An Experiment

[dawn_felagund]

Over on heartofoshun's journal, Oshun, pandemonium_213, and I have been talking about the experience that is posting to Fanfiction.net. I haven't posted there in years. Once upon a time, the ability to reach a very broad audience (who might not be inclined to read on a Silm-only archive like the SWG or even a Tolkien-only archive like MPTT or HASA) appealed to me. I quickly

Comments

[lanyon]

I deleted everything from my ff.net profile about five years ago, if not longer (apart from one story), because those muppets at the PPC annoyed me.

[just_jenni]

Ff.net! Haven't thought about it for years! I did start posting some stuff there and it was interesting to read the different reviews. Maybe I'll give it a revisit. :) I've been thinking of rereading and perhaps rewriting some of the stories I wrote 5 or 6 years ago. Might be painful, though. :/

I don't know, I think now that comments like this are so personal for the reviewer and also in-the-moment. If the same person left a new comment a few years later it might be completely different because so much depends on the person's mood at the time and their personal life experiences.

I hate canon. Always have. I much prefer to change canon or the 'meaning behind what the deceased-now writer was thinking' (I mean, how arrogant) and allow my own views to take precedence. I think every one of us sees what we read in our own unique and personal way. I believe that all fan fiction writers should change canon to suit their own beliefs or comprehension of stories written by others. This type of fan fiction is MUCH more interesting

[pandemonium_213]

So I've decided to try an experiment. Although it seemed very cutting-edge at the time, AMC is a relatively tame story; I would certainly make different choices if I were to write it now (beginning with less adherence to L&C as a "canon" text). I think Hastaina is probably my most heretical story at the moment: It both directly challenges the "canon" and is likely to piss off the holy-rollers as well. So I'm going to post "Hastaina" on ff.net and see what happens. Will it get comments? What kinds of comments will it get? Will it be flamed? Will anyone "get" it? (It was well-received and many certainly "got" it on the SWG.)

Here it is. We'll see!

Ah! So the experiment begins! No nibbles yet, I see, but then you just posted it. I have to say, it's interesting to scroll down the list and see the other company Hastaina keeps. I see a few familiar names, e.g., kenaz, Gadira. I also see what I'd call "exploratory" fan fic that may just be written by young writers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. AT ALL. But I'll put my

[keiliss]

There was a general exodus happening from ff.net more or less as I started thinking of writing Tolkien, so I signed up there and promptly went away and forgot my password. I dunno, it's just never appealed. Strange reviews and flaming don't bother me at all - I have an inappropriate sense of humour for such things - but I write fan fiction because doing so makes me happy (when it works) and I'd rather stay in my little corner of the internet and post at SWG or OEAM. Having said that, I love your experiment and can't wait to hear how it turns out!

[silver_trails]

I wrote a long comment and LJ ate it. Anyway, what I meant to say was that writing in many fandoms is not sure sign that you are not a good writer. It can be read both ways. A friend in the old Vamp Chron fandom told me that if I was a good writer I would get over vampires at some moment. We were in a large community, read each other's fics and even had a vampire board where we talked to our "vampires". We even had a family, with a king and a queen. It was fun, but it died like all fandoms do eventually. The best writers there migrated to other fandoms.

Anyway, ffnn is not the best place to have a community. It's just a place where you can find fiction to read.

[dawn_felagund]

Quick note to say ... of course writing in multiple fandoms doesn't mean one is a bad writer! :) But when a reader has written 13 stories in 13 different fandoms and has 45 favorites in 45 different fandoms, it can explain why that person isn't familiar with the finer points of JRRT's "canon."

[silver_trails]

Oh, you are right about that. I agree. =)

My comment was longer, about how I think fandom works, and how I also think it changes with time.

I love SWG. I feel welcomed there. You are a nice host, and I get interesting comments, the ones that makes you think the stories are being read with care. I was also saying that I would love to have a place like SWG for my original fiction. (smile)