67 replies to this topic

[ciardha]

No. It's that I like the discipline of writing fanfic. I believe in writing the characters true to canon and starting a story from a story canon time and place. I spend a lot of time researching details when I write fanfic the same as when I write essays or original fiction works.

I consider writing fanfic as honing my ability as a writer. I've noticed the reviews that I've recieved on my stories now say things like "this is like professional writing" which feels really wonderful to read and makes me feel I'm ready to do another original work.

[Sakamaki Izayoi]

No. It's that I like the discipline of writing fanfic. I believe in writing the characters true to canon and starting a story from a story canon time and place. I spend a lot of time researching details when I write fanfic the same as when I write essays or original fiction works.

I consider writing fanfic as honing my ability as a writer. I've noticed the reviews that I've recieved on my stories now say things like "this is like professional writing" which feels really wonderful to read and makes me feel I'm ready to do another original work.

Yeah but this type of writng short stories and details already conceived..
But why not do a book with a different story based off on a similar world like Naruto's would be a nice book but it take a lot of time to finish so it's easier to make short stories with a world already conceived, i think is you're wasting off your talent.

[tricksie]

No. It's that I like the discipline of writing fanfic. I believe in writing the characters true to canon and starting a story from a story canon time and place. I spend a lot of time researching details when I write fanfic the same as when I write essays or original fiction works.

I consider writing fanfic as honing my ability as a writer. I've noticed the reviews that I've recieved on my stories now say things like "this is like professional writing" which feels really wonderful to read and makes me feel I'm ready to do another original work.

I agree completely. Each chapter I try to work on different aspects. Descriptive details, good fight scenes, suspense, intimacy. And I have a few stories in the hopper that I am trying to work on good plots. So my fanfics more closely resemble a publishable work, instead of just fleshed out ideas.

I don't care for the 50 shades of Twilight either. Although kudos to her for using fanfic as her platform to mainstream. I'm sure it will be an inspiration to other writers. So there's no downside to that. (But it really is dreadful otherwise, in lots of different aspects.)

Have you read "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer? It's a steampunky Cinderella novel. I'm halfway through, and I really like it so far. Marissa Meyer wrote Sailor Moon fanfic before publishing. I think her book gives a better rep for fanfic-->originalfic writers than the 50 shades book.

@Dark - I understand where you are coming from, and that's a common thing I see. Why write about someone else's charaters when you could create your own?

But fanfic writing, for me, is a little like playing with paper dolls! I can enjoy just writing without having to worry about believable characters and backstories, etc. etc. etc., which can really take the wind out of your sails when you start to write an original fic.

Also, like ciardha, I enjoy writing for people who want to read it! Lol! Writing original fic is a lonely business, without much feedback up front. And only a wide audience at the end, and only if you're very lucky.

Fanfic is so different. It's fun, your readers enjoy it, and with each story you are becoming a better writer and more confident in doing your own original works. What's not to like about fanfic! Actually, I've thought for a long time that they ought to encourage fanfic writing in schools. I think kids would have an easier time getting started in creative writing with some sort of framework to build from.

And as for the idea that you are just copying someone else's work...there is a long tradition in arts and literature of using replication to hone your skills. Painting students are always in the biggest museums and galleries working on "copies" of the masters, trying to catch the brush strokes or subtle nuances in light and shadow. A common practice for editors is to write new works in the style of other writers, such as Shakespeare, Kerouac, Austen or Steinbeck. The idea is if you can convincingly write in their style, then you can pick out any writer's style and write in it. And as an editor, then you can go into a reporter's story and rework paragraphs or phrasing without it looking like two people have written in the story.

I think writing fanfic is the same. You are borrowing someone's mythology to help tell your own story. And, like ciardha, I like the challenge of changing plot details or character motivation and seeing if I can still keep the characters in-character and likeable.

And I'd be willing to bet that most writers have original fics bouncing around in their head. Fanfic is just a highly enjoyable part of that writer's mind.

Oh! And happy 20th anniv of writing fanfic! That's a wonderful accomplishment!

[Sakamaki Izayoi]

I agree completely. Each chapter I try to work on different aspects. Descriptive details, good fight scenes, suspense, intimacy. And I have a few stories in the hopper that I am trying to work on good plots. So my fanfics more closely resemble a publishable work, instead of just fleshed out ideas.

I don't care for the 50 shades of Twilight either. Although kudos to her for using fanfic as her platform to mainstream. I'm sure it will be an inspiration to other writers. So there's no downside to that. (But it really is dreadful otherwise, in lots of different aspects.)

Have you read "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer? It's a steampunky Cinderella novel. I'm halfway through, and I really like it so far. Marissa Meyer wrote Sailor Moon fanfic before publishing. I think her book gives a better rep for fanfic-->originalfic writers than the 50 shades book.

