So, Fanfic then...

[f4f3]

Fanfic, what is it good for? No, no, it's a serious question (well, about as serious as any question about a neologism written at 6.40 because I can't be bothered filling in my expenses could be.

It occasionally bothers me that I don't get Fanfic. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a fan. And of roughly the right things, too. Not Harry Potter, obviously, but Jennings. Doctor Who. Firefly. Various incarnations of Star Trek.

And also I can get very into my fandom - I've gone to Cons, even a meejacon (Hitchercon, back when the continents were in a very different shape). I know more about mid-'70s Marvel Comics than anyone has a right to, but I've never been tempted to do a Deathlok the Demolisher meets Killraven story. Or even, to be slightly less obscure, Jack Aubrey meets Harry Flashman. I once considered putting Flashman into War of the Worlds, but it never got beyond a standing joke with one of my mates. Suffice to say that the Martians would have died of an easily transmitable earthly disease, but not the common cold.

It may be because writing is what I do for a living. However I've dressed up and disguised the fact in my job titles (Consultant, Relationship Manager, Proposal Manager, er, Writer) I write stuff and people pay me. When I write fiction, it's always with a view to having it published professionally. Although, when I think of what some of the semi-prozines of my cyberpunky youth paid (i.e. £Nothing) that's stretching the point a bit. Using someone else's copyrighted characters guarantees that no one will pay you to publish your stories.

So why do people do it? Most of the fan-fic I've read has been of at least a competent level (this is high praise from someone who believes as firmly in Sturgeon's Law as I do). Obviously the writers get something out of it, the readers got something out of it.

I'm not someone who thinks fan-fic is beneath him - hello, I'm the guy who cackled in glee when he found out that The Essential Moon Knight contained back up stories from The Rampaging Hulk which I hadn't read before, and who stayed up till 2 a.m. to read them.

SO WHAT AM I MISSING HERE, GUYS?

Comments

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Uh, as someone who only dabbles (reading fanfic, not writing ... I'm not sure anyone will ever persuade me to write it), I think it's probably just prolonging the fun of characters being characters. The thing is, with books, that the story eventually comes to an end - but you still want to read more about the best characters, spend some time with them. Fanfic fills that hole.

Slash, obviously, is a whole 'nother subsection of this, and I'm not going to discuss the filling of holes in that context.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you're missing, but I'm missing it too. Even spin-offs only rarely can hold my attention. It just never has the joy of discovery that the original has.

t's like cover versions - there are a few great ones, but most of them have to reach to be classed as dross.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It baffles me. If a work of fiction so engages me that I really really wish that the author had written more about that set of characters then it means it was a damn good piece of writing. The idea that I, or some even less talented clown, is going to produce anything worthwhile with those characters seems to me most remote. This is probably why there is so little Hamlet fanfic.

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

You did ask: what are you missing here with "not getting" fanfic?

As starters, I'd suggest the following

1) The Aeneid (fanfic of the Iliad)
2) All Shakespeare's History Plays (fanfic of Holinshed, by way of St Thomas More (possibly ghosted by Morton, as observed by Josephine Tey, who was fanficcing Buck, Walpole and Markham at the time)
3) The Acts of the Apostles
4) Wide Sargasso Sea
5) Oh, and Sir Harry Flashman, of course. Where would he be if it wasn't for fanfiction?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Me, I am ignorant of fanfic (it took a while to work out what it was), other than Shakespeare, Flashman etc (just to prove that I read to the bottom (not bike rack) of the comments.

I agree with most of what chickenfeet2003 said (aside from the politcal porn bits, obviously): if the characters are that good, why try to improve on them?

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Here through a mutual friend.

I write fanfiction and have done for a while now. I think you were close to the main point when you point out that writing with an eye to publication is a business. And to do it successfully takes quite a bit of time and effort. I, and nearly all my co-writers, don't want to take that extra step. We all have other jobs, mostly.

It's easy for some people to assume (and I notice you steer clear of this assumption quite well) that the quality of writing suffers because of this. Having read hundreds - yeah, probably thousands - of stories, I have to disagree. There are stories I could show you that would amaze and astound you with their quality and impact.

I'd say people connect through writing common characters and settings. In a small way, it can be a form of shorthand. All in all, it's just a form of expression that many writers find suits them. And a few people (not you) who may not know much about it find easy to mock.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I was absolutely and completely horrified by fanfic before I clicked my first link (and for quite a while after!), but I sought it out, I think, because I was quite obsessively involved in reading/thinking about that particular source.

One thing I've noticed now is that I can't always tell whether I will want to read fanfic for a particular source: I love Dr. Who as a show, but I have next to no desire to read fanfic about it; on the other hand Stargate Atlantis is middling-enjoyable as a show and yet has a lot of enjoyable fanfic.

If I revere a particular source as pretty perfect, then I think I'm unlikely to go looking for fanfic about it. On the other hand, someone did press fanfic for The Dark is Rising into my hot little hand. Yep, not bad.