Jim Hines speaks about Fanfiction

[sartorias]

Over here at his LiveJournal.

The take-away is that writers write.

(Curiously enough I recently read a YA novel that converses with fan fiction, by Rainbow Rowell, called Fangirl.)

Comments

[amysisson]

I read Fangirl in 2013 too. I quite enjoyed it.

[amysisson]

Oh, except I really disliked the cover. I thought it was trying for a "chicklit" look and really missed an opportunity to showcase the fanfic aspect.

[sartorias]

Yes, the cover was utterly forgettable.

[estara]

The webcomic by the cover artist, Nimona, is excellent however. http://gingerhaze.com/nimona

[sartorias]

Yes, yes, exactly!

[kalimac]

Sure, fan fiction can be good, bad, or indifferent, just like any other fiction. That a vast amount of it is perceived to be bad is due mostly to the low entry barriers. If an unknown writer posts a story about her original characters, perhaps nobody except her friends will be likely to read it. But if it's about Holmes or Star Trek or Harry Potter characters, then maybe a great number of people will read it, because that gives a starting point. (That's one way in which Jim is wrong: fan fiction can be easier to write. You have a ready-made set of characters and a milieu.)

My own objections to fan fiction have been grotesquely misread, but let's see if I can put them here with more success:

1) Publishing (not writing: publishing - and putting it on the open web is publishing) fan fiction based on the work of living authors who have expressed their disapproval of fan fiction of their own works, though perhaps not illegal, is stunningly rude and impolite towards the author whose work you love

[sartorias]

I enjoyed some Tolkien fan fiction back in the late sixties, when I was desperate for the experience to be renewed, and when I was a teenager, so my critical skills were even sparser than they are now. But I haven't read much since because yes, they don't have the Tolkien spark--I feel the same way about the published Jane Austen stuff. (None of which floats my boat, though I try them occasionally.) Actually, I've read much better Austen fan fiction than the published stuff

[lenora_rose]

It seems, as you say, decidedly more polite to leave an author's work alone if they publicly object. And there are certainly no words for being anything less than polite or kind to the creator of a work you care for enough to wish to riff on when they object to that particular form of appreciation. (There are plenty of reasons one could be rude to the creator of a work you admired, but they don't have ANYTHING to do with their policy on derivative works

[kalimac]

That's a very good point. What it really amounts to is that it's hard to do this well, and that's certainly true.

[breathingbooks]

I read Fangirl recently. Really odd absence of online community for the fanfic writing character.

[sartorias]

Well, the way they finessed that was having Cath have like thirty or forty thousand dedicated readers, so she barely had time to deal with comments, which eventually her sister takes over. But outside of that, Rowell presented her as very private, and almost pathologically guarded, so I bought the dynamic as presented.

[breathingbooks]

I bought the comment bit, but there was a reference she makes to back when it was just a group of fans writing Christmas stories or something for each other, and it seemed odd that she wasn't still talking with any of that implied small group, even if purely about fandom stuff. Also, I don't recall her reading fanfic in the story, which seems like it would have been an obvious choice for a stressed person seeking familiar comfort.

I didn't hate the book by any means - it just felt like it almost got fandom right.

[sartorias]

That is an excellent point about her reading fic.

[asakiyume]

I've seen a lot of interesting reviews of Fangirl (and what a great name the author has!)

I don't write fan fiction (though I enjoy reading it now and then), but keeping a blog is enough to make a person (me) aware of the huge addictiveness of instant feedback. Sure! That's great stuff!

Things like Yuletide are great (at least, they seem great from my vantage point on the sidelines)--I love the generosity of the people who do the writing and the happiness of the people who do the receiving.

[sartorias]

I agree about Yuletide!