I really, really hate fan fiction.

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The best fanfic of all time:
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I'm actually a bit of a fanfiction writer. I'll admit, I haven't done much, or at least hadn't posted much, but it's a fun pastime, which I think is the point. I won't try to defend the trollfics, or the porn stories, because those are legit bad, but I think it really depends on what you're looking for, and what reasons. My current project, if some people may remember by chance, is a kind of commentary series with my brother that both critiques fanfiction and weaves a story and universe around that. Little may be legitimately original, especially considering the judgment is subjective and I have found myself making parallels to some things I've never heard of or never seen for myself by accident, but it is a fun thing my brother and I do to keep ourselves and each other entertained. Plus, since we are now separated by most of the width of the United States due to college life starting for us not too long ago, it's a breathe of fresh air. I think that if you don't take yourself too seriously, but put as much effort into your work as you want, I see nothing wrong with it, really.
 
I, too, dabbled in fan fiction once. I agree with George R.R. Martin that it's a bad exercise for aspiring writers. I'd really hate to sound harsh, but I think some properties are best left in the hands of the creators. I've cruised fanfiction.net, and while some works were good, others ranged from mediocre to just plain garbage. The trick with fan fiction in general, at least in my perspective as a writer, is that in addition to providing a new take on the source material, you have to honor it as well. Good fanfics accomplish that task, while the others miss the mark.
 
I got Unbovvered's message and all that about his (or her? Not sure- I'm tired) opinion on what I've been up to with that. I'm not sure where it is now, but I would like to say that, yeah, we got trolled. I would like to point out that was literally the first time we were trolled online ever. Legit, big time at least. It was also kinda fun to try and take the story apart in the reviews, so we partly didn't know and partly didn't care. We took it way too seriously because 1) we have high standards and didn't know that fanfiction.net is not considered a good place to work at stories if you want to be serious about it; 2) because we were stupid kids when this was going on and didn't take the time to look into whether this was a trollfic, thus being taken in as if it were an authentic attempt at good writing; and 3) because we got some kind of enjoyment out of criticizing and the personal attacks and all that. Considering that was all an act, it seems it was all in good fun, but that doesn't exactly excuse it, I guess.

I get what you're saying, Unbovvered, and I agree with you, more or less. However, my brother and I are planning ways to take this experience and both poke fun at it and turn it into something we can enjoy for a good while. Between each other, for now, but my point is that it is all in good fun nowadays. I've gotta say the whole experience was enlightening into my own personality, or what I'm like online at least. It did show me, among other things, that I was in fact taking it a bit too seriously, so I am glad that this whole thing took place.

Connor dijo:
I, too, dabbled in fan fiction once. I agree with George R.R. Martin that it's a bad exercise for aspiring writers. I'd really hate to sound harsh, but I think some properties are best left in the hands of the creators. I've cruised fanfiction.net, and while some works were good, others ranged from mediocre to just plain garbage. The trick with fan fiction in general, at least in my perspective as a writer, is that in addition to providing a new take on the source material, you have to honor it as well. Good fanfics accomplish that task, while the others miss the mark.
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I'm afraid that I am not functioning at my highest right now, so I feel the need to clarify. By calling it a bad exercise, are you talking about the general lack of criticism, and the lack of want for change that results? Because the writing part is helpful, and I know that's not what you're talking about.

You don't sound harsh to me, and I feel like the most single-minded defendant of fanfiction right now. For some reason. I agree- some things are better left to the creators. I feel like romances are best left to the creators, personally, because so much of fanfiction is just romance, and the general lack of quality bothers me. Granted, I am not much a romance guy to begin with, but even then it is easy to tell that fanfiction needs to lay off that a bit. I also agree that a fanfiction writer needs to stay true to the material. I've tried to do that when I was at fanfiction.net. That's why I did so little in the way of stories, and even then I still am not too happy with what I produced. I'd say the fanfiction community could... use some work, but if writing it is just for fun, and if the writer tries to actually get the structure and all that good stuff right, then I say go ahead. Even to the kind of stories that I personally disagree with- If one can write a gay porno or whatever that is solid in terms of structure and (general) believability, then I'm sure there will be people into that kind of thing that can give this person fair critique. Again, the problem seems to be that fair critique doesn't seem to be there, but that's another story.

