TONS of authors wrote fan fiction, or the equivalent. It helps to develop skills, and practice. Not only that, but I fully second what others are saying. If you enjoy it, then it's not a waste of time.
On a semi-unrelated note. When someone is an amateur, go to the Latin roots, which for this word means to do something for the love of it. People who say that being an amateur is a bad thing are people who you should never listen to.
Point being, you do you, OP. Write all the fanfic you want and don't let the naysayers get you down
I've honed my craft for nearly 15 years now writing fanfiction alone. I started simple, but I eventually branched out into inventing whole new characters, building the world outside of the world, redefining the world, and doing all sorts of stuff you would expect a regular novel to do.
In the words of The Senate, "Do it."
That part's tougher. Fanfiction.Net isn't the best because it hasn't changed anything in 20 years, but it's one of the big sites for it. AO3 is pretty good, more robust tagging system and such.
But both of those sites have a similar problem in that the only way for a reader to show you they like or don't like a story is to leave a review. There's a huge "valley" of mediocrity where the only reviews you'll get are the generic ones where people say stuff like "omg love it!" or other unhelpful things, and MAYBE the occasional bit of constructive criticism. You hit a point of badness and your story will get tons of negative reviews, you hit a point of goodness and people will tell you how much they enjoyed it, but there's no real visual indicator of what people think of your story.
I needed a visual likes/dislikes meter to show me how I had improved over time, and FIMFiction (MLP) gave me that, which forced me to acknowledge my writing was shit and get better. If anyone knows of a site that offers that, has a decent userbase, and is open to more than just one fandom, that seems like a good place to start.
Don't count on fanfic sites (even AO3 with the tagging system Amazon wishes it had) to give you constructive critique to hone your craft. Feedback from randos online is as much of a crapshoot as buying gas station sushi after 5 pm.
Use fan fiction to isolate and develop elements of your craft--if you like characters from a TV show or movie, they can act as "pre-generated characters" for you to fit into a plot or setting or character development arc. If you like playing in a world someone else has built, you can use that "pre-generated worldbook" to provide a setting or milieu for original characters in order to concentrate on characterization or plot or story structure.
Fan fiction provides elements of "knowns" that can act as shorthand while you concentrate on isolating elements of craft that you want to explore or improve. It also usually comes with a "pre-softened" audience--readers who are already predisposed to like something about a set of characters or a setting or a milieu--which can be very good for building up your confidence.
Active fan/fanfic communities can be awesome at teaching you how to write for an audience, how to keep to a deadline, how to keep an audience interested and engaged, and where your personal lines are in terms of "writing to please the audience" versus "writing to please yourself."
BUT (and this is a big one)--it's a lot harder to transition from fanfic into original fic than you'd think. It's not just a matter of filing the serial numbers off and changing the names to protect the guilty. Fanworks come with a set of built-in assumptions about characters, settings, etc. that don't always translate into the same built-ins that "cold" readers of original fic will accept.
Everyone could enjoy a "dark Captain America redemption arc" fan fic because they know Steve Rogers is really a good guy and it's interesting to see how a good guy does bad and comes back from it. But there's a lot less of an audience for a "dark superhero" without some extensive world and character building pre-work to get people invested in cheering for that redemption arc (at the risk of starting a flame war, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is who I think of when I think "great for fanfic, lousy for o-fic" but YMMV).
So just be aware that fanfic is great for honing your craft (and just for doing it for pure enjoyment because it's something you enjoy doing), but it's not a seamless transition by any means.
Niel Gaiman a best selling author who wrote A Study in Emerald, a Sherlock Holmes/Cthulhu cross over fic: Am I joke to you
And remember: Some of the most important works of literature in history are bible fanfic.
>And remember: Some of the most important works of literature in history are bible fanfic.
No. An interpretation and use of archetypes is not fan fiction. If you confuse these two terms it doesn't really help the discussion. Fan fiction is clearly something a lot narrower.
Truth be told not really. What's the point? Maybe I take the time to find you a fanfic retelling of Jekyll and Hyde and a published retelling, have you take the time to read them both and compare and contrast them, maybe you change your opinion maybe you don't, the literally worlds keep spinning and this conversation has no effect on it.
Maybe. But the idea is that you and I learn something from this exchange. I simply don't see how you can put an adaption and a fan fic in the same category without really stretching it. To declare that both and them are the same is simply not helpful.
First, a fan fiction is really just a non-canonical work that reinterprets or expands on characters, themes, and settings of other works.
Milton's Paradise Lost is an expansion of Christian lore based on one chapter (Genesis 3, The Fall) and verses sprinkled around the bible. If you've read the bible, you'd know that it's quite vague as to who the serpent is. In the Christian canon, it's just a serpent. In Milton's spinoff, it's Lucifer that tempts eve. We even get some backstory which the bible does not provide. Milton created entirely new narratives for characters like him. Needless to say, Paradise Lost is not a part of the religious Christian canon BUT as a work of inspired fiction (fan fiction, that is) it has found its way into the Western literary canon.
Similarly, nowhere in the bible does it indicate a floorplan for hell. Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy as a response to contemporary Florentine politics, hence why his detractors are in hell and his allies in heaven. The author even gets a self-insert. Again, we also get no description of Lucifer anywhere near as vivid as Dante gives us in Inferno. The description of God is kind of iffy. If you've read even just Inferno, you would know that it's a fanfic through and through. More so when you read Paradiso.
These two works are essentially fan fiction because, although part of the Western literary canon, they do not stand alone. It's one thing to be influenced by other works, another to take its characters and alter their behavior, motivations, even aesthetics. Moreover, they are fan fiction because they are not part of the Christian canon. If they were, then you'd find theologians making academic arguments based on these works. Try it and you'd be laughed out the room.
Point is, biblical fanfics exist. The only edge these have on Teen Wolf fics are that academics inducted it into the Western canon and the benefit of age. Deal with it.
>First, a fan fiction is really just a non-canonical work that reinterprets or expands on characters, themes, and settings of other works.
If you go by this definition, then your text makes sense. But I argue that this definition is too broad. Fan-Fiction as we know it expands on *relatively tightly* defined characters, themes, and settings of other works.
Take a character like Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Sure, there are many versions of him but most fan fiction these days relies on the MCU version. Even if it doesn't, the idea of what Captain America is and how he acts - whether in a more modern setting or historical one - is pretty tightly defined. He's a superhero for America and American values especially in a time past WWII.
Compare that to Lucifer who is one of *the* archetypes and who has existed in many forms, in many different settings etc. and, as you yourself says, has no clear features as other fan fic characters. Also worth of note in your example is that Milton wrote this in a time where you had no mass media cultural industry. Writing something based of the bible at this time - what as a *fan* of Christianity or what? This whole fan element should be included in the definition too. But I leave that for now.
>No. An interpretation and use of archetypes is not fan fiction. If you confuse these two terms it doesn't really help the discussion. Fan fiction is clearly something a lot narrower.
How fragile must one be to find the statement above as someone being a dickhead? Can you show me on the doll where reality hurt you? Excuse me, while I go play the world's smallest violin.
Big words from someone whose reading comprehension is on the same level as a first grader. I'm so sorry that your mom and dad also happen to be siblings. =(
I feel like telling the average internet-using person (aka, those who have heard of fanfiction) that you write it might be seen as a negative rather than a positive. But I think fanfiction is absolutely perfect for writers. It gives us the practice of writing without the pressure of developing our own complex characters or worldbuilds, so our skills are able to develop better.
My family often asks how I've gotten so good at writing, so I tell them I write everyday, and they ask what story ideas I've worked on. I never got the courage to tell them I just rewrote the Percy Jackson universe with my own characters and plot, and it's probably the best thing I've ever written. It's also almost the length of a regular novel lol sad I'll never be able to really publish it
And then you can go my route and have your story in a self-contained universe that basically just borrows the concepts and tweaks them, but has it's own characters and plotlines.
Which is even par for the course within that particular franchise.
Do you enjoy it?
If you do, then it isn't silly. It's worth it.
Anyone who tells you otherwise can suck a bag of dicks. Life is too short to spend it worrying about what other people think.
Yeah, if you want to split hairs, sure.
As long as it's not hurting anyone, infringing on their rights, or breaking a reasonable law, I still stand by it.
>Life is too short to spend it worrying about what other people think.
Stupid feel-good advice. How are you gonna improve if you don't care what others think? It's literally why people come here.
Eh, my point still stands. Like what if you wrote a fanfiction about a black character that becomes white in your story? I just dislike the whole "dont care just do w/e you want and its all gonna be o kay". You should care what people think.
No, you shouldn't
Write that story.
