Yay rant.
I realize that I'm taking a big old stick to a big old hornet's nest here...but I'm a-gonna do it. So here goes:
Why do people take fanfic so seriously, so seriously that they have to rant/complain about it? (And yes, I realize that I'm ranting about it here, myself. *pops sticker on forehead that says, "Hypocrite!") This is a question that's plagued me...well, since I was about 12, really, but it's only intensified since the advent of the Internet, since it's become so easy to "publish" fanfic and also so easy to publicly rant about fanfic.
Regardless of format, though, the complaints always seem to be the same. If people aren't bitching about Mary Sues, they're complaining that no one writes the characters the way that they want them to be written. And if they're not complaining about that, they're complaining that slash hurts their eyes and destroys fond childhood memories or they're complaining about any number of other things.
I think people have lost sight of the fact that fanfic is generally written by people who don't know what the heck they're doing when it comes to effectively writing narrative. As such, it is generally going to feature spectacularly crappy writing. There are exceptions of course, but to expect high art from fanfiction is like expecting your average 10-year-old to produce Rembrandt-like artwork. Seriously. I also think people have lost sight of the fact that fanfic is all, every last bit of it, wish-fulfillment, at least to the extent of a fulfilling a, "Gee, I wish they'd done X on the show" wish. It's also about fantasy-fulfillment. As such, things like Mary Sues and self-insertion and all those other cliches that people endlessly rail about are going to prevail in fanfiction. You will have to search to find fanfiction that isn't that stuff.
And no one is immune, either. I will not be falsely humble and say that I don't write well. I write well because I've put effort into learning how to do it. But you know what? I write fanfic for fun. If I wanted to be arty and snooty about writing, I'd pull out my inner Steinbeck and write stultifyingly boring epics like The Grapes of Wrath. No, I want to have fun. So, I write, for instance, a story about a barely-disguised me who dies, gets stuffed in an Autobot body, and then gets to get it on with Prowl, who happens to be my Autocrush. Or I write a novella that is essentially Starscream-as-a-barely-disguised-metaphor-of-me-in-my-20s.
Cliched? Darn sure tootin' it is!
Do I care? Honestly? ...No. I'm not going to get uptight about writing something that I enjoy, and I apparently enjoy cliches just fine. Sue me.
And you know what? I extend the same courtesy to everyone else. They can write what they want to write. If they make an effort to make it reasonably correct in terms of mechanics and reasonably entertaining in terms of writing creatively, I'll probably enjoy it if I read it. In return, I write what I want to write, whatever the mood inspires me to write, and I don't worry too much about what other people will think about it. It's fanfic. That's how it's supposed to be. The more I dink around the Internet, the more I realize that people seem to have forgotten this and the more it irritates me.
If people want art, they shouldn't be reading fanfic. If people want characters written the way they think they should be written, then they need to write fic themselves or commission someone to write a fic as they want it written, like hiring a ghostwriter. If people don't like slash, they should just not read it and let the slashers go on about their perverted, merry way. :) Why is this so difficult? Why must there be all this ranting and whining?
Maybe this is why I've felt more of an urge to do "art" than to write lately...
Why do people take fanfic so seriously, so seriously that they have to rant/complain about it? (And yes, I realize that I'm ranting about it here, myself. *pops sticker on forehead that says, "Hypocrite!") This is a question that's plagued me...well, since I was about 12, really, but it's only intensified since the advent of the Internet, since it's become so easy to "publish" fanfic and also so easy to publicly rant about fanfic.
Regardless of format, though, the complaints always seem to be the same. If people aren't bitching about Mary Sues, they're complaining that no one writes the characters the way that they want them to be written. And if they're not complaining about that, they're complaining that slash hurts their eyes and destroys fond childhood memories or they're complaining about any number of other things.
I think people have lost sight of the fact that fanfic is generally written by people who don't know what the heck they're doing when it comes to effectively writing narrative. As such, it is generally going to feature spectacularly crappy writing. There are exceptions of course, but to expect high art from fanfiction is like expecting your average 10-year-old to produce Rembrandt-like artwork. Seriously. I also think people have lost sight of the fact that fanfic is all, every last bit of it, wish-fulfillment, at least to the extent of a fulfilling a, "Gee, I wish they'd done X on the show" wish. It's also about fantasy-fulfillment. As such, things like Mary Sues and self-insertion and all those other cliches that people endlessly rail about are going to prevail in fanfiction. You will have to search to find fanfiction that isn't that stuff.
And no one is immune, either. I will not be falsely humble and say that I don't write well. I write well because I've put effort into learning how to do it. But you know what? I write fanfic for fun. If I wanted to be arty and snooty about writing, I'd pull out my inner Steinbeck and write stultifyingly boring epics like The Grapes of Wrath. No, I want to have fun. So, I write, for instance, a story about a barely-disguised me who dies, gets stuffed in an Autobot body, and then gets to get it on with Prowl, who happens to be my Autocrush. Or I write a novella that is essentially Starscream-as-a-barely-disguised-metaphor-of-me-in-my-20s.
Cliched? Darn sure tootin' it is!
Do I care? Honestly? ...No. I'm not going to get uptight about writing something that I enjoy, and I apparently enjoy cliches just fine. Sue me.
And you know what? I extend the same courtesy to everyone else. They can write what they want to write. If they make an effort to make it reasonably correct in terms of mechanics and reasonably entertaining in terms of writing creatively, I'll probably enjoy it if I read it. In return, I write what I want to write, whatever the mood inspires me to write, and I don't worry too much about what other people will think about it. It's fanfic. That's how it's supposed to be. The more I dink around the Internet, the more I realize that people seem to have forgotten this and the more it irritates me.
If people want art, they shouldn't be reading fanfic. If people want characters written the way they think they should be written, then they need to write fic themselves or commission someone to write a fic as they want it written, like hiring a ghostwriter. If people don't like slash, they should just not read it and let the slashers go on about their perverted, merry way. :) Why is this so difficult? Why must there be all this ranting and whining?
Maybe this is why I've felt more of an urge to do "art" than to write lately...