No Fanfiction?

[PonyRocker95 106]

I was reading InsertAuthorHere's Blog post on FIM Fiction and I realized something when she said this: (sorry it's a lot)

 

 

""It's like a fanfic" implicitly states that all fanfics (and thus, any episode that could resemble a fanfic) are inherently awful and deserve to be scoffed at. You never hear the phrase used in a positive manner; nobody's going to say, "That episode was the coolest thing ever! It's just like a fanfic!" And this isn't an isolated issue. Throughout nearly every fandom, fanfiction is treated like the single greatest scourge to everyone else's reputation. Equestria Daily got so much flack that it had to erect a "No Fanfiction" version just to keep people happy, and The Round Stable's fanfiction board won't allow any fics that have the slightest thing in them that wouldn't fly in the show.'

 

then she go's onto say:

"What pisses me off is that fanfiction is the only way I am able to contribute to the fandom. I can't draw or compose music, but I can write. I put my heart and soul into everything I create, and hope that somehow I've managed to entertain someone on the other end. So to have my entire genre be considered garbage and used as an insult makes me very, very upset." 

 

And I totally agree with her! I find it kind of unfair that only the artist and singers get recognized in our community but fanfiction writers are basically opted out even though we're basically in the "creatives" category of the fandom. Not all of us brony's can sing or draw. I mean take me for example: I draw like a first grader and have absolutely no time to practice drawing if I wanted too and I don't have all the nice fancy expensive equipment it takes to make remixes and stuff, so all I can really contribute to the fandom is stories that no one really acknowledges as important.  

[IceBeerG 55]

Excuse me? Writers is not recognizeble? Ask JasontheHuman or Pen stroke about it.

 

The problem what i see is that there is way too many writers in comparison with musicians and artists. Lets say musicians. There a lot of them make music, but only few known. Now lets think about numbers. Lets say that there is 1500 musicians, and i can barely remember 10 well known out of them.

 

Now lets move to fanfic section. When i comming up at fimfiction.net, i cann't find fanfictions that i forgot to mark as "read later". I'm not sure exactly but for me speed of refreshing is about ten stories per hour. Most of them short but some of them pretty long. To listen for 1 song i need about 5-6 minutes. To read decent fanfiction i need at least hour. How many good fanfictions could be found for this time?

 

 

 

You never hear the phrase used in a positive manner; nobody's going to say, "That episode was the coolest thing ever! It's just like a fanfic!"

 

Pfff that's just wrong. I heard lot of complains and suggestions to make a animations on base of fanfiction. (I think something going arround "My little Dashie", though i'm not sure)

 

If writer work with intent to tell interesting story to others, he will always find his own audience (small or large is doesn't matter, actually - the fact that someone will like it is reward by itself).

 

To summorize all points - i dont think that good fanfiction is less respected than good music or drawing. The problem is - make it actually good.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Well, if you want to make a fan fiction work you have to put actual effort in the whole story to make it good. To be recognized, you have to make your content well known and also make it really good to high expectations.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

It all comes down to Sturgeons Law(90% of everything is crap) being taken to a extreme in the world of fan-fiction due to anyone being able to publish anything. Way to many people spend all day bashing the copious amounts badfic out there without ever acknowledging the good fan-fiction as a counter point and that makes the medium as a whole look bad.  

 

Keep in mind that I have found some BAD fanfic that you almost wouldn't believe could exist and has made me question the sanity of the author, but I keep on digging and find the good stuff, some people are to lazy or weak-willed to do that.  

[SBaby 660]

Well, if you want to make a fan fiction work you have to put actual effort in the whole story to make it good. To be recognized, you have to make your content well known and also make it really good to high expectations.

 

That's not really what this is about. I kind of understand what the TC is getting at.  I've seen this happen online a lot too, especially Youtube.  There are people who will make comments like 'This is like reading a Fan Fiction' or some such thing.  And it is never used in a positive light.  Usually it's a way to say that whatever video or song they might be listening to is terrible. 