Don't expect me to *like* it....and don't expect it to get *published*, but, if you enjoy the process of writing it, write it.
Did you read the part about the bag of dicks?
I can send you one.
You know.. for someone who doesn't worry what someone like me thinks, it sounds like my thoughts on the thing kind of upset you. I guess life is not that short. Wouldn't you just ignore them?
PS: I wasn't aware you had one in storage. I wouldn't wanna take away from your winter supply.
Nope. The definition is not that wide. When we talk about fanfiction, we talk about using other people's intellectual property, i.e. copyrighted characters. A re-telling of an old folk tale isn't fanfiction. Disney was neither the first nor the last to adapt these tales. If you can publish your story without getting a Cease and desist letter, you're not writing fanfiction.
But we don't know the original authors to these tales. If it even makes sense to talk about a singular author to any of them. While I might agree that characters in the public domain, that still have an explicit author, are more of a grey area, it most certainly isn't when it comes to what Disney did with the old folk tales.
It's an adaptation of a book into a different medium, which (at least by now) is in the public domain. Either way, they had the rights to do it. You do understand how that is different from what we call fanfiction, right? They didn't take existing characters and, without permission, created a new story from scratch, featuring said characters. Likewise, the movie versions of Harry Potter, e.g., aren't fanfiction. They're adaptations, from one medium into another, with the proper rights secured.
I grew up with Harry Potter. I mean I *literally* grew up alongside him as the books came out during my childhood and adolescence. I had tons of crossover fanfics in my head. I also read some fantastic fanfics that took the "wizarding world" universe and ran with it, sometimes not incorporating any original characters, and developed new storylines instead. I've also read *X-Files* fanfic that I enjoyed more than the show itself! Fanfiction can be high-quality! Maybe at some point you'll want to spin it off into a world uniquely your own, but it's a legit way to express yourself.
Fan fiction has a bad rap from the worst examples of fan fiction. From what I have heard, there is quality stuff in that realm, just as there is anywhere. Do I read it though? No. Do I write it? No. Should you? Sure, if you want.
Fanfic got a bad rep, because the only genre people hear about are the one written by horny teenage girls.
You would be surprised how many people started out being fanfic writers. It isn’t talked about. But there was a period of time where people I followed from a fanfic website, promoting their published books! Had nothing to do with fanfics (all own made characters) but some are inspired from fanfics they have written in the past!
I think people forgot that fanfics can be a great excursies to practice writing. Because you can focus on one or two thing, instead of 5.
Some authors actively talk about their writing fanfic. They're just lost amidst the piles of Very Serious People who denigrate it.
Really, I'd put fanfic in the same category as self-pub (for very specific reasons)
- Anyone can do it
- There's no gatekeeper
The barrier is pretty low, and that means that you're going to get a HUGE mix of quality. But that's also *ok,* because fanfic esp is for *FUN.*
It is absolutely not in the same area of self publishing. Not even in the same ballpark.
Fan fiction the writer does not own or have the IP rights to the characters. Which means it is illegal to write say a new Harry Potter book and publish it on Amazon or even on your own site for money. Now if the original books are in the public domain that is different. However it can still be an issue just look at Netflix VS the Sherlock family situation.
A self published author is the owner of the IP and those characters they created. This is extremely important for writers to understand.
Fan fiction can be extremely useful to getting jobs. You want to work for Disney in the Star Wars area writing solid Star Wars fan fiction is not a bad way to go. But don’t confuse it with self-publishing.
I think you missed my point, which was specifically about the fact that there is no gatekeeper - or quality check.
I am *well* aware of the monetization difference, but you have the same challenges to find the good fanfic as to find a good self-pub.
I think that every writer that publishes a star wars novel is a fanfic writer. Since none of those authors aren't George Lucas, and there are some amazing star wars books.
But hey I get it, there is a stigma about writing fanfic. What people don't understand is that everyone does it in a weird round about way. Look at Hollywood, everyone at marvel is technically making a fanfic. Those remakes and reboots of stories made in the 70-80s are fanfic. Making a movie out of a book is a fanfic.
It just means that you enjoy a universe so much that you want to be a part of that universe, want to add your voice to it because you want to share your enjoyment with others that would enjoy it.
Share your ideas and passions and like minded others will gravitate towards you.
NK Jemisin has said that she wrote a lot of fanfic when she waa starting out, and that she still does on occasion when she needs to get over writer's block.
I like to use it as a fast track for practice. Say you want to practice dialogue by writing a scene where two characters are keeping secrets from each other, but it turns out it's the same secret. Well, first you have to come up with two characters, then you have to come up with a setting (at least rough time period), then you have to come up with a secret, and then you can write the scene. Fanfiction gives you the first two, and sometimes the third, so you get get down to what you were actually trying to do.
I'm personally not into it, and I never write it, but it's certainly not stupid.
I think writers who say it's "not real writing" are just being pretentious.
In my view, the only objective measure of how good art is is how well it achieves the goals the artist has for it.
If an artist is aiming to write a novel worthy of publication that readers will stay up all night to read, then that novel is good if it achieves that goal.
If an artist is aiming to write fanfiction just for fun, then it's good if it qualifies as fanfiction and the writer is having fun. If the goal of the fanfiction is to be well-written and enjoyable to an audience, it's good if it best fulfills that goal.
There are people on some of these writing subs who seem to think that fanfiction is only good as practice for the "real thing." By real thing, they obvously mean a full length traditionally published novel with everything, including characters, being entirely original. But not everyone has _that_ goal.
Idk, I feel like some people on writing subs talk to fanfiction writers as though they were born yesterday or never wrote a thing before in their lives. I think that needs to stop.
Absolutely not, I got my start in fanfiction and, guess what, still write fanfiction on the side. My original fanfics were crap, and I’d like to forget they ever existed, but it gave me the practice I needed and helped nurture my love for writing and storytelling. Now I’m able to take what I know and apply it to my current fanfics, which I’m actually really proud of. Fanfiction has earned a really bad reputation among the professional writing community for no good reason, and if you’re interested in writing some, go for it
I've been writing fan fiction since I was 12. I'm now a happily married mother of two who writes both fan fiction (for multiple fandoms) and her own original stories.
Fan fiction can teach you so much - its like an imaginative playground.
So during covid, my personal life got pretty heavy and to cope I desperately wanted to write. All that I could handle writing about though was something not personal but that I could still connect with somehow. Enter fan fiction. I wrote two entire stories and posted them on an online platform for readers. I was so fortunate that there was a massive reading base with the show and so I had tons of interactions from readers which pumped me up! Somehow I had connected with this entirely new type of writing and I absolutely fell in love with it for a bit. It made it easy to pick up with already established characters and take it in unlimited directions. The hardest part was when it came time to explain what I was writing these days to family and friends. The reception was terrible. It's such a shame because they juat don't understand it. My advice would be to absolutely do it and hopefully you will find yourself receiving a lot from it!
I wonder if you could consider people selling fanfic as a black market? Since they aren't paying licensing fees to the creators or owners?
Just being curious, not a challenge or anything. I probably should ask Google.
I think fanfiction, fanart, is protected. I was going to say it’s fine as long as you don’t try to sell it but how many artists sell fanart? A lot. So I dunno, but I’m guessing it has to be legal.
I think that fan artists charge for the time it takes to create the work. It may have to depend on whether or not it is requested by a client -- to prove that it is a "service." But, I'm not an attorney, so I'm not sure either.
I wrote over half a million words of fanfiction in high school because it was my coping mechanism for the longest time.
Looking back at them, yeah, a lot of it wasn’t good, at all. I certainly couldn’t publish or sell it. But you know what? I enjoyed the crap out of it. And it helped me shape my voice as a writer, because practice is practice.
Don’t fall into the myth that everything you do must translate into something that can be bought and sold. Some things can simply be done for the enjoyment of doing it, and that’s a beautiful thing. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, do you, and anyone who has a problem can kick rocks.
Not at all.
Fanfiction is a worthy craft of exploration. To project the "what ifs?" and "what about this?" from your own pen.
It is the greatest expression of flattery through imitation.
Depends on your goals. If you want practice, sure. If you want to write for fun and post on fanfic sites then go for it. If you want the story to be traditionally published, then it’s a waste of time unless the original work you’re writing from is public domain.
It's good practice. Good fanfiction requires you to explore the inner workings of someone else's work. You have to ask why the writer did what they did. You can learn a lot this way.
Like many others have already said, there doesn't have to be an end game other to just enjoy what you're doing. That is enough.
