Thanks for putting it so thoughtfully and elegantly.

There should never be shame in writing. Writing is hard. Writing very well is extremely hard. People who try to write, to get character development, dialogue and setting correct are attempting a challenging collection of tasks. Those who apply their imagination to developing new ideas in some very great and complicated [preexisting] universes deserve a lot more respect than they get. When they get it right, including character behavior, back story (that's a big one, especially for crossovers) and who come up with an original story on top of all this deserve kudos.

I think that people who have done writing for so called 'serious' reasons -- either academically or in any other professional capacity -- realize just how difficult it is to come up with a coherent, entertaining and interesting product.

People who can do these things as well as run the spell check AND remember that phase and faze do not mean the same thing, and that pique, peek and peak cannot be used interchangeably any more than to, too and two... That's priceless.

Other gripes in much fan fiction, as well as some that is actually charged for are:

misspelling anything.
misspelling names of established characters
misuse of common words because a spell check doesn't differentiate context -- fare and fair, hare, hair, and here... etc are very common and easy to avoid errors, but one really must have a beta reader...

I know that life is strange in the buffyverse, but anytime I see someone _steak_ a vampire, I really want to turn my computer off... Mostly I just find other things to read. There is so much good writing here. A lot of OK writing could be good if more care were taken.

Proof readers of the world, I am in awe.

One thing I always like to raise on the subject of Fanfic is that the Aeneid is considered an outstanding work of classical literature but when you get right down to it it's really just Roman FanFiction set in the Illiad/Odyssey verse and written a few hundred years later ;-)

If Homer had still been around he might have sent Virgil a Cease & Desist :-p

I read fanfic, good, bad and incredibly ugly-and the reviews, and I see a lot of good, and a lot of useful, stuff there for a wannabe writer. It took me about a year to come to the conclusions you've laid out in this essay.
Having grown up with the idea that derivative = bad-I never wrote fanfic/aka the stories that bloomed in my head every time I read something great. That would be cheating, plagiarism, worthless commercially. :( Despite the recurrent popularity, through centuries, of the same stories and characters- we've managed to infect several generations with the idea that only original material can be considered good by discerning readers. In fact, it's the publishers that really care, and that has more to do with legal issues than quality or creativity.

Now you've made a lot of good points, succinctly, about the other side of the coin. Better than the justification is the list of ways fanfic becomes a training ground for an author-or any other sort of writer, who needs to learn plotting, pacing and characterization within set parameters. The pulps that provided that training for genre writers,where science fiction writers got the exposure to readers and support from public/professionals that made it a new literary form-are all out of business, not available now to train up new writers. Finally, there's another forum where writers can put out their work and learn their craft without massive capital investment.
IMO, fanfic deserves public support, and should get a reasonable degree of industry support, because these websites are giving the public what they want and can, potentially, give both the industry and the public what they need.
Umm, cutting through the babble, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
So much so, that in spite of the knee-jerk suppression reflex, I finally wrote one of those fanfic stories that came up in my head. And, once done, I had a better time writing my own stuff than I've had since Icantremember when.
Thanks for the thoughts, eh?

Excellent work. And there is always lie lie lie.

I write fanfic!

Nice rant, though you probably have to apply Sturgeon's Law cubed for most of the stuff on ff.net, especially the Harry Potter category:)

May the muses smile on you always, so you may always write the legends of our culture.
May your bunnies always bare many young.
Thank you for writing everything that I have been trying to say to my family for three years.
Here are bunnies I give to you. May they serve you well.
(\ /)
( . .)

Good points all, and a few I hadn't thought of. I've lived with this; "You do what!?!?" Thing all my life (Wargamer, RPG-er, Sci-Fi Fan and now Fanfic writer). I've now got to an age when I just don't care what anybody says, my usual reaction is; 'Well can you write a 35,000 word coherent story?'

I shall be looking out for more of your thoughts.

All the best,
DaveT.

I'm with hotpoint on the aneid thing.

I also point out that Romeo and Juliet border's on fanfic.

Shakspeare took an older story and modified it into the play form we all know and love.

Come to think of it, the majority of shakespeare's playwork is probably derivative.

"10,000 points are about to be taken from Gryffindor for you being an utter geek"

That is rather how I first felt about my secret vice er hobby and yet what can be more rewarding than those moments when someone tells you you've nailed a character.

and yeah Regency Romance novelists do follow strict guidelines so it is just as challenging and fun to write crossover romances.

Very good. I never wrote anything, but I'm an avid reader... and while I have a bunch of "pro" sci-fi writers I'm a big fan of, there are writers on this site that I consider at least as good as them. And yes, there were many times I wished I could take Joss and tell him "this is how seasons 6 and 7 should have been written" :)

you left out one reaction: people who know perfectly well what fanfiction is, and write it themselves. I had that exact experience in summer camp, to the tune of introductions.

"My name is Kelsey and I write fanfic - " - Kelsey

"OHMYGOD! YOU WRITE FANFIC?!" - me

:D "Yes!"

"So do I!"

"Cool!"

etc.

and then I had a comparable experience to the tune of D&D

"...I'm late for D&D" - lady shopping where I work

"Wait a minute. Did you say D&D?" - me

"...Yes." - lady, with slightly apprehensive look

"You game?!"

"...Yes."

"SO DO I!"

lady whips out a crucifix and an upright five-pointed star and starts talking about religion. I steer the conversation back to D&D, a little bewildered. but, hey, I might have a new RPG group soon, so it's all good.

sometimes, you can meet fellow geeks in the oddest places. Other times, you just go to cons.

I have two things to say.

First: Hear, hear!

Second: I write fanfic.

I enjoyed this very much, because while it can be taken as nothing more than a cute argument for writing fanfic, you've also touched on some good points. I'm all for free verse poetry, but I'm also of the mindset that you should learn how to write a sonnet or sestina first, because until you've faced a strictly regulated challenge and come out on top, all you have is a jumble of words on a page. Kind of like the kid in art class who paints a solid square and whines "But it's *modern* art!" and expects to get an A? You've got to learn how to paint/write before you can go about creating master pieces. And yes, writing, just like art, *is* a learned skill. Funny how some people *still* don't understand that...(represses urge to throw something)

Very much amused :)