"fan fiction "......

[carpetmojo]

From the Independent today - here's an interesting take on that (to my mind) wierd genre - "fan-fiction".

Personally, the examples I've seen seem quite the opposite of a fan's "homage" (Francais please), and more likely to steer people away from reading the real thing - in other words, rubbish.

Especially the cannibalistic nature of the pieces mentioned described here.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...internalSearch

[crossi]

Eric Flint has actively encouraged other authors to write books in his 1632 Ring of Fire Science fiction series. Does that count as fan fiction?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by crossi

Eric Flint has actively encouraged other authors to write books in his 1632 Ring of Fire Science fiction series. Does that count as fan fiction?

Oh dear......

(steels himself for piles of vitriol & calumny descending on head....)

.......... I have to say, expressing my personal opinion only, that in this instance, any works produced by such an appeal.... could only be an improvement ....

I thought it the one I read (the first) a great idea, but sadly badly realised.

[I do hope that's not a troll ................]

[fjtorres]

Smile when you say that, stranger...
You're not required to like 1632.
(Though many of us do.)

But the series exists because it is outright fun and because he picked a truly pivotal point in history to perturb, full of interesting historical figures and the time of the birth of the modern state. A fair amount of the "derivative efforts" in the GRANTVILLE CHRONICLES aren't even fiction, but rather historical analysis and discussion.

But of the fiction, given the official invitation and veting, I don't think fan fiction is a term that fits the 163x Project: it is closer in tone to the THIEVES' WORLD or MEDEA shared universe project in that a significant portion of the contributions are accepted as canon and incorporated into traditionally-published volumes of the series.

So, taste issues aside, I would suggest it does not fit into a discussion of fan fiction.

[AndrewH]

The linked article isn't loading for me...

I've only read two pieces of fan fiction, the first two books of the James Potter trilogy, based upon the Harry Potter series. I wasn't impressed. I was very unhappy when the author took the liberty of killing off one of J. K. Rowling's characters; that seemed extremely presumptuous.

[QuantumIguana]

There's some good fan fiction, and there is a lot of junk. I don't read much of it, because sifting through the junk isn't worth the time for me. But fan fiction doesn't steer people away from the original. Those who read and write fan fiction are the most devoted customers of the original material. If there's a happy meal toy based on the original material, readers and writers of fan fiction probably have it. Their demand for the original material far exceeds its supply.

[RainingLemur]

I like the idea of fan fiction. For something I'm really interested in (a certain video game, or movie universe), it's great to have some extra material to continue enjoying that *entertainment piece* more.

Unfortunately, a lot of it is crap. Enjoyable crap, but crap. It's not too often that I've run across some solid fan-fic.

[cfrizz]

Fan fiction was all that I read for years since I could copy it into Word docs & put it in a size that I was comfortable reading.

And I can't tell you how many times I've read a fanfic and then went and bought the ebooks of the original author. Laurell K Hamilton comes to mind for me.

And while yes some of the stories are bad, and a great many writers start stories and never finish them, others have gone on to branch out with their own characters & become published writers themselves.

That's a win for everyone!

[Harper Kingsley]

The article wouldn't load

Personally, I really enjoy reading fanfic. If it wasn't for fanfic, I wouldn't have bothered with Harry Potter. I ended up reading the series just so I could figure out what the back story was to some of the fics I was reading

That being said, there's terrible fanfic out there just as there's terrible regular fiction. But at least the people writing terrible crackfics aren't trying to make money from it (50 Shades notwithstanding.)

There's lots of mega-famous fandoms like Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the subject material can stand up on its own, but some of the most popular fandoms are ones where the source material was never fully developed. Take Stargate Atlantis. I love the fanfic, and it's built a whole fanon around itself that took what very little back story the show made available, and created whole histories for the characters, who actually are more fleshed out in the fic than they ever were in the show.

There's basically two realms of fanfic. One where the original story is really good and someone loved it so completely that they just had to share a story. And then there's the ones where the source material was weak, but the idea was good or a character was really good, and the fans just felt like they had to write a story of their own.

[maxiart]

There are some amazing pieces of fan-fiction out there. You just have to wade through the bad stuff to get to them, just like with regular fiction.

[plib]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

There's some good fan fiction, and there is a lot of junk.

And there are good newspaper articles and there is a lot of junk. I suppose it's all a matter of taste but I found this particular one to be pretentious and condescending. Perhaps the author should stick to his restaurant reviews.

[Elfwreck]

5 Fanfic Recommendations:

四十 by trascendenza :
Fandoms: Chinese mythology, Firefly (if you squint)
20,000 words; Gen (ish), no warnings.
Summary: As long as she could ensure that her family would never go wanting, she would be content.
This could be published as a novella anywhere; I'm delighted it got created as fanfic.

Goodnight Room by Skogkatt
Fandom: Goodnight Moon
2825 words, gen, no warnings
Summary: Bunnies ... in ... SPAAAAAAAACE!
What happens when adults reinterpret children's stories? You'll never hear the words "goodnight cow jumping over the moon" the same way again.

The Joy Plant by derryderrydown
Fandom: DC Comics
12670 words, slash (Roy Harper/Dick Grayson), mature content
No summary. Deals with the aftermath of Roy's heroin addiction, some details of which are posted at scans_daily.
Intense and harsh. No happy-ever-after answers here, but there's comfort in surviving and a hero's drive to help pulls Roy through the harder parts.

You Ruined Everything (In the Nicest Way) by jmtorres
Fandom: White Collar
9500 words, gen, no warnings
Summary: A story of missed connections, in which Peter doesn't know what to say, Neal doesn't seem to want to hear it, and Elizabethan translation proves vital.
A twist on Peter and Neal's relationship I would never have considered.

Texts from Cephalopods by volta_arovet
Fandom: Octopus Steals My Video Camera and Swims off with It While It's Recording (Youtube) [yes, that's a fandom. Everything's a fandom. Yuletide--the fic exchanged that sparked this--is awesome.]
1550 words, gen, no warnings
Summary: It is a well-established fact in marine biology that the octopus is the drunk texter of the cephalopod family.
If you're not sure what the point of fanfic is, start here. (This is quite a bit more visually focused than most fanfic.) This is an excellent example of the desire to *play* with already-existing media creations. And proof that *anything* can have its own story, quite independent from the original creator's intention.

All of these fics can be downloaded in epub, mobi, pdf, or html. (However, the last one won't be much use on a non-wifi reader; the pictures will be links rather than embedded.)

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

But of the fiction, given the official invitation and veting, I don't think fan fiction is a term that fits the 163x Project: it is closer in tone to the THIEVES' WORLD or MEDEA shared universe project in that a significant portion of the contributions are accepted as canon and incorporated into traditionally-published volumes of the series.

So, taste issues aside, I would suggest it does not fit into a discussion of fan fiction.

But surely the skills involved in writing it are the same: taking someone else's setting and characters and writing a story around them. It's the same as working on an existing TV show or comic or writing spinoffs, it seems to me. It's just that fanfic is rather less constrained.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Unfortunately, a lot of it is crap. Enjoyable crap, but crap. It's not too often that I've run across some solid fan-fic.

Even more unfortunately, almost all of it infringes copyright, in that it is a "derived work" created without the permission of the copyright holder of the original work.

[applesauce]

Fan fiction writers and readers are creatures I tend to tie in the same bag as those who larp. I then keep my back to the wall as I get away from as fast as possible. Very very scary obsessive people who need to relate to the real world in a very urgent fashion.

I am even reluctant to read another set of swords and dragon books once I finish the game of thrones ones as I think that may be slipping to close to that scary group

applesauce