Quick question about why fan fictions are always...

Do you think they suck? Also, explain your answer in the thread.

Yep	10.1%	[ 7 ]
Not all of them	89.9%	[ 62 ]
Total Votes:			[ 69 ]

[Bibbidi Bobbidi Boop]

Quick question about why fan fictions are always "s**t".

Almost all feedback I hear about fan fictions is more or less
"fan fictions suck".

And my question is,
what exactly makes them all so horrible?

I personally haven't read any myself, but i'm curious-
are there any specific features or re-occurrences ..maybe? that make so many fan fictions bad?

[Klaark]

Like all free writing on the Internet, it's written by people who don't know what they're doing. Go to FictionPress and you'll fine the same s**t to okay ratio as FF.net.


It also wouldn't kill you to skim some of it and see for yourself.

[xXKayleaXx]

Also I have heard that fan fictions are written obviously by fans who wish they lived in that world instead of their own. So usually the characters are perfect, especially the main character because people write a glorified version of themselves or who they wish they could be as the main character. Supposedly a lot of times nothing goes wrong either.

[Nanaran]

Well Klaark pretty much nailed it: many fanfictions suck because they're written by people who don't know what they're doing. They're mostly amateur writers who want to take a crack at writing by using a pre-existing story as their base. There's nothing about fanfiction, or fanfiction writers, that makes them inherently bad, it's just lack of experience. Same thing applies to writers of original work; the stories are only as good as the writer. With that said, there's well written fanfiction out there as well.

[TottWriter]

Klaark and Nanaran got there first, but I though I'd add my agreement.

The problem is not the fact that it's fanfiction, it's the fact that you've got millions of amateur writers strutting their stuff and a lot of them refuse to accept any genuine critique - a problem common to most websites which you can submit and review work on.

Fanfiction tends to get a bit more hate because you can easily compare it with the original work, and this often highlights the failings of the fanfiction itself. If you write a "bad" story, fine, you need more practise, but if you write a "bad" version of a story that was originally "good", it shows up more - and you have the fans of that story complaining about what you did to boot. (Please note I used quotation makes because what constituted "good" and "bad" is subjective.)

Essentially, it's easier for everyone to identify the specific flaws with fanfiction than it is with original work. If you aren't good at critiquing (and many people aren't) you might read a story with poor characterisation and think it's no good but not know why. Then you read a bad fanfiction and think "But that's not something XXX character would do!" Now take that aspect of critique and storytelling and multiply it by the number of different facets that make up a good (or bad) story. There's your problem.

[Cogent Dream]

Same reason why a lot of original fiction sucks. For every good writer there's a hundred terrible ones.

[Mortok]

1. A swathe of people too lazy or simply too uncreative to come up with their own original properties (and I say this as someone who has previously written and still occasionally reads fanfiction).

2. Complete lack of any sort of quality regulation.

3. Communities that consist solely of "authors" circlejerking over how "hot" their lurid kinkfuel crackpairings are. (Don't even try to deny that 95% of fanfictions are straight-up porn).

4. M-preg.

[Serena-Of-Limonium]

Mortok

4. M-preg.

I can't get over how accurate that last one is. If no one ever made another fanfic with Male pregnancy the quality of fanfiction in general would go up.

Also it's difficult to say what makes good fanfiction because not only do you need at least decent writing skills you have to manage others preconceived notions of characters. not to mention you're likely to get ripped apart by fans if you remove characters from their original settings. So good fanfiction is very subjective. Not that original fiction isn't subjective its just easier to distinguish when something is bad writing and not a personal distaste for how someone used others characters and story lines.

[Corrie Wazlib]

Majority of Fan fiction writers only use them as "scenario makers".
It mostly involves self insert characters and the original characters acting extremely OOC so that the author can satisfy their fan girl thoughts.

[s o f t e r s t a r]

People are just stupid when it comes to writing that s**t. <A<
I mean, I write it, but I only with series that are obviously flexible. For example, you can pretty much do anything with the Hunger Games, given there are at least 73 years worth of material you can work with. I also solemnly post it; it's for my own entertainment.

However, what really ruins fanfiction for me is mary sues. I hate them, never will like them, and wish they could die.

[Alexius08]

xSatashi

People are just stupid when it comes to writing that s**t. <A<
I mean, I write it, but I only with series that are obviously flexible. For example, you can pretty much do anything with the Hunger Games, given there are at least 73 years worth of material you can work with. I also solemnly post it; it's for my own entertainment.

However, what really ruins fanfiction for me is mary sues. I hate them, never will like them, and wish they could die.

Same goes with the Civ series for being very open-ended, though many fics focus more on war than on peace.

[Kiddo Seanchain]

To everyone who thinks m-preg is a fanfiction thing: go read some Norse mythology.

The funny thing is, I just got in a long talk with another girl about fanfiction and she sent me a huuuuge list of fanfiction she loves, including one at the end by Neil Gaiman. It's just like any writing - there's good and bad and you just have to wade through the mud to find the pearls. Personally, I like even bad fanfiction (as long as it doesn't stray into R-rated) because it's a reflection of the enthusiasm the writer has for the fandom. It makes me smile.

[Kairi Nightingale]

Kiddo Seanchain

To everyone who thinks m-preg is a fanfiction thing: go read some Norse mythology.

The funny thing is, I just got in a long talk with another girl about fanfiction and she sent me a huuuuge list of fanfiction she loves, including one at the end by Neil Gaiman. It's just like any writing - there's good and bad and you just have to wade through the mud to find the pearls. Personally, I like even bad fanfiction (as long as it doesn't stray into R-rated) because it's a reflection of the enthusiasm the writer has for the fandom. It makes me smile.

If you're referring to Loki, he was a shape-shifter who changed into a female horse before he got pregnant. Since he wasn't pregnant as a man, I would say it doesn't count.

[Kita-Ysabell]

Kiddo Seanchain

To everyone who thinks m-preg is a fanfiction thing: go read some Norse mythology.

As the above poster said, it depends on how you call it. (unless you're referring to something else?)

But Zeus did give birth to Athena... although she was fully formed and came out his head but hey, it still counts. There was even another dude involved. I think. One of the tritons. And Poseidon or someone split his head open.

[Kairi Nightingale]

Kita-Ysabell

Kiddo Seanchain

To everyone who thinks m-preg is a fanfiction thing: go read some Norse mythology.

As the above poster said, it depends on how you call it. (unless you're referring to something else?)

But Zeus did give birth to Athena... although she was fully formed and came out his head but hey, it still counts. There was even another dude involved. I think. One of the tritons. And Poseidon or someone split his head open.

Zeus swallowed one of his pregnant mistresses because of a prophecy thing that said he would have a son that would kill him (I'm actually a bit if-y on the prophecy part. I think there are several different versions.) The mistress presumably gave birth to Athena inside Zeus and when she grew up to be strong enough, she cracked open his skull to get out. (I think I read a version where Poseidon may have cracked Zeus's head open to stop his headache, too. However, where Athena got the spear, shield, and armor she popped out with- I have no clue. But that's the story.... O.o ) Anyway, I wouldn't interpret that as Zeus being pregnant or giving birth either. But that's just me.