Fan Fiction Writers?

[Brit]

I write Voyager Fan Fiction and like the others it has been a very good way to learn the craft of writing. Now I haven’t posted in the Fan Fiction forum here on the BBS, I have put up a couple of links in the Voyager forum. I frankly didn’t think many people here would be interested because I write romantic fic, and a lot of it is “adult” in nature.

I don’t think I would have ever entertained the notion to write original fiction, if I hadn’t written fan fiction first. I have my own site and domain and host other fic writers too. I am not a big fan of FanFiction.net because I’ve seen the results of one rather “deranged” fan’s trashing of several authors stories through the feedback system.

My ambition is to write Science Fiction Romance, and several of the more successful authors in that genre started out writing TOS fan fiction.

In the December 26th The Galaxy Express Blog “Pon-Farr in SFR” Jean Lorrah (writer of four Trek novels - The Vulcan Academy Murders, The I.D.I.C. Epidemic, Survivors, and Metamorphosis) posted a comment about her days as a Sarak/Amanda Shipper.

“Why did I write such things? Because in those days there WAS NO professional SF Romance available, although there were thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of women waiting eagerly to devour it. In the 1970's and well into the 1980's, the only source was fanfic.”

http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2009/12/pon-farr-in-sfr.html

I know that’s why I began reading fan fiction in the first place.

Star Trek is the second oldest fan fiction producing fandom, does anyone know what the first one is?

Brit

 

[SeerSGB]

I write Voyager Fan Fiction and like the others it has been a very good way to learn the craft of writing. Now I haven’t posted in the Fan Fiction forum here on the BBS, I have put up a couple of links in the Voyager forum. I frankly didn’t think many people here would be interested because I write romantic fic, and a lot of it is “adult” in nature.

I don’t think I would have ever entertained the notion to write original fiction, if I hadn’t written fan fiction first. I have my own site and domain and host other fic writers too. I am not a big fan of FanFiction.net because I’ve seen the results of one rather “deranged” fan’s trashing of several authors stories through the feedback system.

My ambition is to write Science Fiction Romance, and several of the more successful authors in that genre started out writing TOS fan fiction.

In the December 26th The Galaxy Express Blog “Pon-Farr in SFR” Jean Lorrah (writer of four Trek novels - The Vulcan Academy Murders, The I.D.I.C. Epidemic, Survivors, and Metamorphosis) posted a comment about her days as a Sarak/Amanda Shipper.

“Why did I write such things? Because in those days there WAS NO professional SF Romance available, although there were thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of women waiting eagerly to devour it. In the 1970's and well into the 1980's, the only source was fanfic.”

http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2009/12/pon-farr-in-sfr.html

I know that’s why I began reading fan fiction in the first place.

Star Trek is the second oldest fan fiction producing fandom, does anyone know what the first one is?

Brit

Probably either Sherlock Holmes, I'm thinking.

 

[tharpdevenport]

If we are talking TV, maybe "The Twilight Zone".

 

[Brit]

TV is right, "The Twilight Zone" isn't.

Brit

 

[SeerSGB]

TV is right, "The Twilight Zone" isn't.

Brit

Gun Smoke?

 

[tharpdevenport]

Well, it's kind of hard to guage -- there wasn't a large club or internet back then -- can't really rule out TTZ unless you got some kind of amazing facts to back up what ever it is.

 

[Agenda]

Historical predecessors

Fan fiction as it is now understood began at least as early as the 17th century, with unauthorized published sequels to such works as Don Quixote.[4][5] Cervantes concludes the second part of the novel by declaring his exclusive rights to the characters, an early authorial warning against derivative works.[6] Older precursors include the Epic Cycle supplementing the works of Homer and the various re-tellings of King Arthur's tale which spread around Europe from the 8th century AD onward.[citation needed] (For example, there were no fewer than four continuations by other hands of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval.)
Another precursor is in medieval Arabic fiction, where story cycles were formed as different storytellers added sequels to an original story, such as story cycles revolving around Harun al-Rashid or Sinbad the Sailor. Some tales were also parodied by other storytellers. Many of these story cycles and parodies were incorporated into the Arabian Nights. For example, "Wardan the Butcher's Adventure With the Lady and the Bear" is parodied by "The King's Daughter and the Ape", "Harun al-Rashid and the Two Slave-Girls" is parodied by "Harun al-Rashid and the Three Slave-Girls", and "The Angel of Death With the Proud King and the Devout Man" is parodied by "The Angel of Death and the Rich King". Sometimes even parodies were parodied, such as "The Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel" being a parody of "The Angel of Death and the Rich King".[7] When the Arabian Nights was translated into French at the beginning of the 18th century, many imitations of it were written in France.[8]
One early example may be the Uttara Kanda final chapter of the Hindu epic Ramayana; there is a theory that Valmiki's original writing ended with Rama coming home and being crowned at the end of the Yuddha Kanda chapter.
The turn of the 20th century saw parodies and revisions of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland by authors including Frances Hodgson Burnett and E. Nesbit. In addition, there were several fan-authored versions of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.
In the 1920s and 1930s, fans of Jane Austen wrote stories based on her characters and published them in fanzines. In 1945, C. S. Lewis adopted certain elements from J. R. R. Tolkien's then largely unpublished legendarium (mostly Númenor, there spelt Numinor) and incorporated these into the last novel, That Hideous Strength, of his Space Trilogy. (Given that Lewis and Tolkien were personal friends, this could be seen more as an "homage").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction

And then it talks about Star Trek being the modern precursor.

