BadLuckNovelist
Macai
The reason I often have gripes with fanfiction is because of the reality that it's pretentious. I read novels, and write myself. I even roleplay (not in an anime style, mind you) very often.
However, I design my own characters, and write to tell stories, not to present hypothetical what-ifs.
I can certainly see one producing these what-ifs by writing about them, but at the same time, why would I want to read this? Very often, fan fictions boil down to meandering character interactions with no real underlying theme, message, or plot.
I also read novels, write, and role play, though I've been doing less of all three as of late. Though it is slightly off-topic, what types do you like? Fantasy, sci-fi, historical...?
Well, that's the thing about fan fiction. It isn't just a matter of what-ifs. It's taking that what-if and making a story out of it....if they are a good writer.
Take my fan fiction Shadow League for example. The what-if of it would be 'What if people had a pokemon's elements?" However, I took that question, and weaved a story idea using it. It went up and beyond that question to form its own plot that deviated from the question.
I'll admit that there are too many people that try to write fan fiction and forget that it is supposed to be a story. They take the what-if, and forget to make a story out of it. IE: The 14 year olds writing smut fan fictions with no plot.
It really all comes down to each fan fiction. I ask that same question. What makes me want to read it? If it's mindless drivel, there is nothing there to make me want to read it. But if they took it and went farther then the question, then it can and is as good as any original novel.
If I'm getting incoherent, I apologize.
You're not getting incoherent, don't worry about it.
I understand the concept of storytelling. However, my gripe isn't just with a lack of storytelling found in frankly most fanfictions I've read, but the utter lack of creativity involved in even most well written fanfictions.
Yes, "What if humans had Pokemon features?" is almost a good concept, if you ask me. However, why "Pokemon features?" Why not just "animal features," or "mystical features?" And furthermore, why would humans have these animal features?
What-ifs provide interesting examples, but not entire story hooks. When you just use a "what-fi" and write the entire short story or novel based on that, you raise many questions; the why-sos, the how-whens, and the where-ats, most of the time none of which get answered. For this reason, I do not like the "what-if" model of storytelling.
I prefer the fable and metaphor models of storytelling, respectively.
The fable model of storytelling begins by providing a message, idea or thought, which is to be substantiated throughout or at the end of the story. Examples might include, "Paranoia is a synonym for longevity," "Compromise leads to self loathing," and "The hero is always seen as the villain."
The metaphor model of storytelling is a little more difficult. You take another piece of literature (or something of the sort), and break it down into key plot events. Then, you write a story that parallels those key plot events, and make clear and tastefully placed references to the original work, either by quoting it at the beginning of chapters or finding clues about it in the book, or whatever.
Finally, I am heavy into the genres of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
EDIT:
Pandora Box
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Psychologically, I can understand why a heterosexual person would like to see two members of the opposite sex in sexual situations at once, but why must they be torn out of their original characters?
I'm a lesbian who reads male/male (as well as female/female and male/female). I know this isn't a major aspect of your argument but I just wanted to point that out.
wink
Macai
Fan fiction writers say that it's to "expand upon the story" of something, but they rarely stay with the canon even remotely. Often the entire point of fan fictions is just to add yourself into the story, or to make characters from the book get in romantic relationships which they simply wouldn't get involved in, because they were "meant to be."
Can someone please explain to me why girls write Yaoi fan fictions where badassed, mean sons o' bitches suddenly become sensitive and kind with one another, and then have passionate gay sex?
Where are you reading fanfiction and for what fandom? That can really matter. You're not going to find anything good on Fanfiction.net, for example. A lot of fanfiction may be really cliche, horribly written, and not even resemble the characters except for in name. But that's not all there is. Most of my experience in fanfiction comes from Harry Potter, so excuse me being a bit specific here, but a lot of fanfiction for Harry Potter is very canon compliant. There are entire lists per pairing for stories that are compliant up to certain books or compliant with all of them. You may not see a relationship as feasible but just because it doesn't happen within the books doesn't mean it's not possible. As for changing manly men into weepy ukes, in my experience, anyone over the age of 18 and/or with a half a brain hates that; personally, I think it's sexist and stereotypical of gay men/relationships. I know I've read plenty of stories where the main characters are older, traditionally masculine, not traditionally attractive, etc., and they're interesting, they're good, sometimes specifically because of that.
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Why can't they make their own characters for this? The act of taking characters out of character does not bother me, but the pretension involved in contesting the validity of a novel's, movie's or series' canon astounds me.
But this sort of thing may be how art evolves; from one thing, something only vaguely relevant is derived. And from that derivation comes the standard.
When you can find good fanfiction, it can be really complex: what would happen if just
one thing changed? If person A never met person B? If person A never did that one thing? If person B didn't have a particular trait? It's not completely outside the realm of canon, it's just changing one thing and going from there. If you don't change
anything at all, you'd just be rewriting the book/movie/whatever. Anything that doesn't happen inside the book is not considered canon.
You mention the evolution of art, and that's really it, although in the case of fanfiction, on an amateur level. Story re-tellings, remakes, spinoffs, etc -- the book
Wicked comes to mind, for example -- are usually well received but for some reason fanfiction isn't seen as the same at all.
I find fanfiction patently uncreative, however, because it's taking someone else's story, and reshaping it only vaguely. My gripe isn't with the notion of using characters from other novels, or writing your own stories within the same environment of another story. However, when you just take all the characters, scramble their personalities and/or situations, you are not...being that creative, to me.
Also, there are some horribly irritating themes in fan fiction in general. One, as I already mentioned, pointless emasculation of men for their new Yaoi roles. Two, that I also already mentioned, the insertion of oneself into the plot or environment. I'm sorry, but I don't want to read the Harry Potter books, except with Travis as the main character rather than Harry. Finally, the meandering character interactions and conversations that have no bearing on anything. It reminds me of coffee shop roleplay.
While these things happen in all literature, lets face it, they're way, way more rampant in fan fiction than they are in anything else.
EDIT AGAIN:
Lateralus Angel
I've seen alot of what you're talking about in various RPs I've been doing. Alot of people seem to want to put more emphasis onto romantic character interaction than anything else really. And it seems to be more chicks than guys.
In the types of fan fiction you're referring to I'm almost wondering if it's a girl's way of sexually expressing herself. Girl's don't always watch porn and tend to put more emphasis on romance and foreplay with the act of sex itself being the pinnacle of the entire experience. Instead of just watching a porn they write out fantasies, ensuring everything happens perfectly. They're probably also counting on the fact that they're least likely to get embarassed for expressing their sexuality through writing.
I roleplay quite a bit, but I like a solid environment to do so in (World of Darkness, Shadowrun, etc), and freeform tends to collapse on itself very quickly in my 12, almost 13 year experience with roleplaying.
Also, I have no gripes with expressing sexuality. However, why does this sexuality have to be a blatant ripoff of something else? Why can't you make your own bishonen characters to have their gay sex and romance with? Are these girls really that uncreative that they simply can't develop their own material?
