I think there's an inherent problem with fanfic specifically in that it's being written in context the original work existing as a completed work, which warps how people see the story and characters.
TL, DR: Writing is hard, fan fiction is an inherently shallow medium
Doing that a lot in a healthy and constructive and encouraging way is tricky.
I think your illustration of stakes is a great takeaway. Much like you pointed out DBS, the fact that you were able to sit down and watch a single episode and yet be invested, speaks highly too it.Dragon Ball Super
ONE PUNCH MAN
Man of Steel
The takeaway here is:
- Power is fun.
- Stakes are important.
- Spectacle should not interfere with story.
Because when your starting point is the character being the biggest badass ever or a super-Jedi, that means that there's no room for the lower power, lower stakes exploits the series started with. And that means the fanfic is not going to have the narrative weight or impact that the original did. It won't have the progression that was present in the original because the end point of the progression bleeds into how they write the characters without being earned.
Good advice, I followed it here: Politics - Privatized Social Security | Page 6frankly if you want stories that aren't power fantasies maybe you should write some more?
be the change you want to see in the world
And I strongly, strongly disagree with that.
Because I don't think we can really call "fanfiction" a medium. Indeed, look at culture as a whole. We live in a world of fanfiction. We live in a world where the largest film franchise ever takes a transformational fanfiction approach to the Marvel comics franchise, taking established facts and components and gutting them to tell new stories from the organs and severed tendons. The only way to separate fanfiction from the affairs of the corporate entities that produce most of modern media is to invoke IP rights - and that's not a property of the medium. We live in a world where licensed novels are big money and where Episode VII of Star Wars was a fanfic-grade plot.
Now, yes, there are problems - gaping ones - with the serialised format that most internet fanfic uses on SV. But that's not inherent to it, and it's certainly not evidence of it being shallow. Yes, many people write puerile shit that regurgitates the stations of canon - often while being an SI. So what? Plenty of trash gets made with official mediums too. But plenty of great fanfic is written, which is a reaction to and commentary upon the work; reflecting it through new lens, answering questions the work raised but didn't answer or giving different answers to, or simply telling another path.
tldr; we're all sons of thepatriotsslashficcers now.
(Also, embrace transformational fanfic. Don't bitch about canon; bitch about thematic integrity and narrative arcs. Fuck canon if it gets in the way of a good story)
Power fantasies are also much more preferable for society than the Angry Young Man demographic actually going out and doing something about it.
SV idolizes power. That's the simple truth. It's more complex than that; it's the easy resolution of problems, the veneer of competency, and much more. But, the issue is, what does the story become about? Is it just a series of punch the man downs? Or does it devolve into fluff with no purpose? (Not to say fluff is bad, or a story expressly going for fluff is bad either). Yes, this is an oversimplification of the topic, but that's why I want to have this discussion, so we can talk about it honestly. And I'm 100% guilty of it.
Yeah, that generally sounds like the kind of story that very much does not interest me. I like reading (and writing!) about characters who actually have a major impact on the world around them, thank you very much.Oh, well, I know my fanfiction (and in fact, original fiction!) answer to that: I write stories about the power deficient. Wham, problem solved.
No, seriously. Insomuch as the last three or four major fanfics I wrote/am writing are concern, in the application of political or military power (or both), my protagonists have been people with some genuine power, almost always institutional in power, who exercise it in a professional way, and almost immediately find themselves dwarfed by people with much greater "powers" than them. Oswald Walker (fanfiction), is 19, the equivalent of a captain in the Mobile Suit Troops (not bad!), and has a handful of subordinates whom he tries to manage and direct in a competent manner--and is immediately dwarfed by people who I really hammer down on having both more power, and being more capable of wielding that power, than him. He's surrounded by majors and colonels who are sometimes "aces", have a stronger grasp of tactics, or are just flat out better pilots than he is. Konstantin Novikov (original, with copious cameos in my other works), is 29, a major in a Soviet Army motorized rifle division whose career is clearly on the down slope, and is quietly (and generally contently) watching what power he has become increasingly ceremonial in nature--and doesn't particularly mind, preferring the genuinely "less power" of being a Suvorov School instructor, where his power is mostly over boarding school teenagers that he sees a lot of himself in. Alan Chandrasekhar (fanfiction) is middle-aged, and much of his story is that of his steady progression of particularly un-meaningful promotion in the Terran Space Forces while all of his meaningful power is stripped on him for what are seen as his wartimes failures and inadequacies to the point where he's little more than a glorified diplomat and guest of the foreign polity that pounded the Terrans into submission (in large part ruining his career), the Ctarl-Ctarl Empire, and actually prefers them to his Terrans.
