On fanficcing and proficcing

[altariel]

Over at meta_writer, across the next couple of weeks, there is going to be a post a day on the subject of fanfic and profic, particularly on making the transition from one to the other.

My thoughts are here, and the rest of the series is shaping up to be an interesting read. Enjoy!

Comments

[sheenaghpugh]

That was interesting! Thanks for crossposting.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the overview of your journey from fanfic to profic writer, and I partcularly liked mucking about in the whole of literature.

Yay for you and your words!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting. I might try to be brave enough to post some thoughts to the comm in response.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

That was fascinating (I still love several of your B7 stories, that one about Blake pre-series especially is a favourite :)

I went the other direction, I guess... wrote some original (very, very slowly, I am a slow writer as well as being young and purple-prosey) but after discovering fanfic - and accepting that being me and being a professional writer weren't compatible - have found I'm actually happier with it for the most part (I have a couple of original ideas slowly formulating, but not enough to try and make something saleworthy of them...)

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I was particularly struck by:

I love the improvisational nature of fanfiction, its guerrilla-style rapid response: the way that one’s frustration with a story’s resolution (e.g. Donna Noble’s in New Who) can be transformed into a more satisfactory ending within a matter of hours

That, to me, was always one of the most irritating aspects of B7 fanfic, a reluctance to accept canon as canon, in particular with regard to events. I didn't like that therefore it didn't happen and instead it happened the way I want it to like what I have written in this story here.

Not that I was entirely immune to this kind of crisis of wishful thinking, otherwise I wouldn't have erased 'Dawn of the Gods' from what I considered to be the 'proper' B7 canon.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely essay - so inspiring. I might start writing again now. Thank you.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

What a great essay! And you've affirmed something that I've long suspected: fanfic and profic are different beasts, which require different skills and have different rewards. So the people who criticize fanfic writers for not "taking the training wheels off and writing something original" are missing the point entirely.