On fanfic and original fiction
May. 28th, 2004 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tortiettaIt's late and really not the ideal time to get into a discussion on original fiction vs. fanfiction, but I was talking with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mockreality who brought up some interesting points about what you get out of writing original fiction instead of fanfiction. I don't actually agree with her POV, but it did make me think about what I get out of writing fanfiction as well as original fiction.
C/p'd with permission from a tiredmockreality. SPAG and incoherancy to be ignored. :">
maevy: so i have a hankering to write a novel length hp fic... haven't had an urge to do that in a long time....
mockreality: why dont you just write something non hp... you know? if i didnt always have uni work to do, that's what i would do... and indeed tried to over the xmas holidays. i don't, i never have understood the whole reasoning why someone wants to write fics of hp or fanfics in general.. i tried once or twice, but that is someone elses idea, someone elses imagination you are taping into and using their idea to, well... because you are too lazy to think of a different storyline, different characters. sure there interesting to read, but nothing like the real thing, the real experience of writing something that is uniquely yours.. something that doesn't need to comply with rules of canon.. etc. i mean i know that's what you love, and i am in no way trying to dismiss it, but i think you'd get more satisfaction of coming up with an original storyline of your own. that's me though and when i ever get to actually sit down and extend my short stories into novels that's what will make me happy, but doing and working on what someone elses hardwork seems not right.. you probably disagree with me totally, but that's your thing..
maevy: you bring up some interesting points, but the thing is, for me at least, i do write original fiction as well as fanfiction, and there are parts to both that attract me to them. i love writing original fiction, and honestly when i made the comment that I did it was because when i have written recently it has been original fic not fanfic. original fiction is, like you said, an opportunity to explore your own creation, and that is great, i love that. you don't have limitations and you're able to let your imagination run free, but with fanfiction you don't have that option, and it's challenging because you have barriers that can be difficult to get around. and i don't think it's lazy, and i don't think it's wrong to want to be challenged in a slightly different way.
hp fanfic, or even just fanfic in general sets up characters and storylines for the duration of the marketed product (make sense?). so in regards to hp we've got a 7 seven year time frame, and in that time frame we're given details of what happens to harry and his friends, but there is a lot of secondary matter that doesn't get discussed... characters that don't have much interaction with harry, plots that don't develop because they are not directly inter-linked with harry and so forth...
for me, at least, when i write fanfic i don't want to 'step on the toes', so to speak, of what JKR has given us, but more explore the depths of this universe that has already been created... maybe it's not right because I haven't created the universe myself, but at the same stage when you write a post-hogwarts fanfic set 8 years after the kids have left school, who's to say that the universe that JKR has created will remain exactly the same? yes, you're playing with characters and ideas originally created by someone else, but that does not mean that you cannot interpret the characters yourself. it does not limit you to base characterisations, because every person will read a character different, and just like with the movies and the different representations of say ron or hermione, every person will then transcribe that character the way they see them.
as far as plots go, provided that you arn't just writing a 'smut' fic (and here I mean pure smut, no plot what-so-ever, pwp), or a fic which is deliberatly without plot, then you are using your own imagination and imaginative resources to create something which is rich with plot and character development. i suppose it comes from a yearning to know more about the characters and thir universe... to really get to know the characters in depth... and when you can do that yourself, and put your mind to the task, to explore all the various avenues available then there is something extremely satisfying about that... but yes, we all have our own likes and dislikes. as i said i love original fiction as much as i love fanfiction, i find then both challenging in their own ways.
Right, so the point of this post is to ask you all what you think. Why do you write fanfiction? What are your views on original fiction vs. fanfiction? I know a lot of you write original fic as well as fanfic so I'd very interested to hear all your views. So, speak up! Tell me what you think!
mockreality who brought up some interesting points about what you get out of writing original fiction instead of fanfiction. I don't actually agree with her POV, but it did make me think about what I get out of writing fanfiction as well as original fiction.C/p'd with permission from a tired
mockreality. SPAG and incoherancy to be ignored. :">maevy: so i have a hankering to write a novel length hp fic... haven't had an urge to do that in a long time....mockreality: why dont you just write something non hp... you know? if i didnt always have uni work to do, that's what i would do... and indeed tried to over the xmas holidays. i don't, i never have understood the whole reasoning why someone wants to write fics of hp or fanfics in general.. i tried once or twice, but that is someone elses idea, someone elses imagination you are taping into and using their idea to, well... because you are too lazy to think of a different storyline, different characters. sure there interesting to read, but nothing like the real thing, the real experience of writing something that is uniquely yours.. something that doesn't need to comply with rules of canon.. etc. i mean i know that's what you love, and i am in no way trying to dismiss it, but i think you'd get more satisfaction of coming up with an original storyline of your own. that's me though and when i ever get to actually sit down and extend my short stories into novels that's what will make me happy, but doing and working on what someone elses hardwork seems not right.. you probably disagree with me totally, but that's your thing.. maevy: you bring up some interesting points, but the thing is, for me at least, i do write original fiction as well as fanfiction, and there are parts to both that attract me to them. i love writing original fiction, and honestly when i made the comment that I did it was because when i have written recently it has been original fic not fanfic. original fiction is, like you said, an opportunity to explore your own creation, and that is great, i love that. you don't have limitations and you're able to let your imagination run free, but with fanfiction you don't have that option, and it's challenging because you have barriers that can be difficult to get around. and i don't think it's lazy, and i don't think it's wrong to want to be challenged in a slightly different way. hp fanfic, or even just fanfic in general sets up characters and storylines for the duration of the marketed product (make sense?). so in regards to hp we've got a 7 seven year time frame, and in that time frame we're given details of what happens to harry and his friends, but there is a lot of secondary matter that doesn't get discussed... characters that don't have much interaction with harry, plots that don't develop because they are not directly inter-linked with harry and so forth...
for me, at least, when i write fanfic i don't want to 'step on the toes', so to speak, of what JKR has given us, but more explore the depths of this universe that has already been created... maybe it's not right because I haven't created the universe myself, but at the same stage when you write a post-hogwarts fanfic set 8 years after the kids have left school, who's to say that the universe that JKR has created will remain exactly the same? yes, you're playing with characters and ideas originally created by someone else, but that does not mean that you cannot interpret the characters yourself. it does not limit you to base characterisations, because every person will read a character different, and just like with the movies and the different representations of say ron or hermione, every person will then transcribe that character the way they see them.
as far as plots go, provided that you arn't just writing a 'smut' fic (and here I mean pure smut, no plot what-so-ever, pwp), or a fic which is deliberatly without plot, then you are using your own imagination and imaginative resources to create something which is rich with plot and character development. i suppose it comes from a yearning to know more about the characters and thir universe... to really get to know the characters in depth... and when you can do that yourself, and put your mind to the task, to explore all the various avenues available then there is something extremely satisfying about that... but yes, we all have our own likes and dislikes. as i said i love original fiction as much as i love fanfiction, i find then both challenging in their own ways.
Right, so the point of this post is to ask you all what you think. Why do you write fanfiction? What are your views on original fiction vs. fanfiction? I know a lot of you write original fic as well as fanfic so I'd very interested to hear all your views. So, speak up! Tell me what you think!