 

One example of this is an episode of the Nostalgia Critic, where Doug says 'I've read better Fan Fiction than this.'.  Implying that all Fan Fiction is terrible.  It really is a shame that non-FanFic writers generalize FanFics in this manner.

 

I'm not saying that all FanFics are great or anything like that.  But I've seen some really amazing stories that are relegated to this stereotype, simply BECAUSE they're FanFics.

 

 

Keep in mind that I have found some BAD fanfic that you almost wouldn't believe could exist and has made me question the sanity of the author, but I keep on digging and find the good stuff, some people are to lazy or weak-willed to do that.  

 

My Litte Ponly Friendship is Danger.  Seriously, look it up.  It takes 2 minutes to read, and is one of the most hilariously terrible things ever written.

Edited August 23, 2013 by SBaby

[Scootalove 10,689]

That's not really what this is about. I kind of understand what the TC is getting at.  I've seen this happen online a lot too, especially Youtube.  There are people who will make comments like 'This is like reading a Fan Fiction' or some such thing.  And it is never used in a positive light.  Usually it's a way to say that whatever video or song they might be listening to is terrible. 

 

One example of this is an episode of the Nostalgia Critic, where Doug says 'I've read better Fan Fiction than this.'.  Implying that all Fan Fiction is terrible.  It really is a shame that non-fanfic writers generalize fanfics in this manner.

I wouldn't take NC seriously, trust me. Anyway, there are writers that don't really know what they are doing so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Katskratch 59]

Yep, it boils down to the fact that, writing, as a medium of art, has the least amount of 'capital' investment required. All you need is a word processor and most denizens of the internet will have some kind on their computer. So that means a lot of people who aren't necessarily skilled writers have the ability to publish. So fanfiction as a medium will look worse for it, since, by and large, more 'bad' stuff will exist for it than the other mediums, where start up costs to get into them are higher. I wouldn't worry too much about it, though. If you are good, you will get an appreciative audience. And the fans always mean much more than the critics. 

[Sky Warden 2,243]

It sounds like you people are implying that fiction writing is the easiest form of art. Tell you what, it is not. The reason why 90% fan fictions are crap, or garbage is because they don't know what fiction writing really is. They may only think that fiction writing is just... write this dialogue, write that name, literally, I want to say this, so I write it, I want to show my readers my character is cool, so I write it, and such.

 

Fan fiction is viewed just as a media to chat with readers, not as an art. Look at the author of LOTR, Eragon, Harry Potter, or even those novels you find in your nearest book store. They're famous. Why? Because they write seriously. They know what they're doing. They know they're crafting an art work. They actually do art. I won't mind saying that fan fiction writers aren't known in the fandom. It only seems like they half-ass their works after all. They don't even bother to learn first before they write, or apply what they've learned just an hour ago.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

 

 

 

 

My Litte Ponly Friendship is Danger.  Seriously, look it up.  It takes 2 minutes to read, and is one of the most hilariously terrible things ever written.

 

 

Okay, I'll have to do that(I can shovel some your way to)

 

And what just happened, the notifications never told me you quoted my post. 

[SBaby 660]

I wouldn't take NC seriously, trust me.

 

Well, who said it isn't really important though.  The point is that non-FanFic writers have come to generalize all FanFics as being bad, even though they likely never read really good ones in their life.  That's what this topic is getting at.  And it does seem to be an increasingly frequent issue.

Edited August 23, 2013 by SBaby

[Scootalove 10,689]

Well, who said it isn't really the point though.  The point is that non-FanFic writers have come to generalize all FanFics as being bad, even though they likely never read really good ones in their life.  That's what this topic is getting at.  And it does seem to be an increasingly frequent issue.

They should really take a chance to read the good fan fictions if not, that won't help. But, I'm not saying that the issue doesn't matter.

