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Thoughts on fanfic-
Just a short entry - is there really a difference between fanfiction and fiction? Isn't writing writing, and don't you judge it by common standards? More below-
On aubrem's recommendation, I went and read June Diamanti's recent entry on fandom and fan fiction. Very interesting. Of course June is quite right to say that no fan is more important than any other fan, and also right to say fanfic can never equal or surpass the fiction which inspired it. Or is she? I understand exactly what she means by this; in this instance, we are talking about J.K.Rowling and the Potterverse, and I would be foolish indeed to claim my fanfics were better than Rowling's original novels, since the fanfics would not even exist if it were not for the original novels and the world and characters Rowling has created within them. I do accept that. So why do I feel so hurt, and so inclined to defend myself?
Because I really do think I have done some good work, however minor, in my recent fanfics. It has been freeing for me, and therefore, at the very least, good writing practice, but I hope it has been more than that. The fanfics I have written were the result of frustration with Rowling's universe; I was driven to theorize by that frustration. The initial result was essays, and I turned to fanfic to see if I could imagine the canon characters from a different pov than the one from which Rowling has made us see them. In other words, I wanted to see if my theories did violence to canon. Really, then, the fics are extreme speculation; I couched them as stories because, after a certain point, I did not have enough evidence for the theories to write them out as formal essays. I think this is, at the very least, a legitimate intellectual exercise, and one that can be performed with some rigor. I hope writing these fanfics has been more than contributing more fluff to the world and wasting my (and any reader's) time.
June also said she got more pleasure out of writing her stories than anyone would get out of reading them, and that fanfic was not worth reading twice. This is where I began to disagree. I hope readers have enjoyed my stories at least as much as I have enjoyed writing them. All writing is communication, and one does want both to have readers and to give them pleasure. Otherwise, the writing has failed. At least, that's the way I see it.
It is true, I suppose, that writing fanfic is a type of cheating. It's a bit like the description Jake, the main character in "Under the Net" (a wonderful book!) gives of his work as a translator. Jake says he loves doing translation because he is lazy, and doing it is like opening his mouth and hearing someone else's voice come out. It's easy. That's certainly true of fanfic, because the "heavy lifting" of establishing settings and characters has been done for you, and all you need to concentrate on is plot and dialog. I thought about them for a long time before setting them down, but my fanfics were extremely easy to write compared to my original stuff.
But that, I think, is the lesson. If you are sure of your setting and characters, and know what is going to happen to them, writing is easy. You just have to go with the flow. That's been my experience with the original stuff I've written, too, and even with the essays: it is bad to force anything. You just have to follow it along and see where it goes; then you can tweak it. With fiction, for me at least, it seems to be most important to know who the characters are.
To learn that lesson is, in itself, valuable, at least to me. That's why I feel hurt and annoyed when friends say, after I show them a fanfic, "You should write your own stuff." Okay - but the fanfic I'm showing you *is* my own stuff. It's something I've worked on and tried to write as well and honestly as I can, and I want it to give people pleasure, and/or to provoke thought. I don't want it to be dismissed as something valueless.
End of rant. Getting back to my own stuff now!
On aubrem's recommendation, I went and read June Diamanti's recent entry on fandom and fan fiction. Very interesting. Of course June is quite right to say that no fan is more important than any other fan, and also right to say fanfic can never equal or surpass the fiction which inspired it. Or is she? I understand exactly what she means by this; in this instance, we are talking about J.K.Rowling and the Potterverse, and I would be foolish indeed to claim my fanfics were better than Rowling's original novels, since the fanfics would not even exist if it were not for the original novels and the world and characters Rowling has created within them. I do accept that. So why do I feel so hurt, and so inclined to defend myself?
Because I really do think I have done some good work, however minor, in my recent fanfics. It has been freeing for me, and therefore, at the very least, good writing practice, but I hope it has been more than that. The fanfics I have written were the result of frustration with Rowling's universe; I was driven to theorize by that frustration. The initial result was essays, and I turned to fanfic to see if I could imagine the canon characters from a different pov than the one from which Rowling has made us see them. In other words, I wanted to see if my theories did violence to canon. Really, then, the fics are extreme speculation; I couched them as stories because, after a certain point, I did not have enough evidence for the theories to write them out as formal essays. I think this is, at the very least, a legitimate intellectual exercise, and one that can be performed with some rigor. I hope writing these fanfics has been more than contributing more fluff to the world and wasting my (and any reader's) time.
June also said she got more pleasure out of writing her stories than anyone would get out of reading them, and that fanfic was not worth reading twice. This is where I began to disagree. I hope readers have enjoyed my stories at least as much as I have enjoyed writing them. All writing is communication, and one does want both to have readers and to give them pleasure. Otherwise, the writing has failed. At least, that's the way I see it.
It is true, I suppose, that writing fanfic is a type of cheating. It's a bit like the description Jake, the main character in "Under the Net" (a wonderful book!) gives of his work as a translator. Jake says he loves doing translation because he is lazy, and doing it is like opening his mouth and hearing someone else's voice come out. It's easy. That's certainly true of fanfic, because the "heavy lifting" of establishing settings and characters has been done for you, and all you need to concentrate on is plot and dialog. I thought about them for a long time before setting them down, but my fanfics were extremely easy to write compared to my original stuff.
But that, I think, is the lesson. If you are sure of your setting and characters, and know what is going to happen to them, writing is easy. You just have to go with the flow. That's been my experience with the original stuff I've written, too, and even with the essays: it is bad to force anything. You just have to follow it along and see where it goes; then you can tweak it. With fiction, for me at least, it seems to be most important to know who the characters are.
To learn that lesson is, in itself, valuable, at least to me. That's why I feel hurt and annoyed when friends say, after I show them a fanfic, "You should write your own stuff." Okay - but the fanfic I'm showing you *is* my own stuff. It's something I've worked on and tried to write as well and honestly as I can, and I want it to give people pleasure, and/or to provoke thought. I don't want it to be dismissed as something valueless.
End of rant. Getting back to my own stuff now!
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The very good fics manage, I think, to have a lot of both, and to keep them in balance. That's probably why I'm so fond of A.J. Hall's LoP-verse, since they manage to innovate while staying rooted in the source text.