Dec 14, 2009 08:34
I was checking the NaNo forums today (which is not new, I do that every day) and I came across the answer about fanfiction someone else had been screaming about in their own journal. Basically, person had been saying that they are against NaNoWriMo because they felt like the mods aren't doing anything for fanfiction writers.
Keep in mind, I'm not a big fanfiction writer/reader. I don't have many fandoms to begin with. The ones I have, I'd rather not get involved with crazy fans who first say "Everything must be canon!" (failing to mention that if something was canon for one episode only, you couldn't write about it) and then go off and write a piece that is completely backwards (with no warning of alternative universe or whatever). Fine, whatever, except that you really can't win with these people because not only do their opinions vary on how they should handle fanfiction whether they're writing it or someone else is writing it, even week to week (based on what the new episode showcases)they could change their mind. Point is, fanfiction is not for me. I'd rather create my own canon and then be forced to follow it. But, I think fanfiction deserves to be a genre of its own, because so many people write it.
This brings me to today's rant.
One of the suggestions in the "Site Suggestions" forum is for an addition to the genre-specific forums for fanfiction. Technically, NaNoWriMo is not for fanfiction. However, it has expanded so much that I see nothing wrong with making a section for people who write it so that they talk about it. The mods saw more of a problem with it. They said they're not looking to expand the genres right now, and if they did it would be more to break up the fantasy boards. They did not specify how, but I would assume there would be a board for traditional fantasy and a board for urban/contemporary. Okay, this makes sense. If you write one type of fantasy, you don't want to have to search through millions of threads of another type to get to information relevent to you. Fine, can't argue with that. The thing that bothered me was how they said "Right now, anyone who wants to talk about their fanfiction can take it to our Fans and Critics board, since it does have the term 'fan' in it."
I see something wrong with this reasoning. Fanfiction is a legit genre, first of all. You may not be able to get it published for money, but you can publish it online. People who write fanfiction can do as much research as someone writing original fiction. Just because you're writing with other people's characters doesn't mean it's easy writing. Second of all, this is just demeaning. I usually like and agree with the mods, even when I get the feeling they haven't actually read the original poster's suggestion or the whole thread (if it's a heated debate and they maybe caught the one potential flame-y post so they decide to lock the thread), but I don't agree with them on this.
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