[Cantankerous 106]

Good pony fan fiction is NOT hard to find. I'm not sure if bronies are just that special or if the common conception of fan fiction really is just that profoundly wrong. 

 

Even in this thread people are talking about how most fan fiction is terrible, which confuses me because its so contrary to my own experience with the medium. 

[Kaspars L 100]

I must confess that I tend to avoid fan-fic, because I've had terrible experience with some really messed up pieces of writing. I know, It's sad that I let a few bad examples ruin the whole thing for me, but I'm really scared. It's not that I can't handle a healthy dose of creepiness, but visualizing some the stuff posted out there can really buck with ones mind.

[John 793]

*flipping through fanfics*

 

Hm this looks interesti...  No wait.. Another Lesbian Shipping Fanfic...

...Lesbian Shipping Fanfic..

Lesbian Shipping Fanfic.... ... Lesbian Shipping Fanfic..

Overpowered multi-colored Alicorn OC...

Shipping Fanfic...

Damnit!

...  Oh, heres one..  Wait.. Fluttershy with Big M...  *throws up*

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWEWCWljaBU

[Commissar Alexer 763]

Well, Equestria Daily mostly featured only Shipping Fic's or those one's with Trixie. Then there is the fact with those bigoted Pre-Readers. And they believe they are the best place for quality stories. Well, i'm not sure about that since nearly every fic featured there didn't interested me.

 

FanFictions may have not the best repution but they are still part of every fandom and show how much of a fandom is still alive. Also their are one of the reason why i'm part of this fandom.

Episodes will eventually run out but there are enough people with creative minds who can fill this gap or even replace it, this and fics are often faster to make then comics or any other form of art.

 

People have to search deep enough for the good ones, it takes effort but i'm sure it's worth.

Hell, there are some fics i find more interesting then some episodes.

[Moonlight 7,288]

People kind of have to be critical on writing. If you're going to write a fanfiction, you need to have correct grammar and know a bunch of rules just to write. Plus, a lot of people don't seem to like writing or reading nowadays, a shame, really. Plus...people like to write disturbing stories, so that might put someone off from looking up more fanfiction.

Edited August 23, 2013 by WheatleyCore

[Paleopony 705]

On 2013-08-22 at 6:07 PM, PonyRocker95 said:

I was reading InsertAuthorHere's Blog post on FIM Fiction and I realized something when she said this: (sorry it's a lot)

 

 

""It's like a fanfic" implicitly states that all fanfics (and thus, any episode that could resemble a fanfic) are inherently awful and deserve to be scoffed at. You never hear the phrase used in a positive manner; nobody's going to say, "That episode was the coolest thing ever! It's just like a fanfic!" And this isn't an isolated issue. Throughout nearly every fandom, fanfiction is treated like the single greatest scourge to everyone else's reputation. Equestria Daily got so much flack that it had to erect a "No Fanfiction" version just to keep people happy, and The Round Stable's fanfiction board won't allow any fics that have the slightest thing in them that wouldn't fly in the show.'

 

then she go's onto say:

"What pisses me off is that fanfiction is the only way I am able to contribute to the fandom. I can't draw or compose music, but I can write. I put my heart and soul into everything I create, and hope that somehow I've managed to entertain someone on the other end. So to have my entire genre be considered garbage and used as an insult makes me very, very upset." 

 

And I totally agree with her! I find it kind of unfair that only the artist and singers get recognized in our community but fanfiction writers are basically opted out even though we're basically in the "creatives" category of the fandom. Not all of us brony's can sing or draw. I mean take me for example: I draw like a first grader and have absolutely no time to practice drawing if I wanted too and I don't have all the nice fancy expensive equipment it takes to make remixes and stuff, so all I can really contribute to the fandom is stories that no one really acknowledges as important.  

I agree with you. Writing a fanfic is probably more difficult than making music or drawing so most of them suffer from incompetent writing. The ones that are really good are usually overshadowed by mediocre ones that somehow become popular in the fandom.