 

[Brit]

Well, it's kind of hard to guage -- there wasn't a large club or internet back then -- can't really rule out TTZ unless you got some kind of amazing facts to back up what ever it is.

I wish I did, and I've been looking for my original link, I'll be glad to post it when I find it. In those days of course, fan fiction was printed on a mimeograph and mailed. What I've been told is that "The Man From Uncle" predates "Star Trek" by a few months, but it was only distributed among a small group of fans at that time and died out when they lost interest.

Of course now you can find fan fiction about almost anything. I mean if people write Simon/Paula fic from American Idol, I guess anything is possible.

Brit

 

[tharpdevenport]

Kind of makes you wonder what kind of good fan fiction is hiding out there in boxes in someone's attic or basement.


I remember when I wanted info on Star Trek, I had to go to the book store and open the latest issue of the magazie. Thank goodness for the internet highway -- I think we all might take it for granted, far too much.

 

[JustKate]

What motivates you to write fan fiction? What makes you decide to devote the time to it?

I'm not the best source since I've only tried it once, but I did try it and enjoy it, and I might try it again, so...

To be honest, the main reason why I tried it the first time is because of a writing challenge here on the BBS that involved writing with a partner. The person who asked me to be his partner (Thor Damar) is someone I really like; he has very interesting and original ideas but they don't violate canon (which is important because I don't enjoy reading stuff that violates canon, so I sure the heck didn't want to write any); he had a specific idea for the challenge that was very interesting to me specifically; and I knew he'd be fun to work with, too.

And among other characters, it even involved Spock, my all-time favorite Trek character.

That's why I did it the first time.

The reasons why I might do it again? Hmmm, let me see...

Well, it really was a ton of fun. I do think a lot of the fun came from working together - with tossing ideas around with somebody else. So fun is definitely one reason, and almost certainly the main one.

Another hinges on the fact that I actually am a writer, though not of fiction. I write a lot different of stuff, primarily news releases and news and feature articles. Of course I wouldn't mind writing fiction...but at least for me, it's really hard to discipline myself to write on my own time - and without a deadline, eeek! - when I've already spent nearly all dang day writing. It's all too easy to say, and to say over and over again, "Oh, I just don't feel like writing any more today."

But this fan-fiction project involved a partner and a specific deadline, which meant that I had to be somewhat disciplined about it or risk letting my partner down. So that was very good discipline for me.

For a non-fiction writer (and maybe other people too?), the other benefit of writing fan fiction is that it's in some ways less daunting to write, and the reason is that in fan fiction, the universe into which the story needs to fit already exists. The fan-fiction writer doesn't have to invent it. So writing fan fiction allows me to play around with writing fiction but gives me a framework to fit that fiction into.

And another reason to write fan fiction is that it's just really fun to play with and think about characters and a universe that you're already familiar with and already love.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I have written MANY things in the Fan Fiction section, but the two stories that I am MOST proud of, and consider my best achievements, are "Star Trek: Entomalians", and "Battlestar Urantia", which is still ongoing.

 

[captcalhoun]

i've written fan-fic.

i've written a ton of Trek stuff, which basically boiled down to me wanting to write SF wars stories in the Trekverse and then expaninding out into Trek cop action stories, my version of the Romulan War and Star Trek: Mission Impossible.

i just kept coming up with ideas and was compelled to write them.

i've also written a series of stories based on the old Action Force toyline from the UK, which was basically me doing a 21st century post 9/11 reboot. i had ideas of how I'd do a movie, so wrote it as fan-fic.

i'm now doing an Action Man story, again as a post 9/11 modern reboot. just because someone said on a forum i visit 'how could you do an AM movie without using all the extreme sports 90s AM bollocks?'

i quit doing Trek fic to write my original SF, the got sucked into doing the AF stuff, before finishing my original work...

 

[DigificWriter]

I can't remember exactly how or why I got started writing fanfiction, but I've found that, for some reason, my creativity seems to be best expressed when I'm able to 'play in other people's sandboxes', which has led me to the realization that the one thing that I would absolutely love to do at some point in my life is to become a professional screenwriter and/or 'script doctor'. In terms of the universes for which I've written fanfiction, I started out writing fic primarily based on the Digimon and Power Rangers franchises, although I've also written fanfiction based on Star Wars (a short story that was actually published in a HS creative writing newsletter and was based on one of the very first missions from the N64 video game Star Wars Rogue Squadron, and a couple of elaborate screenplays for Episodes I and II), Star Trek (a couple of unfinished works, one focusing on an original crew and one being a 'trekified' version of Babylon 5), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my most successful endeavors coming as part of a spinoff of a virtual continuation of BtVS and an ultimately unfinished alternative version of BtVS Season 7), Harry Potter (several unfinished 'novels' featuring various different characters, including an attempt at writing a series of stories set in the USA during the time of Harry's published adventures), and Firefly (my most successful endeavor being an ongoing script-based 'virtual continuation', the link to which can be found in my sig).