@Dark - I understand where you are coming from, and that's a common thing I see. Why write about someone else's charaters when you could create your own?

But fanfic writing, for me, is a little like playing with paper dolls! I can enjoy just writing without having to worry about believable characters and backstories, etc. etc. etc., which can really take the wind out of your sails when you start to write an original fic.

Also, like ciardha, I enjoy writing for people who want to read it! Lol! Writing original fic is a lonely business, without much feedback up front. And only a wide audience at the end, and only if you're very lucky.

Fanfic is so different. It's fun, your readers enjoy it, and with each story you are becoming a better writer and more confident in doing your own original works. What's not to like about fanfic! Actually, I've thought for a long time that they ought to encourage fanfic writing in schools. I think kids would have an easier time getting started in creative writing with some sort of framework to build from.

And as for the idea that you are just copying someone else's work...there is a long tradition in arts and literature of using replication to hone your skills. Painting students are always in the biggest museums and galleries working on "copies" of the masters, trying to catch the brush strokes or subtle nuances in light and shadow. A common practice for editors is to write new works in the style of other writers, such as Shakespeare, Kerouac, Austen or Steinbeck. The idea is if you can convincingly write in their style, then you can pick out any writer's style and write in it. And as an editor, then you can go into a reporter's story and rework paragraphs or phrasing without it looking like two people have written in the story.

I think writing fanfic is the same. You are borrowing someone's mythology to help tell your own story. And, like ciardha, I like the challenge of changing plot details or character motivation and seeing if I can still keep the characters in-character and likeable.

And I'd be willing to bet that most writers have original fics bouncing around in their head. Fanfic is just a highly enjoyable part of that writer's mind.

Oh! And happy 20th anniv of writing fanfic! That's a wonderful accomplishment!

Why it makes fanfic different? readers enjoy it because they are reading something they like first, you wont see a naruhina going to read a narusaku fanfic omg this is perfect. there's no difference on "fifty shades of trash" to "twilight" are already books destined to a specific audience it's the same with fanfics they are already bound to a specific audience i'm saying is going to put it on another level, why not try to write your own story or perhaps start with it with a fanfic first telling an story and if it gets large enought transform it on a book/publish.
What i'm saying is basically why not transform your hobby into something productive to yourself like enjoying profit and if it gets rentable enough you can live with it.
There's a lot of potential being wasted it's just my opinion.

Edited by Dαrkrєrsŧ, 23 February 2013 - 08:12 PM.

[ciardha]

Why it makes fanfic different? readers enjoy it because they are reading something they like first, you wont see a naruhina going to read a narusaku fanfic omg this is perfect. there's no difference on "fifty shades of trash" to "twilight" are already books destined to a specific audience it's the same with fanfics they are already bound to a specific audience i'm saying is going to put it on another level, why not try to write your own story or perhaps start with it with a fanfic first telling an story and if it gets large enought transform it on a book/publish.
What i'm saying is basically why not transform your hobby into something productive to yourself like enjoying profit and if it gets rentable enough you can live with it.
There's a lot of potential being wasted it's just my opinion.

That's exactly like saying to a person that likes to sew their own clothes that you shouldn't have ever begun sewing your own clothes using sewing patterns. Guess what would have happened- the attempts would look atrocious and wouldn't fit either, it's likely they'd never successfully make their own clothing. One must learn how to construct the pieces of a garment, to be able to visualize how to adapt those basic foundation pieces to whatever they want to make. Or telling a sewer that uses the draping on a dress form style of sewing that they are "wasting their potential" by using a dress form. Again the result would be an unwearable mess. It's like what Tricksie said about painters. If you look at writers, whether they tell you or not, the overwhelming majority began by writing something that that was a type of fanfic. One writes what one is inspired by. Songwriters too, it was interesting to read one of John Lennon's last interviews where he was asked about the songs he had written over his career, even after 25 years of songwriting he would frequently draw inspiration from some other song, whether it be an answer to one of Yoko's songs, poetry, art, etc... or strongly inspired by the style of a singer that he had been a fan of in his youth, or a callback to the collaborative work during the Beatle's era. And John Lennon was one of the greatest songwriters.

No one lives in a vacuum. Fanfic writers are the most honest about this. I find it far more "a waste" for someone to blatantly rip off another persons work- and just because they changed the names and few elements pretentiously claim it's all their own work and express contempt at fanfic writers and call fanfic writing a waste of time and thievery. That's a writer who's mind is only on the money they can make, not the art. Plus they are the real thieves, they've stolen a successful story formula and just changed it enough so they won't get sued for copyright infringement. A fanfic writer is honest about using another writers characters and settings and makes no money off the work. It's done out of love and inspiration and wanting to share that with others. And often also to hone their skills as a writer so that when they do their own work they've built a strong foundation.

