Fanfiction

[Glorb]

I've never liked fanfiction, for several reasons.

1) It's basically a crutch for writers who can't take five minutes to think up a plot, story, or characters themselves, and so they rip off better writers of TV shows, games, etc. It's a step away from plaigarism, which is just lazy.

2) When new characters ARE created, they're almost always always combinations of two or more characters, the offspring of two or more characters, or glorified versions of the author.

3) 90% of it seems to be of the erotic and Sonic the Hedgehog variety.

Of course, that's just my biased, skewed view of the matter. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts.

[Suffix]

I've got to admit: despite having started my career as a moderator of the Story Boards, which was dedicated to fan fiction and RPGs, I'm not a fan of the concept nor hardly any fan fiction works.

Meanwhile, I love stupid things like Half Life: Full Life Consequences, as that's just hilarious and stupid, and hilariously stupid, and you wouldn't even bother to stop and ask why someone would write such an unimaginative thing.

[Kojinka]

It's okay.  There are a few gems in the trash pile.  I've written a few, but the only one that I'm somewhat proud of is "Bean Fever"

[bobman37]

In general, fan fictions drive me nuts.

Not because they are fiction stories based on other people's characters. Not because I don't agree with the stories and plots.

Because when I read a story for entertainment, I want it to be engaging and well-written.

And most people on the internet are idiots.

Even if the typical fanfic writer isn't an idiot, chances are good that that person doesn't know some fundamental English rules that are to be applied in writing so people don't think you're an idiot. I'm not accusing anyone here, so don't get all defensive. I haven't read any fanfics by fungi forumers (besides Sapphira's The Prophecy, which was excellent), so I don't know whether or not our fanfic writers are idiots.

But people who abuse the English language-- especially in something in which I'm trying to concentrate on the story and content-- distract me totally from the fanfic. I spend the whole time being disgusted at the author and his ignorance toward proper spelling and grammar. I wouldn't call myself a grammar nazi; stupidity in general typically earns you a one-way ticket to I'm Going To Ignore You Land.

Having said all that, I'm currently co-authoring something, which I guess you could call a fanfic, if you use the term veeeeeeery loosely. I feel as though I have received a good education in the English language, so hopefully my work is actually engaging and interesting to read.

So I have nothing against fanfics, as long as they're written well. Problem is, most people on the internet aren't good writers.

[Suffix]

Ah, perhaps I was letting that detail get in front of my immediate leap to the "Unimagination Bandwagon." I'll definitely agree that fan fiction is generally seen to be of poor technical quality.

[BP]

I went neutral because I'm kind of picky. It's not the idea, but the fact that fan fiction can butcher the original stories and characters so heavily. I don't think I need to elaborate. I also prefer fan comics, but those can also be horrible, and I especially hate sprite comics.

The best example of an excellent fan comic series I can think of is Mani-Mani Tales*. It's not a retelling of the game. The original characters aren't lookalikes of existing characters with control over every force in the universe. The characters that were not made up have some new personality, especially Paula, but something about Paula being a total ditz is more legal in my book than Dumbledore swearing and yelling constantly due to "headaches." The art is great. The dialog is decent.

*Nope, I don't expect too many to click the link, seeing how many lame people there are 'round here. But there it is for whoever's interested. After page 16, they're all in color.

[Chupperson Weird]

One of my main beefs with fanfiction is the idea that people would ever even presume that they had the right, or the license, or whatever you want to call it, to use someone else's characters, story, etc. for their own use (unless they specifically obtained said license from the creator). Stories should be written by their creators and people should respect them enough to leave them be. I doubt I thought so strongly about this until I realized there was fan fiction based off of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, at which point I became filled with anger that someone would think they had any right to continue the story after what had been written by Hayao Miyazaki.

[Chocobo]

I think that FanFiction is a nice enough thing.. It basically does these two things:

1) Allows a person to interact with characters/series in a way other than watching/playing them.
2) Is a way for a group of people to be connected to each other.