It's hard to call these power fantasies, I think, though all three obviously have some power. Walker is constantly reminded that he will never be the best pilot (or anywhere near the top), having made his career in the shadow of Zechs Merquise, and now serving as an instrument of the likes of Emi Ogasawara, Soris Armonia, and other actual aces. More than one of them saves his life, in a clear demonstration of superiority of power. He might be an exceptional engineer, but he's not clever enough to somehow leverage that into genuine power--and he doesn't seem to recognize that a lot of his miseries (like being forced into a massive military revolt against his will, or losing multiple battles) might be prevented if he could. In some cases, he might as well just be a very clever design computer for all the good his own strength does him (and he does attempt to resign the MS Troops for related reasons). Come the Strangelove War, Konstantin Novikov actually finds himself thrust into power (that of a battalion commander), and is fairly capable of it, but only insomuch as he stands in the shadows of far more powerful individuals, including the Chief of the General Staff (who has deftly manipulated him into serving her goals), WWII heroes like Akhromeyev, and fighter and armour aces that he knew in peacetime--but it's a short, pointless war anyway, so who cares? Novikov spent the last part of it sitting uselessly in a POW camp while Americans tried to convince him to switch sides. For Chandreskhar, even the appearance of power (which is as close as he comes to it) is inseparable from misery--he was infinitely more happy as a frigate commander than as a vice-admiral with life having kicked his ass repeatedly in the intervening time and destroyed any sense of human patriotism that he had.
Of course, these three characters follow a mold. I've been trying to write fanfiction linking Dominion Tank Police and Ghost in the Shell, focusing on the Puma Sisters--they have power, insomuch as they're nigh-indestructible bio-roids with built in targeting computers, a penchant for guns and explosives and, unlike the above, very little concern for petty human morality. But they also spend the first half of their lifetimes as glorified booth babes, organized crime commodities and then robotic sex workers, in approximately that order. They get power by turning to crime in earnest, but not after a few long lessons in humility (which they learn very little from).
So I think I avoid the problem of idolizing power in that respect. None of these people are superheroes in any stretch of the imagination (even the Puma Sisters would get crushed by a proper set of power armor, or for that matter, an anti-tank attack helicopter that by itself was a much better use of money than they were, and they're more frightened of being shot and blown-up than they should be considering their resilience). The others could all be killed falling off any tall enough ladder or slipping in the shower (pretty easy for Chandrasekhar, who spends his later life suffering from poorly hidden "cardiovascular events"), and maybe more importantly, they exist in institutions where greater wielders of power are very clearly identified, and they are subordinated to them constantly (military hierarchies make that easy). All of them become resentful of power, on occasion, but not enough to actually "do anything about it" in the sense of bridging said gap--if anything, power just becomes more repugnant to them the more deficient their own becomes.
Or I'm misunderstanding the problem, and I haven't presented any solution at all.
Yeah, that generally sounds like the kind of story that very much does not interest me. I like reading (and writing!) about characters who actually have a major impact on the world around them, thank you very much.
That's your opinion, and I recognize that. The stories I want to read and write about usually have such a small scale they don't leave any kind of impact on the world around them. In the best case, they affect other characters in some form, changing their perception of themselves in a meaningful way, but sometimes even that doesn't happen.Yeah, that generally sounds like the kind of story that very much does not interest me. I like reading (and writing!) about characters who actually have a major impact on the world around them, thank you very much.
One of those stories is apparently about a guy teachingand mentoring the next gen.Yeah, that generally sounds like the kind of story that very much does not interest me. I like reading (and writing!) about characters who actually have a major impact on the world around them, thank you very much.
A literal impact. If your characters didn't turn at least one mountain into a valley, you're doing this writing thing wrong.If that doesn't count as having an impact, I wonder what even does in your view?
A literal impact. If your characters didn't turn at least one mountain into a valley, you're doing this writing thing wrong.
Are you writing Dragon Ball Super GT or something?
One of those stories is apparently about a guy teachingand mentoring the next gen.
If that doesn't count as having an impact, I wonder what even does in your view?
A literal impact. If your characters didn't turn at least one mountain into a valley, you're doing this writing thing wrong.
Perhaps "genre" is a better label than "medium", but saying "We live in a world of fan fiction because Marvel Movies and The Force Awakens" is to rob the word "fan fiction" of any meaning; you're conflating adaptations/interpretations with fan fiction on the grounds that they're both ostensibly inspired by an existing work. What differentiates fan fiction is right there in the name; it's un-official stories being written by fans. TFA might have a plot that leans a little too hard on ANH but saying that it's effectively indistinguishable from fan fiction is ridiculous. There is a literal world of difference between something like Captain America: Civil War (which draws its primary inspiration from the comic run of the same name) and a fan written story on AO3 (that's the abbreviation, right?). Even if we disregard IP laws (which always always always come up when people want to defend fan fiction), Civil War is a film that's re-interpreting a story from one medium to another (comic to film) and is using the original story as a springboard to tell another one. I don't doubt that there's the .0000001% of fan fiction that manages to make that leap and bring something new to the table, but to defend fan fiction as a whole by claiming that the Marvel movies, the new Star Wars films, etc. are effectively the same is no defense at all.
