It can't just be me that thinks about Fanfiction like this..

[Blanket Girl]

To me, calling yourself a writer but all you do is write fanfiction is like...painting a picture based on someone else's. I mean, sure its okay sometimes but then again, it lacks some aspects of what writing really should be.
There are some good writers that twists the image and world created by another author into a story somewhat their own, but to me sometimes it seems like just lazy writing in a certain way. You don't create your own character or world or whatever. You just add on.
Although writing is just a creative expression, I just think that calling yourself a writer just because you wrote fanfiction is a little bit far-fetched but okay, just needed to get that out of my chest!

EDIT: Sorry if you misunderstood this. I'm not trying to say that fanfiction writers aren't writers.Would it satisfy you for me to change my opinion to say that everyone is equal? Because I don't remember stating that writers and fanfiction writers aren't equals. I was trying to prove that there's a different level of thought put into writing.
For original story writers, you create everything.
For fanfiction writers, you're confined to what the previous writer wrote about it, and only free to imagine different scenarios.
And as for inspiration, that's a whole other topic. Everyone needs an inspiration, and in my head as I made this post in the first place, I wasn't thinking about inspiration to create your own story and hence writing a fanfiction. The type of fanfiction I was talking about refers to the ones that re-writes a situation in a story, so that it would be able to go their way.

[Rotsab M. Hyolf]

"...[C]alling yourself a writer but all you do is write fanfiction is like ... painting a picture based on someone else's."

Leonardo da Vinci and his masterpiece Mona Lisa would like to have a word with you. So would most of Shakespeare's word, a slew of classics, and thousands of other 'classical literature' that are little more than glorified "fanfiction."

It's elitist to assume fanfiction can't be just as good as original fiction given the chance. There just isn't as big a vent for original fiction to be rubbed in your face so people tend to forget.

[Maltese_Falcon91]

While I do think that it's a lot better if an author creates their own world, as opposed to just using someone else's, I really don't think of Fanfiction like that. Even when writing something completely original, it's not uncommon for an author to take inspiration from any number of sources.

Dune took inspiration from Medieval Feudalism.

Star Wars took inspiration from Dune.

And Mass Effect took inspiration from Star Wars.

Originality is no where near as important as execution.

[Pseudo-Onkelos]

I don't think the OP is talking about inspiration as much as she is talking about taking someone's existing work and adding onto it. There is a difference, after all.

[Maltese_Falcon91]

Pseudo-Onkelos

I don't think the OP is talking about inspiration as much as she is talking about taking someone's existing work and adding onto it. There is a difference, after all.

Not as much as you might think. What I'm saying is that writing is based, at least partially on taking inspiration from what others have already done. The point I was trying to make is that just because you make a story set in someone else's world, doesn't make you any less valid of an author.

[Lazarus Larkin]

I'm pretty sure if someone writes, they're a writer.

Doesn't mean they're a good writer. Doesn't mean they're original. But they're still a writer.

(and for what it's worth I've read some DAMN good fanfics, and some really awful, poorly-written, and yet somehow professionally published original works.)

[Marshmlow1]

Maltese_Falcon91

Pseudo-Onkelos

I don't think the OP is talking about inspiration as much as she is talking about taking someone's existing work and adding onto it. There is a difference, after all.

Not as much as you might think. What I'm saying is that writing is based, at least partially on taking inspiration from what others have already done. The point I was trying to make is that just because you make a story set in someone else's world, doesn't make you any less valid of an author.

I agree with this..It can still take some skill to write a fanfiction..Especially if you're making your own plot, which can be alot of fanfiction. Not using the plot of the show/book/whatever, I have done fanfiction before..And the only thing people did not like about it was..I need to make the part after what the person is saying, another paragraph. Becuase that is kinda proper writing style. Plus, you have to keep the characters in character, and some people like to have AU's..Alternate universes, which tend to be crappy, unless they're going with a real life setting..Then who knwos what they want to do with it. But you can create your own story, by using someone else's characters, which is more dangerous. Most peopel hate it when a character is OOC..So you can still be a creative writer

You can call yourself a writer if you know hwo to do fanfiction write, but it is more of a, in my opinion, practicing your skills. Becuase it helps you learn how to keep a character in character, and hoenstly..Some of the reviewers for fanfictions, are ALOT tougher than someone reviewing a story you just wrote. Becuase they want you to actually use some writing skill. The ones I read, they did have writing skill to create their own story. Only thing that they don't need tow orry about really is, the fact they don't have to really describe what the character looks like..But if they are willing to, they can be smart and desribe what the person is wearing. Which I love. I want to use my imagination of what he/she is wearing. Especially if it's an anime/manga fanfiction, because tehy all wear the same dammed thing, so it's nice to imagine them in different outfits

[Tympest]

I'm thinking that enough fanfic writers do enough different in their use of other people's characters and worlds that they count as writers. Have you ever tried keeping someone else's character in character while writing them? I've always found it harder than keeping my own in line due to the fact that the audience only sees what they're shown, they usually don't know the characters inside and out the same way the original writer does.

