Do you write fanfics?

Go Trombley, go Trombley!

As for the fanart thing, I think another issue is that fanart generally just shows a character or more looking awesome and doing stuff. You rarely see someone drawing their favourite character making out with a newly made up character "who is totally not a stand-in for me I swear", though these tend to be little sketches with self-deprecating descriptions stuffed away into the artist's Deviant Art account's Scraps folder, and if you see fanart displaying characters from different universes being awesome, it's more like "these are characters I like" rather than "I CAME UP WITH A TOTALLY PLAUSIBLE WAY TO MAKE THESE CHARACTERS COEXIST".

There is actually a stigma attached to fanart as well. Though fanartists probably get less flack for a lack of originality since artists are expected to copy stuff. You don't see people criticizing daVinci for just copying the human anatomy. But still, you do often hear people complaining about the things they found while browsing Deviant Art that they never wanted to see. Which I guess veers into "weird fetishes" territory again.

I got a friend who writes some fanfics, but he's generally a very good writer who doesn't do any of the crappy-fics. For one thing, OCs are never allowed. He also writes a large amount of original fiction (arguably, he writes more original work than fanfics).

I myself have a creative mind, I just never get around to actually writing my proto-fanfics down. One big idea I've had is an Indiana Jones / The Legend Of Zelda fic, which I'll get around to... one day...

My newest idea is actually still being formed in my head. The working title is "Metal Gate Awesome" (subject to change). It's gonna be a Mass Crossover of: Heroes, the Stargate Verse (focussing on SG 1), Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto (focussing on CJ), The DC Universe (based on Smallville, The first 2 Superman movies, the 3d one exists but is heavily "retconned", and Superman Returns, Superman 4 will be a bad dream sequence. Also, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Batman Returns.), Indiana Jones, The Mummy (new movies), The Stephen King Verse, The Buffyverse, The Jack Ryan "verse", and Death Note.

And if you think I stopped there, oh no... if fanart is included in this discussion, what about fan-maps? For my above Mass Crossover, I drew an Alternate Universe of the United States. It's largely the same, but with various small changes: i.e. West Virgina never broke off from Virginia, but West Florida did. Gotham is it's own state, set on Manhattan Island, Metropolis is a megacity located in Delaware, New England has had some borders redrawn, "North Michigan" has been formed from the upper peninsula, "Houston State" exists in East Texas. And, California and Nevada were merged into "San Andreas", with Los Angeles broken off to form "Los Santos", and the "State of Jefferson" formed from North California and a part of southern Oregon. Also, the US and the rest of the world has its geopolitical organization and history largely based on Metal Gear backstory, Stargate, GTA, and DCAU.

Yes, I know... I really need a girlfriend...

edited Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:31:23 by Little_Serge

I don't.

I never really got the appeal of fanfiction or fanart myself. Why work with other peoples' characters or worlds when you could create your own? That's my personal take on it anyway — I always find it more fun to create my own stuff, and I kind of stress over not being to convey something to be "true" to the original creator's intent.

What AOD said.

See, I've heard that argument so many times, but for me, it doesn't really hold water. It's not that creating your own characters and world are better than using someone else's, just different. And after all, there's so much out there that doesn't rely on creating your own characters and your own world, yet doesn't have the stigma of fanfiction. Movie adaptations of books. Episodes of Buffy written by someone other than Joss Whedon. New versions of the King Arthur legend. Anything with Hercules or Thor or Quetzalcoatl as a character.

...yeah, this frustrates me a bit >>

Well, yeah, but what I explicitly said in my post that it was my personal feeling; personally speaking I'm uncomfortable with using other peoples' characters because I feel I won't do them justice the same way the original creators would.

@[AOD]: What's wrong with fan art?

Anyway, don't do fan fics, I did draw some fan art for Khaos Komix, oh yeah, and I did some Trope Tan fan art, but it's not on the page.

