merkros
CHYOA Guru
Hello. My name is Merkros.
You might recognize me from my writing in stories such as A Fantasy Dynasty and my currently rather short branch in GenericEditor168's story Mutata Draco. I haven't contributed to any other story and the other two stories that I own are crap.
However, I'm not here to talk about my writing. I'm here to talk about another subject: Fan fiction.
I've been thinking a lot about fan fiction lately and even considered doing some of my own. There's just one problem with this. I don't really like fan fiction and I've spent the last several days wondering why.
There are very many interesting and popular settings out there which a fan fiction could prosper in. To name a few...Middle-Earth, Star Wars, Bleach, Dragonball, Touhou, Tower of God, Tamriel, etc. Many of them such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Elderscrolls and more all have deep and rich histories that really play well with a self-made story.
So why is it that the vast majority of fan fiction falls short? There's so much deep and rich story potential out there. Surely even an amateur writer could pull it off well. That got me thinking about my personal experiences with fan fiction.
The vast majority of my experience with fan fiction is from Doujinshi manga. That is amateur manga that more often than not falls under fan fiction. Except I have an odd thing with Doujinshi where if i have seen or read the original source material; I can no longer enjoy it as much as i had. It just stops doing it for me. I took a liking to Monogatari Doujinshi. The Monogatari Series has a large number of varied and sometimes fantastical characters that really took my interest, but after I started reading the light novels. I stopped reading the Doujinshi. My interest in them died completely. A similar thing happened to me with Spice and Wolf.
So...why is this happening? I think it can be attributed to a few things.
1.) Fan Fiction is Inherently Selfish: I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way, but it's ultimately true. Fan fiction isn't written for me or you. It's written for the person who is writing it. Often it encapsulates events and ideas that the writer would want to happen(usually suddenly) rather than it happening in a gradual, logical manner. The writer writes fan fiction that pleases themselves. They may post it online for others, but ultimately it serves their own interests.
2.)Fan Fiction focuses on established characters...:Ultimately Fan Fiction, Especially those of an NSFW nature, focuses on what if's of the characters that already exist within a setting. Their interests often involve Character A and Character B or Character A and their OC(original character) getting together. This is done by any means necessisary. They focus on things that have already happened to established characters and...
3.)..often it's done very poorly: Since a Fan Fiction often focuses on the writer's own interests and focuses on established characters, it means that a "good" Fan Fiction has to write already established characters believably. This...doesn't happen often to say the least and I think it's one of the bigger reasons why I stop reading Doujinshi after I have read the source material. Often the story involved with fan fiction either doesn't make sense or doesn't portray the non-OC characters in a believable way.
4.) The OC(if any) are often Mary Sue(or Gary Stu)'s: When people write their own original content for a setting. Often these stories will feature their own OC as a Mary Sue(or Gary Stu for a male). If you have been around on the internet for any period of time, then you are probably familiar with the term Mary Sue to describe a character that has no significant flaws, no real character development, that everybody reacts positively to and everyone falls in love with. Often these characters are at least partially self-inserts of the author. Since Fan Fiction is Inherently Selfish, It makes sense that there would be a plethora of stories with OC's that are Mary Sue's. The problem is that these characters are often too perfect and since there was never any real danger to them anyways; all of their victories or conquests don't feel earned or deserved.
5.) Long Fan Fiction tends to degrade into constant sex: This is obviously more of a problem with NSFW Fan Fiction than regular ones. While many fan fiction is just one short story or chapter, others tend to go on for longer and these tend to degrade over time. Fan Fiction is Inherently Selfish. So what may have been a story at first is often bastardized and destroyed in favor of a more instant gratification approach for the writer. Since Fan Fiction focuses on established characters and they are often written poorly, this means that as the fan fiction drags on the personality of the characters involved become just this sort of soup of sexual fluid.