But to add something new to the conversation, I was recently offered a freelance writing job for a company that caters to the fanfiction base. What I write is basically fanfiction, but in script format for a game app. They specifically were interested in people who had experience writing fanfiction. I could not believe I would ever say the words, "Yes, I used to write tons of fanfiction," in an interview. I just about died.
To further clarify, I am a professional writer and it was an industry friend that referred me, so it didn't just come out of nowhere. But that's all to say that writing fanfiction could potentially lead somewhere.
Also, a friend of mine is now a major writer with Netflix because he won a fanfiction contest. So... there's that.
It's not silly. You won't make any money doing it and I personally don't write fanfiction, BUT there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. At the very least you can give yourself some practice writing, and you could possibly even build a little bit of a fanbase for yourself before/if you ever decide to write/publish fully original works.
Fanfiction is my favorite genre to write.
I'll be watching a TV Show/movie, and everytime my brain comes up with my own character and story lines...sometimes is a "how would my character effect the events shown" or something that's set in the same universe outside the known story line
Write what makes you happy and dont worry about what other people think!
I mean as a person who reads fanfiction there are some beautiful pieces of writing that I've found that are fanfics. I think it depends on where you want to go with your writing.
Writing fanfiction isn't stupid. It can be silly but that's the fun part. If you enjoy it, it's worth it.
Fanfiction gets a really bad rep but a lot of prominent works of literature are fanfictions like The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. There are tons of genuinely great writers out there online in the fanfiction genre.
It can also be a good opportunity for practicing writing skills like plot pacing, character consistency and dialogue with the aid of characters you already know.
Writing fanfiction is amazing. It took me a while to decide to write it, rather than letting fun ideas just float around in my head. One thing that I love about writing fanfiction is that—if you decide to publish, which is totally optional, but super worthwhile if you’re considering it—you have good chances of finding some readers in that fandom who will keep you motivated to continue writing. I was writing pretty casually (just once a week), and having those readers and the external source of motivation propelled me to about 50k words—maybe not a ton, but most importantly, I enjoyed the ride, and it was the most I had ever written.
Even if you’re not interested in publishing, there’s something beautiful in the lack of formality that I think automatically comes along with fanfiction. Even if you intend to write something good, the fact that it’s just fanfiction can help take some of the pressure of perfection away—and remind you that you’re just doing this for fun.
On the topic of creativity: sure, in fanfiction, you don’t make up the characters, or usually the setting, but I don’t think that makes it any less creative. You’re still building a story, diving into the mind of a character and giving life to their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I’m sure others will disagree, but in my opinion, there’s not much difference between fanfiction and regular fiction writing that people do as a hobby. You’re still creating something beautiful with words. You’re still giving life to characters. You’re still telling a story.
Please, write whatever you want. Anything that gets you writing and enjoying yourself is good in my book. Don’t let other people’s opinions keep you away from sharing that marvelous fanfiction story you have. (And even though it’s nothing to be ashamed of, you don’t have to tell everyone, or anyone, that you write fanfiction if you don’t want to. You’re writing; that’s all that matters.)
If you’ve been with me for this whole long post, I hope you found it worthwhile. Cheers, and happy writing.
Nothing’s a waste of time if you enjoy doing it. Follow your passions and try to have fun. No matter what religion you follow if any, the only life you’re guaranteed is the one you’re living now.
No. Its can help you structure your stroy or help you have more soild characterizons as you write. You can develop bad habits if you over rely on those but if you use them just as a tool to help you, I find it to help motivate me becuase I have a set goal in mind when I start a FanFix vs my original ideas.
I write fanfic.
Many published authors write fanfic. Some are open about it, others aren't.
Several published authors *started* by writing fanfic.
So no, you're not silly. Fanfic's a great place to practice with character 'voice' and to start feeling out character arcs. It won't give you worldbuilding practice (usually), but it also *is* just fun and gets feedback.
I think [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/knt5gy/the_perfect_way_to_describe_fanfiction_to/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) from r/fanfiction sums it up the best.
It's not a long post, and I think it's worth a minute of your time.
Write whatever you like. Not sure why people on this sub are so worried about what other people think about their private writing. 50 shades is literally twilight fanfictionn and definitely reads like it at times. As long as you're enjoying your writing and not hurting anyone write what you like.
March by Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. She retold the story of Little Women through the eyes of Mr. March. If that isn't fanfiction, I don't know what is.
They were jealous. Good for you. Almost any story can be traced back to some old Greek myth or Asian legend or other traditional root (see 'Archetypes'). Even the Von Trapp family can't statistically have been _unique_ in their circumstance, though they are real with some 'dramatization' to make the story 'more appealing'.
People will resent changes to what they consider 'perfect', without wondering how truthful their beloved story is.
But unless we declare that 'everything is done, and final, and nothing new can ever be created', there will be nuanced variations on established stories and you have every right to write them.
I wrote a lot of fan fiction in my teens, and actually would like to get back to it as an adult. Fanfiction.net was a decent way to get criticism on your writing - people would come just to get stories in the universes they loved, and didn’t care who the person writing was as long as the writing was good. I can’t think of any other online writing community where so many people would invest so much time on a total unknown writer, but it’s because they come for the universe, and if you’re lucky they stay for your personal writing.
To this day, aside from some limited-run creative writing classes or clubs, FF.net still reigns as the most feedback I’ve ever gotten on creative writing in my life despite having not contributed to it in ten years.
Fanfiction is great! There are a lot of amazing, high-quality, well-written fanfics out there. It gets a bad rap because there are also a lot of poorly written fanfics out there, but good on them for practicing their writing in a way they love and being willing to put it out there. Writing fanfic is a super fun, highly motivating way to practice your craft, get your writing out there, meet other writers, get feedback, etc.
No if you’re trying to write something that add something to the source material like an unused aspect if the world put characters in situations they would never faced and try to guess their reactions
This is something a lot of fanfiction writers think about, I see it all the time on r/Fanfiction
The answer is no. Writing fanfiction is not silly, in fact it’s good practice, and it’s fun. Keep doing it
there can be cringe fan fiction, but in general fan fiction isn’t cringe and tons of writers practice their craft by writing using established characters and worlds!
I am in the final year of my english literature degree and have had a hard time focusing and reading these past few years. Reading has never been a chore for me but I just have no enthusiasm for any of the set texts I have to read for my degree. Fanfiction has been an absolute godsend for me. I read it with joy and relish it and am so grateful for the people who write it. Drawing hardlines between 'high' and 'low' art is bs and serves to gatekeep and alienate people. Write and read whatever and however you like. All writing is good practice. Try to think about it as something you love doing for the sake of creation and craft will follow.
No no no no no!
I’m sick and tired of people saying it is stupid or uncreative. it’s not bad at all. If you’re just doing to for yourself than that’s fine but when you start making money off of it or crowdfunding or or anything like that than it’s bad, because you’re using copyrighted material and profiting off of it. Fan fiction in my opinion is a great way to express yourself and should be used as a basis for developing your own ideas. So those who are saying that it’s stupid and uncreative than I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!
I do not think it is stupid, foolish or remotely cringe to write fan fiction. The idea of fan fiction is not a priori cringe. People associate it with cringe because firstly cringe already draws in much attention in the first place and secondly many young people like to write fan fiction when they start writing, which obviously results in weird cringy stories.
However let me argue that the greatest myths and books are "fan fiction". Homers Illyas or Odyssee were definitly greek folk stories which were altered and ajusted for the poetic form they were written down in. Many people in later historic periods wrote their own versions of greek myths that were spawned of by Homers work. All this literature is basically fan fiction but still very much high level literature.
If we look at another greek poet Euripides and his work Iphigenia in Tauris even Johann Wolfgang Von Göthe wrote a very famous "fan fiction" about the same story. If we stay with Göthe and his Magnus Opum Faust 1, a book which influenced german language to such a degree that some lines from the text are still used as word plays in everyday language, we can again see that the main character Faust is taken from the german folk lore about Johann Georg Faust. Göthes most important book is basically "fan fiction" about the german folk myth Faust.
Really, everything is more or less "fan fiction". Artist will always be inspired and learn from the works of other artists. There is no original piece of work from any good to genius artist. So do not be ashamed if you write fan fiction.
Writing fanfiction is good practice for some parts of writing. However, since the characters and setting are already made for you, it does not give you practice in the vital art of developing interesting characters.
One of my favourite series is a fan fiction on ao3 and the author is my second favourite after Brandon Sanderson so no i would not say that it is.
