Sickened Cynic Soaring Sadly
This rant isn't rhetorical. I'm making it public because I would really like some answers. Even if someone doesn't have an LJ account, feel free to post anonymously or something. Please. Also, if you missed the text cut, skip if rants annoy your socks off.
So, I just went into the One Piece fanfiction archives and looked at the reviews of a fic that ( Read more... )
LUFFY X OC. Everyone (who reads One Piece) knows Luffy's not a person to love anyone. I mean, not the way fangirls would like it. -pukes- I just seriously don't understand Luffy x OC unless it's a parody of some sort. Just putting this out there: My own OC was originally going to have a crush on Luffy because LUFFY WOULD NEVER NOTICE. It was going to be a joke that would have faded rather quickly, anyways.
I NEED to finish my LuffyxOC story, now that I know how to revamp and finish it. Basically, a girl who sells hats admires Luffy from afar, he finally stops by her hat shop and she offers to clean and mend his hat (he agrees only to mending the parts that absolutely need mending). In creepy OC fashion, she plots and plans to lure Luffy to her welcome mat, not inside her apartment, because ever since her parents died from a terminal illness, she makes sure that next-to-nothing changes in the apartment. She ends up feinting and wakes up on her parents' death bed and Luffy stomping around the house and raiding her kitchen. Shit hits the fan. Luffy leaves the island, OC stays. Implies at the end that the two will meet again.
Anywho, the theme of the story is about preserving the memory of a loved one, living or not. And the OC serves as a foil for Luffy's character. But my point is that a LuffyxOC can be done seriously if the story is treated as that:a story. That is, there's an actual point. Now onto the next.
Just today I was considering whether I should make my OC into a guy because guys in fanfiction - at least to me - are more readily accepted as decent characters. I mean really, who needs another female OC?!
While it is a good idea to keep the audience in mind, changing the character's gender because they may be "more readily accepted as decent characters" is not the best way to go. Write by how the character comes to you, not by how your audience will take it.
Or, maybe I just take fanfiction too seriously.
There's nothing wrong with wanting help the author's writing become better, because there's a good chance (as you've stated) that the author hasn't seen these mistakes at all. That and it gives the author a look at his/her story from a new perspective.
My take on fanfiction is that people will take it as seriously or as non-seriously as they like, and it's been like that for thousands of years. It's a way to use the imagination, and it doesn't bother me if 98% of fanfic writers (including myself) write inane, self-fulfilling crap. Cuz you know what? 98% of published fiction is inane, self-fulfilling crap. And a lot of good writers write shit. But if they didn't write shit first, then realize that it was shit, then they couldn't have found the good stuff either. Call it a necessary evil.
And, even after making, like, thirty corrections, I realized that if I had never proofread the fic it would have STILL been better off than a whole lot of the crap that people submit to the Internet, thinking that they're the best writer ever and dissing whoever dares to criticise their work!
So what if these other crap writers think that they're hot shit and that they are holier than thou? Listen, stay true to yourself and learn NOT to be like these arrogant assholes and you'll be happier for it. Just totally ignore them and--
FUCKER FUCKER FUCKER FUCKER FUCKER (clearly, I have my own issues to resolve, but you get the point).
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Anyone can get their ideas and work to readers.
Anyone can write a book and sell it and create their brand.
A self-published author can actually get financial success.
I mean, it broke my heart when I read 'anyone can write a book and sell it'. I was just thinking of all these fanfiction and forums 'authors', and thinking about what the reading world has in for it.
Self-publishing is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you can publish stuff that mainstream publishers won't publish, adding diversity to the market, and if you do well enough, you'll be picked up by a mainstream publisher. On the other hand, you can publish stuff that mainstream publishers won't publish because what you've written is fucking terrible and a waste of space in the span of literature, but you'll get picked up by a mainstream publisher if you do well enough.
Myself, I have no problems with self-publishing unless you're an arrogant brat who's parents' published your book for you (see above post).
Again, 98% of what is on the bookshelves is shit as it is. Some people are just more persistent than others.
Why is it that whenever an author on a mostly girls website such as fanfiction or the one I was talking about (No, it's not Neopets, but I DID used to go on there rather often. :P) is a guy, they are almost always really, really awesome with good ideas and realistic characters and do a good job with self-inserts?
Well, more girls=more chances of a hit or miss, mostly miss. Go on a guy's site and you'll see the same thing, only with guys sucking at it (and you think fangirls are bad? WOO-WEE wait until you see bad guy fanfiction. Again, see post above).
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The summary of your LuffyxOC story seems real interesting. x3 And, when you said "Implies at the end that the two will meet again", that seems like a rather canon idea. (Hasn't Luffy said the crew would meet whoever again at the end of basically every arc?) Either way, it has a theme, and isn't purely 'self-fulfilling crap'. Including a theme is going above and beyond for pretty much any free time writing, I think! xD
Thanks for the advice on my OC; "Write by how the character comes to you" is a nice thing to read (when it's not coming from someone who says something is a "loud of cow pie"). :)
And, the necessary evil of writing crap. That's a good point, too! But, seriously. You might want to get some of your problems about Chistopher Paolini resolved. Or, is it just the publishing of all his books that ticks you off? I read Eragon about four years ago, thinking the ideas were awesome, but the descriptions were waaay overdone. Eldest was over the top, though. At least three attempts at getting through that book, and I don't know if I've even made it to the half-way mark a single time. :\
Ohhh man. Now I'm scared to look at a writing website with mostly guys! Is there wet dream crap, basically, or... Wait a sec. Where does Christopher come into the badfic idea!? O__o Do I even want to know...? /)__= -massages forehead-
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Oh, and those ideas you thought were awesome? I can guarantee you they were ideas stolen by a) The Lord of the Rings, b) Star Wars, and c) The Legend of Earthsea. Hence why he is involved in the badfic idea. All he writes is bad fanfiction where he is the "hero." And you have not felt pain until you read Brisingr. But the reason why it annoys me so much is that it's just a bad, bad, BAD fantasy ripoff and yet he's famous for it. That and his parents published it through their publishing company, which I consider cheating. Well, not really cheating, but having your ego inflated for doing crap work.
Anywho, I hope the advice helps. It works for me (I think) anyhow.
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