Please PLEASE don't take that the wrong way. I'm not against fan fiction at all, I've done it myself, but I did it for a writing exercise...something just to practice writing. Is there any other reason why you'd do it?
There are markets for certain fab fictions. The entire Star Trek book framchise began from fanfic. But for the most part, fanfic is (in my opinion) training wheels. An author can practice with prefabricated characters and an predesigned setting, thus concentrating on the writing style and story progression. Still, there is no substitute for the freedom, and te challenge, of building everything from the ground up. And when you're done, it is all yours to do with as you wish. You can kill characters off or introduce major life changes, or make irreversible changes to the setting. So fanfic is training wheels, but shackles as well.
I read fanfic because I love the story so much that canon isn't enough. I want to read more of a favorite character that the original creators will never deign to provide. I want to be taken through a "what if" in the plot and setting, or post-ending of the series-- because if I like it that much, then, of course the end of canon will leave me hanging. With no disrespect to the creators, sometimes fanfiction fixes the plot holes-- and that's my favorite kind. Not 'shipper fics, actually I think that's kind of a plague. To me, fan-fix of the plot holes shows that the ficwriter has a masterful grasp of the structure of storytelling in general. The twists or untwisting teach me a little more about that structure, too, but most importantly I can continue immersing myself in the fandom unsullied by a mistake-- understandably made by professionals under time pressure, but kindly corrected by fans at leisure.
Apart from what Cognito said, I like fanfiction because some of these FF writers have amazing creativity. Sometimes if I read a good fanfic, I'll tell myself, "Now if the author had wrote that, it'd have made the book so much more enjoyable for myself." But of course the author cannot cater to specific tastes but rather the collective preference of her readers altogether - I feel that is where fanfiction comes in; to see others (and sometimes ourselves) express our thoughts, feelings and associations towards certain characters from a certain work. I hope I am not babbling - it's only too early in the morning. Lol.
Exactly! It's great for a work to inspire the imagination, and it's dynamically great to be able to share what we imagine about a work with others.
I started reading fanfiction when I was 14. Eleven years ago. I was into the tv series Xena Warrior Princess and was surfing the net. I came across Xena stories and was totally like wow I enjoy these. Ever since I have moved on from Xena to Harry Potter and have read great fanfics and some terrible fanfics. I have written three myself just cause I wasn't happy with the epilouge of Harry Potter. I mean even a dimwit could see that Hermione was going to end up with Ron and Harry with Ginny. LOL. I think it's a way of escape and seeing something that others have in their imaginations.
I've only really written one Warhammer thing at the request of a friend, and some other work that was inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos (though these are both fanfiction and original stories due to a complicated history) and I do like Fanfiction. But good stuff is few and far between.
I suppose if you're in love with the works of an author and have an amazing idea that you'd like to write, you write fan fiction. ^-^ It's quick, as the places and background history have already been created. Maybe you have your own view of a certain character a use that, editing the character - expanding their personality. Yerr, listen to the newbie. XD
I started writing with Doctor Who fan-fic. I never posted any of it, I did it because I enjoyed playing with these characters that I loved (and you have to understand that the show was off the air at the time so there was no new cannon being made). Really, Doctor Who got me in to writing. I'm sure, had I not been so engrossed in the characters, I would have stuck to writing songs and not ventured in to prose as a hobby.
Fan fiction as training wheels seems like an appropriate way to put it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those who are beyond training wheels can't write fan fiction. The only way that I would read a fan fiction is if it had a sufficient level of originality. Take Star Wars for example. If you aren't George Lucas then I don't want to read about Luke and Han Solo or other movie characters. However, the Star Wars universe is so huge that one could easily make up their own character and plot outside of the movies. Essentially, if I wanted to hear about Luke's story I'd watch the movies. However using the Star Wars universe with your own unique characters and plots is acceptable. Just for the record... Twilight fan fiction is NEVER acceptable... But that is just my own personal issue
But so many of the Star Wars novels, including the ones with characters from the movies, are better than the movies.
I'm not opposed to fan fiction if your using it for your own personal writting excercise, but for me it does seem pointless. To me it would be a complete waste of time espically if its something that was not my own creation. I don't like to take a story that someone else did and make things happen just because I want them too. I personally think doing that is an insult to the author. I understand its fun and all, but I just don't like reading them. I don't mean to offend, I'm sure they are very good but its not really a story to me if its not written by original author.