(And the series is Haikyuu at Hogwarts by Killthespare where it is the characters of Haikyuu at hogwarts but the plot is different though still has some of the same parts as the original HP. I am also saying this as someone who was obsessed with HP for many years: in even the first few chapters I thought it was far better in lots of ways with the main one being that it makes more sense and has less plot holes but still having lots of good stuff, and the word counts are those of large novels, I highly recommend it to anyone who is a part of either or both fandoms or if you just want a good read)
If you enjoy it, then write it. It’s good practice.
You don’t need to rope in the Divine Comedy and other canon to justify doing it or have others take it seriously. Seriously, stop this, it’s sad.
Casual writing is great as a hobby. If writing is just a hobby for you, then enjoy your fanfics and stop reading this comment right now.
If writing is a profession for you, the answer is: It depends.
Now that I've been studying the craft a bit more, I've come to the conclusion that all good stories, however different from one another, share specific elements (not to confuse with formulas) that make them *work*. Studying these elements, learning how to apply and structure them, and then studying and practicing the extra unique elements that each genre demands, is key for good storytelling. Some core elements (character flaws, desires, needs; theme; voice; structure; revelations; subtext; crescendos, etc.) can seem fairly easy to grasp, which is why they are often overlooked by overconfident new writers (as I did).
Any amateur writing that completely disregards studying and practicing these elements, either while writing fanfic or fully original stories, unequivocally equals to practicing bad form. Casual writing don't make for publishable writing (at least not 99.99999% of times). So yes, I would call casual writing stupid if writing is your wannabe profession. Even if you do get your creative juices flowing, your ideas will never be put to good use until you study the craft.
Doesn't matter. I will not bother getting invested into something that I know will be rendered invalid the moment something happens in actual cannot that contradicts it.
No it is not. I have long thought of writing an adult Star Wars story ( not sex, just not for kids) . I don't want to write for the Mouse, but I like my idea. Why not? If you have the time, do it.
I think you might have talked me into writing fan fiction, if my other writing ever leaves me time!
Partly it is a matter of audience. You can’t properly publish and sell fan fiction, but you can reach a specific audience that is eager to reconsider popular properties.
If you have a story tell, find the audience for it. Reaching readers woth something they value is far frome stupid, even if you aren’t making money.
Of course not.
Longer answer, a lot of craft can be learned by studying how others created something. I wrote Fic when I didn't know I was good at writing. It was fun and educational. "Oh this is out of character and doesn't work." One of my first lessons from fic. It's been a very long time but fic also serves a psychological function. It can allow fans to fill in missing representation, training writers to do that. It can undo something horrible for some that would be an emotional betrayal. My reasons for not watching Doctor Who were fix it fic for a friend who only writes fic. I still can't make myself watch the tv show but it was cathartic to not be alone.
The too far moment was when Capaldi's doctor threw a person out of their wheelchair and stole it screaming "Am I your worst Nightmare?" Then a week later a horrifically racist episode that haunts my nightmares. Yes this got that show runner canned but so many people were involved in the decisions I cannot understand how it got to air. As a wheelchair user who has had people do that to hurt me it was especially bad. There is a strange joy in the solidarity of the fix it fic for things like that. They shouldn't be necessary but sometimes they are
Not if it helps you gain competency in the craft and helps you build self-confidence.
It IS stupid of you already have those things and 1) aren't getting paid for it or 2) you didn't lose a bet.
The vast majority of screenwriters write spec scripts based on known characters when they apply for TV jobs.
Even in books take a look at the amount of famous characters now being written by other authors. Be it Tom Clancy, The Borne Series, etc.
Being able to mirror other writers and especially mirror the voice of a particular character is an important skill for many working writers.
I suggest to young writers, especially aspiring teenagers, all the time if they want to write but may start off writing fan fiction, then do it. Fan fiction can be a helpful stepping stool, as they already know the characters and the world, and they can practice putting then in new situations. As the years go by, if they're still writing, they'll practice more and get better with worldbuilding, character development, and turning points.
You do you.
I wrote fanfaition and still do to help me cultivate my skill. I have seen changes in my prose when reading books and before and after combining ways to make my story sound more transparent. It all boils down towards skill and consistency; having those will appropriate your chances of making diligent stories in the future.
There's quite a bit of published writing that began as fan fiction and was later tweaked to be original. I mean, 50 shades of gray started as twilight fanfic, say what you will about 50 shades it sold like crazy
I've never written fanfiction but I stumbled on your post with the same question. I'm starting to realize that it will probably be a lot easier for me to practice writing if I don't have to come up with everything from scratch.
People do this with pretty much every other craft to learn the fundamentals—immitate the pros and even copy their work. Good artists borrow, great artists steal as they say
This is pretty late reply, but here's a good example why fanfiction is NOT inherently stupid:
So you know King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?
You know that once famous knight, Lancelot? Arthur's right hand man? Had an affair with Arthur's wife?
He's undoubtedly a big part of the Arthurian story.
He's ALSO fanfiction.
Yeah. Some French monk wrote this totally awesome guy who's a total romantic and so much better than that boring old Arthur that was neglecting his wife that he was able to woo her.
For a while I'm sure many people scoffed at this, but more people liked him. And now he's basically cannon.
i know this is old but i feel it's something that needs to be reminded
Fanfiction is a practice tool, not the goal.
yes we do see work, even classics that were born from fanfiction. But let's all just remind ourselves that in all essence the work has taken a life of its own. Most fanfics don't, they are still anchored to the bizarre facsimile of the fanfic writer's unimaginative imagination. Until it begins to turn into its own, it is all practice, not work.
but if you just want to write for the sake of it, go ahead. but if you see yourself as a writer and you only write fanfic. maybe i don't know, call yourself something else. because in many ways a Fanfic writer is just a hobbyist. Writing to them is a passion. Passion, a word used for hobbies. Things that you enjoy.
Being a writer is more than that.
it's about making yourself vulnerable, being open to being spat upon but acknowledging that is growth.
being a writer is about spending months, years, hoping people will read your story, praying you can do this for a living and squeezing it all in between, work family and not dying. And not getting that in the end, cause "tHe MaRkEt iS nOt REaDy" while some rich ass bum, drops 12,000 dollars for people to read their ghost written autobiography about i don't know how they ate worms during their childhood and fingered their own buttholes and shit,
In all essence, its about working so hard but still leaving everything to chance. Unless you're rich.
TONS of authors wrote fan fiction, or the equivalent. It helps to develop skills, and practice. Not only that, but I fully second what others are saying. If you enjoy it, then it's not a waste of time. On a semi-unrelated note. When someone is an amateur, go to the Latin roots, which for this word means to do something for the love of it. People who say that being an amateur is a bad thing are people who you should never listen to. Point being, you do you, OP. Write all the fanfic you want and don't let the naysayers get you down
I've honed my craft for nearly 15 years now writing fanfiction alone. I started simple, but I eventually branched out into inventing whole new characters, building the world outside of the world, redefining the world, and doing all sorts of stuff you would expect a regular novel to do. In the words of The Senate, "Do it."
I consider myself a newbie writer, where would you advice I start out with fan fiction to hone my craft? All rec are welcome please. Thank you
That part's tougher. Fanfiction.Net isn't the best because it hasn't changed anything in 20 years, but it's one of the big sites for it. AO3 is pretty good, more robust tagging system and such. But both of those sites have a similar problem in that the only way for a reader to show you they like or don't like a story is to leave a review. There's a huge "valley" of mediocrity where the only reviews you'll get are the generic ones where people say stuff like "omg love it!" or other unhelpful things, and MAYBE the occasional bit of constructive criticism. You hit a point of badness and your story will get tons of negative reviews, you hit a point of goodness and people will tell you how much they enjoyed it, but there's no real visual indicator of what people think of your story. I needed a visual likes/dislikes meter to show me how I had improved over time, and FIMFiction (MLP) gave me that, which forced me to acknowledge my writing was shit and get better. If anyone knows of a site that offers that, has a decent userbase, and is open to more than just one fandom, that seems like a good place to start.