Plus there's some fan fic out there that's names away from vbeing original fiction, like the writer knew what they were looking to do but starting out wanted people to have a baseline for character behavior right off the bat rather than wait on characterization to take hold.

[the hidden ghost]

So I know it's not fanfiction, but how do you feel about TV show writers and comic writers? A lot of the time, they're not writing characters or settings they created. From what I hear, in some cases, they're not even writing the plots they came up with themselves. Do you still consider it lazy writing?

The biggest problem with fanfiction is there is no quality control like in most other formats. A lot of fanfiction is lazy, not necessarily because it's fanfiction, but because nearly no effort is needed into getting it "published".

[Aha]

A writer is someone who writes. That is all. The implication is that they write a story with plot and characters, but it's not limited to that.

Journalists write reports on actual events as they happened, with or without personal commentary about the event. By your standard they shouldn't be called writers either, since they aren't creating their own characters, plot or world. But they are writers, because they are writing. If they are payed to have their work appear in a newspaper or magazine they are authors too.

I write fanfiction as well as original. I am the writer of the fanfiction just as much as I am the writer of the original story. Because I wrote it.

I wouldn't call them authors, because authorship implies legit(paying) publication, but they are writers.

Also, I create many characters for fanfictions as well as various locations that weren't in the canon. Many other fanfic writers do as well. So you may want to rethink that aspect of your logic. It's okay to not like fanfiction, but it's not wise to base any of your lines of reasoning on a false assumption.

[Hiei the Epic]

i find fanfiction more difficult to write than original stories. you must have a firm understanding of the characters and their atmosphere and be able to maintain it believably while still offering something new to the readers.

[Cogent Dream]

Inspiration and fanfiction is different.

Honestly, I understand what OP's trying to say. Creating your own little character and inserting him/her into someone else's creation and then trying to say that you're equal to someone who creates the entire world, mechanics, physics and cast of characters is sort of nonplussing.

Of course, there's no reason fanfic writers aren't good writers, they just choose to play inside someone else's world. I guess if you've NEVER written anything completely original, that takes away a bit of your credibility.

But yes, a writer is just someone who writes.

[xNuclearWonderlandx]

Okay, OP, I do know where you're coming from with this - in some senses, I'd be inclined to agree, while in others, not so much so.

Yeah, okay, I write fanfiction, but I do also write original fiction as well. I write fanfiction for myself - I enjoy writing it for reasons of my own. In terms of the fanfiction I write, though, I'd be inclined to say that I create some original characters, simply because that's something that comes part and parcel with the Fallout fandom - while playing the game, everyone mostly has different characters, there's that level of customization that lends itself well to fanfiction.

In some ways, I've found, fanfiction, especially if others are going to read it online, can be more difficult to write - in that there are the 'rules', I suppose, and events that happen in that world that have to be taken into account. When building your own world from scratch, you don't have that. You are your own boss, I guess.

And with fanfiction, as has been mentioned, it's more quality control than anything else. Personally, if I'm going to be putting my name/pen name to something, I'd rather it be good quality because even if it is practice, or just for fun, I don't want to be associated with something 'bad' (here, I'm talking the things that are inside my control, because I know, of course, that others might not consider my work at all good, and I'm not even sure if it is, but I make an effort so that I feel okay about it in myself). But because you're 'just' posting it online, there is that tendency not to be as thorough.

In terms of 'world' ... at the end of the day, okay, yeah, you're writing in a world someone else has created. But on a base level, if you write something set in an already existing city or town, isn't that, in a sense, the same thing? Not exactly the same, of course not, but let's face it; it takes me about as much effort to write a fanfiction set in a world I'm familiar with through gaming as it does for me to write a piece of original fiction set in the town I grew up in.

The bottom line is, though, as long as you do it for fun and don't try to claim the world and existing characters as your own, I don't really see the problem.

[Wingweaver84]

As a writer of fanfiction myself,I see it not as straight copying someone else's works.Rather it's taking characters and adding your own personal touch to them and the world around them.

[Chouryou]

I am not yet done.
>>>>>>>>>>

I understand where you're coming from, but...
I know some fanfiction writers (aside from myself) who use fanfics to improve on their writing. Granted, they use someone else's world, but it's a way to practice writing stories.

I don't know, fanficcers aren't writers is probably just like saying fanartists aren't artists.

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WITNESS.