I kind of write fan fiction as a way of putting my own thoughts about whatever it is I am trying to imitate down in material form. It never leaves my hard drive, though I sometimes show it to some of my friends, but hey, I write for myself first and everybody else second. Anyway, its never going to be gold as you can never really know somebody else’s characters, or even their universe aswell as you would your own. But as long as I have it somewhere it can always serve to remind me of fun memories of past stuff. So there you go, the point of fan fiction, to me at least.
Actually, some of writers have done a really good job with the characters that were in the movies. Keep in mind, George did not write all the scripts by himself.
Very true. His dialogue was crap. Anyway, the fact is, many worlds and characters never belonged to just one person. TV shows are a perfect case of worlds belonging to many people. TV shows have a whole team of writers because you can't cound on one writer to always come up with twenty-two scripts or more every year. Plus, writers will move on to other projects or they'll take new ones writers on. Taking that into account, what is so horrible about new writers adding their own stories to a world or set of characters in book format? I'm sure the publishers would make sure that they are working with an editor who is familiar with the world and can make sure it is as consistent as possible.
Oh my gods, thank heaven someone got to that before I did. I thought about writing a Twilight fanfic, but I don't think I'd be able to convey the characters well enough so that a person could read it and think of it as an expanded chapter of the books. Which it basically would be, but I just don't think anyone could write the book as well as the author did. I mean, if they could, wouldn't they have been the one to publish the book?
Not if they didn't come up with the idea first. I think FF is really interesting. I think it's challenging to understand the characters enough to be able to "fill their shoes", effective to the point of moving them around, giving them the proper emotions, etc. I don't really consider any writing to be a waste of time; creativity is creativity. Who cares if you're flexing your creative muscles using a character you obviously like enough to want to write about? I mean, I started writing by making books out of notebook paper with drawings of people and captions - these little soap operas. My friends and passed them around to one another and expanded on them. Those little exercises led me to writing poetry and love songs during my sappy, hormonal teen years, and then gathering the courage to write for my high school newspapers, and so forth and so on...
I do it because my favorite film(s) have all gotten remade when they were in dire need of some kind of sequel/ending. I write fan-fictions because I love characters that another creative mind has concocted and want to see another addition to their stories.
I got my "start" writing years ago after The Lion King came out. That's right, The Lion King. I was just a brat back then, a kid. If it wasn't for that movie I don't know if I ever really would have been serious about writing. I wrote a short story (it sucked, mind you) but it involved characters from that movie. Fan fiction is a great way to get future writers using their heads, grinding the gears, so to speak. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a good majority of writers out there got their start because something sparked their interest and they had to follow up. Stephen King got his start with a fanfic (I believe he mentioned that in his book on writing, which is an excellent read if you haven't yet). He wasn't yet 10. Training wheels is a good way to put it. I fiddle around with it from time to time, still, especially when I've hit writer's block. I use it as a way kickstart my creativity.
*newbie here!* I've written fan fiction on and off for years. I got back into it again last year after seeing Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. I ended up writing a trilogy - the current story (the third/last) is so far removed from anything in Gotham City that I don't technically class this one as fan fic any more. There's no Batman, no Joker, no Gordon, no Gotham City in the current one - nothing like that. My main female character was not in The Dark Knight, she is completely my own making. The only character who is slightly Dark Knight related is one of the mobsters (her lover) but he was barely in the film anyway. I've built on and developed him in a way completely far removed from anything in the movie, and I've also given him a proper name (he was only known as the Chechen in the film, with very little screen time). I view these two characters as essentially my own (the way I've written the Chechen is completely MY version of him) It's not a Dark Knight story any more - it's a tragic romance between these two characters. I honestly think fan fic is a great foot hold into getting into more serious story writing. You've got to start somewhere!
Personally I consider writing fanfic only if I find there is something to add or some element within the setting that has not been explored yet. Very rarely I use characters created by other authors... but I can use my own in their settings or themes. Especially stories that are incomplete or leave too many questions thrive me to write my own ideas to complete them only to my own mind. I would not write anything with Harry Potter. I might consider writing of a different wizard in the ideas of Rowling. Not that I'd actually never write anything in the like of Rowling though...
I think you have be to very much into a particular fandom before you really find the urge to write fan fiction. It all depends. I've read some really top class Dark Knight fan fictions...and some really diabolical ones. With the top class ones, the writers obviously have the talent for writing anyway, whether it's writing fan fiction or original stories.
I only read fan fiction if ti looks at the well-loved story in a completely different way, like Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead' or rilke's poems on Orpheus.
