville Gazette was published in paperback. If you are good enough to get people to read your original work, more power to you!

My stuff would be unusual fanfic, as I have enough trouble writing for characters that I create and could not bear to have an author question me on how I put words in his/her characters mouth or made them do uncharacteristic things. What I have is an idea for a novel that is, among other things, an intellectual exercise to reconcile to radically different descriptions of hyperspace so that they can coexist, and a short story that takes some loose technological threads and weaves them into something that I found interesting enough to flesh out in twenty-some pages.

[JJXB]

BP: it's difficult to stay in character sometimes while writing but some "concepts" aren't meant to be completely accurate (example: daria would almost never become a lesbian but there are lots of fics on that anyway since it's inevitable). the point is to pay homage to the subject matter, not re-write a carbon copy of it.

anyway, if anyone wants to read crimson, i'll send you a copy of it if you pm me (full title: crimson - the story of a psychotic) warning: very violent

[zafo999]

I have to somewhat agree with BP, though probably not to such an extreme. If you like to write fanfics, then do it. Who cares? I think BP is making a generalization saying that they are all bad... as justified as it may seem as most fanfics i've come across are written by 14 year old otaku.

However, it baffles me that if you were going to put such effort into a story, why not make it completely your own story? You can still borrow ideas/personalities/themes from other sources as all artists do, and if it's an original work, then you've got yourself a product ready to be marketed if that's your intention, or you may find yourself with fans of your own! If you're into being creative (as I would assume all fanfic writers are to some extent), why limit yourself in the confines of somebody else's story?

Besides, in a professional context, there is a negative stigma attached to fanfiction, whether it deserves it or not. If you just do it for fun, then hell, just do whatever you like to do and everyone else can piss off.

But again, I don't have anything against fanfiction writers and would easily put then above spam e-mailers. I don't have anybody trying to bombard my inbox with erotic stories about Megaman and Inu Yasha falling in love in the Shire.

[Nick]

I tried to write, even wrote two stories, but soon I realized, that I'm not a writer. Don't have the patience to sit and write for long time. Well... I don't have patience for anything else too. I guess that's one of my bad perks.

[Playbahnosh]

A few years earlier I started to write a story based on (read: not really fan fiction, just similar to) Freelancer, the game. I had the plot roughly lined out, I had interesting characters and I had a universe. I did not copy the Freelancer world, insted I just took a few pointers, added a dash of Star Trek and a whole lot of own imagination. It started out alright, and I had so many ideas, but my biggest flaw reached me. I inteded it as a novel, which is fine, but when I reached the 50th page in the writing and my heroes were still on the starting space station debating the journey ahead, I gave up. I've been long known as a person who talks too much...um...writes too much, I'm not very talkative in person, but still. I had problems with the timing, and I was detailing every second, every action and every noteworthy sight into oblivion. A few of my friends read it, and they told me it is awesome, and they demanded more, but I turned them down. I didn't like what I wrote, there was just too much detail. Was I wrong to quit writing?