Why we write

POSTED BY: Aramina
UPDATED: Thursday, March 17, 2005 19:15
VIEWED: 11104
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ARAMINA

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 11:55 PM

Yeah, I used to watch Sliders, mostly off and on but I generally kept track of the series until the latest ones. I often found myself inventing new worlds and rules of sliding to make things more interesting in my head. I never got round to writing things down though. I never seem to get round to doing much lately :)

When I think of an interesting signature you'll be the first to know.

MALSDOXY

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:12 AM

Play. I don't even know why I had to write FanFics about Firefly. I've never been compelled to write about any other series I liked. And compelled is the word, let's make no mistake about that. It was and is fun, to write and read them.

"Haven't you killed me enough for one day ?"
- Mal, War Stories

REGINAROADIE

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:30 AM

Well, for me, it's both fun and serious. The fun for me coming up with new ideas for future fanfics, creating dialouge that sounds similar to Joss's dialogue style, and seeing where each of these things lead. Like right now, I'm thinking of branching off River's newfound musical enthusiasm into different sects. And I even have a few pages of another future fan fic written down, which I don't want to debut until I've established River's musical abilities well enough. But the serious aspect of that is attaining the bar with my writing. Am I writing something that'll be read frequently in the Blue Sun Room? Am I writing something that, if the show continued, would be considered a treatment for a future episode? Would both a die-hard Browncoat and an uninitiated person read and enjoy what I write. This is stuff I consider when I write anything.

I like reading fanfics by specific authors (KaySky in particular) and seeing how every fan adds his or her own persepective and interpretation on the series and it's characters. In a way, I think these fanfics arn't power struggles, but a way to help continue on the series in our minds. At least until the BDM. And these fanfics cater to everyone. Want dark, brooding, serious stuff? The there are some stories for you. Want light hearted, short and humorous stuff, there's that as well. If you want porn, poetry or avant-garde stuff, I'm sure you can find something like that as well.

"NO HAI ES BANDAI. THERE IS....NO.....BAND. AND YET....WE HEAR A BAND."

SHINY

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Aramina:
Quote:
Originally posted by Shiny:
Play. It's just a creative outlet, and the characters and universe is so rich that you can just dive right it without having to do all the hard work of inventing them. ;)

Ooh it's interesting how you note the difference between the work and play aspects. So do you think that anything about fan fiction that is hard work?

When I think of an interesting signature you'll be the first to know.

Mostly just coming up with new story ideas when I have writer's block and everyone's yelling at me to hurry up and post the next part:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=1674

Then again, my fanfic was quite short. I imagine writing novel-length chapters would be hard. Not even sure where I'd start. I like short stories better...'cuz I'm lazy.

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

SHADESIREN

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:08 AM

I am personally NOT a fan of fan-fiction, in GENERAL.. TOo often, I see fan-fiction is a way for someone to write out their personal "I have a crush on this character and I love this show, so if I could play a character and live out my personal fantasy here it is... big surprise, the character I have a crush on just LOVES my made up character and we have all kinds of smoochiness while having adventures..." you can see why I got tired of trying to read fan-fiction. Now, I'm CERTAINLY not trying to say everyone writes like that, so no one should feel a need to defend themselves - I just see WAY too much of that, and it turned me off fan-fiction, cuz it was real hard to find stuff that WASN'T like that. Now, I prefer not to read too much of it, because no matter how we try, we are NOT the creators of those characters, everyone writes their INTERPRETATION of a character, so it's filtered through the writer's perceptions, and rarely lives up to the original.

Ok, all that crap said, I HAVE tried to write a fan-fic. Twice. I specifically will not use any main character created in teh show, because I do believe that by trying to write for them, I guess it kinda tarnishes them - they aren't what they were in the show, and it makes me kinda sad. I wrote one firefly fan-fic, which I did not finish, but instead re-invented as a cooperative writing project now known as The Oberon. ( http://www.oberonrpg.com ). Several people like how I handle it - Canon IS life - I will not allow ANYONE to CHANGE the universe. Yes, we do invent some things, go to places that weren't in the show, but I'm very strict about not writing things that could be invalidated by the Serenity movie. We had someone try to write up a bunch of stuff about the Companion Guild and Companion Academy - I felt bad, but I had to veto it. We may learn more in the movie(s) and therefore, she had to simply leave it as vague and suggested. Not as spelled out. I'm strict like that, and I believe our game is better for it.

