Spotty01
Well-Known Member
For those of you who don't know, a "fanfiction" is a story, varying in length from a single chapter of any amount of words (called one-shots) to several chapters (fittingly called multichapter fics), written by fans of any type of media: TV shows, cartoons, books, video games, etc. in the setting(s) of said media and using the existing characters of the specific cartoon, book, video game, etc. People put canon (existing) characters from any media and put them into any situation they want to put them in; that's what's so appealing about it, the possibilities are, quiet literally, endless. They even put characters into entirely different universes, called alternate-universe fics, and have them interact with the setting(s) and/or character(s) of entirely different or similar media, called crossover fanfiction.
However, an unfortunately common (IMO) genre of fanfiction are called ship-fics, in which they ship two or more characters together that are either (a) unlikely to end up together in canon, or (b) an existing relationship in canon, but the writer just wants to expand on it. A "ship" is Internet terminology for "relationship", sometimes meaning a platonic relationship between two or more characters but much, much more often means a romantic relationship between them. But that's a story for another day, otherwise this post would end up rated TV-MA (ship-fics can get... vulgar sometimes and, no, I'm not going into details, at least not right now).
Writing is my life. I've been "writing" stories ever since I learned to draw pictures at a wee age. As I've stated a few times prior, I'm an aspring author. I write out the original ideas that spark in my mind in complete random for later usage and, from time-to-time, write out drafts of short stories or prologues of stories that will eventually become much longer, but at the time, my main focus as a writer is fanfiction. I'm an avid fanfiction writer (if I wasn't then that wouldn't be what this thread is about), predominantly for my two favourite cartoons and two of the only really good cartoons on the air these days (strictly my own opinion, don't forget that): My Little Pony (don't judge me!) and Steven Universe. Fans of either one seem to be few and far between 'round these parts, so I'll just skip talking about either one unless someone wants me to talk about it with them.
I've heard a lot of people say that fanfiction, as a whole, is a very unoriginal type of writing and, while I strongly disagree for obvious reasons, I can very much understand why they think that way. You're using the characters and settings that other people made, not you, which takes out a big part of the challenge of writing a good story or book, but that doesn't stop fanfiction from being extremely creative and, yes, even original once you find the diamond in the rough.
Anyway, the point of this topic as a whole are the following questions: what are you guys' and gals' opinions on fanfiction as a whole? Do you think it's original or unoriginal? Do you believe that it's a good starting point for new writers? Do you read fanfiction or do you just stick to the original media? Do you write it? If the answer to the latter is "yes", I'd love if you'd share it with me, but only if you're comfortable with doing so. ^^
For the curious, these are the three main websites for fanfiction:
FanFiction.Net - Probably the biggest fanfiction community out there and the one that I use the most. Unfortunately, finding a story with good grammer(joke), a good plot, and an original idea all at the same time are few and far between.
Archive Of Our Own - It's still in beta and you need to request an invitation to make an account there. FFnet hides M-rated stories (stories containing sex, graphic violence, etc.) by default... AO3 does not. Tread lightly.
Wattpad - Won't let you read anything unless you have an account (I have one, but I'm not signed in currently). It's a combination of both fanfiction and original fiction; which one's are which are tagged as such.
However, an unfortunately common (IMO) genre of fanfiction are called ship-fics, in which they ship two or more characters together that are either (a) unlikely to end up together in canon, or (b) an existing relationship in canon, but the writer just wants to expand on it. A "ship" is Internet terminology for "relationship", sometimes meaning a platonic relationship between two or more characters but much, much more often means a romantic relationship between them. But that's a story for another day, otherwise this post would end up rated TV-MA (ship-fics can get... vulgar sometimes and, no, I'm not going into details, at least not right now).
Writing is my life. I've been "writing" stories ever since I learned to draw pictures at a wee age. As I've stated a few times prior, I'm an aspring author. I write out the original ideas that spark in my mind in complete random for later usage and, from time-to-time, write out drafts of short stories or prologues of stories that will eventually become much longer, but at the time, my main focus as a writer is fanfiction. I'm an avid fanfiction writer (if I wasn't then that wouldn't be what this thread is about), predominantly for my two favourite cartoons and two of the only really good cartoons on the air these days (strictly my own opinion, don't forget that): My Little Pony (don't judge me!) and Steven Universe. Fans of either one seem to be few and far between 'round these parts, so I'll just skip talking about either one unless someone wants me to talk about it with them.
I've heard a lot of people say that fanfiction, as a whole, is a very unoriginal type of writing and, while I strongly disagree for obvious reasons, I can very much understand why they think that way. You're using the characters and settings that other people made, not you, which takes out a big part of the challenge of writing a good story or book, but that doesn't stop fanfiction from being extremely creative and, yes, even original once you find the diamond in the rough.
Anyway, the point of this topic as a whole are the following questions: what are you guys' and gals' opinions on fanfiction as a whole? Do you think it's original or unoriginal? Do you believe that it's a good starting point for new writers? Do you read fanfiction or do you just stick to the original media? Do you write it? If the answer to the latter is "yes", I'd love if you'd share it with me, but only if you're comfortable with doing so. ^^
For the curious, these are the three main websites for fanfiction:
FanFiction.Net - Probably the biggest fanfiction community out there and the one that I use the most. Unfortunately, finding a story with good grammer
Archive Of Our Own - It's still in beta and you need to request an invitation to make an account there. FFnet hides M-rated stories (stories containing sex, graphic violence, etc.) by default... AO3 does not. Tread lightly.
Wattpad - Won't let you read anything unless you have an account (I have one, but I'm not signed in currently). It's a combination of both fanfiction and original fiction; which one's are which are tagged as such.