I rambled, I think.*sigh*
 
DespicableFool dijo:
By calling it a bad exercise, are you talking about the general lack of criticism, and the lack of want for change that results?
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Well, that depends on the writer of the fan fiction piece. If the writer in question is an egotistical lolcow who throws a temper tantrum at the slightest bit of negative criticism, it could be.
 
Connor dijo:
Well, that depends on the writer of the fan fiction piece. If the writer in question is an egotistical lolcow who throws a temper tantrum at the slightest bit of negative criticism, it could be.
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That makes sense. Aside from what I dealt with, which was obviously fake, I can point to several examples of that in fanfiction, some of which became rather infamous for it.
 
soIregistered dijo:
Does anyone ACTUALLY respect fan fiction? I have friends who take their fan fiction SO FUCKING SERIOUSLY. I kind of want to sit them down and say....look....no one fucking cares. No one takes this seriously. Every one of your friends on Facebook is tired of being tagged when you get a new idea for Powerpuff Girls meets Donald Duck meets Boba Fett & the Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. People reach these almost CWC levels of delusion, like "There are four people on fanfiction.net who are REALLY INTO my new story!".

I hate fan fiction. Actual writers hate fan fiction. Unless you're that moron that wrote Fifty Shades of Grey (y'know, that great piece of literature), no one is going to give you a job based on your fan fiction. Can you imagine trying to get a job at Marvel comics and being like "I can send you my Spider-Man/Buzz Lightyear/Godzilla story from fanfiction.net!"

It's all shit! There's no quality control! And eventually it just devolves into characters fucking!

I FUCKING HATE FAN FICTION!! :briefs:
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The "good" fanworks come in four flavors:

1. The Theoretical Expanded Universe
Attempts to expand on existing canon using concepts and ideas already established in-universe. I've seen it done well a few times. As far as fanstuffs that "succeeds" at what it sets out to do, this is arguably the most "successful" type. Good examples include Love Can Bloom (Warhammer 40,000), Thousand Son and Guardswoman (same), some fic whose name escapes me that CuriousBystander was working on (Legacy of Kain series), and Story of the Blanks (My Little Pony; I've never personally confirmed it but friends of mine who are avowed ponyfags insist it's quite good).

2. The Peter Chimera
"So Bad It's Awesome" is the name of the game here. Doom: Repercussions of Evil is the frontliner. Other good examples are Quarter-Life: Halfway to Destruction and the Full-Life Consequences series.

3. The Porn Fic
Sometimes, a man's gotta fap, a woman's gotta schlick, and some remarkably tasteful and comptent porn emerges, seemingly from nowhere. Seriously. As retarded as it sounds, sometimes the best fan works are fucking porn fics. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is.

4. The Inexplicably Good Crossover/Stupid Idea
Too numerous to mention. Range from things like Adeptus Evangelion to the hilarious Anarchy Reigns/40K crossover that /tg/ made. Many times, combinations like this result in Autism. Other times, it results in win. My personal favorite remains Cave Johnson of NERV.
 
Última edición:
Jaimas dijo:
The "good" fanworks come in four flavors:

1. The Theoretical Expanded Universe
Attempts to expand on existing canon using concepts and ideas already established in-universe. I've seen it done well a few times. As far as fanstuffs that "succeeds" at what it sets out to do, this is arguably the most "successful" type. Good examples include Love Can Bloom (Warhammer 40,000), Thousand Son and Guardswoman (same), some fic whose name escapes me that CuriousBystander was working on (Legacy of Kain series), and Story of the Blanks (My Little Pony; I've never personally confirmed it but friends of mine who are avowed ponyfags insist it's quite good).
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Mmm, yeah. Those Warhammer ones are good, if anyone read and liked those read Warhammer 50,000. Which does full on expand the Warhammer universe. http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=51806&page=1
 
Meowthkip dijo:
Honestly, I can't even hate on the guy. I'm impressed.