The other fan-fic I wrote is gone, it was an attempt at a Regency Vampire Slayer romance. It was dumb, and I never went very far with it. Again - I never used any established characters from Buffy, and didn't even use any settings.

Ok, to answer some of what you asked, we do it for play, because we love the show, and wanted more - we also like the idea of having a part of it - is that power? I suppose, in a way, ti is. To me, it's kinda ownership - we own a tiny, teeny piece of firefly now. Not the kind of ownership where you make money, but it's a part of us. We LOVE what Joss created, and now, it's a part of us in a new way, beyond just watching it on the tv or movie screen. We have a lot of fun - I enjoy writing, enjoy the challenge of writing with others, and the process of creating the story and describing the actions.

I've written original stuff, too, and it's pretty much the same thing to me. Original stuff means it's all out of my head, fan-fic stuff just means someone else thought up some of it first.

Ok, I probably went on way to much. Hope no one was offended, that wasn't my intent. Trying to be honest, that's all.

http://www.shadesiren.com

SHINY

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:08 AM

Incidentally, if you are studying fan creations more broadly than just fanfic, you might want to talk to some of these folks:

http://www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/25/0452201&tid=214&tid=97

http://www.toknowajedi.com/

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Shadesiren:
I am personally NOT a fan of fan-fiction, in GENERAL.. TOo often, I see fan-fiction is a way for someone to write out their personal "I have a crush on this character and I love this show, so if I could play a character and live out my personal fantasy here it is... big surprise, the character I have a crush on just LOVES my made up character and we have all kinds of smoochiness while having adventures..." you can see why I got tired of trying to read fan-fiction. Now, I'm CERTAINLY not trying to say everyone writes like that, so no one should feel a need to defend themselves - I just see WAY too much of that, and it turned me off fan-fiction, cuz it was real hard to find stuff that WASN'T like that.

Ah, the 'Mary Sue' phenomenon. Yeah, it's one of the reasons I'm not more into reading fanfic... although there's good stuff out there, it's hard to filter out the good from the vast majority of bad.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions

KAYSKY

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Aramina:
So have you written fan fiction for other series then?

The only other fanfic I wrote was back when I was 14-15. Those were my teenybopper days, so needless to say all the fanfic was about the BSB.
I also used to write a series of original fiction. At 14 I wanted to be a writer. My goal was to have a complete novel by age 20. That didn't even come close to happening.
Now I just enjoy the pleasure I get from writing Firefly fanfic. I suppose if another show inspired me, I would at least dabble in writing a fanfic or two about that, but so far no other inspiration.

KAYSKY

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:44 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:

I like reading fanfics by specific authors (KaySky in particular) and seeing how every fan adds his or her own persepective and interpretation on the series and it's characters.

You're sweet.

Thanks.

Your fanfics definitely rank on the top of my list for most enjoyable.

****

To write, or not to write. That is the question.

COZEN

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:56 AM

I see the purpose of fanfic as a twofold process.

One, those who are not professional writers, but have wanted to scratch that particular itch in an anonymous envrironment, with the added bonus of having a leg up with an established storyline, can safely post away in favourable circumstances. If you check out the commentaries, you simply never see anything along the lines of "this sucks", or "go die you amateur dork". Reviews are always positive. Leaving me to believe that those who don't like a story, or series, just don't bother responding. Hence, a safe environment to develop confidence in one's writing, albeit not particularly conducive to critical assessment.

Two, think about the website you're reading, lurking, contributing to. Isn't a significant purpose of fanfic to keep our favourite series alive? In the case of Firefly, aren't the fanfic posters keeping up the interest in the FF characters, at least until the BDM premiers?

If the movie bombs, such that Universal drops Firefly entirely, who else is going to keep our favourite characters alive but the fanfic martyrs?

Me, I'm unabashedly a Firefly fanfic fan. I don't reasonably expect Whedonesque quality. After all, JW is first and foremost a professional writer, it's what he has trained to be, it's what he earns his living by. Having said that, some of the good old ordinary people posting to this site are pretty damn good storytellers, each with their own perspective. I love 'em all, good, bad or indifferent.

***
Here's hoping Guildsister's real life slows down just enough....

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