Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Hey... some people just appreciate other's material enough to emulate it. Look, you've got a Dalek TM for a picture. You didn't create that!
Don't be too hard on fans, they're just doing what's fun for them to do, using a vehicle they appreciate. Consider it the "sincerest form of flattery."
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Harry has a point .
Chris Johnstone wrote an excellent review of the audio book biography of Tolkein for the last copy of Ethel The Aardvark, the fanzine of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, that seemed to catalyse for him (or her?) a personal questioning of how honest he was in his ability to sub-create his own fictional world when he writes his magnum opus.
It was interesting for me because fan productions – fan fiction, films or audio dramas for example – are based on the fictional worlds of others. Does this imply that they are based on a basic dis-honesty?
In fact, taking this one step further, could the fan fiction author be misleading their reader with the implication that their entertainment experience, whether it is a written fiction or a fan film, is a product of the skill and talent of the fan author or production crew? When in fact the fascination of a piece of fan fiction is built on the foundation of others work, the professionals who created the original on which the fanfic is based?
I would disagree. Surely only the most casual and uninformed of viewers or readers would think that. Both readers and writers have one thing in common and that is their fascination for the original production.
Not, I hasten to add, that fan fiction is automatically devoid of originality, it's just that readers of, for example, Star Trek: Enterprise fan fiction are at least initially more interested in gaining a resonance of the buzz that they got from the original show. They will read your fanfic to see how you recreate adventures for them that might fit right in with canon, how you place those familiar characters into new roles and relationships (especially romantically) or how you might extend on their fictional world by creating new characters, extrapolating on the established canon with new ships and crews.
What about fan fiction that does not follow canon – the accepted details of plot established in the professional productions? On the one hand you could say that your work is an “appropriation” of the original and that you want to take it in a different creative direction however on the other it can be plain and simple “canon rape”.
I'll be the first to admit that fan productions are not, in their base form, meant to be high art. My contention has always been that fan films, for example, are not created for the benefit of their audience but that they are a way of “we-the-people” vicariously becoming a part of our fan obsession. If you have the cash and the drive, you could write, produce, direct and star in your very own Star Trek film!
Readers of fan fiction are often turned off by the way that much of what they read is badly spelled, ungrammatical and stylistically poor and unoriginal plots that have little regard for established canon, especially in the way that canon characters are used.
Well y'know what? The writer of a story like that probably doesn't give a fig for what you think of it because they've written it with an audience of one in mind - themselves! Such fan fiction is often a form of creative role-playing, especially the type of thing produced by fan clubs as collective, group fiction right down to using member's real names in the fictional context.
As long as you are honest about your motives for writing such fiction, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of thing. If you want to write an appropriation of Star Trek: Nemesis where Shinzon falls madly in love with you in a fictional form, go for it. Or a Voyager fic' where Seven-Of-Nine is shown as the home-wrecker you know her to be in Janeway and Chakotay's relationship, be my guest!
But be honest about it! If you lodge your beloved novel about Emperor Palpatine's cuddly-wuddly side on a fan fiction archive and get cries of agony over it, don't get upset because few see him the same way you do! Appreciate your fan fiction as a writing experience and don't worry if it is universally panned. Was it fun to write? Did you get a kick out of it? Then it was worth it.
The problem is that this disregard for the generally held rules of grammar and plot structure - the rules of writing – has given fan productions a bad reputation
If, on the other hand, you care what others think about your writing, if you crave the admiration of your peers, then you must learn the craft of writing, learn to welcome critique and aim to grow creatively! There is still a thriving, supportive fan fiction community out there (see article) for you to be involved in but be warned, whilst not many are as critical as the flamepits of FanFic.net, your fellow readers and writers will expect, appreciate and reward effort and excellence!
For readers, fan fiction is a bit like amateur theatre: you have to go into it with an open mind, knowing that it might have flat-spots and the occasional typo, otherwise it'll drive you up the wall! If you do show tolerance though, you will be rewarded with an entertaining experience.
Why do I write fan fiction?
I make no bones about the fact that I am a fan of Star Trek – so much so that I have found myself describing ethical and moral problems to my kids in terms of the plots of certain episodes! The parables of Star Trek! It's not unique to Trek either for I've noticed that my son does the same thing with parables from The Simpsons and, more recently, from The Matrix!
Over the years Trek has grown into a vast mythology of archetypal characters and world views. It quite frankly represents an immense playground for the imagination that I just do not have the willpower not to dabble in!
In the course of parenting my two children I have had to think carefully about the life concepts that I have passed on to them and this has often made me question long-held beliefs: Adulthood, manhood, tolerance, social justice ...
I recently wanted to write a series that dealt with the themes of aggression, bravery and honour and could think of no better framework to build my premise in than the diametrically opposed cultures of the Klingon and Vulcan in Star Trek. This shrinks the universality of my message though because it means that a knowledge of the basic world-view of Star Trek is vital.
Whilst I would like my fictional series "Tales of Death and Honour" to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, my readers must understand what a Klingon is. It just won't make sense otherwise – who are these people and why have they got such a topsy-turvy attitude towards life and death?
Therein lies the great advantage of using Star Trek fan fiction though. The series is so pervasive through Western Society and beyond that there would be few who can read the English language who would not have a working knowledge of it!
K