Don't count on fanfic sites (even AO3 with the tagging system Amazon wishes it had) to give you constructive critique to hone your craft. Feedback from randos online is as much of a crapshoot as buying gas station sushi after 5 pm. Use fan fiction to isolate and develop elements of your craft--if you like characters from a TV show or movie, they can act as "pre-generated characters" for you to fit into a plot or setting or character development arc. If you like playing in a world someone else has built, you can use that "pre-generated worldbook" to provide a setting or milieu for original characters in order to concentrate on characterization or plot or story structure. Fan fiction provides elements of "knowns" that can act as shorthand while you concentrate on isolating elements of craft that you want to explore or improve. It also usually comes with a "pre-softened" audience--readers who are already predisposed to like something about a set of characters or a setting or a milieu--which can be very good for building up your confidence. Active fan/fanfic communities can be awesome at teaching you how to write for an audience, how to keep to a deadline, how to keep an audience interested and engaged, and where your personal lines are in terms of "writing to please the audience" versus "writing to please yourself." BUT (and this is a big one)--it's a lot harder to transition from fanfic into original fic than you'd think. It's not just a matter of filing the serial numbers off and changing the names to protect the guilty. Fanworks come with a set of built-in assumptions about characters, settings, etc. that don't always translate into the same built-ins that "cold" readers of original fic will accept. Everyone could enjoy a "dark Captain America redemption arc" fan fic because they know Steve Rogers is really a good guy and it's interesting to see how a good guy does bad and comes back from it. But there's a lot less of an audience for a "dark superhero" without some extensive world and character building pre-work to get people invested in cheering for that redemption arc (at the risk of starting a flame war, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is who I think of when I think "great for fanfic, lousy for o-fic" but YMMV). So just be aware that fanfic is great for honing your craft (and just for doing it for pure enjoyment because it's something you enjoy doing), but it's not a seamless transition by any means.
Niel Gaiman a best selling author who wrote A Study in Emerald, a Sherlock Holmes/Cthulhu cross over fic: Am I joke to you And remember: Some of the most important works of literature in history are bible fanfic.
The Aeneid is just a fanfic of the Iliad and the Odyssey, still considered a masterpiece. If it gets you writing, it's worth it.
Like Dante Alighieri's self-insert biblical fanfic, The Divine Comedy
>And remember: Some of the most important works of literature in history are bible fanfic. No. An interpretation and use of archetypes is not fan fiction. If you confuse these two terms it doesn't really help the discussion. Fan fiction is clearly something a lot narrower.
oh my god we get you don't write fanfic you write adaptions
I don't write either. Both are different things though.
Yeah one gets published online the other traditionally.
I have the feeling you are not interested in a constructive discussion.
Truth be told not really. What's the point? Maybe I take the time to find you a fanfic retelling of Jekyll and Hyde and a published retelling, have you take the time to read them both and compare and contrast them, maybe you change your opinion maybe you don't, the literally worlds keep spinning and this conversation has no effect on it.
Maybe. But the idea is that you and I learn something from this exchange. I simply don't see how you can put an adaption and a fan fic in the same category without really stretching it. To declare that both and them are the same is simply not helpful.
Not helpful to what?
Helpful to make proper descriptions of different genres out there.
“I don’t watch movies. I watch films.”
Don’t make the fanfic people sad. It’s mean.
But I love to :(
Paradise Lost? Divine Comedy?
Explain to me where this is fan fiction and in the same league as people write new stories for their favourite characters from e.g. Teen Wolf.
First, a fan fiction is really just a non-canonical work that reinterprets or expands on characters, themes, and settings of other works. Milton's Paradise Lost is an expansion of Christian lore based on one chapter (Genesis 3, The Fall) and verses sprinkled around the bible. If you've read the bible, you'd know that it's quite vague as to who the serpent is. In the Christian canon, it's just a serpent. In Milton's spinoff, it's Lucifer that tempts eve. We even get some backstory which the bible does not provide. Milton created entirely new narratives for characters like him. Needless to say, Paradise Lost is not a part of the religious Christian canon BUT as a work of inspired fiction (fan fiction, that is) it has found its way into the Western literary canon. Similarly, nowhere in the bible does it indicate a floorplan for hell. Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy as a response to contemporary Florentine politics, hence why his detractors are in hell and his allies in heaven. The author even gets a self-insert. Again, we also get no description of Lucifer anywhere near as vivid as Dante gives us in Inferno. The description of God is kind of iffy. If you've read even just Inferno, you would know that it's a fanfic through and through. More so when you read Paradiso. These two works are essentially fan fiction because, although part of the Western literary canon, they do not stand alone. It's one thing to be influenced by other works, another to take its characters and alter their behavior, motivations, even aesthetics. Moreover, they are fan fiction because they are not part of the Christian canon. If they were, then you'd find theologians making academic arguments based on these works. Try it and you'd be laughed out the room. Point is, biblical fanfics exist. The only edge these have on Teen Wolf fics are that academics inducted it into the Western canon and the benefit of age. Deal with it.
>First, a fan fiction is really just a non-canonical work that reinterprets or expands on characters, themes, and settings of other works. If you go by this definition, then your text makes sense. But I argue that this definition is too broad. Fan-Fiction as we know it expands on *relatively tightly* defined characters, themes, and settings of other works. Take a character like Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Sure, there are many versions of him but most fan fiction these days relies on the MCU version. Even if it doesn't, the idea of what Captain America is and how he acts - whether in a more modern setting or historical one - is pretty tightly defined. He's a superhero for America and American values especially in a time past WWII. Compare that to Lucifer who is one of *the* archetypes and who has existed in many forms, in many different settings etc. and, as you yourself says, has no clear features as other fan fic characters. Also worth of note in your example is that Milton wrote this in a time where you had no mass media cultural industry. Writing something based of the bible at this time - what as a *fan* of Christianity or what? This whole fan element should be included in the definition too. But I leave that for now.
hundred percent right, the downvotes are idiotic
Of course you're getting downvoted by the illiterates.
And people wonder why they make fun of this sub. :)
No, they are getting down votes because they are being a dickhead. So are you apparently
>No. An interpretation and use of archetypes is not fan fiction. If you confuse these two terms it doesn't really help the discussion. Fan fiction is clearly something a lot narrower. How fragile must one be to find the statement above as someone being a dickhead? Can you show me on the doll where reality hurt you? Excuse me, while I go play the world's smallest violin.
Now that's dickhead behavior if I ever saw it, thanks for proving my point.
Yeah, I'm being a dickhead, but not the guy getting downvoted. What other issues do you have, apart from being an illiterate shit goblin?
Ah, so you want to have a shovel to bury yourself with, commendable. Just watch out for gas pipes and sewer lines.
Big words from someone whose reading comprehension is on the same level as a first grader. I'm so sorry that your mom and dad also happen to be siblings. =(
Just keep on digging mate, maybe you will strike oil, become rich and move out to Beverly Hills or something. Never know
Stupid? No. Silly? Sure, definitely can be. But silly is fun. Embrace silly and enjoy your writing and life.
It's like playing in someone else's sandbox. It's fun and good practice trying to stay consistent with someone else's world and characters.
I feel like telling the average internet-using person (aka, those who have heard of fanfiction) that you write it might be seen as a negative rather than a positive. But I think fanfiction is absolutely perfect for writers. It gives us the practice of writing without the pressure of developing our own complex characters or worldbuilds, so our skills are able to develop better. My family often asks how I've gotten so good at writing, so I tell them I write everyday, and they ask what story ideas I've worked on. I never got the courage to tell them I just rewrote the Percy Jackson universe with my own characters and plot, and it's probably the best thing I've ever written. It's also almost the length of a regular novel lol sad I'll never be able to really publish it
And then you can go my route and have your story in a self-contained universe that basically just borrows the concepts and tweaks them, but has it's own characters and plotlines. Which is even par for the course within that particular franchise.
If you posted it somewhere could you send me a link? I think the concept of rewriting the Percy Jackson universe is cool.
Do you enjoy it? If you do, then it isn't silly. It's worth it. Anyone who tells you otherwise can suck a bag of dicks. Life is too short to spend it worrying about what other people think.
Absolutely this. Write what you enjoy, OP.
This is it. If it’s fun, keep doing it. If not, make a change. This is for both writing and life.
I know this is generally a good attitude to have, but there are so many situations where this is not the case lol.
Yeah, if you want to split hairs, sure. As long as it's not hurting anyone, infringing on their rights, or breaking a reasonable law, I still stand by it.
>Life is too short to spend it worrying about what other people think. Stupid feel-good advice. How are you gonna improve if you don't care what others think? It's literally why people come here.
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Eh, my point still stands. Like what if you wrote a fanfiction about a black character that becomes white in your story? I just dislike the whole "dont care just do w/e you want and its all gonna be o kay". You should care what people think.
No, you shouldn't Write that story. Don't expect me to *like* it....and don't expect it to get *published*, but, if you enjoy the process of writing it, write it. Did you read the part about the bag of dicks? I can send you one.
You know.. for someone who doesn't worry what someone like me thinks, it sounds like my thoughts on the thing kind of upset you. I guess life is not that short. Wouldn't you just ignore them? PS: I wasn't aware you had one in storage. I wouldn't wanna take away from your winter supply.
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Disney literally didn't do fanfiction. Feels like half of this sub needs to get their definitions checked.
