Forum - View topicChicks On Anime - Fan Fiction (Part 1)
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
|
|||
|
Oh boy, I know what she's talking about when she says it's hard to keep up with LJ fandom. I just checked my profile--I'm watching 135 different communities. Really, I should defriend some of them, I think there's some I wouldn't go to much anymore...but it can be exciting to find a new community to watch...gaaah, oh livejournal, why must you be so massive and addicting?
As for fanfiction, I used to look down on it as something I "did when I was a kid", but a friend dragged me back into writing it by saying "But fanfiction needs more GOOD writers!" (Appealing to my ego always works.) I've actually found it can be a really fun way to explore questions series don't answer or different paths that could be taken. It was also a great way to get me back into writing, when I'd lost motivation to do it for so long. So in the end I view it as a good thing--although there's many, many bad fanfics out there. |
||||
|
||||
poonk
 Posts: 1490 Location: In the Library with Philip |
|
|||
And maybe my view of fanfics is skewed because I'm coming from the yaoi community, but female writers do write a lot of lemons also (yaoi ones, at least; don't know about het). |
||||
|
||||
Ai no Kareshi
 Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
|
|||
|
I honestly don't see much artistic merit in writing stories about other people's characters. Even if your fanfic is good (doubtful), it is wasted talent. I would much rather focus my energy into an original creation.
For instance, I firmly believe my sister has what it takes to be a good writer (inspired by Robert Jordan of Wheel of Time fame), but she insists on wasting her skills writing pointless fanfics about Athrun from Gundam SEED. If she were still a teenager, I could perhaps write this off as a "phase", but she's 25 years old... |
||||
|
||||
fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1820 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
|
|||
The line I usually got from pro writers (mostly working in comics) is that you should only do it if you get paid. Or stick to public domain source material (the original Oz books, for instance). Nothing wrong with writing for fun. Orson Scott Card had a bit on his website about how people were perfectly free to write fanfic based on copyrighted material; releasing it for public consumption (i.e., publishing) on the other hand.... |
||||
|
||||
|
trescaballeros
Posts: 71 |
|
|||
|
And yet I encounter another "stop wasting time on fanfiction and make originals". The word itself, "fan" fiction, is the point. If one is a fan of something, he or she would want to manifest it in more ways than one, and that includes writing fics. I don't see the rationale why there are people who look down on others just because they write fics. One can always write originals, but they won't necessarily be better than writing fanfics, because it will always boil down to the author's skills.
I do write fics, but only, and only if I really AM a fan of a title in question, because I don't believe in crack/speed fics either ...yes, canon follower here. And that's the same reason why I don't do slash and won't read them either. I have nothing against those who write it though, it's just my personal preference. |
||||
|
||||
Hikari06
 Posts: 55 |
|
|||
|
Nice article! (And so true.) Fanfiction isn't a topic one usually sees being discussed in-depth. And I completely relate in that I've looked at some of the fanfics I used to love and thought, "I liked that?? o_o" Also, this article made me remember how my best friend and I came up with a crazy Fushigi Yuugi fanfic idea in middle school (in which we "summon" Nakago to our world and try to reform him
 ) that I actually wrote out several years later for the hell of it (and to commemorate how long we've been friends). I'm not into reading fanfics much now, but I have many sugarcoated memories of the times I enjoyed it. ^^
|
||||
|
||||
Soul Tsukino
 Posts: 68 Location: Maine |
|
|||
So by your line of thinking cosplayers are wasting time by making costume of other people's design and fan artists are wasting their time by drawing pictures of other people's creations.
