thoughts on fan fiction

[aldecoary]

I saw that spotlight on the LJ homepage and had to follow it... How Authors Feel About Fan Fiction.I was surprised at how vehemently most of them detest fan fiction! Considering I did it for a couple years and found it a wonderful way to improve on/test out/practice some writing techniques, well, I was just really flabberghasted

Comments

[tawnykit]

Personally, there are two criteria that I consider necessary for being a true writer. The first is receiving your first rejection letter. (I've done that one! ;D) The second is having someone write fanfiction about your work. (Sub-criterion: having someone write slash fanfiction about your work. You know you're a success when the slash ficcers are all over your stuff! XD

[tawnykit]

Oh, and they quote Stephanie Myer and Orson Scott Card. The former is an awful writer and the latter is a homophobic twat. Therefore, article is null and void. ;)

[aldecoary]

LOL!

[aldecoary]

One down, one to go! :) Those two criteria = writer to me too. And a piece of fan mail would really mean a lot too!

Yup, very true!

Ohhhhh, now that makes sense. I understand the legal bits they were protesting now. And now that you mention that, I remember reading something about it a few years ago too--some author webpage I read that quite kindly asked readers not to send her fan fiction for that reason.

[garowyn]

That money bit surprises me, too - I don't write fan fic with the aim of making a profit, and it isn't making me a profit at all, so I don't see how they're worried about losing money. Like you said, who's going to pay to read fan fic (doujinshi is another issue)? :D I write it because it's fun and it keeps my writing technique in practice while I prepare in other ways for more original fiction. When (thinking positively here) I actually get published for real, I do plan to take down all my fan fiction from the Internet, but I'll keep it around at home for memory's sake.

Also, if I hadn't gotten into fan fiction, I would never have met such awesome people, like yourself!

[aldecoary]

I thoroughly and completely agree! :D

And so true--fan fiction did wonders for my social life! Probably did the most good my whole life, actually--where I actually went out and did the legwork of meeting people and forging friendships, not just meeting one person and thereby meeting thirty others by default. *ahemChristiancough*

Such great memories!

[garowyn]

^_^

"...not just meeting one person and thereby meeting thirty others by default." *laughs* :D

Indeed. ^_^