The heaps and piles of badfic are proof that writing fanfic well isn't an art. There's no pressure to get well-established character voices and personalities right. Since every one of your readers knows these people better than most of their own family members, you can feel free to slop any old thing down and be loved for it. Yay! You can be lazy! It's what you've always wanted!
Woe to the author who has to write a new character any old way they choose with whatever dialogue pops to mind. If they only had to portray an already realized character their writing lives would be a piece of cake.
(ETA: that was my facetious voice. Hopefully that came across. :) )
But it's also true that fanfic writers can avoid creating new characters, and take advantage of an already existing base, people already like / dislike the characters, you can tap into those feelings without having to develop them in the audience first.
Fanfic is similar to writing a media tie-in story, there's already a base there, something to work from, which in an "original" story doesn't exist.
OTOH, you have less freedom to do your stuff, having to make sure you story makes sense within the confines of canon.
They're different skill sets, but the ability to write an "original" story appears to be more recognized/valued than the ability to play nice with other people's canon.
They're different skill sets, but the ability to write an "original" story appears to be more recognized/valued than the ability to play nice with other people's canon.
*nods*
I wish people would realise how hard some of this stuff is. (Mind you, writing in general, whether professional or ficcish, tends to be fairly undervalued by most people.)
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(If it makes you feel better, a few people have commented on that issue. I'll come back with links if I can find them again.)
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(Yay! Links!)
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Woe to the author who has to write a new character any old way they choose with whatever dialogue pops to mind. If they only had to portray an already realized character their writing lives would be a piece of cake.
(ETA: that was my facetious voice. Hopefully that came across. :) )
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And then I laugh evilly and mock all the professional writers, because I've got awesome banners, and I didn't even have to DO anything! Mwahaha!
Reply
But it's also true that fanfic writers can avoid creating new characters, and take advantage of an already existing base, people already like / dislike the characters, you can tap into those feelings without having to develop them in the audience first.
Fanfic is similar to writing a media tie-in story, there's already a base there, something to work from, which in an "original" story doesn't exist.
OTOH, you have less freedom to do your stuff, having to make sure you story makes sense within the confines of canon.
They're different skill sets, but the ability to write an "original" story appears to be more recognized/valued than the ability to play nice with other people's canon.
Reply
*nods*
I wish people would realise how hard some of this stuff is. (Mind you, writing in general, whether professional or ficcish, tends to be fairly undervalued by most people.)
Reply
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