Comments | lenadances: Here's a meta question re: fanfic.

lenadances

Here's a meta question re: fanfic.

Aug 16, 2007 12:18

I am having a weird feeling about fanfic these days. I keep reading all this stuff that goes dramatically AU, and/or uses original characters, and I think, why the heck are we all still here? why still so dependent on other peoples' universes? I mean... so damn many of us are so damn good at this, sometimes a lot better than the source material ( Read more... )

Comments 9

noelleleithe August 16 2007, 18:38:53 UTC

I tried to do something similara few years ago and got no takers. The idea was to develop a web-based "series" based on an original concept and characters, with various writers doing each "episode" (and working together to develop the backstory, character bible, plot arcs, etc.).

I'd certainly be interested in it. I even still have the bones of things (mainly character sketches) from that previous attempt that might be able to be used. :)

loligo August 16 2007, 19:21:01 UTC

I might go for a free-for-all, Darwinian approach to it. Like, a bunch of authors each write a short story introducing a setting and its characters -- I might put some fun constraints on it, like "must be inspired by a prompt from the Cool Bits Generator. Then anyone can write any kind of follow-up they like to these original stories, with no consistency between the follow-ups required. Fanon would develop on its own as people kept the bits they loved and skipped the others. To keep people engaged, a contest aspect might be fun -- whichever fictional universe has the most stories and/or total words by some deadline wins!

Of course, people want to earn money for their original fic, but if a really awesome universe was spawned by a contest like this, there's no reason why the participating authors couldn't go off and write new stories set in it and actually sell those in other venues.

minnow1212 August 16 2007, 19:35:02 UTC

Hrm. Sounds a bit like the Borderlands anthologies/books that Emma Bull's Finder is set in.

se_parsons August 16 2007, 19:55:56 UTC

Thieves World ed. Robert Aspirin and

Heroes in Hell ed. various

are exactly the kind of thing you're talking about.

As, sort of, Freedom and Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust, which they wrote together as a series of letters.

I enjoyed the anthology series mentioned here a lot and they sold well because they went on for books and books.

So, yeah, it can be done. However, all the folks there were already published authors.

This is fascinating. jood August 16 2007, 20:43:35 UTC

For myself, I'm a fickle, reactive fic writer. I just wrote a wee George Weasley thing, and when I put it on my fic journal, I realized I hadn't published anything - not one word - in just over three years. Now I'm absolutely bursting with ideas and can't get them down fast enough ( ... )