Fanfiction writers

Blitzkrieg1701 · Post by **Blitzkrieg1701** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:12 pm

THANK you, kind subject changer!

I do to.

Excalibur00 · Post by **Excalibur00** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 12:11 am

ok then, what kind of fics do u write.

Li Kenta · Post by **Li Kenta** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 8:48 am

I write fanfics, mostly humor though. Right now I have two on fanfiction.net, one for Zelda finished and another for Soul Calibur which is in progress. Planning on writing a Yu-Gi-Oh one once I'm done.

dillpops · Post by **dillpops** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:51 am

I write fanfiction over at ff.net at http://www.fanfiction.net/~dillpops I've been doing that for a while, I enjoy it....My early fics are reeeaally bad though, however my latest ones seem to be going down ok...

Nestorath69 · Post by **Nestorath69** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:15 pm

I write original fiction, I've been doing it for over a decade. My influences have been from dozens of different writers- I have a library of over 450 books. I cannot see that Fanfictions hold any real place in anything other than a 'hobby', like model airplanes, or biking on a sunday afternoon.

Something that is as powerful as original fiction, Something that requires long hours of sweat and labor, sleepless nights, tons of caffiene and nicotene, A true work of passion and effort, all culminating in a finished product which may or may not live up under the public scrutiny, that's real. Real writers know what I'm talking about when I speak of the giddy rush of energy you feel after you've completed a particularly heavy piece of work, and it's DONE. Like AMV's, but better.

If you don't suffer, if the story doesn't hold a tangible weight and value for you, then it's not real. If the story comes out and you have doubts about showing it to anyone, you've cheated the story, and failed as the medium. There is your value as the teller, There is the value in the effort you put in to tell the story true.

Fanfic writers, I can't see any real effort. You're picking up where someone else left off. You're cheating the story, you're cheating yourself, and you're cheating the original storyteller. I'm sorry if I've stepped on any toes, but this is how I feel.

dillpops · Post by **dillpops** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:31 pm

I can understand where you are coming from. Yeah my house has a loooad of books too. I think we probably have around 700 books ^^;;; maybe more...my family reads a lot...

What sort of fiction do you write?

Nestorath69 · Post by **Nestorath69** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:45 pm

I mix and match genres. Currently, I'm working on 'Lone Gunman Theory' (which has absolutely nothing to do with the kennedy assasination) sequel, which is sci-fi, Japanese Yakuza, assasinations, comic-book style superpowers (okay, not really) family ties, and... self-discovery. There's more, I'm sure. I wanna work a little Lovecraft style suspense into it, but pulling each chapter out of me (currently) is like having to pull the twin towers down with a Volkswagen beetle. It's really painful.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:47 pm

Nestorath69 wrote:Real writers know what I'm talking about when I speak of the giddy rush of energy you feel after you've completed a particularly heavy piece of work, and it's DONE. Like AMV's, but better.

Yes, because amvs are to real filmmakers what fanfics are to real writers - practice, hobby, pressure-free creativity.

Fanfic writers, I can't see any real effort. You're picking up where someone else left off. You're cheating the story, you're cheating yourself, and you're cheating the original storyteller. I'm sorry if I've stepped on any toes, but this is how I feel.

No, this is exactly how someone who makes real films would think about amv makers. And I'm sure you think making amvs requires no real effort since the creator is picking up where someone else left off, cheating the story and cheating himself as well as the original storyteller.

Then again, when people take anime footage and make very original and highly creative videos out of it, no one sticks their nose in the air and says it was effortless and a cheat to everyone involved. If they did, they wouldn't be on this site. But those who write stories (or even non-fiction novels - that requires *just* as much pain to make 'good' as fiction) know what filmmakers openly admit - everyone gets inspiration from things around and inside of them. No book is written entirely by the author no matter how much he tries to make a martyr of himself by saying he's doing it entirely from scratch. Those who write 'real' books as well as fanfiction know that the difference between the two isn't 'cheating' versus putting your soul into something. It's the same as the difference between making an amv and making a movie, or making an 'original' movie or a remake of a classical movie - it's creating something from yourself and the things around you (the other books you've read, what you know of the target audience, what you know of the genre you're aiming for, what you've learned when you studied the field) versus creating something with given characters. But even a fanfic made with given characters can be just as personal to the writer, can involve just as much effort as any original fiction.

If this weren't true than Robin McKinnley's 'Beauty' wouldn't have been such a great success on the bestsellers list, or among the target audience of readers who lap it up in glee. She took given characters *and* a given story (beauty and the beast) and no one in the world would sniff at her and say she didn't put any effort into it just because she didn't create it from scratch. Why? Because they know about 'parodies' and 'retellling' and that it has a strong place in the world of fiction and storytelling. This is no different from what a fanfic writer can do with a given story and a set of 'known' characters. The creativity isn't that they used their own names for the characters, but what they do to make their telling of the story unique and original. And in some cases (like 'Beauty'), the writers not only refashion those 'commonly known' characters, but refashion the 'commonly known' stories to make them their own. That is why those novels sell. And I've yet to hear anyone say a book (or movie) retelling a classic fairytale was 'cheap and effortless' if the creator has any skill at recreating characters and a flowing (often lovely) story to engulf those characters.

And no, my toes aren't stepped on. I know that writers have been 'recreating' stories for over a century, whether some think it's 'cheating' or not. And so far, the good writers have made a very nice living off of it - meaning the readers like it just fine. For a 'real' writer, making fanfiction is the same as 'retelling' a classic (aka known) story and making it particular to them (aka original in comparison to other versions). If we knew who had the property rights to fairytales, then maybe things would be different and those 'theives' redoing the stories wouldn't be so accepted. But that's why we don't make money off of fanfiction (unless you live in Japan and illustrate the stories - dj artists). We leave the 'stealing' and 'cheating' to those redoing common tales and well-known characters, and we embrace them whether it's fiction or movies - because people like to see new takes on already known ideas. It's part of the field of writing, and if you don't know how to redo a story and make it your own, then you're missing out on one of the key aspects to storytelling - retelling that has been a part of culture and the history of fiction and mythology since the very beginning.

[Based mostly off of the US market, though even older civilizations had the cultural retelling/recreating and thereby refreshing old tales.]

Nestorath69 · Post by **Nestorath69** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:48 pm

a 'penny dreadful' one might say. An oat opera. Something that's entertaining, but not too seriously deep. Like Outlaw Star. I think that above all, my influence has been trying to capture the atmosphere of outlaw star. The recklessness, the casual disregard for authority, but with a dash of steinbeck, sprinkle of Stephen King, and god knows what else.