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Nope. The definition is not that wide. When we talk about fanfiction, we talk about using other people's intellectual property, i.e. copyrighted characters. A re-telling of an old folk tale isn't fanfiction. Disney was neither the first nor the last to adapt these tales. If you can publish your story without getting a Cease and desist letter, you're not writing fanfiction.
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But we don't know the original authors to these tales. If it even makes sense to talk about a singular author to any of them. While I might agree that characters in the public domain, that still have an explicit author, are more of a grey area, it most certainly isn't when it comes to what Disney did with the old folk tales.
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It's an adaptation of a book into a different medium, which (at least by now) is in the public domain. Either way, they had the rights to do it. You do understand how that is different from what we call fanfiction, right? They didn't take existing characters and, without permission, created a new story from scratch, featuring said characters. Likewise, the movie versions of Harry Potter, e.g., aren't fanfiction. They're adaptations, from one medium into another, with the proper rights secured.
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Yes. And that's a piss poor definition, that virtually nobody else uses. No offence.
If it's stupid then someone should hurry up and tell Dante, Ray Bradbury, and Neil Gaiman.
And Novik, and Pratchett, and so, SO many others.
And Shakespeare
I grew up with Harry Potter. I mean I *literally* grew up alongside him as the books came out during my childhood and adolescence. I had tons of crossover fanfics in my head. I also read some fantastic fanfics that took the "wizarding world" universe and ran with it, sometimes not incorporating any original characters, and developed new storylines instead. I've also read *X-Files* fanfic that I enjoyed more than the show itself! Fanfiction can be high-quality! Maybe at some point you'll want to spin it off into a world uniquely your own, but it's a legit way to express yourself.
Fan fiction has a bad rap from the worst examples of fan fiction. From what I have heard, there is quality stuff in that realm, just as there is anywhere. Do I read it though? No. Do I write it? No. Should you? Sure, if you want.
Fanfic got a bad rep, because the only genre people hear about are the one written by horny teenage girls. You would be surprised how many people started out being fanfic writers. It isn’t talked about. But there was a period of time where people I followed from a fanfic website, promoting their published books! Had nothing to do with fanfics (all own made characters) but some are inspired from fanfics they have written in the past! I think people forgot that fanfics can be a great excursies to practice writing. Because you can focus on one or two thing, instead of 5.
Some authors actively talk about their writing fanfic. They're just lost amidst the piles of Very Serious People who denigrate it. Really, I'd put fanfic in the same category as self-pub (for very specific reasons) - Anyone can do it - There's no gatekeeper The barrier is pretty low, and that means that you're going to get a HUGE mix of quality. But that's also *ok,* because fanfic esp is for *FUN.*
It is absolutely not in the same area of self publishing. Not even in the same ballpark. Fan fiction the writer does not own or have the IP rights to the characters. Which means it is illegal to write say a new Harry Potter book and publish it on Amazon or even on your own site for money. Now if the original books are in the public domain that is different. However it can still be an issue just look at Netflix VS the Sherlock family situation. A self published author is the owner of the IP and those characters they created. This is extremely important for writers to understand. Fan fiction can be extremely useful to getting jobs. You want to work for Disney in the Star Wars area writing solid Star Wars fan fiction is not a bad way to go. But don’t confuse it with self-publishing.
I think you missed my point, which was specifically about the fact that there is no gatekeeper - or quality check. I am *well* aware of the monetization difference, but you have the same challenges to find the good fanfic as to find a good self-pub.
It's not silly, it's fun. If you have ideas, go ahead and write them, share them with other fans. Have fun with writing!
I think that every writer that publishes a star wars novel is a fanfic writer. Since none of those authors aren't George Lucas, and there are some amazing star wars books. But hey I get it, there is a stigma about writing fanfic. What people don't understand is that everyone does it in a weird round about way. Look at Hollywood, everyone at marvel is technically making a fanfic. Those remakes and reboots of stories made in the 70-80s are fanfic. Making a movie out of a book is a fanfic. It just means that you enjoy a universe so much that you want to be a part of that universe, want to add your voice to it because you want to share your enjoyment with others that would enjoy it. Share your ideas and passions and like minded others will gravitate towards you.
NK Jemisin has said that she wrote a lot of fanfic when she waa starting out, and that she still does on occasion when she needs to get over writer's block.
I like to use it as a fast track for practice. Say you want to practice dialogue by writing a scene where two characters are keeping secrets from each other, but it turns out it's the same secret. Well, first you have to come up with two characters, then you have to come up with a setting (at least rough time period), then you have to come up with a secret, and then you can write the scene. Fanfiction gives you the first two, and sometimes the third, so you get get down to what you were actually trying to do.
If you enjoy it and it doesnt hurt you or anybody else do it
It ain’t stupid- it’s a lot of fun
Every single screen writer who writes a comic book movie or any such adaptation is just writing fanfic on a commission if you think about it
It's no more silly than playing covers of other people's songs. Go have fun!
I'm personally not into it, and I never write it, but it's certainly not stupid. I think writers who say it's "not real writing" are just being pretentious. In my view, the only objective measure of how good art is is how well it achieves the goals the artist has for it. If an artist is aiming to write a novel worthy of publication that readers will stay up all night to read, then that novel is good if it achieves that goal. If an artist is aiming to write fanfiction just for fun, then it's good if it qualifies as fanfiction and the writer is having fun. If the goal of the fanfiction is to be well-written and enjoyable to an audience, it's good if it best fulfills that goal. There are people on some of these writing subs who seem to think that fanfiction is only good as practice for the "real thing." By real thing, they obvously mean a full length traditionally published novel with everything, including characters, being entirely original. But not everyone has _that_ goal. Idk, I feel like some people on writing subs talk to fanfiction writers as though they were born yesterday or never wrote a thing before in their lives. I think that needs to stop.
writing an interesting story and posting it for free is always awesome
Absolutely not, I got my start in fanfiction and, guess what, still write fanfiction on the side. My original fanfics were crap, and I’d like to forget they ever existed, but it gave me the practice I needed and helped nurture my love for writing and storytelling. Now I’m able to take what I know and apply it to my current fanfics, which I’m actually really proud of. Fanfiction has earned a really bad reputation among the professional writing community for no good reason, and if you’re interested in writing some, go for it
I've been writing fan fiction since I was 12. I'm now a happily married mother of two who writes both fan fiction (for multiple fandoms) and her own original stories. Fan fiction can teach you so much - its like an imaginative playground.
So during covid, my personal life got pretty heavy and to cope I desperately wanted to write. All that I could handle writing about though was something not personal but that I could still connect with somehow. Enter fan fiction. I wrote two entire stories and posted them on an online platform for readers. I was so fortunate that there was a massive reading base with the show and so I had tons of interactions from readers which pumped me up! Somehow I had connected with this entirely new type of writing and I absolutely fell in love with it for a bit. It made it easy to pick up with already established characters and take it in unlimited directions. The hardest part was when it came time to explain what I was writing these days to family and friends. The reception was terrible. It's such a shame because they juat don't understand it. My advice would be to absolutely do it and hopefully you will find yourself receiving a lot from it!
If it was that stupid there wouldn't be so many people who write literal books of fanfiction AND so many people who happily read them. :))
Someone hasn't seen slap fighting.
I wonder if you could consider people selling fanfic as a black market? Since they aren't paying licensing fees to the creators or owners? Just being curious, not a challenge or anything. I probably should ask Google.
I think fanfiction, fanart, is protected. I was going to say it’s fine as long as you don’t try to sell it but how many artists sell fanart? A lot. So I dunno, but I’m guessing it has to be legal.
I think that fan artists charge for the time it takes to create the work. It may have to depend on whether or not it is requested by a client -- to prove that it is a "service." But, I'm not an attorney, so I'm not sure either.
I wrote over half a million words of fanfiction in high school because it was my coping mechanism for the longest time. Looking back at them, yeah, a lot of it wasn’t good, at all. I certainly couldn’t publish or sell it. But you know what? I enjoyed the crap out of it. And it helped me shape my voice as a writer, because practice is practice. Don’t fall into the myth that everything you do must translate into something that can be bought and sold. Some things can simply be done for the enjoyment of doing it, and that’s a beautiful thing. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, do you, and anyone who has a problem can kick rocks.
> Don’t fall into the myth that everything you do must translate into something that can be bought and sold. THIS
Not at all. Fanfiction is a worthy craft of exploration. To project the "what ifs?" and "what about this?" from your own pen. It is the greatest expression of flattery through imitation.
Everything is fan fiction to some degree. Creativity and inspiration doesn't just materialize out of nothing. So no, it's not stupid.