That is some goddamned dedication, regardless of quality.
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Dedication?

Or is it deluded, fanatical obsession that the author desperately hopes will make Nintendo notice them and make it a real fucking game or some stupid, stupid shit like that, the kind of repeated metaphorical howling at the moon that reeks of "If I think it'll happen enough, it will!" and desperate escapism.

I mean, good fucking god, not even looking at anything other than glancing over the very beginning, the chapter titles, and the author's name, I can tell with 100% clarity that this is probably going to suck. Obvious self-insert, sucked into the "game world", a fucking gigantic crossover... This isn't impressive to me, it's downright terrifying. Sperg or not, this looks and feels more like someone became so focused on one thing that it consumed their mind.
 
Mechanism Eight dijo:
Dedication?

Or is it deluded, fanatical obsession that the author desperately hopes will make Nintendo notice them and make it a real fucking game or some stupid, stupid shit like that, the kind of repeated metaphorical howling at the moon that reeks of "If I think it'll happen enough, it will!" and desperate escapism.

I mean, good fucking god, not even looking at anything other than glancing over the very beginning, the chapter titles, and the author's name, I can tell with 100% clarity that this is probably going to suck. Obvious self-insert, sucked into the "game world", a fucking gigantic crossover... This isn't impressive to me, it's downright terrifying. Sperg or not, this looks and feels more like someone became so focused on one thing that it consumed their mind.
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I dunno, he doesn't seem so bad.
 
I don't mind fanfics, but I'm not an avid reader of them.

If you wanna see a bad fan fic, why not try My Inner Life? There's already sex five minutes in.
 
Sonic High School is a pretty ridiculous fanfic. BrendanielReads is currently on chapter 21 so far.
 
Closest thing to fanfiction I'll ever read is Paradox Interactive AARs. Those can be pretty well done, correspond to gameplay and I happen to like Alternative History anyway. Beyond that most fanfiction feels like it's at best lazy-writing: taking other authors content and story and inserting your own content and redaction and at worst is just plain awful (parodies excepted). The closest to that I can think of an exception for is a buddy of mine a few years back had an idea to do a fanfic of Stephen King's It that saw things from the perspective of Henry Bower's gang (no cliches of pornographic content or anything, more like the character's psychology). I love that book and I liked Henry's buddy Victor as a character so the idea kind of apealled to me. As time went on though he never got around to more than one chapter and didn't even bother publishing it. Guess I'm still in the camp of "fanfiction sucks."
 
I don't read fan-fiction, with a couple of bizarre exceptions (ask if interested, you'll flip your wig). I don't get why it grinds anyone's gears, though, it's super easy to ignore. I guess if you have a ton of friends who are constantly bringing it around, you can get tired of hearing about it, but can't you abruptly change the subject? Start talking at the top of your lungs about hockey? Or better yet, politely state that you don't want to talk about it?

It's writing on training wheels. People figure out authorial voice doing fan fiction. They work annoying kinks out of their writing. The fan fiction community is not shy about constructive criticism, and will tell you if your OC sucks, if you are indulging in adverb overkill, or whatever. People either go on to write 'proper' fiction or they don't. Either way, fuck it.
 
Alan Pardew dijo:
I only read fanfiction if it gets extremely popular or notorious.
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Same reasons here, just add if I think it's lulzy, basically shits all over other fanfics satirically, or just so bad/random it's funny. Besides the Kingdom Hearts fanfic I posted about Vanitas shitting out monsters at one point, another KH fanfic that I find to be kinda worth reading for its absurdity is Open When I'm Dead.

I can see the appeal in writing fanfics because it's easier to hammer words out on a keyboard than most other forms of "artistic" expression, though.
 
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