Fanfiction = Good

[meddow]

I'm going through a major Rolling Stones phase at the moment. I think it's because I've been watching my S1 House DVDs again. So the the Chase icon has been dragged out. Jesse Spencer is just wonderful.

My power bill this month is going to be the death of me. I’m really not helping since I’ve decided my favourite place in the world to be at the moment is the shower. It’s my second best place to think and my femgenficathon entry has me a bit stuck.

Speaking of fic, I started writing fanfiction in November because there were not enough of the stories I wanted to read out there and I was an absolute nervous wreck about how it would be received. I wrote so much as a kid and I wanted to be an author when I grew up, but somewhere along the way in high school I convinced myself I wasn’t a good writer. I’m not sure what it was, probably a combination of the spirit-crushing creative writing section of the School Certificate English exam or the fact I spent so much time being a science geek and emo that I forgot I could be creative.

In the past two days I’ve been recced in two rec communities, which is so great (and thank you both jadeddiva and theregoesyamum). A year ago I would never have expected I could be capable of writing anything halfway decent. If I never wrote anything I would probably still think I'm a crap writer.

People can slag off fanfiction for not being real writing and uncreative and whatever. But through writing fanfiction I’ve got my confidence back and along the way I’ve rediscovered a childhood passion.

Comments

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

That's exactly how I feel about fan fic writing. A huge help and definitely a confidence booster.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I’m just so glad I took the plunge. I originally though I was just descending into new levels of dorkiness, but it’s been really beneficial.

[sparkly-stuff.livejournal.com]

People can slag off fanfiction for not being real writing and uncreative and whatever. But through writing fanfiction I've got my confidence back and along the way I've rediscovered a childhood passion.

EXACTLY. :)

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome! The few entries you submitted stood out at the ficathon and honestly, R/T needs better writers.

I like rec'ing people for the same reasons Gun does - it's a reward in and of itself :)

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound like a horrible thing to say, but there are really relatively few R/T authors who I'd voluntarily choose to read these days. I have a list of about eight, and sincerely I find the rest just painful to read. meddow's stuff is so refreshing to read because she doesn't have to resort to crap purple prose, unnecessary fluff or smut or any crassness to entertain. It's the same reason I go out of my way to plug Bri's fics: it's so fucking refreshing to read fics about plots and characters for a fucking change.

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

No, it's true - but I think that even on my short list, it's a crap shoot. I'll love one piece by an author, and then not be wowed by another and feel bad because I like other fics they've done. No one is consistant which is to be expected, but sometimes I wish that were different.

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

I really haven't even written much about the pairing these days because I think of something I'd like to write and see the idea be butchered by someone else's handling of it. Thank god for gen and OT3 these days or I probably wouldn't be writing fic at all. Fuck, even the association of being an R/T author stops me finishing 'Loneliness'.

That all sounds incredibly bitchy, but there's such a connotation of R/T as being this fluffy, saccharine pairing full of idiotic fangirls, and when you read a lot of the stuff that goes up online it just makes you cling to the sane, ascerbically funny fanauthors even more.

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

That all sounds incredibly bitchy, but there's such a connotation of R/T as being this fluffy, saccharine pairing full of idiotic fangirls, and when you read a lot of the stuff that goes up online it just makes you cling to the sane, ascerbically funny fanauthors even more.

That's how Sylvia and I feel, pretty much. Join the club, we meet at the bar.

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. Hey, who knows? I may submit some stuff to this round of the rt_challenge.

I actually think I started writing R/T just because it was all such a squeaky-clean pairing. I wanted to write it with real grottiness and profanity. Tres fun.

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

I am totally stuck on my femgenficathon entry. I got a really boring prompt, and I don't know what to do with it.

Writing fan fiction has been an amazing experience for me, too. To quote scheamingreader, it's like a giant, online writing workshop. I've never written so much in my life as I have since I started writing fan fiction.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

A writing workshop is a good way to put it. It’s free too, which is excellent.

I hope you find a plot bunny. I got some stuff about mosquitoes and bees in my prompt so I’ve just taken the characters the prompt reminded me off and decided not to use the rest. But now I’m stuck writing Narcissa and trying to make her an IC evil cow and sympathetic at the same time.

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

Her love for Draco is her sympathetic point, don't you think?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yeah it is. But her ends-justify-the-means way of protecting Draco, to hell with the rest of the world and all the other characters, are making it hard for me to like her.

[neigedens.livejournal.com]

People can slag off fanfiction for not being real writing and uncreative and whatever. But through writing fanfiction I’ve got my confidence back and along the way I’ve rediscovered a childhood passion.

That's what's so nice about it. I mean, before I started writing fanfic I really did like writing a lot but I was so flighty that I rarely finished any story or anything like that, and of course I really didn't have a venue in which to show people my stories. Fanfic kind of remedied all that for me. That's why it's so great. :)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I finish a story and I get feedback from many people since they already have an interest in the characters. And you just don’t get that in the real world unless you are taking serious writing courses or harangue friends and family into reading it.