I just adore the way Xanthine's rants get more and more fast-paced towards the end. Heck, I just love Xanthine!
Thanks for the cookie, RukarioX ^-^
txteclipse: You know, my fiancée kind of keeps telling me to write original fiction instead of fanfiction, because fanfiction is, well, obviously, just fanfiction. I kind of understand his point there. It's something I could never publish, for example. Something I technically can never get credit for and so on. I get that. That's not why I'm doing this.
Uh, watch out, a rant is coming....
Why the heck do I write fanfiction, then? Although I used to love the TV show so much, it's been almost nine years since then. Besides, I never even saw any episodes of Johto League. What was it that brought me back to this fandom after all these years? It was Pokémon Diamond, which is funny, because the plot of that game is practically nonexistent. I originally joined these forums because of that game, and something got me into this. The game is the reason I joined the fandom, not the reason for my fics. Why do I do this?
Obviously I do it because it's fun. I enjoy writing fanfics and getting commented about them. Also, he's very much wrong if he thinks this will do nothing to my changes of becoming a writer one day. Why wouldn't it? The language might be wrong, but the basic elements are the same in all possible fiction there is, be it a historical drama or a parody of Star Trek. Neither does the language effect the basic elements as long as you know it sufficiently enough. (If your vocabulary or grammar is too limited, of course it's going to affect the finished piece. I mean, if the only verb you know for emitting words is "say", it will be a severe blow for the story.)
Moreover, it's not like I just write the games or other canons all over again. Writing fanfics, just as any other fiction, does include that creative process that sometimes has you jumping of joy and sometimes banging your head to your keyboard. In a way, Pokémon fic with canon characters is like writing historical fiction with actual characters. Also, if you use your own characters, it's like writing a story that happens in the current time of real world - the premises are set in both of them very similarly, as you have the common items used, the geography, the laws of physics and all those set for you. The only thing that really makes it different is that the premises we used are owned by someone. Why does that make fanfiction less valuable or less... honorable?
A good story is a good story, be there Pokémon, dragons, vampires or ancient Egyptians in it. The basic elements never change drastically. The only thing really different about fanfiction - not just Pokémon fanfiction but all of it - is the sheer amount of it. Every second person writes it, so there are craploads of crap out there. Maybe that's what makes the whole lot of it so underrespected... But, face it, very, very crappy books are published every day, but no-one still complains about literature being useless waste of time and a time-consuming hobby.
The word fan-fiction doesn't give any story the right to be crappy. (I've seen it used as an excuse for abysmal writing. Why? Why?) It doesn't give people the right to do whatever they want in their fics, completely defying all common sense, logic and the laws of physic (unless, of course, that's the whole point, like in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), neither does it give anyone the right to criticize someone for writing it. It's fan-made fiction of pre-set worlds or characters, but it's fiction nevertheless.
Uh, I guess that was it.
On another note, I think it's rather funny how the people who write Star Wars books get to write fanfiction and get paid for it. I really hope it's a dream job for them, because otherwise it would be unfair to the people for whom it would be.
I do write a lot of original stuff, too, though. A lot of it. Five times as much as fanfiction. I'm getting worried, though, because this is like some weird drug to me. I'm starting to slip to other fandoms as well! I'll try to be strong, but I don't know how much longer I can resist.... Arrgh....
*hangs from a cliff with hands slowly slipping...*
Thus I end my post in a cliffhanger. Literally!
Thanks for the cookie, RukarioX ^-^
txteclipse: You know, my fiancée kind of keeps telling me to write original fiction instead of fanfiction, because fanfiction is, well, obviously, just fanfiction. I kind of understand his point there. It's something I could never publish, for example. Something I technically can never get credit for and so on. I get that. That's not why I'm doing this.
Uh, watch out, a rant is coming....
Why the heck do I write fanfiction, then? Although I used to love the TV show so much, it's been almost nine years since then. Besides, I never even saw any episodes of Johto League. What was it that brought me back to this fandom after all these years? It was Pokémon Diamond, which is funny, because the plot of that game is practically nonexistent. I originally joined these forums because of that game, and something got me into this. The game is the reason I joined the fandom, not the reason for my fics. Why do I do this?
Obviously I do it because it's fun. I enjoy writing fanfics and getting commented about them. Also, he's very much wrong if he thinks this will do nothing to my changes of becoming a writer one day. Why wouldn't it? The language might be wrong, but the basic elements are the same in all possible fiction there is, be it a historical drama or a parody of Star Trek. Neither does the language effect the basic elements as long as you know it sufficiently enough. (If your vocabulary or grammar is too limited, of course it's going to affect the finished piece. I mean, if the only verb you know for emitting words is "say", it will be a severe blow for the story.)
Moreover, it's not like I just write the games or other canons all over again. Writing fanfics, just as any other fiction, does include that creative process that sometimes has you jumping of joy and sometimes banging your head to your keyboard. In a way, Pokémon fic with canon characters is like writing historical fiction with actual characters. Also, if you use your own characters, it's like writing a story that happens in the current time of real world - the premises are set in both of them very similarly, as you have the common items used, the geography, the laws of physics and all those set for you. The only thing that really makes it different is that the premises we used are owned by someone. Why does that make fanfiction less valuable or less... honorable?
A good story is a good story, be there Pokémon, dragons, vampires or ancient Egyptians in it. The basic elements never change drastically. The only thing really different about fanfiction - not just Pokémon fanfiction but all of it - is the sheer amount of it. Every second person writes it, so there are craploads of crap out there. Maybe that's what makes the whole lot of it so underrespected... But, face it, very, very crappy books are published every day, but no-one still complains about literature being useless waste of time and a time-consuming hobby.
The word fan-fiction doesn't give any story the right to be crappy. (I've seen it used as an excuse for abysmal writing. Why? Why?) It doesn't give people the right to do whatever they want in their fics, completely defying all common sense, logic and the laws of physic (unless, of course, that's the whole point, like in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), neither does it give anyone the right to criticize someone for writing it. It's fan-made fiction of pre-set worlds or characters, but it's fiction nevertheless.
Uh, I guess that was it.
On another note, I think it's rather funny how the people who write Star Wars books get to write fanfiction and get paid for it. I really hope it's a dream job for them, because otherwise it would be unfair to the people for whom it would be.
I do write a lot of original stuff, too, though. A lot of it. Five times as much as fanfiction. I'm getting worried, though, because this is like some weird drug to me. I'm starting to slip to other fandoms as well! I'll try to be strong, but I don't know how much longer I can resist.... Arrgh....
*hangs from a cliff with hands slowly slipping...*
Thus I end my post in a cliffhanger. Literally!