Oh, I was thinking about the Fan Fiction sub-forum of this board. My bad. 
Fan Fiction Writers?
- Thread starter S. Gomez
- Start date
Fanfic can indeed be great training wheels for teaching novices how to write. I was a complete novice before I got the urge to write stories for my fave characters. Now I'm beginning to think that maybe I should expand into other areas and stretch myself as an author.
Great thing in fanfic, that you can't get really anywhere else when starting out, is that you get used to a variety of opinions about your work; you develop a thick skin early on and learn how to process and deal with critics without taking personally.
I would be lying if I didn't admit that I spent much of junior high scribbling my own stories about Blade, Morbius, and Dracula's Daughter. I didn't call it fanfiction, because I didn't learn that word until years later, but it was basically fanfic I wrote for my own entertainment. (This was long before I discovered fandom.) I never showed it to anybody, but I guess it was good practice for writing tie-ins later.
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To really answer your question S. Gomez, now that I've stopped playing dumb (for now...), I don't think there's anything wrong with writing fan fiction. I think it actually allows you to improve and advance your writing craft (not that you need it, of course... I was speaking more generally). Personally, I just find it downright fun to write fan scripts about Batman, Superman, the X-Men, etc. etc., and I find it sometimes much easier to delve into a pre-established world than create my own.
As to how much time you devote, I think that's entirely up to you. I've done quite a few fan scripts but I've also written my fair share of original material. It's all a balancing act and it really depends on what your creativity will allow. Sometimes I'll just sit in front of a computer and want to write something of my own, and others I'll just want to devise some new adventures for Batman. I don't really have a say in the matter. It all depends on my mood, and I think that's true for a lot of writers out there as well.
As to how much time you devote, I think that's entirely up to you. I've done quite a few fan scripts but I've also written my fair share of original material. It's all a balancing act and it really depends on what your creativity will allow. Sometimes I'll just sit in front of a computer and want to write something of my own, and others I'll just want to devise some new adventures for Batman. I don't really have a say in the matter. It all depends on my mood, and I think that's true for a lot of writers out there as well.
And if you think about it, Jackson, any pro Batman writer is, in effect, writing fan fic. I mean, the universe is created, the underlying mythos established and they're just adding to it. So fan fic can help you find a "voice" that fits into established universes if comic writing is your ambition.
I really hope none of the tie-in pros running around here take offense to this statement, but here it is: I've long held that tie-in fiction was more or less getting paid to write fanfiction. And the series where you work with other authors are just paid round-robins fics.
Now I don't mean that in a bad way, don't get me wrong, I just think it's sort of two sides of the same coin. And the sort of snobbish attitude some fans have toward fanfic, as if cause the writer is being paid it suddenly makes a pro-novel better, just sticks in my craw at times. And there's people that swear fanfic is superior to pro-fic; and I'll say they're just as snobbish. There's good and bad in both camps.
What matters is does the writer believe in the story they're telling, do they honestly think they told a good story (whaterver warts we may see), the best why they could, and was the reader entertained and/or did the story make them think. And, personally, I think that's criteria independent of a paycheck or not.
Now I don't mean that in a bad way, don't get me wrong, I just think it's sort of two sides of the same coin. And the sort of snobbish attitude some fans have toward fanfic, as if cause the writer is being paid it suddenly makes a pro-novel better, just sticks in my craw at times. And there's people that swear fanfic is superior to pro-fic; and I'll say they're just as snobbish. There's good and bad in both camps.
What matters is does the writer believe in the story they're telling, do they honestly think they told a good story (whaterver warts we may see), the best why they could, and was the reader entertained and/or did the story make them think. And, personally, I think that's criteria independent of a paycheck or not.
Fan fiction is like being a shipper - it can be "dangerous" to your fondness for the show or universe in question.
I wrote a little nuBSG "prequel" fan fiction during the layover between Season 1 and 2. The problem with doing so was that when my ideas for how the nuBSG universe "should be" weren't borne out by later developments, I found myself becoming annoyed with the show's real writers.
In the future, if I get the urge to write fan fiction I will limit myself to dead shows.
I wrote a little nuBSG "prequel" fan fiction during the layover between Season 1 and 2. The problem with doing so was that when my ideas for how the nuBSG universe "should be" weren't borne out by later developments, I found myself becoming annoyed with the show's real writers.
In the future, if I get the urge to write fan fiction I will limit myself to dead shows.
I think that's a problem no matter whether your write fanfic or not. We all have ideals or preferences on how we'd like a so play out, and it can be annoying when they don't go that way.
