I agree that on a rare occasion, I did something really awesome in my fics. I was particularly fond of plottwists. Sadly, the writing itself was... horrible. I think, if I were to try the same story again now, it'd come out much better. (Not to mention different, because the characters would actually behave IC)
I wouldn't return to fanfic writing, though. I do love the words "I love your portrayal of character X", but that's why I roleplay now. Less effort, but you still get to do the fun plottwists and generally play around with the character. You can stil pour your heart into it, ya know?
I definitely enjoy roleplay, and I still do it. Largely, that substitutes for fanfic and provides a social element to creativity. There's just an appeal in telling a complete story and having total control that I miss.
Some people enjoy reading roleplay logs, but most, myself included, don't care a whole lot about it when they aren't personally involved. Fic-writing is a different medium. The writer is the storyteller, and the reader is the audience. There isn't such a separation between the two in roleplay. You don't have the opposing mindsets of "I'm here to entertain" and "I'm here to be entertained."
Hmm... Well, RP logs are just limited between the two (or more) characters participating. They aren't really meant to entertain readers, just develop the characters in question. I think that's the main difference. Still, I myself don't particularly care about entertaining others. I RP because I want to have fun myself. I guess that's why I don't miss fic writing.
As for the lack of control... Well, I've learned to live with it. There are still a few things you can get away with in RP and I just exploit those instead.
Plants, universes, and people are all things that grow, and you're showing growth. You could return to fics if you wanted, but it would need to be because it's something you enjoy. Plus, bulls***. You know I think you're the best writer I've ever met in person (except for Michael Chabon...he was a unique individual *cough*namedrop*cough*). I don't tell you this very often because you haven't graded my "I know Kai" quiz yet. But I mean, I think the longest relationship I've ever had is with your blog. So...keep it up.
I let this response sit for about two minutes and decided I didn't like it, so I deleted it to rewrite it much more concisely.
You can think of "fanfiction" like you can think of the term "romance". You can have a Romance Novel, that is, a novel with a loadful of cliches about molten sapphire eyes and sex and dark angsty men, or, you can have a novel that happens to have romance. There are plenty of novels that happen to have romance that are good. Heck, most classics (off the topic of my head, Scarlet Letter, 1984, everything Shakespeare wrote) have some kind of romance in them, because it's a large part of human existence. We procreate, man.
In the same way, I think before anyone really has a serious talk about it, we need to define "fanfiction".
Amusingly, dictionary.com has an entry on fanfic but not fanfiction (it says "see fanfic").
I think it's very important for everyone to feel very validated in some part of their life. For me, it's academia. For you, it's fanfiction. Neither one is better than the other, and it's important that you do the thing that you feel like you're good at. And if it's not fanfiction, it can be anything else. But everybody has to have their happy place, that one thing that doesn't go wrong, even when everything else in life does.
That said, I think you're really great at a lot of stuff, and am pleased to have had you as a friend. Maybe we don't say it enough, but it's true.
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I wouldn't return to fanfic writing, though. I do love the words "I love your portrayal of character X", but that's why I roleplay now. Less effort, but you still get to do the fun plottwists and generally play around with the character. You can stil pour your heart into it, ya know?
That's basically my thoughts on the matter.
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Some people enjoy reading roleplay logs, but most, myself included, don't care a whole lot about it when they aren't personally involved. Fic-writing is a different medium. The writer is the storyteller, and the reader is the audience. There isn't such a separation between the two in roleplay. You don't have the opposing mindsets of "I'm here to entertain" and "I'm here to be entertained."
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As for the lack of control... Well, I've learned to live with it. There are still a few things you can get away with in RP and I just exploit those instead.
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You can think of "fanfiction" like you can think of the term "romance". You can have a Romance Novel, that is, a novel with a loadful of cliches about molten sapphire eyes and sex and dark angsty men, or, you can have a novel that happens to have romance. There are plenty of novels that happen to have romance that are good. Heck, most classics (off the topic of my head, Scarlet Letter, 1984, everything Shakespeare wrote) have some kind of romance in them, because it's a large part of human existence. We procreate, man.
In the same way, I think before anyone really has a serious talk about it, we need to define "fanfiction".
Amusingly, dictionary.com has an entry on fanfic but not fanfiction (it says "see fanfic").
fan⋅fic ( ... )
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That said, I think you're really great at a lot of stuff, and am pleased to have had you as a friend. Maybe we don't say it enough, but it's true.
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