Fanfic Appreciation Week
This is Fan Fiction Appreciation Week, and purely coincidentally there has been a really excellent and wide ranging discussion of the subject on prime_liquor, the Poppy Z Brite fans' LJ community. There was a post in that discussion that expresses very well why we like it, or at least why I do:
scribbledaway
2005-03-06 13:35
I think one of the most basic reasons for writing fanfic. . . is probably because the fanfic writer liked a character or set of characters enough that they wanted to see them in more situations than their creator did. If you take Steve and Ghost as an example, with PZB having said that she's not interested in writing about them anymore, that leaves it up to the people who liked them to imagine their own scenarios. They may or may not choose to write these down, or share them with other people. I think any time you have characters that people identified with and really liked, be they fictional storybook characters or television characters or band members or whatever, you're going to get people spinning tales about them because they simply want to read stories about them. Or MORE stories about them.
Their creators having outgrown them or chosen not to put them in certain situations really doesn't mean a thing to people who want to continue the tale on their own.
Now that I've paid homage, in my last post, to the influence fan fiction has had on me, I'd like to talk about a few of the many people who've given me such pleasure.
BeElleGee was the first fanfic writer I ever read, soon after that first fateful Google. For me, it was immediate gratification, because she was writing the scenes I so desperately wanted to see, and writing them with skill and flair.
Once I'd thrown myself wholeheartedly into the world of fan fiction, I discovered so many other excellent writers. Every time I followed a link I discovered wonderful new worlds. I started reading in fandoms I'd never considered before. Miranda's Lost Souls fan fiction led me back to Poppy Z Brite's books after many years, reminding me how very much I liked the characters and wondering what PZB had been writing while I wasn't looking. She was writing things I'd really like, as it turns out. I'm totally hooked on her current series about two friends opening a restaurant in New Orleans.
I followed a link in an LJ and discovered Scribe, who writes excellent slash in several fandoms, as well as a couple of original stories which simply knocked my socks off: Child of the Night, an epic (but unfinished) slash retelling of the Dracula story, and her stories of Clive, the Leather Hairdresser. (Don't laugh! It sounds funny, but it's a great set of stories with a wonderful- and yummy- main character.) I've been happily exploring her site for a while.
In the slash vein, the lovely ladies at Infinitum are writers I always recommend to people. The three of them are amazingly prolific, writing in a wide variety of fandoms. I first discovered them following a link to a couple of Asher/Nathaniel stories, but once I explored their site I discovered all the other great stuff they do. They somehow have gotten permission from Anne McCaffery to write Pern slash (under specific author-approved guidelines), which they post on their Yahoo group. They also have several original series going, including a shifter series and a vamp series, that are just great. Again, very well written with characters you'll keep thinking about for a long time.
I first encountered Mhalachai doing drabbles for the ABVH 100 LJ community. Drabbles at their best are tiny gems, flashbulb illuminations of a character or situation, and that's what hers are. She also writes ABVH/BTVS crossovers, which I'd never been very fond of until I started reading hers. She has both the Buffy characters and the AB characters down cold, and they interact in most interesting ways. I do love writers who can make me forget my prejudices, and she does.
Sian has written a couple of the most emotionally gripping ABVH stories I've ever read, and some fun and sensual ones too. She's also the one who got me reading LOTR fanfic, which she also does really well- love those elves! And she's been an energetic leader in our community, keeping our enthusiasm alive while we wait for the next book.
Sian's beta Sabriel, who I first encountered on the Triumverate group posting a most insightful analysis of Anita's growth through the series, has only written one long fan fiction, along with a couple of shorter pieces for contests. But her story Consequences is one of the finest pieces of fan fiction that I've ever read. The characters are well defined and vivid, the writing is simply excellent, and the story takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster that leaves him feeling that he, as well as the characters in the story, has grown from the experience. And isn't that the mark of good fiction, fan or otherwise?
scribbledaway
2005-03-06 13:35
I think one of the most basic reasons for writing fanfic. . . is probably because the fanfic writer liked a character or set of characters enough that they wanted to see them in more situations than their creator did. If you take Steve and Ghost as an example, with PZB having said that she's not interested in writing about them anymore, that leaves it up to the people who liked them to imagine their own scenarios. They may or may not choose to write these down, or share them with other people. I think any time you have characters that people identified with and really liked, be they fictional storybook characters or television characters or band members or whatever, you're going to get people spinning tales about them because they simply want to read stories about them. Or MORE stories about them.
Their creators having outgrown them or chosen not to put them in certain situations really doesn't mean a thing to people who want to continue the tale on their own.
Now that I've paid homage, in my last post, to the influence fan fiction has had on me, I'd like to talk about a few of the many people who've given me such pleasure.
BeElleGee was the first fanfic writer I ever read, soon after that first fateful Google. For me, it was immediate gratification, because she was writing the scenes I so desperately wanted to see, and writing them with skill and flair.
Once I'd thrown myself wholeheartedly into the world of fan fiction, I discovered so many other excellent writers. Every time I followed a link I discovered wonderful new worlds. I started reading in fandoms I'd never considered before. Miranda's Lost Souls fan fiction led me back to Poppy Z Brite's books after many years, reminding me how very much I liked the characters and wondering what PZB had been writing while I wasn't looking. She was writing things I'd really like, as it turns out. I'm totally hooked on her current series about two friends opening a restaurant in New Orleans.
I followed a link in an LJ and discovered Scribe, who writes excellent slash in several fandoms, as well as a couple of original stories which simply knocked my socks off: Child of the Night, an epic (but unfinished) slash retelling of the Dracula story, and her stories of Clive, the Leather Hairdresser. (Don't laugh! It sounds funny, but it's a great set of stories with a wonderful- and yummy- main character.) I've been happily exploring her site for a while.
In the slash vein, the lovely ladies at Infinitum are writers I always recommend to people. The three of them are amazingly prolific, writing in a wide variety of fandoms. I first discovered them following a link to a couple of Asher/Nathaniel stories, but once I explored their site I discovered all the other great stuff they do. They somehow have gotten permission from Anne McCaffery to write Pern slash (under specific author-approved guidelines), which they post on their Yahoo group. They also have several original series going, including a shifter series and a vamp series, that are just great. Again, very well written with characters you'll keep thinking about for a long time.
I first encountered Mhalachai doing drabbles for the ABVH 100 LJ community. Drabbles at their best are tiny gems, flashbulb illuminations of a character or situation, and that's what hers are. She also writes ABVH/BTVS crossovers, which I'd never been very fond of until I started reading hers. She has both the Buffy characters and the AB characters down cold, and they interact in most interesting ways. I do love writers who can make me forget my prejudices, and she does.
Sian has written a couple of the most emotionally gripping ABVH stories I've ever read, and some fun and sensual ones too. She's also the one who got me reading LOTR fanfic, which she also does really well- love those elves! And she's been an energetic leader in our community, keeping our enthusiasm alive while we wait for the next book.
Sian's beta Sabriel, who I first encountered on the Triumverate group posting a most insightful analysis of Anita's growth through the series, has only written one long fan fiction, along with a couple of shorter pieces for contests. But her story Consequences is one of the finest pieces of fan fiction that I've ever read. The characters are well defined and vivid, the writing is simply excellent, and the story takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster that leaves him feeling that he, as well as the characters in the story, has grown from the experience. And isn't that the mark of good fiction, fan or otherwise?