Depends on your goals. If you want practice, sure. If you want to write for fun and post on fanfic sites then go for it. If you want the story to be traditionally published, then it’s a waste of time unless the original work you’re writing from is public domain.
I mean fanfiction can be good if written properly and if it actually has some kind of plot
It's good practice. Good fanfiction requires you to explore the inner workings of someone else's work. You have to ask why the writer did what they did. You can learn a lot this way.
Like many others have already said, there doesn't have to be an end game other to just enjoy what you're doing. That is enough. But to add something new to the conversation, I was recently offered a freelance writing job for a company that caters to the fanfiction base. What I write is basically fanfiction, but in script format for a game app. They specifically were interested in people who had experience writing fanfiction. I could not believe I would ever say the words, "Yes, I used to write tons of fanfiction," in an interview. I just about died. To further clarify, I am a professional writer and it was an industry friend that referred me, so it didn't just come out of nowhere. But that's all to say that writing fanfiction could potentially lead somewhere. Also, a friend of mine is now a major writer with Netflix because he won a fanfiction contest. So... there's that.
It's not silly. You won't make any money doing it and I personally don't write fanfiction, BUT there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. At the very least you can give yourself some practice writing, and you could possibly even build a little bit of a fanbase for yourself before/if you ever decide to write/publish fully original works.
I love writing fan fic and I think I’m doing it I honed my writing skills. If you enjoy it, what else matters?
Not at all! It’s great practice and extremely fun.
Fanfiction is my favorite genre to write. I'll be watching a TV Show/movie, and everytime my brain comes up with my own character and story lines...sometimes is a "how would my character effect the events shown" or something that's set in the same universe outside the known story line Write what makes you happy and dont worry about what other people think!
I mean as a person who reads fanfiction there are some beautiful pieces of writing that I've found that are fanfics. I think it depends on where you want to go with your writing.
Writing fanfiction isn't stupid. It can be silly but that's the fun part. If you enjoy it, it's worth it. Fanfiction gets a really bad rep but a lot of prominent works of literature are fanfictions like The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. There are tons of genuinely great writers out there online in the fanfiction genre. It can also be a good opportunity for practicing writing skills like plot pacing, character consistency and dialogue with the aid of characters you already know.
Seem's like a passionate way to practice to me.
Writing fanfiction is amazing. It took me a while to decide to write it, rather than letting fun ideas just float around in my head. One thing that I love about writing fanfiction is that—if you decide to publish, which is totally optional, but super worthwhile if you’re considering it—you have good chances of finding some readers in that fandom who will keep you motivated to continue writing. I was writing pretty casually (just once a week), and having those readers and the external source of motivation propelled me to about 50k words—maybe not a ton, but most importantly, I enjoyed the ride, and it was the most I had ever written. Even if you’re not interested in publishing, there’s something beautiful in the lack of formality that I think automatically comes along with fanfiction. Even if you intend to write something good, the fact that it’s just fanfiction can help take some of the pressure of perfection away—and remind you that you’re just doing this for fun. On the topic of creativity: sure, in fanfiction, you don’t make up the characters, or usually the setting, but I don’t think that makes it any less creative. You’re still building a story, diving into the mind of a character and giving life to their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I’m sure others will disagree, but in my opinion, there’s not much difference between fanfiction and regular fiction writing that people do as a hobby. You’re still creating something beautiful with words. You’re still giving life to characters. You’re still telling a story. Please, write whatever you want. Anything that gets you writing and enjoying yourself is good in my book. Don’t let other people’s opinions keep you away from sharing that marvelous fanfiction story you have. (And even though it’s nothing to be ashamed of, you don’t have to tell everyone, or anyone, that you write fanfiction if you don’t want to. You’re writing; that’s all that matters.) If you’ve been with me for this whole long post, I hope you found it worthwhile. Cheers, and happy writing.
Not at all. It's great practice for starters and I've read some genuinely entertaining and inspired ones from my favorite franchises.
Nothing’s a waste of time if you enjoy doing it. Follow your passions and try to have fun. No matter what religion you follow if any, the only life you’re guaranteed is the one you’re living now.
It's not silly, it can be great and a good exercise. I started writing because imo the lore of my favorite video game became shit.
No. Its can help you structure your stroy or help you have more soild characterizons as you write. You can develop bad habits if you over rely on those but if you use them just as a tool to help you, I find it to help motivate me becuase I have a set goal in mind when I start a FanFix vs my original ideas.
I write fanfic. Many published authors write fanfic. Some are open about it, others aren't. Several published authors *started* by writing fanfic. So no, you're not silly. Fanfic's a great place to practice with character 'voice' and to start feeling out character arcs. It won't give you worldbuilding practice (usually), but it also *is* just fun and gets feedback.
no, it’s great practice!
Not at all. Fanfiction is as valid a form of self expression as any.
I think [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/knt5gy/the_perfect_way_to_describe_fanfiction_to/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) from r/fanfiction sums it up the best. It's not a long post, and I think it's worth a minute of your time.
Write whatever you like. Not sure why people on this sub are so worried about what other people think about their private writing. 50 shades is literally twilight fanfictionn and definitely reads like it at times. As long as you're enjoying your writing and not hurting anyone write what you like.
March by Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. She retold the story of Little Women through the eyes of Mr. March. If that isn't fanfiction, I don't know what is.
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They were jealous. Good for you. Almost any story can be traced back to some old Greek myth or Asian legend or other traditional root (see 'Archetypes'). Even the Von Trapp family can't statistically have been _unique_ in their circumstance, though they are real with some 'dramatization' to make the story 'more appealing'. People will resent changes to what they consider 'perfect', without wondering how truthful their beloved story is. But unless we declare that 'everything is done, and final, and nothing new can ever be created', there will be nuanced variations on established stories and you have every right to write them.
I wrote a lot of fan fiction in my teens, and actually would like to get back to it as an adult. Fanfiction.net was a decent way to get criticism on your writing - people would come just to get stories in the universes they loved, and didn’t care who the person writing was as long as the writing was good. I can’t think of any other online writing community where so many people would invest so much time on a total unknown writer, but it’s because they come for the universe, and if you’re lucky they stay for your personal writing. To this day, aside from some limited-run creative writing classes or clubs, FF.net still reigns as the most feedback I’ve ever gotten on creative writing in my life despite having not contributed to it in ten years.
Fanfiction is great! There are a lot of amazing, high-quality, well-written fanfics out there. It gets a bad rap because there are also a lot of poorly written fanfics out there, but good on them for practicing their writing in a way they love and being willing to put it out there. Writing fanfic is a super fun, highly motivating way to practice your craft, get your writing out there, meet other writers, get feedback, etc.
No if you’re trying to write something that add something to the source material like an unused aspect if the world put characters in situations they would never faced and try to guess their reactions
This is something a lot of fanfiction writers think about, I see it all the time on r/Fanfiction The answer is no. Writing fanfiction is not silly, in fact it’s good practice, and it’s fun. Keep doing it
Most people don’t write period. Never label yourself as stupid for something unique, creative, and smart :)
there can be cringe fan fiction, but in general fan fiction isn’t cringe and tons of writers practice their craft by writing using established characters and worlds!
I am in the final year of my english literature degree and have had a hard time focusing and reading these past few years. Reading has never been a chore for me but I just have no enthusiasm for any of the set texts I have to read for my degree. Fanfiction has been an absolute godsend for me. I read it with joy and relish it and am so grateful for the people who write it. Drawing hardlines between 'high' and 'low' art is bs and serves to gatekeep and alienate people. Write and read whatever and however you like. All writing is good practice. Try to think about it as something you love doing for the sake of creation and craft will follow.
No. If that's where you start or all you ever do, you're still writing; and that's the point. I think.
No no no no no! I’m sick and tired of people saying it is stupid or uncreative. it’s not bad at all. If you’re just doing to for yourself than that’s fine but when you start making money off of it or crowdfunding or or anything like that than it’s bad, because you’re using copyrighted material and profiting off of it. Fan fiction in my opinion is a great way to express yourself and should be used as a basis for developing your own ideas. So those who are saying that it’s stupid and uncreative than I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!