6.) Ultimately the Setting Doesn't Matter: Typically you need two of three things to write a decent story. Characters, Plot, and Setting. A great story is one that has consistently good and well-written of all three. Those are rare though and usually you'll only see a decent story with two of the three. The best setting in the world won't save you from poorly written characters and the best characters in the world won't save you from a poor setting. Conversely, good characters and setting can save a poor plot and a unique plot and setting can save a story with relatively poor characters. Unfortunately Fan Fiction focuses on established characters and often does it very poorly and Longer Fan Fiction tends to degrade into constant sex rather than have a coherent plot. With two of the three categories already a disaster, the setting alone isn't going to save it. Which is unfortunate, because with such deep works as mentioned near the beginning part of this thread; the setting is the easiest part to write. For Fan Fiction, the setting is already written by somebody else far more talented. However, Fan Fiction is inherently selfish and often the Mary Sue OC already has whatever they need to solve the Plot. Thus the Setting is never really explored.
So why do I stop reading Doujinshi after I have read the original material? Well, often it's because the fan work disappoints me. I find that the actual story written by the actual author is deeper and more interesting and seeing such shallow representations of it is disappointing. Often the characters don't feel the same. Their traits and flaws are exaggerated to an extreme and just feel kind of campy. They don't feel like true representations of the characters that they are depicted. There's also the fact that the self gratification that the writer gets is often so obvious that it hurts.
What would I consider good Fan Fiction? It's a hard question to answer easily, but essentially the best fan fiction would be a story that doesn't feel like fan fiction. A story with its own unique characters and own unique story that explores a pre-established setting and where the already established characters play a peripheral part of the story. It's fine if you want that chapter where you're banging Aragorn or sucking off Legolas or knocking up Galadriel. As long as it fit into a larger narrative.
So this was originally going to be an end to what i can only call a Rant about Fan Fiction, but writing through this got me thinking. A lot of the flaws that I see with fan fiction is also a lot of the flaws that I see with story contributions on this site. Often these stories lose focus on the plot and setting to focus on characters that may have already been introduced and Mary Sue OC's and collapse into an orgy of sex eventually.
In a way, we all already are writing Fan Fiction. The original content and setting are provided by the story own and then we all provide our own interpretation of the stories and characters and settings. So...the next time you're writing for a story remember: You are a Fan Fiction Writer Too
You might recognize me from my writing in stories such as A Fantasy Dynasty and my currently rather short branch in GenericEditor168's story Mutata Draco. I haven't contributed to any other story and the other two stories that I own are crap.
However, I'm not here to talk about my writing. I'm here to talk about another subject: Fan fiction.
I've been thinking a lot about fan fiction lately and even considered doing some of my own. There's just one problem with this. I don't really like fan fiction and I've spent the last several days wondering why.
There are very many interesting and popular settings out there which a fan fiction could prosper in. To name a few...Middle-Earth, Star Wars, Bleach, Dragonball, Touhou, Tower of God, Tamriel, etc. Many of them such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Elderscrolls and more all have deep and rich histories that really play well with a self-made story.
So why is it that the vast majority of fan fiction falls short? There's so much deep and rich story potential out there. Surely even an amateur writer could pull it off well. That got me thinking about my personal experiences with fan fiction.
The vast majority of my experience with fan fiction is from Doujinshi manga. That is amateur manga that more often than not falls under fan fiction. Except I have an odd thing with Doujinshi where if i have seen or read the original source material; I can no longer enjoy it as much as i had. It just stops doing it for me. I took a liking to Monogatari Doujinshi. The Monogatari Series has a large number of varied and sometimes fantastical characters that really took my interest, but after I started reading the light novels. I stopped reading the Doujinshi. My interest in them died completely. A similar thing happened to me with Spice and Wolf.
So...why is this happening? I think it can be attributed to a few things.
1.) Fan Fiction is Inherently Selfish: I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way, but it's ultimately true. Fan fiction isn't written for me or you. It's written for the person who is writing it. Often it encapsulates events and ideas that the writer would want to happen(usually suddenly) rather than it happening in a gradual, logical manner. The writer writes fan fiction that pleases themselves. They may post it online for others, but ultimately it serves their own interests.
