Library Day and Fan Fic Thinky-Thoughts

[lyda222]

Remember when I had to take my car into the shop and I spent the day at Ramsey County Library? Well, Mason was wildly jealous, and has been bugging me to give him a "library day." Today, is library day for us. Mason is off for the month on Intersession, so we're going to head out as soon as the library opens around 10 am and make a full day of

Comments

[seawasp]

Well, I've always had *some* group of people that wanted to read anything I wrote; people on Usenet would often comment they wanted to read any stories I chose to write, and several of them really, honestly meant it. Eventually my more interested fans became my own beta-reading group, which has been invaluable in the development of my stuff.

But I honestly don't see ANY difference between writing fanfic and writing original fic, maybe because I don't think anything I write is much more original than my fanfic. It's just me having fun. Fanfic has the advantage (and major disadvantage) of having a large established set of people who know all the background, etc.... and the major disadvantage of having no market. "Original" fiction has the disadvantage that I have to tell a reader everything up front about the world, but the advantage that the geeky fans can't argue with me about what really happens in my own world, and that I can get someone to pay me for my original stuff.

[lyda222]

Well, I'm not actually trying to talk which is better, fan fic or original fic or which is better because you can sell it, just how the reading of either of them is perceived by their prospective audiences

[seawasp]

Beta and Critique are the same thing to me. They read the stuff as it comes out, one chapter at a time, and let me know when I'm missing something... or when I'm hitting exactly the mark I want. Some of them go back after the thing's finished and give their reactions of reading it in one go, too.

On average, I get five to fifteen responses on each posted chapter, I would guess. Some get only one or two, others have had many discussions going on in the comments.

I don't do "drafts" in the conventional sense either; the only real re-writing I do is either very early (figuring out the right start for a hard-SF novel, for instance) or long after submission, when the editor says "you need to change X, Y, and Z" (and assuming I agree with him or her).

So it may be that my process is sufficiently different from yours that I'm not understanding what you're looking for.

[lyda222]

Wait, you post your original fiction for critiqu? Okay, no, I don't do that. I've never tried that. Maybe I'd get a better response, if I did.

I do do drafts in the conventional sense. Which is to say mostly on paper; I just hand out my work in process to my writers' group as a step along that way.

I do a very different thing with my fanfic, and that was waht I was discussing. So maybe I missed that you said that your process is the same. I did't get that. Sorry.

[haikujaguar]

I guess it's like new relationships versus old ones. You've already got friends you adore and friends you enjoy hanging out with, and acquaintances. Whether you're eager to make new friends depends entirely on your personality, energy level and where you are with your other relationships. -_-

[lyda222]

Yeah, except I've been a member of Wyrdsmiths for WELL OVER A DECADE. This isn't a new process for any of us, in terms of reading each other's draft original ficiton pieces.

I STILL GET A FASTER RESPONSE from fan friend I've only just met.

That's what's interesting to me.

[haikujaguar]

Oh! I didn't mean the writers were friends. I meant the stories were friends! And you can already have a long-running relationship with Honor Harrington and Anita Blake and Laurence and Temeraire and think, "You know, I'm full up, social calendar-wise, I'm not sure I can handle yet another serious relationship." But then sometimes you think, "But you never know who you're going to meet if you go looking..."

[lyda222]

Ah, your metaphor! It alluded me! Perhaps I'll have an epiphany about it. :-)

Seriously, it's a good metaphor, even if I didn't get it the first time around, and actually, I think you're absolutely right about it.