Three arguments (about fanfic) that I'm sick of seeing
I was reading a blog last night written and maintained by Lee Goldberg (I initially didn't know who he is, but in reading I discovered that I've seen a lot of the shows he's worked on and heard of two of his novels before). I was cruising the fanfiction tag of his blog (spoiler: he's not a fan of it). While there were certainly posts that I agreed
( Read more... )
One of the really crazy things with the whole "if you want to be a real writer..." argument is that there are so many things out there that are officially published (albeit cleared/approved) fanfiction! Star Wars and Star Trek anyone? Halo, Warhammer, Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Man from UNCLE, and a ridiculous long list of others? What about all the things paying tribute to other works? And if fanfiction is chastised for being "unoriginal" then I want someone to show me hard evidence that everything else they enjoy is even 90% original! There are archetypes and story structures that have been used billions of times. Are they all good? No. Are they all awful and should be avoided like the plague? Hardly! Story elements usually endure because it's struck something in the author (and/or the audience) and keeps perpetuating.
I write because I have always loved to imagine the what-ifs. I've been writing about my favorite characters since I could make up sentences on my own and come up with some semblance of a storyline. Somewhere in my mom's basement are short illustrated stories I made in first and second grade with Redwall characters.
I don't expect the original creators of the source material to scour everything and rather hope they don't read much fanfiction of their things - for a huge variety of reasons - but I think everyone needs to chill out and decide that hey, to each their own.
(Whew. I haven't talked about these arguments in ages, lol. Guess I had stuff to get off my chest!)
Reply
Yes yes YES!
Lee Goldberg mentioned in his blog that these pro-fics are TOTALLY DIFFERENT because they contribute to the universe rather than rehashing it. My initial reaction to this is to laugh and then call bullshit because, well, I've read a number of novels for TV shows (namely Smallville and The X Files, with the odd Buffy or SPN novella thrown in), and in my experience they vary from being bland re-hashes of episodes, to bland gen fic that really doesn't contribute anything. There are of course exceptions to this, just like there are exceptions in fanfic. And you are right - a lot of stuff now is based on earlier texts, or adding 'a new twist!' on the canon. The big difference between Superman fanfic and Smallville is that DC gave Smallville the thumbs up and the show made some people a lot of money (and, you know, the show being a show and not being the written word etc).
I also think that all of those texts that you've mentioned should be written by fans. I've seen comics handed over to someone who might be an up and coming writer, but if they just don't have an investment in the character, they're probably not going to be able to write the character in a way that I will like. And, tbh, fans have noticed this and are all through the industries now - fanfic writers who now write for comics or tv shows, fan artists that have been recruited off of DevArt. Please stop hating on us fans! We're everywhere!
I agree with aaalllll of your comment. I have never written to hurt anyone, or to take profit or credit for anyone, and the few times that I have written a story that wasn't for my own enjoyment it's been a gift for someone else. No one is ever going to be able to convince me that fanfic is a bad thing :)
Reply
Leave a comment