A TvTropes Fanfiction contest?( would you participate?)

Now that we have an original fiction contest , I was thinking that it would be cool having a fanfiction contest too.The advantage would be that fanfiction is easier to write,specially for beginner writters.

Would you be interested in a fanfiction contest?

Good luck finding a work that everyone wants to write about.

Personally... I don't know. If you choose a work I'm familiar with, and if I have a good idea for a plot, I'll probably participate for the kicks. Never done fan-fiction before.

Personally I used to write fanfiction, and I still don't mind it even after segueing into my own original work, but I'm the minority. Fanfiction is generally looked down upon here.

Also, I second the fact that it will be very, very hard finding a fandom that everyone knows, much less wants to write about.

Also also: There's already an original fiction writing contest and that tends to take up a lot of people's time.

edited 6th Jun '11 11:23:04 AM by Leradny

The main problem is avoiding Continuity Lockout and creating a story that non-fans can appreciate with absolutely no knowledge about the source work.

The closest work that most people had read would be Harry Potter, but there are also a lot of people who are yet to read it and everything had been done to death there...

Don't worry guys I am still thinking If II host this (whenever the other contest isn't active). But I wouldn't mind from where work the fanfiction comes from ( harrypotter, twilight etc ) as long as

1. characters are written in a way that everyone (even non fans could enjoy) in other words that the story stands on it's own
2. .A brief summary for non popular works wouldn't hurt.

3. everyone follows the same theme.

It would much more informal than the other contest that's for sure.More more to just chill out, relax and have fun and to help people to either lose their fear of writing or find love in writing.

edited 6th Jun '11 1:07:27 PM by FallenLegend

I'd definitely be interested.

I'd be interested, but I guess my number of possible fandoms would actually be somewhat small... I don't know if the idea feasible, in general. But if it is, then I think I'll be in.

I'd be interested, as long as its a series I know or can learn quickly.

I wouldn't participate, but I think it's a good idea and you should totally do it after contest 4 is over.

No, I absolutely would not participate. I don't really like fanfiction on a fundamental level. Never wrote any besides an unsuccessful parody.

Off the top of my head, though, I can't think of any reason why having the contest itself is a bad idea - at least, apart from choosing the original work, like some people have already mentioned.

BAD fanfiction is looked down upon.

Anyway. I would want to but my time is pretty much taken up by various stories.

edited 6th Jun '11 3:26:31 PM by JewelyJ

Proof of otherwise is right there:

Yes some people don't like it. But there are some people who do.

Yes, there are people who like it... in the New Media subforum. I'd suggest that the OP head over there.

edited 6th Jun '11 3:32:03 PM by Leradny

Cool! Thanks for the support guys. I will host one after the current original fiction contest ends.

edited 6th Jun '11 4:17:04 PM by FallenLegend

And here. Did you miss the "Why write fanfiction?" topic, which got quite a lot of varied responses? I'm not going to dig it up for you, but it was pretty recent.

I have a Firefly OC-fic drafted up that Leandry might like, based off of the avatar...

I really need to finish the thing.

I like fanfiction, but I don't think I'd participate in a contest unless I'm absolutely sure that the readers know the fandom I'm writing for.

This is why fandom prompts/challenges are always fandom prompts/challenges. I would feel like I'm walking in blind if I'm not sure whether the judges know Glee, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, or Kingdom Hearts.

And even if I did, I do shit poor with deadlines.

edited 9th Jun '11 1:23:11 PM by Sharysa

Vilui: I believe I posted in that thread saying that "People write fanfiction because it's fun".

And just because people like fanfiction doesn't mean they're going to write it for a contest, or at all.

I tend to think that if you did this you would have to pick one work to base it on so that you can ensure that the judges are sufficiently familiar with it. Otherwise you would need to tell the judges what each fanfic is based on and just hope that they're familiar with it, because judging fanfiction if you're not familiar with the canon is essentially impossible.

Or at least a pool of works.

Alternately, we'd need a pool of potential judges to ensure that all the submissions can be properly critiqued. The normal 3-5 judges would be woefully inadequate for something as variable as fanfiction, unless we make sure those judges know at least ten fandoms each.

Which is also impractical.

So is this still in the proverbial cards? I promise to keep my sticky fingers entirely out of it.

While I still have no intention of participating, I would like to make the observation that the title can be read as a contest for fanfiction about TV Tropes. I leave it up to you to imagine what that would be like, but it was amusing to notice.

Someone already beat me to my main objection (which I raised in the other thread), which is the difficulty of ensuring the judges are familiar with the work the fiction comes from. There are several ways around this, but they all involve either a) limiting the scope of the contest or b) compromising the anonymity of the contestants.

Then, on top of that, fanfiction from a work the judge does or does not like will inevitably affect the scoring. It's hardly a fair contest when the series you choose to write will almost inevitably have a huge effect on the scoring.

Not a huge fan of fanfiction, myself. I've made it, undoubtedly, in some sense, but it's never left my head. Don't plan to change that trend anytime soon.