As for why I'm compelled to write fanfiction, I've found that it is a great - not to mention fun - way to express my creativity, and to keep honing my skills in both prose and script-based writing.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, it's kind of hard to guage -- there wasn't a large club or internet back then -- can't really rule out TTZ unless you got some kind of amazing facts to back up what ever it is.

I wish I did, and I've been looking for my original link, I'll be glad to post it when I find it. In those days of course, fan fiction was printed on a mimeograph and mailed. What I've been told is that "The Man From Uncle" predates "Star Trek" by a few months, but it was only distributed among a small group of fans at that time and died out when they lost interest.


Brit

I don't know this for a fact, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was "Dark Shadows" fan fic back in the 60's .. ..

 

[Skywalker]

And I'm sure there was Doctor Who (1963) fanfiction back then, too.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

What motivates you to write fan fiction? What makes you decide to devote the time to it?

I'm not the best source since I've only tried it once, but I did try it and enjoy it, and I might try it again, so...

To be honest, the main reason why I tried it the first time is because of a writing challenge here on the BBS that involved writing with a partner. The person who asked me to be his partner (Thor Damar) is someone I really like; he has very interesting and original ideas but they don't violate canon (which is important because I don't enjoy reading stuff that violates canon, so I sure the heck didn't want to write any); he had a specific idea for the challenge that was very interesting to me specifically; and I knew he'd be fun to work with, too.

And among other characters, it even involved Spock, my all-time favorite Trek character.

That's why I did it the first time.

The reasons why I might do it again? Hmmm, let me see...

Well, it really was a ton of fun. I do think a lot of the fun came from working together - with tossing ideas around with somebody else. So fun is definitely one reason, and almost certainly the main one.

Another hinges on the fact that I actually am a writer, though not of fiction. I write a lot different of stuff, primarily news releases and news and feature articles. Of course I wouldn't mind writing fiction...but at least for me, it's really hard to discipline myself to write on my own time - and without a deadline, eeek! - when I've already spent nearly all dang day writing. It's all too easy to say, and to say over and over again, "Oh, I just don't feel like writing any more today."

But this fan-fiction project involved a partner and a specific deadline, which meant that I had to be somewhat disciplined about it or risk letting my partner down. So that was very good discipline for me.

For a non-fiction writer (and maybe other people too?), the other benefit of writing fan fiction is that it's in some ways less daunting to write, and the reason is that in fan fiction, the universe into which the story needs to fit already exists. The fan-fiction writer doesn't have to invent it. So writing fan fiction allows me to play around with writing fiction but gives me a framework to fit that fiction into.

And another reason to write fan fiction is that it's just really fun to play with and think about characters and a universe that you're already familiar with and already love.

I'd say you covered reasons to write a fan fic pretty well, it matches the sort of thinking I have in regards of why I have done it. It can be fun, my issue is...ongoing writers block...*sigh*

 

[Brit]

Well, it's kind of hard to guage -- there wasn't a large club or internet back then -- can't really rule out TTZ unless you got some kind of amazing facts to back up what ever it is.

I wish I did, and I've been looking for my original link, I'll be glad to post it when I find it. In those days of course, fan fiction was printed on a mimeograph and mailed. What I've been told is that "The Man From Uncle" predates "Star Trek" by a few months, but it was only distributed among a small group of fans at that time and died out when they lost interest.


Brit

I don't know this for a fact, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was "Dark Shadows" fan fic back in the 60's .. ..

As an huge fan of the original "Dark Shadows" I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Back then I didn't write fan fiction, I did do a lot of sketches and drawing. Somewhere here are some pictures of the "Dark Shadows" Characters.

I still draw Voyager scenes like this http://www.jceternal.com/camryndrawn.jpg

I have a drawing of Dr McCoy put on my site, that was produced while the original series was in production.

http://jceternal.com/images/DrMcCoy pencil.jpg

Brit

 

[Australis]

I've written some fanfic, it's on www.fanfiction.net. One Dr Who (which was actually written for a story competition), and iirc, 3 Discworld short stories.

Why did I write them? I thought they were stories I'd like to see that the author, Terry Pratchett, would probably never write. One is a takeoff of Jamie Oliver using CMOT Dibbler. One was an investigation of the culture of trying to stay young, using the Witches and an oft-mentioned but never-seen character, and the third was a sequel of sorts to the novel 'Monstrous Regiment' and was a comment on religion. I'm quite proud of the second and third, they worked really well.

I've never understood slash, especially gay slash that puts characters that work side by side in a completely different place with their relationship. For me, it's far better to tell an intersting and compelling story within the framework the author has established. If you think about it, that's exactly what you have to do if you want to write spec scripts for an existing TV series