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The problem with writing a defense of fanfic is that everyone else has already shored up all the walls. People with bigger names than me. People who are more articulate than me. People who write more about boys than me. So first, the cliches.
1. Yes, fanfic does help developing writers. We know this because authors, with books and literary agents and everything, have said so. What, are they lying? Is fandom paying them off?BTW, Sarah Rees Brennan, I'll have your stuff ready for you by next week. Doctor/Master fic, spanking, 14K.
2. And even if fanfic writers aren't interested in writing as more than a hobby, fanficcing has the same justification as any other hobby: people enjoy it and they're not hurting anyone. And not to disparage anyone's extracurricular activites, but it seems to me like you're far less likely to damage your neck writing fanfic than you are crashing full speed into another human being while in pursuit of a oblong leather ball. That is, unless you're in Supernatural fandom. "HE SAID WHAT ABOUT CASTIEL?" *whiplash*
3. Every time someone writes Cara/Kahlan, God cures a kitten of cancer. Please, think of the kittens.
4. Hey, we got to the point. Okay, so I can't speak for everyone. And I'm not very objective. But I do think writing fanfic has helped me grow as a writer. This is, of course, not counting the fun I've had with macros, or talking with people I met in fandom about who should play Black Canary in a big-budget movie (Charlize Theron), or freaking people out with scans from Italian horror comics. No, this is objective "I used to suck, now I suck less."
Just as an example, in the past few weeks I've written some LotS fic. People have liked them. I've gotten lots of comments, some from BNFs. People think the porn fics are sexy, they think the romantic stories are romantic. It's not winning the Newbery award, but to some degree, people are saluting what I'm running up the flagpole. At the very least, no one's responding with LOLWUT cat macros and writing me up on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fanficrants.
Now let's wind the clock back some years to before I got into fandom. Let's see if I have any stories lying around from that bygone area. Hmm... oh my. Oh dear me. Oh, God, I shouldn't show this to anyone...
No! I must prove that fandom has made me a better writer! F-list, gaze upon my work and tremble!
Warning: Do not read thisstory vaguely interconnected sequence of words and phrases if you intend to have sex ever again. Or watch Charlie's Angels. Or anything starring anyone from Charlie's Angels. Or anything featuring bipeds who might be reminiscent of Charlie's Angels. (But seriously, folks, where is the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle fic? You've got your snuggly BFF pairings, you've got your OT3s, you've even got hatesex! No offense, Cara, but Demi Moore was handing out kisses of dominance and tonguings before it was cool).
NOTE: This was like seven years ago. That's one black president ago. Back then, we had to watch movies in only TWO dimensions and Lindsey Lohan was a promising young starlet. So if you've just stumbled on this journal, don't judge me by this. Or by that Dick/Babs/Kory story*.
( COOL STORY, BRO, WHEN ARE YOU POSTING TO ADULTFANFICTION.NET? )
Lay off me, my word processor didn't have spell-check back then and I didn't have V.C. Andrews books to learn sex scenes from like y'all did. You know what I had? I had Sweet Valley Twins and the Babysitter's Club. Perhaps more relevantly, I had Goosebumps and Fear Street.
So there you have it, folks. Maybe fanfic is illegal, or immoral, or literary rape (literape?). But at least it's taught me not to use the phrase "prosthetic pecker" during a love scene.
*NOTE: BTW, I'm really sorry about that Dick/Babs/Kory story, because I thought I could pull it off, but it really did suck. I wanted to show how those three went from, well, Dick and Babs and Kory to being an OT3 and I stuck with that even after the story begged to be about Dick/Babs and Donna/Kory. It's like how George Lucas started off thinking Han Solo should be a space monster, but then if I'd been George Lucas, they would've cast Harrison Ford and saw how cool he looked with the boots and the vest and shit, then gone "fuck it, let's put him in a monster suit, give him some goddamn tentacles."
Even then, I kinda cheated to get the ending I set out for. Plus, too much sex which I wasn't really good at writing. If I had to revise it now, it would be like sixty percent red ink, so, really sorry if any of you wasted your time with that, hope I made it up to you with all those other stories I wrote.
1. Yes, fanfic does help developing writers. We know this because authors, with books and literary agents and everything, have said so. What, are they lying? Is fandom paying them off?
2. And even if fanfic writers aren't interested in writing as more than a hobby, fanficcing has the same justification as any other hobby: people enjoy it and they're not hurting anyone. And not to disparage anyone's extracurricular activites, but it seems to me like you're far less likely to damage your neck writing fanfic than you are crashing full speed into another human being while in pursuit of a oblong leather ball. That is, unless you're in Supernatural fandom. "HE SAID WHAT ABOUT CASTIEL?" *whiplash*
3. Every time someone writes Cara/Kahlan, God cures a kitten of cancer. Please, think of the kittens.
4. Hey, we got to the point. Okay, so I can't speak for everyone. And I'm not very objective. But I do think writing fanfic has helped me grow as a writer. This is, of course, not counting the fun I've had with macros, or talking with people I met in fandom about who should play Black Canary in a big-budget movie (Charlize Theron), or freaking people out with scans from Italian horror comics. No, this is objective "I used to suck, now I suck less."
Just as an example, in the past few weeks I've written some LotS fic. People have liked them. I've gotten lots of comments, some from BNFs. People think the porn fics are sexy, they think the romantic stories are romantic. It's not winning the Newbery award, but to some degree, people are saluting what I'm running up the flagpole. At the very least, no one's responding with LOLWUT cat macros and writing me up on
fanficrants.Now let's wind the clock back some years to before I got into fandom. Let's see if I have any stories lying around from that bygone area. Hmm... oh my. Oh dear me. Oh, God, I shouldn't show this to anyone...
No! I must prove that fandom has made me a better writer! F-list, gaze upon my work and tremble!
Warning: Do not read this
NOTE: This was like seven years ago. That's one black president ago. Back then, we had to watch movies in only TWO dimensions and Lindsey Lohan was a promising young starlet. So if you've just stumbled on this journal, don't judge me by this. Or by that Dick/Babs/Kory story*.
( COOL STORY, BRO, WHEN ARE YOU POSTING TO ADULTFANFICTION.NET? )
Lay off me, my word processor didn't have spell-check back then and I didn't have V.C. Andrews books to learn sex scenes from like y'all did. You know what I had? I had Sweet Valley Twins and the Babysitter's Club. Perhaps more relevantly, I had Goosebumps and Fear Street.
So there you have it, folks. Maybe fanfic is illegal, or immoral, or literary rape (literape?). But at least it's taught me not to use the phrase "prosthetic pecker" during a love scene.
*NOTE: BTW, I'm really sorry about that Dick/Babs/Kory story, because I thought I could pull it off, but it really did suck. I wanted to show how those three went from, well, Dick and Babs and Kory to being an OT3 and I stuck with that even after the story begged to be about Dick/Babs and Donna/Kory. It's like how George Lucas started off thinking Han Solo should be a space monster, but then if I'd been George Lucas, they would've cast Harrison Ford and saw how cool he looked with the boots and the vest and shit, then gone "fuck it, let's put him in a monster suit, give him some goddamn tentacles."
Even then, I kinda cheated to get the ending I set out for. Plus, too much sex which I wasn't really good at writing. If I had to revise it now, it would be like sixty percent red ink, so, really sorry if any of you wasted your time with that, hope I made it up to you with all those other stories I wrote.