[Ed.] While I may never write it, I do have a funny idea for a Black Lagoon fic, where Revy and Rock have sex for the first time, and Revy acts like a really awkward teenage boy leading up to it (as per Eda's teasing on the subject).

edited Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:54:36 by JethroQWalrustitty

Some people do it cause they don't like where a show's canon is going, or because they had their own idea for a story within the universe.

I honestly just like the idea because I want to see certain characters meet up... and try to kill each other. That is, if I ever get around to actually getting any ideas down. Mostly just peruse sites, ignoring the majority of the crap and picking any stories that seem to be actually well-written or thought out. Never underestimate the healing power of a good crack fic after a hard day.

I keep saying that I'm a fanfic writer, and I have plenty of rough drafts on my hard disk which actually go past chapter one, but when I'm asked for examples, I can only shrug.

I really, really like writing original characters, which places me at a low rung on the Fan Hierarchy, somewhere below pond scum and slightly above the average Internet troll.

I know the feeling. I've found several instances of OC's, though, that are actually quite good, and there are a few communities that don't mind, though they're few and far between.

I think a good deal of the problems people have with fanfiction is because it's "not original".

Well, I write what I'm inspired to write, and if a source inspires me to write about it, then that's what I write about. If I'm inspired to write something completely original, that's what I do. You can't do much, if anything at all, to change the nature of inspiration.

Hey, considering the amount of "professional" fanfiction (i.e. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, most new stories based on public-domain characters, etc.) out there, anyone who does a half-decent job shouldn't be vilified.

Speaking of which, we always have to keep in mind: "Pretty much everything written down by humans as fiction in our world is basically fanfic material".

I sometimes write fanfic, but only with OC's and only cameos from cannon characters. What I mean is that I take my own characters and use them to explore somebody else's 'Verse. Mainly because I don't want to derail somebody elses character. Kinda bugs me as I don't know where to post them. If I post them on original fic sites people(if the stories get read at all) will complain that they are fanfic and don't belong. If I post on a fan fic site I figure people will complain that the stories don't have cannon characters and aren't fanfic.

Ideas I've been playing around with...

• A character who finds out he is Force sensitive when he is teenager and isn't allowed to join the pre-Empire Jedi order goes out to find another teacher.
• A teenage girl has her [[XMEN mutant power]] manifests as a Compelling Voice that only works once per target. At first she abuses her power the way a typical teen would, but then her powers start to spiral out of control.
• A private detective in the Full Metal Alchemist universe who has a homunculus as a side kick. They Fight Crime!.
• The adventures of the British Soul Society after reading the Bleach WMG page.

Although, against my normal inclination I have toyed with the idea of Roland from The Dark Tower series walking through the Gate into the Full Metal Alchemist verse.

Actually Alkthash's form of fanfic I can deal with, and have to admit, I've indulged in thoughts of from time to time. It's really no problem to me if you're interested in the world an author creates and want to explore it with your own characters — it's just that I don't think that people other than the original creator can really do their characters justice.

I get what you're saying, AOD, and I don't claim to be able to do perfect justice to another person's creation. But I do the best I can and delve as deep into the source as possible to try and achieve that end. I consider it a challenge in creativity and observation, and those are the most fun types of challenges. Besides, more than half my inspiration when it inspires fanfic is something I discover about a character that I hadn't seen before.

• shrug*

I will, on exceedingly rare occasions, dip my toe into the fetid pool of fanfiction (to date, I have written one and a half fanfictions for Hunter X Hunter, and three much shorter fics for City of Heroes).

In the case of City Of Heroes, it is only the setting I'm playing with; as it is an exceptionally flexible MMORPG in terms of character creation, I view those fics as more a way to explore my extant game characters a bit further than anything else.

In the case of my Hunter X Hunter fics, it's more to get the idea out of my head so that I can actually write something else than any real desire to do a fanfic >.O

That being said, Fan Fiction can present a unique challenge for a writer, at least, assuming you want to do it reasonably well. The characters of Hunter X Hunter are, quite frankly, nothing like characters I myself would design; to write them each in their own unique 'voice' and have them acting as in-character as I can manage is something of a... stretching... experience.

