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Thoughts on Fan Fiction

Fan fiction, for those who don't know, is a term for writings or artwork based on a preexisting work, written by fans of said work. The work in question could be a film, a television show, literature, radio program, comic strip or even other works such as video games.  Fanfic has been around for decades and first really made it into the public eye with Star Trek, I believe. Fans of the show wrote stories about the characters which were collected, mimeographed and stapled into fanzines and then mailed to subscribers. Nowadays fan fiction is published on websites (the two best known are Archive of Our Own and FanFiction).

Traditionally fanfic has not been highly regarded; if you say the phrase "fan fiction" most people will either be unaware of what you are talking about or will cringe in revulsion. There are reasons for its poor reputation. Unfortunately, although some fan fiction is well written the genre as a whole has a reputation for bad writing. Consider the term "Mary Sue." The original Mary Sue was the main character of a Star Trek fic, a Starfleet cadet who wound up on the Enterprise somehow. She was depicted as impossibly gifted and accomplished, although the story contained no scenes showing her doing anything which would justify this portrayal. Readers expecting Kirk and Spock got Mary Sue, plus main characters basically drooling over her and how amazing she was. The author of the story was named Mary Sue Something-or-Other, and the story was immediately recognized as nothing more than wish fulfillment. It was reviled by other fans and "Mary Sue" is now used as shorthand for this type of character. But there are other reasons for the critical view of fan fiction: often it is simply viewed as derivative and lacking in imagination since it is based on other works. "Create your own characters!" critics will cry. "Do your own thing!"

Everything above pretty much describes what my opinion of fan fiction used to be... until I started writing it. I blame Season 5 of 24 for starting me on this hobby. Every season of 24 had loads and loads of characters and enough subplots for three other shows. Some of the subplots were more compelling than others. I got drawn into the Season 5 saga of the First Lady and her stalwart bodyguard Aaron Pierce, who were investigating the web of intrigue surrounding the President... as well as developing a relationship of their own. It may sound cliched but in the hands of two gifted actors, Jean Smart and Glenn Morshower, it worked incredibly well. Some of the online 24 commenters were also fans of these characters. We formed a discussion group and several members began contributing stories about them. I was coaxed into writing an initial story and then found that I could not stop. It was just too much fun, as well as being good writing practice. The next thing I knew I was embarked on an epic story that took me two years to write and ran to over 100,000 words.

What's good about writing fan fiction? If you want to write, it's a good place to start because it allows you to concentrate on plot, dialogue and settings. The beginning writer does not have to focus on creating characters because readers familiar with the source work know who the characters are; that work has been done for you. Original characters can be created one at a time and allowed to interact with established characters. You can also get critiques and suggestions from other writers (this is called "beta" (noun or verb). If you want your story to be beta'd before you publish it you can request input on it. Most critiques I have seen are supportive. With this kind of practice writers can become successful: "Fifty Shades of Grey" started as fan fiction of the "Twilight" series; the author changed the controlling vampire character to a controlling billionaire character. I won't claim it's great art, but the author sold tons of books and got a movie deal, so there you go.

What isn't so good about fanfic... for me this divides into two categories: stylistic errors and terrible plot ideas. The style stuff is usually pretty basic: misspellings and grammar mistakes such as changing tense from paragraph to paragraph, or even sentence to sentence. Using quotation marks erratically, a more common mistake than you'd think, drives me nuts. Sentence fragments may or may not be a problem, especially if these occur in dialogue; they can add realism and an informal tone, if that's what you are aiming for.

Terrible plot ideas: Oh, God, don't get me started.

• "What if [Character X] had a long lost sister/brother?" [Mary Sue ahoy!]
• "What if [Character X] was gender flipped?" [It's pointless! Work on your plot.]
• "What if Show X and Show Y characters met and started working together?" [A.K.A. the crossover - most of these are awful.]
• "What if [Characters X and Y, who clearly are not in love with each other in the original work] fell in love?" Especially if X and Y are the same gender... "Hey, let's make them gay, even though they weren't in the original story!" There are TONS of these stories in fanfic land. And they're total crap.
• "Take That" fics, written by someone who really hated what happened in the story or how one or more of the characters were portrayed. Often related to politics or gender issues. I call this the "Why Was Aslan So Mean to Susan" category, after the denouement of the Chronicles of Narnia series.

Let me turn the subject to my bias in favor of plot. Many of the works I read rely on romantic scenarios between characters and have little or no plot, another reason I will give a thumbs down judgement on a piece (mental judgement only; I don't post negative reviews). I love lots of plot, and subplots make me really happy.  I am heavily biased in favor of Gen (for general) fics for this reason. Usually Gen fics contain little or no romance, or at least the romance is not the focus of the piece. My 24 fic did have romance between the main characters, but this was well-established in the show and I spent a lot more time on my plot, which involved the unwinding of a major political conspiracy.

Going back to the ever popular idea of slash fiction (gay romance between characters): The authors do have a point. It's true that there are not a lot of LGBTQ heroes in pop culture, even today. My response to that is to write some original new ones. It makes a lot more sense to me to create original characters to fill a need rather than to radically change a well-established character.

Another motive for writing, if I am honest, is positive feedback. A complementary review on something I have written is an ego boost like no other. As I tend to write about works that are not so well-known, I don't get that many of these but I certainly enjoy them when I do.

Reading fanfic is like panning for gold, basically. The good stuff requires a search but it's there. If you have a favorite book, TV show or film it's worth doing a website search (see the sources above); you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

Labels: Pop Culture, Random Thoughts

posted by Dr. Alice at #