@*&$(*#!.

[raisedbymoogles]

First thing that gets shoved in my face when I log in to LJ today: "Is fanfiction the lazy way out?"

No. No it is not. Fuck you, LJ.

Comments

[raisedbymoogles]

Of being a Real True Writer, presumably.

[raisedbymoogles]

This is a natural and understandable urge.

[gunmaxual]

Yes. Yes, it is. Fanfiction is the lazy way of reading a book. I can just sit here and access it for free, and I don't have to purchase anything on the vague, wistful hope that it's a genre/plot/character that I like. XD

[raisedbymoogles]

-well, there's that. XD

[seiberwing]

And fanfic tends to come with accurate ratings and warnings far more often, so I don't run into anything that'll bother me.

[__wilderness__]

Oh don't even get me started on that... I read the relevant post on that comm and just... don't...

I like it, and by jove, I'm going to carry on doing it. Regardless of what some authors may think.

(Besides, with a lot of the fanfaction, we're expanding on canon with characters that don't really have much background. So we're technically writing 'original' fiction like they want us to.)

[raisedbymoogles]

I don't fingerwag over their hobbies, dammit.

[seiberwing]

My favorite characters/canons to write for are the ones with minimal background and fleshing out. It gives me more room to play.

[niyazi_a]

I've lately taken the medievalists' view on this. Medieval lit is ALL fanfiction, of sorts. If you had to make something up, it was a sign you were too stupid and poorly educated to know the 'good' stories. So we have all these stories crop up about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. ALL of it is fanfiction. ALL. I feel in pretty damn good company with Malory and Chretien, then.

[raisedbymoogles]

...Ooh, I like that.

[seiberwing]

Midrash.

The rabbis of old used to make up midrashim, stories to explain things that happened in the Torah, many of which get confused with actual canon due to how well know they became. The rabbis were the first fanboys.

[raisedbymoogles]

*-giggles* *picturing rabbis collecting action figures now*

[vexed_artist]

...wat.

*goes to look*

......

FUCK OFF, WHINERS. I know fanfic writers who turn out stories that are better, and more creative, than 90% of the sloppy, formulaic crap that's on the bloody market! Just because they're not using their own material 100% of the time doesn't make them lazy, you bunch of obnoxious, elitist, self-absorbed fucking hypocrites! (Yes, I'm looking at you, ANNE RICE, Mrs. "All I write anymore is Bible fanfic!")

I couldn't care less what Martin or Card think. They're both a couple of vile, bottom-feeding hacks and I would be perfectly happy if both they and their vicious attitudes vanished off the face of the planet.

At least Rowling and Stross are reasonable (and Stross is rather funny, too.)

[raisedbymoogles]

I was in the bookstore today and I swear the scifi/fantasy section has been reduced to about four samey-boring plots across the board. And yet this is what sells, so maybe originality is overrated. All I knew is, I was more bored with two shelves full of original writing than I would've been with a page full of fanfic.