2.)Fan Fiction focuses on established characters...:Ultimately Fan Fiction, Especially those of an NSFW nature, focuses on what if's of the characters that already exist within a setting. Their interests often involve Character A and Character B or Character A and their OC(original character) getting together. This is done by any means necessisary. They focus on things that have already happened to established characters and...
3.)..often it's done very poorly: Since a Fan Fiction often focuses on the writer's own interests and focuses on established characters, it means that a "good" Fan Fiction has to write already established characters believably. This...doesn't happen often to say the least and I think it's one of the bigger reasons why I stop reading Doujinshi after I have read the source material. Often the story involved with fan fiction either doesn't make sense or doesn't portray the non-OC characters in a believable way.
4.) The OC(if any) are often Mary Sue(or Gary Stu)'s: When people write their own original content for a setting. Often these stories will feature their own OC as a Mary Sue(or Gary Stu for a male). If you have been around on the internet for any period of time, then you are probably familiar with the term Mary Sue to describe a character that has no significant flaws, no real character development, that everybody reacts positively to and everyone falls in love with. Often these characters are at least partially self-inserts of the author. Since Fan Fiction is Inherently Selfish, It makes sense that there would be a plethora of stories with OC's that are Mary Sue's. The problem is that these characters are often too perfect and since there was never any real danger to them anyways; all of their victories or conquests don't feel earned or deserved.
5.) Long Fan Fiction tends to degrade into constant sex: This is obviously more of a problem with NSFW Fan Fiction than regular ones. While many fan fiction is just one short story or chapter, others tend to go on for longer and these tend to degrade over time. Fan Fiction is Inherently Selfish. So what may have been a story at first is often bastardized and destroyed in favor of a more instant gratification approach for the writer. Since Fan Fiction focuses on established characters and they are often written poorly, this means that as the fan fiction drags on the personality of the characters involved become just this sort of soup of sexual fluid.
6.) Ultimately the Setting Doesn't Matter: Typically you need two of three things to write a decent story. Characters, Plot, and Setting. A great story is one that has consistently good and well-written of all three. Those are rare though and usually you'll only see a decent story with two of the three. The best setting in the world won't save you from poorly written characters and the best characters in the world won't save you from a poor setting. Conversely, good characters and setting can save a poor plot and a unique plot and setting can save a story with relatively poor characters. Unfortunately Fan Fiction focuses on established characters and often does it very poorly and Longer Fan Fiction tends to degrade into constant sex rather than have a coherent plot. With two of the three categories already a disaster, the setting alone isn't going to save it. Which is unfortunate, because with such deep works as mentioned near the beginning part of this thread; the setting is the easiest part to write. For Fan Fiction, the setting is already written by somebody else far more talented. However, Fan Fiction is inherently selfish and often the Mary Sue OC already has whatever they need to solve the Plot. Thus the Setting is never really explored.
So why do I stop reading Doujinshi after I have read the original material? Well, often it's because the fan work disappoints me. I find that the actual story written by the actual author is deeper and more interesting and seeing such shallow representations of it is disappointing. Often the characters don't feel the same. Their traits and flaws are exaggerated to an extreme and just feel kind of campy. They don't feel like true representations of the characters that they are depicted. There's also the fact that the self gratification that the writer gets is often so obvious that it hurts.
What would I consider good Fan Fiction? It's a hard question to answer easily, but essentially the best fan fiction would be a story that doesn't feel like fan fiction. A story with its own unique characters and own unique story that explores a pre-established setting and where the already established characters play a peripheral part of the story. It's fine if you want that chapter where you're banging Aragorn or sucking off Legolas or knocking up Galadriel. As long as it fit into a larger narrative.
So this was originally going to be an end to what i can only call a Rant about Fan Fiction, but writing through this got me thinking. A lot of the flaws that I see with fan fiction is also a lot of the flaws that I see with story contributions on this site. Often these stories lose focus on the plot and setting to focus on characters that may have already been introduced and Mary Sue OC's and collapse into an orgy of sex eventually.
In a way, we all already are writing Fan Fiction. The original content and setting are provided by the story own and then we all provide our own interpretation of the stories and characters and settings. So...the next time you're writing for a story remember: You are a Fan Fiction Writer Too
