storytellers

AmbrMerlinus · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:29 am Post subject: Fanfiction section?

The writing of fanfiction is good practice for writing techniques such as story flow, point of view, proper verb conjugation, spelling and grammar...

May we have a fanfiction section?

_________________
If you could write something better than Eragon, copy and paste this into your signature.

eleison · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:46 am Post subject:

I have been considering creating such a section for awhile... so... I will think about it a bit more. Part of me feels that there are enough communities out there for fanfiction, but part of me is like "man, why not?"... so, yeah, we'll see.
_________________
Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.
~Sigmund Freud~

jesse · daydreamer Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 33

I say yes on the condition that it only allow super-esoteric fanfiction. Evangelion, Buffy, and Naruto? Right out. Shakespeare, Dali, and Proust? Totally fair game.

How about it?

<3

-Jesse
_________________
I've always been Jung at heart.

eleison · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:57 pm Post subject:

Ah, jesse, you sort of brought up something that adds to my "no fanfiction section" list...

... fanfiction, with some exceptions, involves at least a vague understanding of the canon. Where as an original work, in most cases, involves understanding what is there and learning as you read.

I am not saying that fanfiction is a horrible thing, I am guilty of writing a few fics myself and think it is a grand way to practice at writing and get rid of some serious plot bunnying, but I am not sure if this is the place for them.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? I am up for debate on this as my mind is not 100% made up either way. Is this something most of us want? Can we live without it? What limits should or shouldn't there be if we do make such a section?
_________________
Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.
~Sigmund Freud~

Lilith · circle keeper Joined: 09 Dec 2007 Posts: 38

Personally, I think as long as it isn't totally out of place and follows original storylines and logical paths that they could've taken, I'm all for it.

If it's a mary-sue ridden deplorable piece of radioactive waste?

No, just no.

GeneralArnold77 · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:25 am Post subject:

Well, if I may add my two sense in. I come from, perhaps a different background than most. I am a Myspace Role Playing addict, and some of those storylines can lead to interesting fan fictions and actually they work out pretty well.

I know there are some people out there, who could just bloody butcher a good piece of Literature with a lousy piece of fanfic, however, I think that most of the people posting here are mature enough and talented enough to be thoughtful if they were to write a fanfic and put actual thought into it.

I know there was a question about people knowing their canon, well if someone is going to write a fan fic, nine times out of ten, they are going to know their canon. I find that people tend to write fanfics about things that they really are passionate about, not something that they saw on impulse.

My vote at the moment would be go for a fan fic section, honestly. I have to say that they can be a lot of fun, and an excelent way to work on one's writing skills, and sometimes can lead to individual story ideas.

-Rick

eleison · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:39 am Post subject:

I am a little more concerned about the readers being farmilar with the canon than the writers. As some one who is only now catching up with things that were popular when I was younger and as someone who has been in a lot of writing communities: it is hard to READ a fanfic if you are not farmilar with the canon and therefor hard to critique or otherwise supply feedback.

Then again, I seem to be the only one with this problem/point of view.

I'll put up a poll for this Saturday.

_________________
Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.
~Sigmund Freud~

GeneralArnold77 · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:51 am Post subject:

Yeah, I can understand that, but in my experience most fanfic tends to be done on pretty common things, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, something like that. I'm not saying that Fanfic is limited to that, but they usually tend to be in general areas like that.

Plus those reading it would most likely pick a fan fic to critique that they were somewhat familiar with the subject matter, and if they weren't it could be a good way to introduce someone to it. Make them curious and thus broaden their horizons.

Honestly my vote still goes towards having a Fan fic page.

However that also begs the question, what about a Historical Fiction catagory. I'm not trying to push to hard, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

eleison · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 5:00 am Post subject:

I guess my question would be: hypothetically, if we had this board, what fandoms/canon would be posted?
_________________
Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.
~Sigmund Freud~

GeneralArnold77 · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 5:08 am Post subject:

See that would be something else that would have to be discussed, Dr Freud (he he). I would keep it to literary relivent canons. Such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (yes there are books), the Richard Sharpe series, stuff like that. Keep it to something relevent. Don't make your own Gilmore Girls episode.

Something else I'd like to bring up for consideration would be the 2-3 page posting limit. While I fully understand the relevence of posting pieces that short, I have to admit that for some of us who tend to be a bit more long winded and a bit more in the novelish type writing mode, that poses a bit of a problem. It would take forever to get through one chapter, seeing as most of the chapters in my books tend to run 10-15 pages a piece. I wonder if there couldn't be a special board, or a special arrangement made for people with longer pieces.
I guess where this comes from is I've been writing for a long time and I have quite a few things I'd like to get a bit of feed back on, but posting them 2 pages at a time would grow tiring and would most likely bore the living heck out of the reader, so I would like to suggest this issue for consideration.