[ciardha]

I agree completely. Each chapter I try to work on different aspects. Descriptive details, good fight scenes, suspense, intimacy. And I have a few stories in the hopper that I am trying to work on good plots. So my fanfics more closely resemble a publishable work, instead of just fleshed out ideas.

I don't care for the 50 shades of Twilight either. Although kudos to her for using fanfic as her platform to mainstream. I'm sure it will be an inspiration to other writers. So there's no downside to that. (But it really is dreadful otherwise, in lots of different aspects.)

Have you read "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer? It's a steampunky Cinderella novel. I'm halfway through, and I really like it so far. Marissa Meyer wrote Sailor Moon fanfic before publishing. I think her book gives a better rep for fanfic-->originalfic writers than the 50 shades book.

@Dark - I understand where you are coming from, and that's a common thing I see. Why write about someone else's charaters when you could create your own?

But fanfic writing, for me, is a little like playing with paper dolls! I can enjoy just writing without having to worry about believable characters and backstories, etc. etc. etc., which can really take the wind out of your sails when you start to write an original fic.

Also, like ciardha, I enjoy writing for people who want to read it! Lol! Writing original fic is a lonely business, without much feedback up front. And only a wide audience at the end, and only if you're very lucky.

Fanfic is so different. It's fun, your readers enjoy it, and with each story you are becoming a better writer and more confident in doing your own original works. What's not to like about fanfic! Actually, I've thought for a long time that they ought to encourage fanfic writing in schools. I think kids would have an easier time getting started in creative writing with some sort of framework to build from.

And as for the idea that you are just copying someone else's work...there is a long tradition in arts and literature of using replication to hone your skills. Painting students are always in the biggest museums and galleries working on "copies" of the masters, trying to catch the brush strokes or subtle nuances in light and shadow. A common practice for editors is to write new works in the style of other writers, such as Shakespeare, Kerouac, Austen or Steinbeck. The idea is if you can convincingly write in their style, then you can pick out any writer's style and write in it. And as an editor, then you can go into a reporter's story and rework paragraphs or phrasing without it looking like two people have written in the story.

I think writing fanfic is the same. You are borrowing someone's mythology to help tell your own story. And, like ciardha, I like the challenge of changing plot details or character motivation and seeing if I can still keep the characters in-character and likeable.

And I'd be willing to bet that most writers have original fics bouncing around in their head. Fanfic is just a highly enjoyable part of that writer's mind.

Oh! And happy 20th anniv of writing fanfic! That's a wonderful accomplishment!

Thank you! It feels amazing to realize it's been 20 years. I think of the fanfic writers that were around when I first started reading fanfic in 1991, and even of the ones that were around when I first got a regular internet connection in early 1997. Most of them have disappeared as an online presence at all in fandoms, and the few I know that are still online no longer write stories. I only know of Valerie Jones- still out there writing Gambit fanfic. She once told me she started writing fanfic offline around the same time I did, she got online regularly around 1995.

Haven't read Cinder but I'll see if I can track it down in the library. I'm not that much a steampunk fan for some reason- probably because most have dystopic settings. But if she started off by writing Sailor Moon fanfic, then I certainly will take a look.

[ciardha]

So funny. Today is Alex Kingston's (she plays River Song on Doctor Who) birthday and what comes in the mail today for me- A River Song action figure I ordered from Amazon, and a River Song trading card I bought on ebay. I was laughing so hard at the fantastic coincidence of both arriving on Alex Kingston's birthday.

[tricksie]

Haven't read Cinder but I'll see if I can track it down in the library. I'm not that much a steampunk fan for some reason- probably because most have dystopic settings. But if she started off by writing Sailor Moon fanfic, then I certainly will take a look.

So I finished "Cinder" and it was very good! I didn't realize that is was one in a series, so I started getting that antsy feeling toward the end of how-is-this-going-to-be-resolved-with-so-few-pages-left-ack! But it wrapped up nicely.

Also, it's a bit less steam-punky than the stereotypical victorian steampunk dystopia genre. It's a little more mechanical. Definitely post-psuedo-apocalyptic war stuff (the setting is in New Bejing), but it's not off-putting, if that makes sense.

It was kind of like reading a fun romance novel, but with all the sci-fi themes I like instead of the typical romance fare.

Also, just discovered that she is Alicia Blade on ff.net. And all her Sailor Moon ffs are still there. I haven't read any, but I'm curious to see how her writing evolved over time (the stories go back to '04).