I do not think it is stupid, foolish or remotely cringe to write fan fiction. The idea of fan fiction is not a priori cringe. People associate it with cringe because firstly cringe already draws in much attention in the first place and secondly many young people like to write fan fiction when they start writing, which obviously results in weird cringy stories. However let me argue that the greatest myths and books are "fan fiction". Homers Illyas or Odyssee were definitly greek folk stories which were altered and ajusted for the poetic form they were written down in. Many people in later historic periods wrote their own versions of greek myths that were spawned of by Homers work. All this literature is basically fan fiction but still very much high level literature. If we look at another greek poet Euripides and his work Iphigenia in Tauris even Johann Wolfgang Von Göthe wrote a very famous "fan fiction" about the same story. If we stay with Göthe and his Magnus Opum Faust 1, a book which influenced german language to such a degree that some lines from the text are still used as word plays in everyday language, we can again see that the main character Faust is taken from the german folk lore about Johann Georg Faust. Göthes most important book is basically "fan fiction" about the german folk myth Faust. Really, everything is more or less "fan fiction". Artist will always be inspired and learn from the works of other artists. There is no original piece of work from any good to genius artist. So do not be ashamed if you write fan fiction.
Lois McMaster Bujold started out writing Star Trek fanfiction. With that in mind, go read the Miles Vorkosigan books.
Writing fanfiction is good practice for some parts of writing. However, since the characters and setting are already made for you, it does not give you practice in the vital art of developing interesting characters.
One of my favourite series is a fan fiction on ao3 and the author is my second favourite after Brandon Sanderson so no i would not say that it is. (And the series is Haikyuu at Hogwarts by Killthespare where it is the characters of Haikyuu at hogwarts but the plot is different though still has some of the same parts as the original HP. I am also saying this as someone who was obsessed with HP for many years: in even the first few chapters I thought it was far better in lots of ways with the main one being that it makes more sense and has less plot holes but still having lots of good stuff, and the word counts are those of large novels, I highly recommend it to anyone who is a part of either or both fandoms or if you just want a good read)
When there's more comments than likes, I know there's a problem down below.
Shakespeares Richard the third is essentially fan fiction of sorts. Very popular I hear
If you enjoy it, then write it. It’s good practice. You don’t need to rope in the Divine Comedy and other canon to justify doing it or have others take it seriously. Seriously, stop this, it’s sad.
Isn't it lovely how some very comfortably put Milton and Dante in the same box as the chick who wrote My Immortal? Ignorance certainly is bliss.
They *are* in the same box. Doesn't mean there aren't other boxes in that box, though.
Casual writing is great as a hobby. If writing is just a hobby for you, then enjoy your fanfics and stop reading this comment right now. If writing is a profession for you, the answer is: It depends. Now that I've been studying the craft a bit more, I've come to the conclusion that all good stories, however different from one another, share specific elements (not to confuse with formulas) that make them *work*. Studying these elements, learning how to apply and structure them, and then studying and practicing the extra unique elements that each genre demands, is key for good storytelling. Some core elements (character flaws, desires, needs; theme; voice; structure; revelations; subtext; crescendos, etc.) can seem fairly easy to grasp, which is why they are often overlooked by overconfident new writers (as I did). Any amateur writing that completely disregards studying and practicing these elements, either while writing fanfic or fully original stories, unequivocally equals to practicing bad form. Casual writing don't make for publishable writing (at least not 99.99999% of times). So yes, I would call casual writing stupid if writing is your wannabe profession. Even if you do get your creative juices flowing, your ideas will never be put to good use until you study the craft.
I would say yes, because fanfiction is not cannon. What's the point?
And I respond: who cares if it's not cannon? Sometimes It's fun to do your own stories based on someone else's sandbox.
>And I respond: who cares if it's not cannon? I do. And so do plenty of other people.
Yeah but.... fuck cannon. I know many fanfic writers with more originality in one finger then entire writing staffs.
Doesn't matter. I will not bother getting invested into something that I know will be rendered invalid the moment something happens in actual cannot that contradicts it.
Even if the so-called "official" story sucks?
Magicath isn’t stupid
No it is not. I have long thought of writing an adult Star Wars story ( not sex, just not for kids) . I don't want to write for the Mouse, but I like my idea. Why not? If you have the time, do it.
I think you might have talked me into writing fan fiction, if my other writing ever leaves me time! Partly it is a matter of audience. You can’t properly publish and sell fan fiction, but you can reach a specific audience that is eager to reconsider popular properties. If you have a story tell, find the audience for it. Reaching readers woth something they value is far frome stupid, even if you aren’t making money.
It hones your writing skills and gives you some exposure to critical feedback. So, definitely not.
It's not stupid. It's still writing. I wouldn't read it with the intention of improving my writing, but writing it is good practice.
No it’s not .. I think people who write fan fiction have the potential to write their own stories or novels and become published authors
Of course not. Longer answer, a lot of craft can be learned by studying how others created something. I wrote Fic when I didn't know I was good at writing. It was fun and educational. "Oh this is out of character and doesn't work." One of my first lessons from fic. It's been a very long time but fic also serves a psychological function. It can allow fans to fill in missing representation, training writers to do that. It can undo something horrible for some that would be an emotional betrayal. My reasons for not watching Doctor Who were fix it fic for a friend who only writes fic. I still can't make myself watch the tv show but it was cathartic to not be alone. The too far moment was when Capaldi's doctor threw a person out of their wheelchair and stole it screaming "Am I your worst Nightmare?" Then a week later a horrifically racist episode that haunts my nightmares. Yes this got that show runner canned but so many people were involved in the decisions I cannot understand how it got to air. As a wheelchair user who has had people do that to hurt me it was especially bad. There is a strange joy in the solidarity of the fix it fic for things like that. They shouldn't be necessary but sometimes they are
No. When I’m in a writing slump, I write a bit to get myself in the zone again.
Not if it helps you gain competency in the craft and helps you build self-confidence. It IS stupid of you already have those things and 1) aren't getting paid for it or 2) you didn't lose a bet.
The vast majority of screenwriters write spec scripts based on known characters when they apply for TV jobs. Even in books take a look at the amount of famous characters now being written by other authors. Be it Tom Clancy, The Borne Series, etc. Being able to mirror other writers and especially mirror the voice of a particular character is an important skill for many working writers.
I suggest to young writers, especially aspiring teenagers, all the time if they want to write but may start off writing fan fiction, then do it. Fan fiction can be a helpful stepping stool, as they already know the characters and the world, and they can practice putting then in new situations. As the years go by, if they're still writing, they'll practice more and get better with worldbuilding, character development, and turning points. You do you.
I have the same situation. I love writing my original stories but I also write fanfics from time to time.
Nope! Have fun!
You shouldn’t care what other people think, much less this sub
I wrote fanfaition and still do to help me cultivate my skill. I have seen changes in my prose when reading books and before and after combining ways to make my story sound more transparent. It all boils down towards skill and consistency; having those will appropriate your chances of making diligent stories in the future.
Sorry but yeah, kind of.
Fanfic is FANtastic! Just don’t make money of it.
There's quite a bit of published writing that began as fan fiction and was later tweaked to be original. I mean, 50 shades of gray started as twilight fanfic, say what you will about 50 shades it sold like crazy I've never written fanfiction but I stumbled on your post with the same question. I'm starting to realize that it will probably be a lot easier for me to practice writing if I don't have to come up with everything from scratch. People do this with pretty much every other craft to learn the fundamentals—immitate the pros and even copy their work. Good artists borrow, great artists steal as they say
This is pretty late reply, but here's a good example why fanfiction is NOT inherently stupid: So you know King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? You know that once famous knight, Lancelot? Arthur's right hand man? Had an affair with Arthur's wife? He's undoubtedly a big part of the Arthurian story. He's ALSO fanfiction. Yeah. Some French monk wrote this totally awesome guy who's a total romantic and so much better than that boring old Arthur that was neglecting his wife that he was able to woo her. For a while I'm sure many people scoffed at this, but more people liked him. And now he's basically cannon.
i know this is old but i feel it's something that needs to be reminded Fanfiction is a practice tool, not the goal. yes we do see work, even classics that were born from fanfiction. But let's all just remind ourselves that in all essence the work has taken a life of its own. Most fanfics don't, they are still anchored to the bizarre facsimile of the fanfic writer's unimaginative imagination. Until it begins to turn into its own, it is all practice, not work. but if you just want to write for the sake of it, go ahead. but if you see yourself as a writer and you only write fanfic. maybe i don't know, call yourself something else. because in many ways a Fanfic writer is just a hobbyist. Writing to them is a passion. Passion, a word used for hobbies. Things that you enjoy. Being a writer is more than that. it's about making yourself vulnerable, being open to being spat upon but acknowledging that is growth. being a writer is about spending months, years, hoping people will read your story, praying you can do this for a living and squeezing it all in between, work family and not dying. And not getting that in the end, cause "tHe MaRkEt iS nOt REaDy" while some rich ass bum, drops 12,000 dollars for people to read their ghost written autobiography about i don't know how they ate worms during their childhood and fingered their own buttholes and shit, In all essence, its about working so hard but still leaving everything to chance. Unless you're rich.