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Hey, Answerman! [2007-09-07]

How much do you know about how research grants are funded? Due to the catastrophe brought by Nazi eugenics, such research plans never get approved and funded nowadays (no one dares to propose one anyway, for doing so would destroy his/her career for sure) because of their political incorrectness.

The industry IS actually doing what you think. If anything, titles that have mainstream appeal do get licensed first and have the most publicity. For example in the US, Naruto is a monster franchise right now, prolly on par with the popularity of Dragonball Z 8-10 years ago. If you notice, the mainstream titles usually get a hefty amount of the pie. So it's not unusual that the industry will cater to the niche fans next, although, backing a niche title has a much higher probability of failure. At best, it's a miss or hit. I mean people complained about the emerging popularity of BL (boys' love) genre in America, but all it did was make it bring more fans or whatnot. Although I'm waiting for the real opponent of them to come forth soon. Maybe it'll break the misconception that anime is not for kids but for anyone. It's a medium on it's own.

With regards to the fanfiction discussion going on right now, I have a few questions.

Now, I have never read fanfiction anime related or otherwise, nor do I think I will ever want to. As a result of this, my knowledge on the subject is quite limited. So, my question is, what is the big deal with fan fiction? Why do people like to read it and I guess to a further extent write it?

I know personally that I am not interested in reading something if it is not written and released by the original creators. Whether it's a Harry Potter or Star Trek fanfiction to any anime series I just don't understand to why someone would want to read something if it is not "real" and just written by fans. What's the appeal? Imagining your favorite characters doing things they would never do?

Throughout this thread, people have acknowledged over and over that 99% of fan fiction is crap, and that people just write it to hone their skills. But I just don't understand why you can't hone your skills writing your own stuff. What is the difference?

I agree that talent exists-I never said it did not. What I did say is it comes mostly from hard work, not genetic predisposition. And that's not my opinion, that's me going by scientific studies.

I don't want to sound like a smartass, but you are definitely mistaken in saying that the ability to write language is innate. It is just as learned as chess. Speaking is innate, writing is not. Learning to write paragraphs is no more innate than learning to write HTML. Once again, I'm not spitting my opinion, this is a fact and the main reason why it is so easy for kids to learn to speak but so hard to learn to read.

Don't misinterpret me and think I'm saying writing as an ARTFORM, or any artform for that matter, is some mathematical, cold process. Obviously, it takes creativity, wisdom and insight into human nature and life. And those can come in many ways, and do require more than just studying the technique of writing itself.

As someone who knows Misty and her husband Larry Dixon (actually, I knew Larry from his fannish activities long before I ever met Misty).

Ahhhhh. Fanfics aren't restricted to particular sexual orientations. And I would honsetly be surprised if homosexuals took up more of a piece of the yaoi fandom pie than straight fangirls did.

That's really weird. I think I've seen Larry Dixon on a comic book message board I frequent. I guess if you hang around enough nerd places, you'll run into the same people.

oslapedo wrote:

Ahhhhh. Fanfics aren't restricted to particular sexual orientations. And I would honsetly be surprised if homosexuals took up more of a piece of the yaoi fandom pie than straight fangirls did.

Well, my gay friend likes yaoi, especially Death Note and L.

And just to clarify, I really do mean my gay friend, not myself. I'm straight. I really do have a gay friend. Really. Dammit. People never believe you when you talk about a friend, do they?

Of course fanfiction isn't as complex. Your writing with someone else's characters. Thats why it bugs the hell out of me. I have spent countless hours revising and editing my own work, and it's disgusting that someone can take already established characters and say "Look, I'm an author too." Its beyond aggravating. Your just taking the easy way out. Anyone can write stories with someone else's characters, it doesn't take any talent.

The thing is... I believe zines have actually been dying out because everything is online now. So, unless the OP can look at that "business model" and come up with some approach that makes his plan better than what's come before, it'd be pretty likely to be a bust, too.

Personally, I see fanfics as 50/50. For every good one I find a bad one. I think that might have something to do with the genres I search for.

You've got to map out a plot to your story, you've got to figure out the best way to decribe the charcters so people can see them as you envisioned- it goes on and on. In my creative writers workshop we were given a list of chracters (from a book we had perviously read) and told we had to write a 30 page story based off these charcters (like we were writing the sequal to a book) conveying their personalities. In short- we had to write fanfiction based off another persons story.