Hiatus of my LJ hiatus.

[halimede]

I've had an original thought. I think. Maybe?

On The Difference Between Fanfiction And Original FictionOriginal fiction requires exposition about who these people are and what they are doing here, not to mention where 'here' is, and why I, the Reader, should care. Hopefully this information will be woven into the story seamlessly, but even so, a

Comments

[charlidos]

This hiatus of the hiatus is indeed of the good. :D

And I've thought about this too; fanfiction is indeed quite lazy, in a sense. I think about this when I read AU's, mostly, pondering whether this story would work just as well as an original story. But often, even then, there are a lot things that are presupposed. This is also very evident when one ventures into a new fandom, with only a limited knowledge of the universe they inhabit. It's quite interesting to reread a story later, when one knows a lot more, and see if the story seems different. I'm currently rereading the first Stargate: Atlantis story I read, and it's even better now that I actually know something about the characters...

But I know nothing about the actual writing process, as you know...

I hope you are well! :)

[halimede]

Lazy and impatient. ;)

I'm well, but really busy. I do have AIM on in the background quite a lot, so if you're on some night, do say hi. :)

[ephemera]

oddly enough, I think that that willingness of the reader to assemble the context from the story is why I sometimes have problems with fanfic ficlets not making sense to a fanfic reader who's not expecting to look for the clues.

[halimede]

Interesting. Care to illustrate with an (hypothetical or otherwise) example?

[ephemera]

arse - just lost the reasonably worded reply

[halimede]

When I've got more time to read around I'll take a look. I might go back and ask you *which* type of clues you find readers are less likely to pick up on in fan v. original fic. I'm curious because mostly I find fanfic to be far more terse and subtle than most original fic. I'm always surprised when I turn back to profic how in your face the explanations can be, without anybody apparently slapping the author for being too neon-sign in their description.

Show don't tell seems to have come to mean 'always imply everything obliquely, never just *say* it' in fanfic --which is a writing approach I like a lot, FWIW. But that's another thought. :)

fanfic v. original

[originalrahrah]

agree totally. the characters and their personalities are established if you are a member of any fandom. the deep porn voice and green eyes can belong to only one member of nsync.
that's why a ficlet or a drabble doesn't necessarily even have to mention names. just in depth descriptions of body parts. naked body parts.
enjoy hiatus.

Re: fanfic v. original

[halimede]

Well, only one unless they body-swap. ;)

What a lovely, lovely icon you have, BTW. :)

[withdiamonds]

When I start to write a story, it feels like I'm starting a new chapter in a book. A huge book, one that encompasses every story ever told about, for instance, the characters Justin, JC, Chris, Joey and Lance. AU, AR, whatever, all the stories are about the same characters and the reader already knows that. So, some things, like time and place, I have to establish, but other things, like green eyes and porn voices, I don't. I don't know that it makes me/us lazy, and it's certainly not just, hey, forget the story, let's get to the naked bits. But I know that when I read published fiction, I'm very impatient with exposition. In fact, fanfiction has spoiled me for a lot of mainstream literary fiction, and if I read books these days, they tend to be non-fiction.

And I hope JKR leaves all the exposition out of Half Blood Prince, because it's the same deal. I already know, you don't have to tell me again.

[halimede]

I don't know that it makes me/us lazy,

*reads own post over* Well, I never said it did. :)

and it's certainly not just, hey, forget the story, let's get to the naked bitsIt's a metaphor that gets kind of blurred by the visuals it calls up. In this case: Naked = established character stuff. My metaphors have that problem a lot, heh

[withdiamonds]

No, you didn't say lazy, but I've heard that before.

And, yeah, I know why exposition is there, it just feels clunky, especially in the Harry Potter books, but that's because I'm so very familiar with that world, between the books and the fanfic. Then, of course, there's the danger of conflating fanon with canon. Which makes the whole thing fascinating, I think.

[halimede]

We just like a 3-D, multimedia surround sound exposition EXPERIENCE that we don't get from a stand-alone book (movie, what-have-you).

Yeah, but it's not just about exposition, it's about starting from scratch or not. Of course fanfic has exposition too (and often handles it in a more seamless manner than most profic). But we often stay in the same fandom for years because we like reading about characters we know already, rather than starting from scratch with every story, every novel. Moving into a new fandom is exhilirating and can be fun, but I think on the whole fen like to immerse.