Fanfiction is crap!

And you've read all of it, I take it?

Anything in particular?

I think you'd find that all literature was crap too, honestly, if just anyone could publish a book without the benefit of an editor. There are even published novels that are complete crap, despite the fact that they were (at least in theory) edited and approved by someone.

There is actually published fanfiction too (Star Wars novels and whatnot), but that's not what people usually mean by 'fanfiction'.

Not all fanfiction is crap. Some people actually have good ideas, that flow just as well as the authors.

Fanfiction may not be Great Literature, but no girl every got pregnant reading Fanfiction.

Well, fanfiction seems very unoriginal, and we find so in such facts as:
Who here has brought a fanfiction book?
I must admit my opinion is bias, seeing as I'm currently being pursued by some kid in my class trying to write a HALO fan-fiction. "Read this Pierre! Read...it"

Pierre--

I've bought most of the Marion Zimmer Bradley "fan-fiction" Darkover anthologies. She selected the manuscripts according to quality and gave many f/sf writers a start in publishing.

Fanfiction is crap for writers who spend time reading quality literature but it's golden for those who live in a world of fiction and fantasy. A good fanfiction writer is someone who can capture a reader's attention and allows the reader to see the images that the writer is writing about. And in this sense, a fanfiction writer is exactly the same as a regular writer.

I good peice of literature only has to make whoever's reading it feel good. If the reader liked it, it's just as good as anything you've ever read. Hell, I'd write anything to take the reader to another world, to give them that feeling. Anything that can do that is a great peice of literature. Anything

Good literature often makes the reader feel bad.

Good writing often make readers feel anything!

The way I see it, even though the fanfiction writers don't take it for themselves, theres no creativity!

I must confess, I do not fully understand "fanfiction" concepts, but after doing a little homework on the subject.....I would rather write about potatoe bugs than ever attempt at writing in someone's shadow of creativity. Orignality speaks for itself, even if it is not very good.

I hope I have not misunderstood what I think I know here now on this subject. Do I have egg on my face?

In our town, we have a number of authors that live out here for the pace. One of them is a writer who, I think if I understand "Fanfiction" correctly. Its a novelization of a TV show or movie?
The individual who does this, handles it just like any other assignment. He gets contacted through his agent from the film company and then has a contract giined up that says he has a certain amount of time to produce a series of drafts for review AND EDIT. He does add some personal embellishment but is always true to the plot and conclusion. Hes very prolific and quite successful. ANother one of our neighbors , is MArk Bowden,whose career has Skyrocketed with some of his News novels. At book chats , both of these guys come together and discuss the similarities of how theY produce their work. The major difference is that John (the fanfiction writer) is almost always locked in his house and Mark is off in some dangerous part of the world.
A screenwriter has a similar task as a fanfiction writer except they usually have to tear a book and start over

thank you farmerman for today I have learned a new understanding. Your explanation helped to broaden my understanding of fanfiction.

Writing under contract sounds exciting, but venturing off into the world with the highways as our driveway and the earth as our back yard sounds appealing as well. Is it possible to have the best of both worlds?

me agapi kai filia

enjoyment is the key.
I quote from Catch-22: He (Clevenger) knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it.

Mark Twain once said that a classic is a book that everyone praises and no one reads.


the point? Often the classics or other literature that is deep and thought provoking is good because of it's depth or how it really criticizes society. But sometimes that sort of literature is just too much. Sometimes I don't want to think about about the story too much
sometimes I want to curl up with a well written entertaining adventure.


it's just like movies, I like to watch movies that have real depth to them and make me think or wonder, but sometimes I just want that entertaining action flick with the shooting, explosions and Kung Fu fighting moves.

I like kung fu movies but my son, whose got alot of belts in martial arts , the names of which sound like Noodle brands, hes always critiquing the screen and telling us where they went wrong in a move.

By heck fm- you sure are a tough lot. And with literary sensibilities as well.


What a combination. We ordinary mortals have to be content with being big softies and thick as a brick.

Have you deposited any samples in the Sperm Bank for the use of future generations? It would be a leap in evolution for the fittest to be able to pass on to the future their superior genes without having to be actually present in person.

I wonder what Darwin or Orwell would have made of that idea had they been able to discuss it over the port.


Good literature can have a cathartic effect but that was mainly in the ancient Classical culture. Good literature in our world for those not living in the past stirs us into action and gives us ideas possibly by making us ashamed of some of our past actions and ideas or possibly by eliciting our admiration for daring and discovery. Ladies tend to favour the cathartic effect and gentlemen, particularly Faustian gentlemen, favour the adventure. The former might be compared to a hospital visiting and the latter to a Marine Corps NCO's world view.

Thus you get Lady Writing and Lady TV and gentlemen engaging with any of that become slightly feminised due to most of it being aimed at those who use it most and the Ladies are well ahead in most TV and book surveys. The main reason is possibly that it is possible to watch TV and read a book at the same time and, moreover, to accomplish this extraordinary intellectual feat whilst sat on one's big fat bottom and eating chocolates.

if I ever hear from the publisher....and dreams do come true.....you will absolutely love what I have accomplished in, "The King of Crystal Mountain,"[/b] the first of the Crystal Mountain tilogy (plus). You definitely have a way with words, Spendius.

....ah....afterthought.....if ladies and gentlemen are happy...what about the youthful teenagers....I hope I also have covered that in these books. (wink)

Herema-

I ought to have a bit of an idea after all the great wordsmiths I've read.

Wordsmith apprenticeships never end. It makes me laugh when people think that because they can read the instructions on how to microwave a cottage pie they are qualified to write without the bother of undergoing an apprenticeship in such a difficult discipline.

Have you read Rider Haggard. Every budding writer should read his best books.

I like your title. I hope your dream comes true. The King of Crystal Mountain! Yes! Reminds me a bit of King Solomon's Mines in which the twin peaks are called Sheba's Breasts. And Leo meets his doom chasing Ayesha up a mountain.But what a chase. What terrifying force could drive a man into such a trek?

I saw a film once about a Hollywood movie man taking time off to track down a once published writer who had written The Stones of Summer. A guy called Mossman. That was an interesting piece. He eventually found him shovelling coke into a boiler. Ever seen it?

Canticle For Liobwitz fascinated me.

It's a trade and sitting at the feet of the masters is the way forward. I have a book in my head but I daren't write it.