I found this unfinished article in my usb the other day, under this very title, and I decided to finish it, with a bit of a more 'updated' view point on this matter.
Obviously meaning 'fiction written by fans', I think the question of fanfiction being good or bad varies with each person. Having enouh time to write or read one is another matter altogether.
There are many reasons as to why I think fanfiction is a good thing. Firstly, fanfictions provide a form of entertainment to many people, regardless of whether they like to read novels or not. Many fanfics are short stories, or are long with short chapters. One can occasionally find a long fanfic with long chapters (perhaps Soomp! or Livejournal?) though they aren't very popular, seeing as many fanfics are thought of, planned and posted in a community (for example, Livejournal, AsianFanfics, Soomp!, Fanfiction.Net and Winglin) in less than a month. Longer fanfiction that contain the longer chapters and plot are usually planned over the span of a few months, maybe even years. Depending on the author, fanfiction are quick, easy reads that cover many genres and are free to read online, which makes them very accessible to everyone and anyone, considering the many advancements in technology today (damn it, we should have hover cars by now!). In addition to this, 'one shots' are popular as they can be of any length and focus on only one aspect of a character's story (maybe it's a spin off or an idea that an author wanted to cover, but not in a chaptered fic). They also make very fast reads.
Apart from entertainment, fanfictions provide an outlet for many to channel their emotions through. Writing is an accepted form of 'therapy' and is encouraged throughout our society. I find that one of the many ways of removing anger or hatred from one's self (as said by many self-help sites) have been to write down the specific emotion and reason and either throw it away or dispose of it in a satisafactory manner, may it be via burning, shredding or some other way. As they say, 'out of sight, out of mind'. Many people might question the validity of this, but I can vouch for it's effectiveness as I am a writer who would rather express myself through fiction than through a normal conversation.
Fanfiction allows for creativity, imagination and the improvement of a language. We have arrived at the point in the 'fanfiction world' where writing fanfiction is now a globalised hobby and many do it in whatever time he or she can spare. There have been many fanfiction written in English as it is the language that many are required to learn to communicate with the rest of the world, aside from it being a global language. In saying this, it's also the language many choose to write in as it allows for an author to cater to a wider audience, regardless of being able to read and write English well. This increases the amount of feedback you receive as an author and allows a wider variety of fanfics as a reader. Because fanfiction is so easily written and posted, not having to go through the complication of publishing (although overly popular stories may consider being published) and because access to fanfiction is easy, asking for help with English is no problem. 'Beta readers' is the term we use for an online editor and betas are generally those who have a very solid foundation in the language a story is being written in. Just like an editor, they correct grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure to both increase the level of clarity the story may not have had before the editing and to give the author pointers on where they can improve. Reviewers exist for a similar, but not exactly the same, purpose.Whilst a beta reader is preoccupied with the way an author has written their story, a reviewer looks at the story from a broader perspective, rating many aspects such as title, plot, theme, look (poster, trailer and background, if available) and may only touch on the written aspect of the story. In other words, they rate the overall story on it's likability. Although not as specific as a beta reader, reviewers are still able to offer pointers for the author. Again, I find that reviewers generally have a solid foundation in a specific language; however, many reviewers could also be graphic designers, authors or general readers. Each review varies by reviewer.
When I say that fanfiction allows for the flow of creativity, I mean that in more than one way. As with many novels, fanfiction has grown to the point where we are accustomed to seeing a 'book cover' (more commonly referred to as a poster) or a trailer to go with our stories. Not only does fanfiction help to test our creativity as authors, to try and set out story apart from everyone else's, but graphic designers and trailer makers are 'employed' to help raise the level of attractiveness a story possesses, thus challenging their abilities to cater for a custom made poster. Remember: a story with an unattractive poster or trailer does not limit the author's story to being unattractive and 'bad' too. Not everyone makes their own posters and trailers, though it is becoming increasingply popular to do so. As they say, 'never judge a book by it's cover'. It also allows for authors to find their own style of writing and individual colour, unique only to his or her self.
I find fanfiction to be bad in very few ways. One of them is in plagarism. Because nearly every plot is the same on a broad level, yet different on a more technical level, it can lead to two authors having a very similar story. This also applies to officially published novels and I would say it's a universal idea. Some people then mistake this for plagarism, but there is a fine line between plagarising one's story to being inspired by it. To plagarise is to copy one's story word for word and then claim it as your own work. To be inspired is to come up with a piece of work that is influenced by the work of another; be it art, literature, movie, music, or saying. To copy someone's work ans changing the names of the chacters to places the original story was set in is also knwon as plagarising, unless writing a parody. Using a scene from a story with the original author's permission is not counted as plagarism, but is not counted as being inspired if the scene is used word for word. Originality is hard to come by and so I can see where the topic of plagarism stems from, whether it be a legit accusation or a false one. The possibility of having two fanfictions with a very similar plot but different character still stands.
The feeling that one is obligated to update their fanfic or that they have to write something, even if they are not confident in it, is something I don't find a positive trait in. I believe that writing fanfiction is a hobby, not an obligation to someone else. If one feels obligated to update, then one will lose their joy of writing very soon. Eventually this will become a chore to them. Authors such as J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyer or Suzanne Collins (for example's sake) do not churn out a book every week or release a chapter of a new book every second day. In addition, the peer pressure of having to post something in a fanfiction community when you are perfectly happy with comenting and reading works both ways. It can either quickly discourage the author because their stories aren't as good or popular as others, or it can rope them into wanting to improve and eventually enjoy writing. Everyone writes for their own reason and thus are not obligated to update at certain times just to keep up with a reader's demand of 'update soon!'. Come on guys, the word limit in a comment box is probably somewhere between 1000 to 1500 words, not five. Expand your vocabulary and try to leave a few more words of encouragement, or don't post any comment at all. A simple 'update soon' isn't even a form of encouragement!
The last thing I have to say on why fanfiction is bad is cyberbullying. It's a major issue in our society and the fact that you can remain anonymous or hide behind a username does not mean that anyone has the right to insult a person for his or her writing. If you don't like a person's story, simply move on. Everyone is at different stages of their writing journey. If you don't like the fact that there are so many rated, yaoi, yuri, vampire, warewolf, romance or whatever fanfiction floating around on the net, then don't bother reading them. Why waste your time reading and commenting on something you don't like? What's the point and what do you gain from it? Not everyone thinks the same way and although everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech and to their own opinion, as the saying goes, 'if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all'.
Depending on who you are, fanfiction can be a good or bad thing. I see it as more of a good thing, but as I've said: we all think differently. That's all I have to say on the subject (and I seriously did write out an essay for that - I didn't even realise I was doing it!), but let me know what you think. Writing fanfiction: is it good or bad to you?
Sources: Livejournal, Soomp!, Winglin, Fanfiction.net, AsianFanficsLabels: Opinion, Type: Online, Type: Writing
Post a Comment