Speaking as a professional editor, I would never reject an author because he or she wrote fan fiction on the side, just as I wouldn't mind if they also wrote the sports column for their local paper. I don't care what the authors' hobbies are as long as the ms. is well-written and commercial.
On the other hand, I admit I would roll my eyes if the author tried to pass off their fan fiction as a professional credit. Best not to mention in your cover letter that "I am the author of over 75 highly-acclaimed STARGATE fanfics."
And don't think that, just because you changed the names slightly, that I won't recognize a Seven of Nine/Janeway slash story when I see one . . . .
But, in general, I know too many good writers who once dabbled in fanfic to consider that a black mark against them. As far as mainstream publishing goes, fanfic isn't good or bad. It's just irrelevant.
'Trek with the serial numbers filed off, eh?
I will say, when I was doing workshops, it was pretty funny to have someone post a fanfic, get told they needed something original to be part of the workshop, come back the next day with the same story just with a Find & Replace macro taken to all the franchise terms.
That aside, I never understood the big deal myself. I can see it being a problem if you're a newbie trying to sell your Archer/Picard/Janeway megaslash epic to a publisher. But in all my time sending stuff out and talking to agents, never once has the topic of "fanfic" came up outside those workshops.
I still remember the ms. that began with a "Klargon" battle cruiser activating its "stealthing" field . . . .
You make it sound like you've got shell shock
I still remember the ms. that began with a "Klargon" battle cruiser activating its "stealthing" field . . . .
Least you didn't get: Lt. ulus turned to Capt Krik and first offfice Kcops.
Yes, that was real, yes it was in one of those writing workshops. Don't know what was funnier, the fact they tried that or the fact that they stubbornly refused to admit what they did.
For myself, I wouldn't view my fanfic as a learning exercise necessarily, though I totally agree with its value in that regard. I've written enough that I feel I have a good grasp of the art of writing. I want to do it mostly out of fondness for the show and a sort of distillation of how I view The Doctor and what I love about the kind of stories you can tell with him.
I'm going to do it. I've already been doing a lot of thinking about what stories to tell and what characters to create; it'd be a shame to never see them written. Look for updates!
I'm going to do it. I've already been doing a lot of thinking about what stories to tell and what characters to create; it'd be a shame to never see them written. Look for updates!
You make it sound like you've got shell shock'Trek with the serial numbers filed off, eh?
.
I still remember the ms. that began with a "Klargon" battle cruiser activating its "stealthing" field . . . .
Least you didn't get: Lt. ulus turned to Capt Krik and first offfice Kcops.
Yes, that was real, yes it was in one of those writing workshops. Don't know what was funnier, the fact they tried that or the fact that they stubbornly refused to admit what they did.
Hah!
Believe it or not, I wasn't making up the Seven/Janeway slash story either . . . .
You make it sound like you've got shell shock
Least you didn't get: Lt. ulus turned to Capt Krik and first offfice Kcops.
Yes, that was real, yes it was in one of those writing workshops. Don't know what was funnier, the fact they tried that or the fact that they stubbornly refused to admit what they did.
Hah!
Believe it or not, I wasn't making up the Seven/Janeway slash story either . . . .
Man...that's just said, I just don't see how anyone could do that and think they can get away with it/that it's going to work. I can see why fanfic shouldn't matter if it's a hobby, but to turn fanfic in and think you're gonna get a sale...wtf? I'd never do that, its like saying "Yes...I am a douche...now please pay me"
You sorta of see it a lot on other boards(1): people that think that their fanfic is the ultimate opus of that franchise and that editors and publishers and agents are going to trash all the rules to buy and publish this megafic that's so good it's got a whole 12 readers saying how good it is.You make it sound like you've got shell shock
Least you didn't get: Lt. ulus turned to Capt Krik and first offfice Kcops.
Yes, that was real, yes it was in one of those writing workshops. Don't know what was funnier, the fact they tried that or the fact that they stubbornly refused to admit what they did.
Hah!
Believe it or not, I wasn't making up the Seven/Janeway slash story either . . . .
Man...that's just said, I just don't see how anyone could do that and think they can get away with it/that it's going to work. I can see why fanfic shouldn't matter if it's a hobby, but to turn fanfic in and think you're gonna get a sale...wtf? I'd never do that, its like saying "Yes...I am a douche...now please pay me"
(1 - I don't around the fanfic forum here, so I don't know if it happens here a lot, I've seen it once or twice in the Trek lit forum)
I'm guilty of doing it. I write in a very long running Star Trek Roleplaying Game (it's more along the lines of fanfic but we've been called very realistic - Battlestar meets Trek in our storylines). I also write Terminator fanfic which I've been meaning to update recently...