It's true that Fan Fiction is often times really poor in a technical sense but I think that's to be expected. It's not Professional Fiction, licensed by the company itself -- Such as novels based off of Resident Evil and Halo or Star Trek. It's just written by people who love what they're writing about on their own time and for free. I think it also keeps a person writing and continually developing their skills. If you don't keep writing you're sunk. (Another good way is through blogging.) You can usually figure out the quality of a story pretty quickly by looking at how good their grammar is and if the ideas being presented are original or interesting in their little synopsis.

I quite enjoyed Fanfiction in my earlier days but I don't really have the time for it anymore. .When I do have time for creative endeavors I usually try to do my own original stuff.

[Lizard Dude]

The only fanfic I ever wrote was so good TEM refused to believe it wasn't plagiarism.

[PaperLuigi]

Fanfiction is...okay I suppose. I've written a few in the past, but a lot of them are unfinished due to lack of interest midway. I guess I just don't like writing about characters that aren't my own. I'm basically just taking them and putting them in stupid situations that I randomly thought up.

[CrossEyed7]

- 90% of fanfiction is crap, but so is 90% of film, literature, music, and every other medium. The main problem is that with other media, that 10% usually gets some publicity. And can afford editors to fix their grammar for them. With fanfiction, the reader has to find the diamonds in the rough on their own.
- There's nothing wrong with using established settings and characters. Most TV writers get their start by writing scripts for already existing shows, and there are probably tens of thousands of Dracula and Frankenstein-based books and movies. Not to mention all the people who get paid to write official Star Wars fan fics -- including the Infinities stories, which are just ridiculous, non-canon, "what if" stories that people get paid to write (i.e., What if Han miscalculated and the Millennium Falcon crashed on Earth and Indiana Jones and Short Round found it 126 years later? That's an actual story.).
- I try to write some once in a while, but I don't think I've finished any yet. One that I was working on was about the four guys that originally sealed the Thousand-Year Door. Someday I really should go back and finish it.
- Mario fanfiction is probably harder to write than most. Mario characters have very little characterization, so pretty much anything dramatic and character-based will feel out of sync with the games.
-
- Also, this, as an example of a good fanfic.

[Reading]

I write fan-fiction (mostly Mario); heck, I have a website for it. I don't usually call or think of my creations as "fan fiction", though, because that's too general a term. I follow many rules when writing, but the foremost is "Make all creations compatible with the games". I don't make Mario swear, speek like thiz, or...something with Peach, and I usually stay away from the plots of existing games to avoid interfering with anything (the only exception to that last rule is my story on this board). I consider my work a way to congratulate Nintendo/whatever company for their amazing work, and I always strive to produce high-quality, entertaining, and original work; I never write about Mario saving the princess from Bowser, because honestly, who wants to read about that when you can play 10 different Mario games for it? I think people who don't like fan fiction (for any reason) should just try reading some of the better stuff out there, because not all fan fiction is about characters randomly kissing, killing each other, and such...Hating something just because it's what it is isn't a good way to think.

My concept of fan fiction has changed throughout my time writing it, however. Many of my early characters were clones, but now I try to avoid them unless they're necessary for a plot element or such. I also had a more bouncy, childish way of writing when I started, but now I aim my writing for a teen/young adult audience. It's more intense than what you would see in an actual Mario game, but I try not to butcher the Mario concept, especially considering my foremost rule above. I bascially try to give Mario a more mature edge without doing any of what they did in Shadow the Hedgehog (cough).

I respect the original company's rights. That's why I don't want to make my aforementioned story an actual game; it's a direct sequel to SPM and actually making that sort of game would be a bit too bold for my tastes. It's the boldest attempt I've made even in writing, in fact, and that's probably farther than I'll ever go with future works. Not everything was meant to have fan fiction based upon it. Video games are suitable for it because they (usually) have open plots that you can develop any way you like.

[Rao]

I don't love fan fiction, but I don't hate it either. It's OK.

[Kuromatsu]

The only Fanfiction I ever read was Toasty64's (He's the author right?) "Mario's High School Days" and that was pretty good.

[goodie]

I have nothing against fan fiction, but I don't read it either. Mainly because I don't really read any fiction.