Writer's Block: Sheldon and Penny 4ever!

[uberreiniger]

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I have some friends who are really, really passionate about it so I try not to be too nasty about it anymore, but for the life of me I just cannot see the point. If you're a good writer why not just write your own original work? And if you're a terrible writer why mangle someone else's? I know that works of fiction are to inspire us to imagine and that if a work of fiction makes you want to imagine the further adventures of those characters then it has truly done its job well. But for so many fan fiction writers fan fiction seems like so much more than just a hobby: it's a lifestyle. And I guess that's what I have a hard time understanding, the whole lifestyle and culture that seems to go with it.

Then again, there have been multiple instances where a fan fiction author's work has been noticed and liked by a creator so much that they have been appointed a canon writer. Or in the case of a fantasy world near and dear to my heart, that of Legend of the Five Rings, THE canon writer. So who am I to judge?

And who the fuck are Sheldon and Penny?

Comments

[batchix.livejournal.com]

i know it's pointless... but i just can't help it. :| I mean i do write my original stuff too, but i'm having fun making fan based stuff. thing is i dont think i'd ever want to write it for anything but transformers or maybe mass effect. That's most because in the former there isn't a lot of stuff written that's official that i think is any good(SOMEONE NEEDS TO STOP SIMON FURMAN), and the latter it's because there's only the two games and one comic. Need more input, stephanie.

it's also for most people a hobby. making up your own stuff is much more work- especially world building. In a lot of ways fanfiction is an extension of how you once played with your toys.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

See, I've read your fanfiction and frankly you're one of the ones who deserves and NEEDS to be appointed a canon writer. You actually know what you're doing and you're writing it for YOU. Many fan fiction writers are lonely, catty women desperately seeking the approval of other lonely, catty women and it all seems to end up in this weird co-dependent circle of online relationships. Your work goes above all that and actually tells a good story. I'll be honest, in your last comic I actually wish you hadn't thrown in that part about the theory on twin sparks being fan speculation because by that point I honestly had forgotten I was reading fan fiction.

Lesley once told me that she likes my stories because she never is thinking "Tyree wrote this," and it's like reading something by someone she's never met before. I guess I have that reaction to your TF comics because I'm never thinking about Sarah making it all up when I read it. I get swept up in the story. Don't know if I'm expressing what I'm trying to say well, but it's a compliment.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

making up your own stuff is much more work- especially world building.

Aww, that's the fun part. :)

;)

[lordhellebore]

If you're a good writer why not just write your own original work?

I do, but what's wrong about having some fun with already existing characters you like and of whom you'd like to read more?

And if you're a terrible writer why mangle someone else's?

For the fun of it, again.

Re: ;)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Like I said, it's the lifestyle I don't get and the sheer volumes of stress and fretting that seems to be part and parcel of the fanfiction culture. Why would anyone want to do that?

[nightshade-7976.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with you...a LOT!

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Sheldon is a turtle, and Penny is Inspector Gadget's niece. (I have no idea.)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I bet there's slash drawings of them together somewhere on line.

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

Sheldon and Penny are characters from the show The Big Bang Theory. I don't know why I know that, I hate that show.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

The most I know about that show is the Family Guy episode where Peter forces his father-in-law to watch an episode as a punishment.

[cabaiste84.livejournal.com]

Dude. At times like this I wish LJ had a "Like" button.

I Like this post x 1000.

[cherith.livejournal.com]

I think it's going to depend on what your version of fanfiction means. I HIGHLY recommend this post if you want your brain-stretched on what fanfic is.

Also, I've known your stance on it for a while, but it strikes me that gamers, specifically table-top gamers can more easily understand what fanfic can be. Writing Exalted adventures? Sort of falls under the umbrella of fanfiction. Someone else's world, some mix of characters you created and some you didn't, and a what-if idea is basically fanfiction at it's core. The difference is of course the actual gaming aspect, but the comparison is sound.

Not saying you have to change your opinion, just food for thought. :)

[cherith.livejournal.com]

Haha - and the randomly chosen icon is scarily appropriate.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

My stance on fan fiction has softened considerably from what it was. I get the appeal, but not the obsession. Table top games don't really compare well for me because they're created expressly for the purpose of doing your own thing with the characters. It's easier to get the mind around that.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

My main problem with fanfiction is the same as my main problem with, say, American Idol. There might be a nugget of absolute wonder in there, but damned if I'm gonna wade through the heaping mounds of absolute shit in order to find it.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It might be worth it to hand-sift through 20 tons of manure to find a fortune in diamonds but by the time you're on the second or third ton you can't help but wonder just how worth it it is.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I've come across exactly one fanfic work that I really liked. The rest? Eeuugh.

Funnily enough, some of the Star Trek 'authorized' authors read like bad fanfic, too, which just proves Sturgeon's Law.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

Also, on a sort of tangent, I've officially gotten to the point now where I immediately distrust any work which becomes too sexual. In just about every case I can think of, when a series becomes more and more explicit, it is because the author has run out of ideas about forwarding a plot and is using the sex to carry the story. (See Anne Rice and Laurel K. Hamilton for fine examples.)

I know you tend to write stories with very strong sexual content. Do you ever get the feeling that the sex becomes the point of the story, instead of simply being an activity that the characters engage in? If so, does it bother you as much as it does me?

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

When I first started writing what I write I actually meant for sex to be the point of the story but then the plots got in the way and took over! There's at least one known author I've seen follow this trend, Jacqueline Carrey. In the very first Kushiel novel there was a sex scene on every other page almost. By the third novel the sex scenes where relatively few and only occurred when the plot required them. I haven't read the second Kushiel trilogy so I don't know if she continues that trend.

I do prefer stories where the sex isn't just there for its own sake. Anybody can titilate a reader. If I'm going to read about characters having sex I want to be interested in them beyond that.

[germsama.livejournal.com]

Ugh, George RR Martin and another author (I forget her name) were debating this a few days ago and the internet has been in an uproar about it. Talking about fan fiction is like walking in a mine field if you don't like the stuff.

"Fanfic makes it easy for lazy writers to be lazy and doesn't press good writers to become any better unless they're among the few who naturally press themselves to do so anyway."

I like this statement. I agree with it 100%. But above all else, I think the rabid nature of fan fiction fans is what has turned me off the most.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm getting a taste of that here today as you can see.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

I wish George would spend less time arguing online and more time writing. :)

[redstar826.livejournal.com]

whoa, how did I miss this post?

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Advertising budget's been cut.

[mijeli.livejournal.com]

I have come here over lordhellebore's post, because I was interested in the discussion going on in your journal. I would join it, but I get your point (you said you see the appeal, but not the obsession) and I don't have anything to add there.
However, browsing through your journal intrigued me quite a bit and I was wondering, may I add you as a friend? I feel like there'd be some interesting input flying over. We also obviously have a few interests in common, but if you don't friend back, no so-called 'hard feelings' of course! I see you do not lock your posts, so I can still jump around here.
cheers!

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

That would be just fine!