On Writing Fanfic Part 2 - Your Audience and You

[tsukinofaerii]

Last time, I harangued you endlessly about researching your canon. Rejoice, for that is the last you'll hear about research (for a while, mwahahaha). This time, I'm going to touch on something I don't really think that I've seen much meta on: the audience

Comments

[tsukinofaerii]

LJ is not giving me notifications. -.-*

Technobabble is amazingly useful, just as long as it's not too obviously made up. All the technobabble in the world will not make me believe water boils at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, for example.

[muccamukk]

All the technobabble in the world will not make me believe water boils at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, for example.

Actually, at the right air pressure, it will. -g-

[tsukinofaerii]

You just had to break my example, didn't you? (crosses arms and looks stern)

It was a silly analogy anyway, written by a silly person.

[tsukinofaerii]

Things Were Weird in the 90s
I think there should be a generic comics icon with that quote.

There should. There really should. It explains so very much.

♥ Thank you!

[tsukinofaerii]

XD LOL I will have to steal that when I have icon space.

... No, I need that now. (makes icon space and steals the blue one)

[cursor_mundi]

Any time someone has to stop and try to understand what you're writing, it's a moment they've lost their connection to the story. YES. It's true of every form of persuasive writing: once your audience pops up out of your grip, you've lost them. I always tell my students that academic writing is a form of mind control, and this is particularly true with creative writing.

[tsukinofaerii]

You even sold that one to me! Definitely, the goal of creative writing is specifically Total Immersion. There have been fics where I've come up out of them half-expecting the real world to mirror the story. There's just no better experience, IMO.

[cursor_mundi]

Exactly! TBH, this is in no small part why I am increasing disenchanted with a lot of the professional productions available out there these days, whether comics or novels or film. When folks who are paid huge gobs of money don't understand the basics of craft and expect an audience to just mindlessly consume the product, it's insulting, and also really obvious. There are some really awful fan products, yes, but a lot of really top notch material as well. 'S why I get into catch-match death fights with fellow academics about the merits of fan production. Usually, I can convince them, too. :D

[tsukinofaerii]

One thing about fanworks that I don't think a lot of attention is paid to is that they're actually throw backs to old fashioned story telling. We're so much closer to our audience, we adapt on the fly and we're rewriting stories that are often much older than we are. Fanfiction wouldn't have seemed out of place around the hearth a millennium ago. Where as "modern" story tellers have fallen into a much more capitalist style, with almost a production line sort of method. It makes me :\ because while the money is a valid reason too, it inevitably affects the results in the same way writing fanfic for reviews will.

Sturgeon's law is the only reason fabric is an overall lower quality than profic. Of course, getting some profic writers to agree...

[tsukinofaerii]

♥

TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.

This are Trufax.

[muccamukk]

LJ is being horrid about comments this week.

I think that the key to your third reason to write, which is why I write, is that you're sharing an idea. Or you need to say something about canon. Or that there's a story you want to tell. Even if it's just killing a bunny, you're killing it with purpose, and part of that purpose includes communication.

Which kind of lands you on point two whether you want to be there or not. To get your idea across, you need to communicate it effectively, and to communicate it effectively, you may need to work on your writing.

I flee in terror from writing books, but even so, I read essays like this online and metafandom and poke at ideas in my head. I pester my IM friends, and empoly betas. Because I want what I'm saying to mean what I think it means.

[tsukinofaerii]

It issssss. D:

Exactly! No matter what you do, it all comes down to conveying information. IMO, it never hurts to learn and expand a skill set, even if it's just casually and through practice. And, really, it's not like it's not fun to practice. If it is not fun, then Something Is Wrong. But when practice is fun, everyone wins. :D