Moreover, what I meant by "shallow" was two fold, and it's not really related to how stories are written out (more on that in a second); what I meant was that almost all fan fiction, even that rare .00000001% that manages to bring something new to the table, is indulgent. It's rooted in a desire to get more of something you love, a desire to spend more time with characters you like, to see them fuck, to have them hang out with you, to have them fuck you, etc. Unless you're sitting down to write a story that's deliberately going to upend and critically examine a setting, fan fiction is about baking yourself a chocolate cake and then eating it. It's borderline masturbatory (and I mean that literally), and while I don't think there's anything wrong with that (sometimes you want to see these characters bone or do goofy shit, I get it) fan fiction is likewise restricted by the fact that it has to somehow stay "true" to the essence of the original work. What that means is that the characters get reduced to caricatures, because the reader needs to immediately understand "Oh yeah, this is that character I love doing that thing I love!" Again, there's nothing wrong with this, but it is an inherently shallow and indulgent approach to storytelling.
Now, what I meant by the problems with the serialized formate was that writing a novel (or even a short story) is an inherently different writing process than posting chapter-by-chapter updates on a forum (or anywhere else). The serialized format, and the immediate feedback it provides, means that a work is always evolving in the telling (which isn't a bad thing!) and unless you're a really talented writer (which probably isn't the case) you're going to have difficulty finishing up where you start. Your readers are going to respond to things that you couldn't anticipate, and are going to ask you to include more of this or less of that. Again, there's nothing wrong with this, but what that means is that the writer is going to have an even harder time sticking to their original idea, let alone continue to bake in those themes and ideas which are necessary for a work to really, well, work. Again, most writers are bad writers, and aren't up to the challenge.
Basically, there's nothing wrong with fan fiction being a big dumb gooey chocolate cake, but we shouldn't try to legitimize it or say that it's the equal of the original work. This is what bothers me so much about things like headcanons and the like; it's elevating the individuals relation to and interpretation of a work above the original, which is (IMO) completely backwards. It's quite literally rejecting reality (or in this case the original work) and substituting your own. I think there's totally a place for fan fiction; like I said it can be fun and goofy and an interesting way to see writers explore an existing world and see what they come up with, but at the end of the day its almost always empty calories. Eating a chocolate cake is fun as hell, but it's not very good for you.
*EDIT* Reading back on this, I think I could have distilled all of this down to a single sentence: fan fiction needs to be original. I know that sounds contradictory, but I think if an author wants their piece of fan fiction to be something more than a big ol' chocolate fuck cake, it needs to bring something new to the table. Cast a critical eye on the universe/setting/story/whatever, explore a characters emotion that you thought was given short shrift in the original, something. Just mindlessly repurposing and regurgitating the original work is the death of art.
I think that fanfiction has to stay true to something of the original work. Characterization, world building, "thematic essence", any combination of the three... But in the end, if it has nothing in common... Well, congratulations, for you just wrote your first original fiction.Why does fanfiction have to stay true to the essence of the original work?
I think that fanfiction has to stay true to something of the original work. Characterization, world building, "thematic essence", any combination of the three... But in the end, if it has nothing in common... Well, congratulations, for you just wrote your first original fiction.
I think that fanfiction has to stay true to something of the original work. Characterization, world building, "thematic essence", any combination of the three... But in the end, if it has nothing in common... Well, congratulations, for you just wrote your first original fiction.
Writing is hard, yes, but I'd say that storytelling is actually the hardest thing. The themes, the characterization, the creation of emotional engagement with your audience is the even harder part.but the gist of it is that writing is really, really, really hard, and fan fiction doubly so;
Practice, and practice with short stories. And this is advice that I'm definitely not following. But readers and writers can't evaluate an incomplete story for its story elements. Also, it should help practice planning, both theming and characters, and plot.And thus, how do we do this tricky thing. How do we, and speaking for myself here, the well, crappy writers learn? It's not enough to imitate - there has to be understanding.
Agreed. And the serial format is pretty much intrinsic to most ways of sharing fanfiction. There's always this pressure to just... throw whatever you've written right out there, as opposed to finishing the story and making sure everything fits, and you haven't missed anything.Now, what I meant by the problems with the serialized formate was that writing a novel (or even a short story) is an inherently different writing process than posting chapter-by-chapter updates on a forum (or anywhere else). The serialized format, and the immediate feedback it provides, means that a work is always evolving in the telling (which isn't a bad thing!) and unless you're a really talented writer (which probably isn't the case) you're going to have difficulty finishing up where you start.