And fanfiction is nothing new- what did you think every Superman and Batman story since Joe Schiegel and Jerry Schuster/Bob Kane and Bill Finger has been? Or anything involving Spiderman, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, etc., not written/drawn by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby... Then there's Keith Laumer's Bolo universe, Alistair Mac Neill's (admittedly slightly mediocre) work from Alistair Maclean's old scripts, the final book in the Wheel of Time series...

I agree with [AOD]. I'm not willing to bother writing (or reading) fanfic when I can come up with something new on my own. Of course, one might accuse me of writing a Blue Öyster Cult fanfic, but that's ridiculous. The original members of the band are dead by the time the story takes place, after all. Of course, there is a tribute band called the "Ginger Tabby Sect".

'Scuse me while I vent at both types of anti-fanfic people, here...

What bothers me most about the whole anti-fanfiction deal is the effect of Sturgeon's Law on the word. I've seen "fanfiction" used to describe Twilight, i.e., "fanfiction" as a stand-in word for 'horrible piece of crap'. Where it doesn't belong.

Now, I don't claim to be a good writer. In fact, I think I kinda suck. But I do claim to be better than those responsible for the above language quirk, because I try. Hard. And with the rest of those people pulling me down, all that effort - studying characters thoroughly in an attempt to know them as if they were my own, all the emotional value invested in said characters as I try to understand them inside and out - is for nothing. Why? Because, with no individual judgment, I am assumed to be writing things like this. I am lumped with that. And it hurts. It hurts a lot.

And it hurts to be called lazy, "because I won't come up with something original". I've just said that I put as much effort into understanding the setting, characters, and story of these works that I am trying to write about. I try to make them my own. I may not succeed, but you can't call that lazy. You can't call picking apart every gesture, every bit of dialogue, every building, every plot point, you just can't call that lazy. There's a reason my play time in Raidou is over 100 hours yet at only two cycles. I have spent hours of my time trying to absorb what this game has put in front of me so I can do my best to represent it in my own words. If you have a different definition of "lazy", then I'd like to hear it.

...*sigh* Anyway, sorry. I don't mean to upset anyone or anything, and I don't want to be rude. I just want to add my input and make counter points. I'm usually not so passionate about things. Please don't hate me. :)

edited 1st Mar '09 8:43:18 PM by Cherry

*huggles Cherry*

Cherry, it took you two cycles to rack up a hundred hours of play time? I broke a hundred on my first cycle just trying to get every demon and hit the level cap. :)

I read them. I've tried writing some, but they always manage to end up as a Sailor Moon fic. Seriously, one time I had Darth Vader fighting with Endymion...

My fics are on my deviantArt page, raekuul.deviantart.com

Cherry, it took you two cycles to rack up a hundred hours of play time? I broke a hundred on my first cycle just trying to get every demon and hit the level cap. :)

Yeah, I'm going for full compendium and max level on this cycle. I rushed through my first, so the majority of my playtime is on cycle 2, where I basically talked to everyone at every chance I got. Basically, not doing much for the game but learning stuff. ...I'm creeping up on 200, I think. It's been awhile since I looked at my playtime clock.

I once wrote a Doorstopper of a Medabots Script Fic, but I never finished it.

Yes, I was young.

I write both original and fanfiction stories. I don't draw anything except maps. I mostly write for Mario, though sometimes I may write for another universe. Mario gives you a lot of leeway, yet at the same time guidelines. I like it. I have to agree with Cherry, fanfiction receives a bad name when it shouldn't, and many fanfics I read are as good as the works they mimic or other original works. I also write alternate history, which is basically fanfiction of history. Though it's taken far more seriously, of course. As for where I go, I go on fanfiction.net as it's the only place I know (cue for someone to give me other Mario/general fanfiction sites ).

Fanfiction, no — unless you count Lovecraft pastiche as fanfiction, but that's practically a genre in its own right these days.

I have occasionally drawn fanart, but I do it much less than most other visual artists seem to (at least if DeviantArt is anything to go by).