Because most of the lemons I've read were written by guys so there ya go 
When I do my fan fic panel at the local con I always tell people to write for yourself. Editorial comments are kay, and getting ides from others is fine. But ultimatly you should be the only judge of what you write. Want to write a self insertion? Do it. Want to do a mega cross over? Do it. Don't let others tell you what you should and shouldn't write like they are some sort of authority over you and your creation. Sure. I have preferences of what I like and don't like, but I'm not going to tell people they HAVE to write something a certain way becasue this idea is cliche, or this has been done before. And call me a writer who stands by there fics and are proud of them. Sure, Most of my characters were created by someone else. But you know, Naoko Takeuchi didn't sit down and write my series for me, Rumiko Takahashi didn't build my site and message board from scratch, neither of them were sitting there with my trying to come up with the concept for my next chapter or where to take the story next. I have put a lot of time and effort into my fan fiction series. Unlike fan artists I'm not selling anything, and unlike cosplayers I don't get my picture taken and stand up in front of thousands of people to be judged at cons. I do it to make me happy and I stand by it. |
||||
|
||||
stuckinfresno
 Posts: 223 Location: Fresno, CA |
|
|||
I can understand your frustration. However, I have to state that I avoid all OCs at any cost. (P.S. for the non-fanfic writers/readers OC=original character; Mary-Sue=annoying fan girl that falls for the anime/manga character in question) Generally OCs are Mary-Sues. That is harsh but sadly true. The same goes for self-insertion/writing yourself in. No one else gets it but the writer and his/her friends. We don't know you - and you don't bother to characterize. Thus we don't care. I really wish these would end. This is not to pick on EdoRocksMySocks writing style. I have no doubt that you can write a good fanfic in this area, but yeah I haven't read it yet - and I've given up. Moreover, writers in this genre generally tend to be young and crappy writers. They don't bother with things like spell check, or even make an attempt at grammer. I'm not saying that there are any good fic in this genre, but the bad outweighs the good so vastly that it makes you gag the minute you see "OC" or "Self-insert". I'll admit that I'm a canon particular. I find that it puts a bit of a challenge to the writing. Can you make character x work in this kind of situation with character y and have it make sense? Granted the situation is completely non-canon (hello yaoi), but it makes it more fun. It feels like it could be a part of the anime/manga universe. Next, I'll admit that I've written a yaoi fanfic. It is now buried in the even growing number of FMA fics, but hey it was some time ago when FMA was new. But I stayed in canon (as much as a yaoi fanfic can) and I received reviews from a number of good fanfic writers that agreed on this point. (This said, I'm still not convinced that it was a good fic, but what the hell it killed some time.) I've also beta (proofread) for some authors which was fun too. My only problem was that I had to read the fic update first (the authors were rather good) and then critically review. Back on track, thanks for the topic. I edgarly await next week's half of the conversation. There is a lot to be said about fanfics (both good and bad). Plus, Weiss hahaha. Oh man is that fandom practically yaoi only. But what do you expect with four pretty boys living together - really there was no way to stop it. |
||||
|
||||
britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
|
|||
|
Hooray for hearing something about Slash- it use to be my bread and butter, before yaoi came into my life. Duran Duran was a first for a lot of people- I started with Nsync. LOL. yes I admit it.
I was around 14 when I thought Jc and Justin were meant for each other; their boyhood friendship seemed to translate to something else on stage- I knew Lance was gay from age 13 but I still "loved" him. I also was/is into BSB with certain Nsync members..... Thats when yaoi came along. My friends and I were huge Gundam Wing fans; and we read a lot of fanfiction. One day I happened apon a story called Rubba Dub Dub Three Gundam Boys in a tub, and it opened my eyes. - LOL I'm sorry it sounds so serious and funny as hell but its true! I too wrote with sci-fi/history undertones. This has been a great memory brought back to my mind lol. |
||||
|
||||
Anime World Order
 Posts: 389 Location: Florida |
|
|||
|
I seem to be writing this same schtick over and over again, but I guess that's what it takes to get nutcase fringe minority viewpoints like mine out into the open. Thanks, Internet!
The problem with fan fiction is twofold. First, judging from online correspondence, panels, and all other metrics outside of reading every single fanfiction ever written (an impossible task), the overwhelming majority of fanfiction that is produced as well as consumed focuses HEAVILY on romance and/or sex, regardless of the nature of the original work itself. Look back at the column and the other comments in this thread: notice how easily people are willing to group fanfiction into either "het" or "slash" because that's what fanfiction focuses on. In the column itself, the best response offered to the hypothetical topic scenarios proposed was "oh, that's out there." Sure, ANYTHING conceivably exists, but the question is "to what degree?" In the grand scheme of things, there are far, far more genres and themes than "romance"; there's substantially more for characters to do than "fall in love/have sex with each other." Yet the supermajority of fan works habitually reduce everything down to just these elements and little else. This would all be easily ignorable on my part if not for the fact that fan fiction is NOT just fan fiction any more. Fan fiction and its readers/writers are now at the point where they can and do actually shape and alter the original works themselves; with anime and manga, add "doujinshi" onto the pile too. Original creators are fully aware of popular fan fiction trends and end up incorporating elements of them into the original property to keep the fandom appeased, and if there's any lesson to be learned from Gundam SEED: Destiny it's that there is very often a SUBSTANTIAL gap between what general viewers of a show want and what "the fandom" wants. I'm more than happy to follow the mantra of "if you don't like it, then ignore it," but with fan fiction being as immensely popular as it is combined with the fact that a substantially high amount of fan fiction pertains to "slash" or "het," it seems that there's no escaping its influence. I can't say I'm happy about the situation.
