condescending attitudes... grrr.
I started this posting the other day but forgot to save it... Wasn't going to worry about it but discovered it still annoyed me so that I'm going to re do the post and put it up.
In my newfound resolve to start writing again I had joined a yahoo group for writers to get some other encouragement and suggestions. This was Fantasy_Writing. At first they seemed to have pretty good thoughts, and as is typical for a yahoo group had a couple of folks that were regular posters.
A very shy newbie person posted and asked for general thoughts on whether writing fanfic or not was a good way to go. You would not have believed the ton of bricks that came down on this poor person. I have rarely been treated to such a stream of vitriolic attitude! Needless to say I could not in good conscience leave that where it was, so I posted my opinion that fanfic has its place as simple enjoyment for many or as a training ground if you wish.
Now of course the stream pointed itself toward me, and I was attacked (yes not personally but my opinion was entirely put down). Several people brought up the copyright situation which as far as I know is still not entirely settled in stone. Plus one person in particular was entirely scornful of any person that considered themselves a writer if they ever wrote fanfic. This person also stated that they must have no creativity or originality to do this kind of hack writing. I then pointed out that there are indeed some now professionally published writers that did start with fanfic, and that not all writers hate people writing fanfic in their universes ( yes naturally there are lots that do hate it). I also pointed out the numerous well known authors that have also written what is essentially professional fanfic, the adaptations, and original novels. Naturally this was also attacked and basically it was stated that any writer that did that was not really a writer.
You could see that the entire group basically shut down over this topic and several people were quite abusive toward fanfic writers. Personally if I was a moderator in that group I would have tried to squash some of this as this is a group to encourage people to write. Several of the posters with this attitude are very prevalent on the list, so I finally decided that I would just leave the group rather than try to read around the implied scorn in much of the postings.
Anyway, I just had to write that and post it to get my feelings out there. It's not easy to really keep in character, especially when its not one you've created. I fully grant that there is alot of BAD fanfic out there. I am glad of beta readers and wish there were more writers willing to take criticism and offer up their stuff for review, rather than for just posting some of the dreck out there.
Sigh, ok off the soap box-
In my newfound resolve to start writing again I had joined a yahoo group for writers to get some other encouragement and suggestions. This was Fantasy_Writing. At first they seemed to have pretty good thoughts, and as is typical for a yahoo group had a couple of folks that were regular posters.
A very shy newbie person posted and asked for general thoughts on whether writing fanfic or not was a good way to go. You would not have believed the ton of bricks that came down on this poor person. I have rarely been treated to such a stream of vitriolic attitude! Needless to say I could not in good conscience leave that where it was, so I posted my opinion that fanfic has its place as simple enjoyment for many or as a training ground if you wish.
Now of course the stream pointed itself toward me, and I was attacked (yes not personally but my opinion was entirely put down). Several people brought up the copyright situation which as far as I know is still not entirely settled in stone. Plus one person in particular was entirely scornful of any person that considered themselves a writer if they ever wrote fanfic. This person also stated that they must have no creativity or originality to do this kind of hack writing. I then pointed out that there are indeed some now professionally published writers that did start with fanfic, and that not all writers hate people writing fanfic in their universes ( yes naturally there are lots that do hate it). I also pointed out the numerous well known authors that have also written what is essentially professional fanfic, the adaptations, and original novels. Naturally this was also attacked and basically it was stated that any writer that did that was not really a writer.
You could see that the entire group basically shut down over this topic and several people were quite abusive toward fanfic writers. Personally if I was a moderator in that group I would have tried to squash some of this as this is a group to encourage people to write. Several of the posters with this attitude are very prevalent on the list, so I finally decided that I would just leave the group rather than try to read around the implied scorn in much of the postings.
Anyway, I just had to write that and post it to get my feelings out there. It's not easy to really keep in character, especially when its not one you've created. I fully grant that there is alot of BAD fanfic out there. I am glad of beta readers and wish there were more writers willing to take criticism and offer up their stuff for review, rather than for just posting some of the dreck out there.
Sigh, ok off the soap box-