Fan Fiction

[ruthmadison]

I've never really read FanFic. I know there are good writers in there, but so much of it is painfully bad and I can't deal with that.

I'm wondering how other people feel about fanfic.

I'm also curious if anyone has ever encountered any fanfic for Extreme Ghostbusters, there was an awesome paraplegic character in that cartoon and it is the only show I ever attempted fanfic of (but never shared with anyone).

[ruthmadison]

I went looking and found some awful stuff Annoyingly it turns out that all the fanfac puts Kylie and Eduardo together. There was a bit of a love triangle going on between Kylie, Garrett, and Eduardo and I personally would have put Kylie and Garrett together!

[devogirl]

The book club discussion last night had me thinking about fan fiction also: what is it, and what do we expect it to do? I think fanfic has two basic functions, either to expand the original story (for instance, a sequel, or more adventures with the same characters) or to to write in the sex scenes that can't/won't be shown in the original. But I guess my definition is pretty limited, there is a lot out there that functions in different ways, like one where the author basically used the actors from a TV show as models for a completely new story. Actually I think the Avatar fanfic was rather unusual for FFN in that it was rather literate, even if it was boring. A lot of what I find on there is written by teenage girls, so there's a ton of action and emotion, but with painful grammar and spelling errors, and often left unfinished.

Fanfic is also a way for people like us with minority interests to revise mainstream narratives to suit our own purposes. Since there aren't many devs, there aren't so many of us writing fanfic, and we kind of get lost in the crowd on FFN. TV shows with disabled characters tend to attract more devo fanfic, obviously, but even then, not all of it has that specific devo vibe for me. I've found a good way to find devo fanfics is to look through the "favorites" lists of FFN members who clearly are devos themselves.

I used to have an (even more) snobby attitude toward fanfic, that it was the lowest form of writing, something a self-respecting writer would not do. Then Dark Angel came on TV, on one of the fan boards there was a lot of speculation about SCI sex, and I just had to write a sex scene. It's deep in the PD story archives if you're curious:
www.paradevo.net/darkangel.html
I've written a little more since then, and it is a lot of fun, and not a bad writing exercise. If it's the right story, matching the tone if the original isn't that hard. I guess that's why I haven't written a Covert Affairs fanfic yet, since I'm just not good at that spy stuff. But if you're not finding the stories you want to read, that only means one thing: you have to write it yourself!

[anais]

When looking for devolishious material in fanfiction.net I narrow the search to "Hurt/Comfort", and you will be surprised, how many dev stories are hiding under this category. Or, perhaps, you won't be surprised at all
I'd say, I have found enough satisfactory fanfics that did the thing to me. Than again, it takes a few seconds to run through the text and know how literate it is and how devish.
But I am afraid, I am an expert only in "House MD" fanfiction
Have written 3 stories myself. Very devish. In Russian. It was crying out: " Hello! Dev here!". One was about House meeting a devotee. The russian fandom have read it, and didn't notice anything. Nothing. Nada.
I tried to explain the public a bit about the fenomenon. Do you know what they answered?
They said, I was imagining, that there is no such thing as "Devoteism", that every woman is attracted to injured heroes, because it turns on her maternal instinct and the compassionate part, which is the key to female love.
I found this rationalization very interesting.
Either those women were somewhat right,
or everyone of them actually was a devotee without knowing it.
Which brings me back again to the idea, that there are a lot more of us, than we tend to think.

[ruthmadison]

Anais, the biggest fear I had as a kid writing my stories would that the devness would be so obvious all over them! People are a lot more dense than I thought. And to think they said it's about maternal instinct, how silly. I think for some women, the fantasy is about compassion and care, but it takes a lot more than that to be a dev. And we do exist Funny, no one has ever told me before that I didn't exist!

Devogirl, I also have a rather snobby attitude about it and I'm learning to let that go. I think writing fanfic in order to revise mainstream narratives to suit our desires better is an excellent reason to do it! I do get frustrated by the stories that other people write and I want control over them, so fanfic might be something for me to try.

I was way behind on the Dark Angel thing, I only just found out about it a couple years ago.

Also, I think the trying to match the tone and characters of the other story is probably an excellent exercise. For a school project I once wrote a story in the style of Flannery O'Connor and that was a very cool experience.

I think, however, I will mostly stick to writing my own original characters. I have five stories currently going, I've been so inspired since I found you all!

[anais]

"the biggest fear I had as a kid writing my stories would that the devness would be so obvious all over them!"
Ruth, I know what you mean. It is like you are standing naked, and everything shows.
Strangely enough, it is us being extremely self-conscious. Nobody, I assure you, no one who is not originally oriented to find "devishness" in a text, will ever find it. It goes unattended, unless stated overtly, like in your "Whole".
We think we show, we are embarassed, because we put a lot of attention to this part, and we are a bit paranoic, like uncaught criminals But it is only us projecting.
We are transparent to non-devs. Sadly or luckily.
And I loved your saying: "Funny, no one has ever told me before that I didn't exist!"

[ruthmadison]

Jan 26, 2011 17:02:12 GMT -5 anais said:

"the biggest fear I had as a kid writing my stories would that the devness would be so obvious all over them!"
Ruth, I know what you mean. It is like you are standing naked, and everything shows.
Strangely enough, it is us being extremely self-conscious. Nobody, I assure you, no one who is not originally oriented to find "devishness" in a text, will ever find it. It goes unattended, unless stated overtly, like in your "Whole".
We think we show, we are embarassed, because we put a lot of attention to this part, and we are a bit paranoic, like uncaught criminals But it is only us projecting.
We are transparent to non-devs. Sadly or luckily.
And I loved your saying: "Funny, no one has ever told me before that I didn't exist!"

So true. People are oblivious, consumed with their own fears and secrets and totally unable to see other people's!

[merry]

Also have generally been VERY snobby about fanfic, but discovered these two gems a few days ago. Definitely keepers and re-readers for me. (The author has only posted 6 stories but they're all disability-rich. One of us?)

Skewed: bit.ly/iEJeiy
Relative Motion: bit.ly/jpcIpD

The writer is very, very good. I hope one day she (at least I think it's a she goes mainstream and writes us a whole series of novels. I think she's easily good enough...