I should clarify that I wasn't actually meaning to single out YOUR post which immediately preceded mine so much as the entirety of the thread; I've slightly altered the text of my post above to suit. That said, I've gone ahead and cherry-picked sentence fragments from your post to make it seem like you just made my point for me, as it can make me say "ha HA! You see? I WAS RIGHT AND YOU JUST SAID SO." Last edited by Anime World Order on Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
|
britannicamoore
Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
|
|||
|
Anime World Order
I should have been a little bit more clear with what I was saying. Sure het and slash are some of my favorites, but a many of my actuall stories I wrote were focused on sci-fi elements/history. One where the nsyncers were the son of the roman Gods; another where sora from from kingdom hearts falls into a different worlds and times...I digress. Fanfiction isn't always slash or het; there use to be a lot of G or PG stories on FF.net that were non-romance. I know some very good male fanfiction writers, several who do some damn good Pokemon stories. But you have to remember that many of the writers out there are female. To fall in love is a huge things especially for girls in their teens. Some girls like yaoi and seeing two guys kiss and pointless sex. Most of my stories always built up to the sex, m/m f/m etc...and you'd probably not even notice that part of the story with the rest. There are some greta non-slash stories out there. give me a fandom and I can probably get you a non slash story. I just grew out of Pokemon fanfics myself, now they all focus on ash and may and I hate may lol. Besides it could be worse. You could cross into the best idea of my- I mean crazy mindfart what the hell was I thinking?!! I had a few years back....and please don't judge my writing on that story. It might be the worse story i've ever written. If you click that link you might read something you'd rather not. Watch out, slash?yaoi? its ahead. |
||||
|
||||
skyler25
 Posts: 59 |
|
|||
|
I have always written fanfiction with a sense of guilt. Like I should be doing something else with my ability to write, like writing something original instead of stealing someone else's ideas. I couldn't even argue that fanfiction was the only place that I could write slash, because I didn't like slash. I still don't. In fact, as a teenage girl, the only kind of romances that I'm interested in reading are straight and... shoujo-ai (non-slash).
If you want to read mine, go ahead, click here. But please don't judge my writing skills on my story, especially the Kingdom Hearts one, which I wrote over three years ago (when I was 10). And the When They Cry one, it started as a random idea and spiraled out of control; it's by far my worst one, but I keep it up there because my friend likes it 
|
||||
|
||||
konkonsn
 Posts: 172 Location: Illinois |
|
|||
|
Fanfics aren't a waste of time. If you're a budding writer, they teach you the basics while eliminating the more frustrating parts that often deter those starting the craft. Most art books I've read tell new comic writers to trace or copy styles they already like. I don't see why writers have to be different...
And for those who don't want to be writers, it's a great way to make an easy story when you have the time. As far as all the slash/yaoi/het stuff going on, I'm currently reading a book about sexual fantasies that may apply. It's called Whose Been Sleeping In Your Head: The Secret World of Sexual Fantasies by Brett Kahr. It's got a European bent on psychology, and the author is a psychotherapist (see Freud), but it's one of the more comprehensive yet understandable books on sexual fantasies in Americans and Europeans. Fanfiction, as far as I can tell, is sort of an extension of these private fantasies, so you could see where the two interact. |
||||
|
||||
marzipan.dragon
 Posts: 70 |
|
|||
Heh heh - having been one myself, I can understand why you might feel this way. 
Re Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran - "For his wedding, he was wearing a powder pink tuxedo with a top hat, and more make-up than his wife." I remember seeing pictures of that, and yes it looks like it was designed by Oguie (..see Genshiken 2 episode 5..) The pink, the pink!
A few years ago I didn't get fanfiction. At all. For many of the reasons previous posters have mentioned. One good rec[commendation] later - the floodgates have been opened. I'm amused by the uneven-ness of the writing in the strange and wonderful world of fanfiction: it's such a treat to find a diamond amongst the dreck, and make no mistake some of the writing is as brilliant and rare as the cliched gem. Even so, whether someone likes the genre or not often comes down to taste (or the lack thereof...). I haven't read much lately, but I'm looking forward to reading some of Natalie's works - 'Sakura and Snow' looks so very familiar, I think I must have read some of it way back when. I'll be looking for Part 2 next week - thanks for an interesting article and discussion. 
|
||||
|
||||
|
Dahling
Posts: 49 |
|
|||
|
Lol, after reading the newer comments I felt like I had to post again. Yes, the super rambler is back!!!
First, I just HAVE to post my feelings on OCs and MSs. And I have read all that I can on the subject, I love learning about it! Speaking as someone who, as previously mentioned, makes a LOT of her own characters they aren't all bad. I completely understand the people who say that most are Mary-Sues, but that doesn't mean you should turn your back on them completely! It almost bugs me that people slam on them so much and once they find out the story has a made-up in it they'll hightail it outta there! I have put up stories of my own on fanfiction.net, two of them that I have since taken down, and the people who actually read what I had said they enjoyed it. I only had one negative review, a pointless flame by a coward using a side account so as not to be flamed himself. Sorry if I sound like I'm saying my work is great, I never thought I was ANY good, at all, until the past year or so when I've been more serious. This brings me to my second point; the so-called lack of creativity amungst fan fiction. True, every single person has mentioned this, 'if you're so good why not make an original story?' Because you're writing this for the fun of writing and just wish to share this with other fans, not a slew of critics and publishers in real life. Honestly I pride myself on the dedication I put in my fics, I may not be the best writer or anything along those lines but I will scour the web and the series trying to track down a single detail for a character or plot point or anything. Once again, I'll admit that I don't read much other fan fics myself, but if someones recommends one to me (as in 'I found this great fic, you should check it out!') I'll as least give it a try! I'm not sure what the point of this is, basically it's some things I didn't get around to saying in the first post. Like I said before, if you've read this far thank you and good night! |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group