thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running ([personal profile] thefourthvine) wrote2010-05-09 05:25 pm
Entry tags:

[Rant]: Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout

(I realize right now fandom is rightly and deeply upset about a whole other issue. I live in the past, okay? But I know for a fact that this particular one is comin' around again, so. Also, warning: possible triggers.)

Okay. I am really, really tired of professional writers - or maybe I should say published writers, since professional behavior is not these people's long suit, generally speaking - posting rants about how they don't like fan fiction and here are their random reasons why. (If they would just say, "It feels wrong. I don't have a reason - it just feels wrong," I still wouldn't agree, but at least I wouldn't have to question their maturity. It's when they try to justify their feeling that they start to sound like a seven-year-old explaining why his cousin shouldn't be allowed to come near his toys.)

So, I'm going to help you out, oh hater of fan fiction! No more do you have to embarrass yourself (and piss off rape survivors everywhere) with the inevitable reference to rape! (Please, someone, make a new internet law that reads: Here is what is just like being raped: being raped. Describing something that is not rape as rape indicates either a) the kind of irrationality where the flecks of foam are visible through the monitor or b) a total failure to understand what rape is. In either case, everyone should politely look away until you calm down. And buy a fucking dictionary.) No more do you have to issue legal proclamations that make it very clear that you don't understand what copyright is and, in fact, think of copyright as Captain Copyright, Defender of Whatever Rights You Feel You Should Have! (Note: Captain Copyright is totally fictional. Feel free to write stories about him defeating evil writers of fan fiction. Um, warning, though: that will be fan fiction.)

Sadly, this won't address my least favorite rant elements:
  1. Rants in which a published author makes it clear that she believes millions of people are writing fan fiction about her characters, when in fact there are four stories total in her universe, which makes me all hot with vicarious embarrassment, because she's just exposed her own screaming It's All About Me neurosis and made it clear she has no idea what she's talking about. It's a horrible two-for-one special in the embarrassment aisle.
  2. Rants in which a published fan fiction writer - someone who writes primarily tie-in novels in someone else's universe - announces that fan fiction is evil, because doing it for love is wrong, but doing it for money is right. This makes me make a frowny face, because that isn't what they said in Sex Ed.
But, well. One thing at a time.

Good Reasons for a Professional Fiction Writer to Fear Fan Fiction
  1. Fan fiction folks might not like you anymore. People who are into fan fiction read a lot, and I do mean a lot, of stories at all levels of quality, from Holy Shit Pulitzer to Holy Fuck My Eyes My Eyes I See the Reaper Coming for Meeeeeee. Many of us also write. And when you do that, when you read and write a lot, you learn things. (Unless there's a baseline competence issue, and some of us do have those, but yay! Mostly not.)

    So we've all gotten better at reading, and reading critically, and at interacting with the story. And, yes, that means we might not like you anymore. We might now be painfully aware of how you suck or how you fail, in ways that we wouldn't have been before our time in fandom. And that's scary - readers who are now judging your work and maybe finding it wanting. If you want to rant about that, I will have sympathy.

  2. Fan fiction folks don't need you anymore. I mean, we still might like you, but the fact is, we can probably get better than you for free. Because, okay, yes, most fan fiction is crap, but so is most published fiction. (Anyone who wants to refute that has to read ten books selected by me first.) And the ten percent of fan fiction that is worth dying for is not just good, and in fact not just great: it's great and it's for us. It's written for our community, with our community standards in mind, by someone who shares at least some interests and probably some beliefs with us. So it's not just that we can get stories for free; it's that those stories are written to appeal directly to us. You can't write for us and you almost certainly don't want to.

    That's readers - a lot of readers, depending on what you write - who may not be shelling out for your next book, or who may be waiting for a library copy or the paperback. That sucks for you, and if you rant about that, seriously, I will have sympathy. (And I will try to refrain from pointing out that if you're good to your fans, we're your paycheck. We'll buy your hardcovers forever just because twenty years ago you created one character we love. We'll buy your merchandise. We'll go to cons to see you. We'll buy more hardcovers for you to sign. And so on.)

  3. Fan fiction folks took your power away. It used to be that the Anointed Few stood at the front of the room - sometimes a tiny classroom, sometimes a giant lecture hall with video cameras catching each golden word for those not lucky enough to hear it in person - and spoke. And everyone else was just audience: the listeners, the readers, the passively entertained. Fandom has turned your lectures into seminars. We keep speaking up. We keep having our own ideas. We don't even have the courtesy to raise our hands and ask to speak. And sometimes we lock you out of the room altogether.

    That isn't what you signed up for. I understand that. You want the podium back, you want the breathless admiration back, you want the silent, receptive audience back. You want the exchange to be: I entertain, and you applaud, and that's it. I can understand why you'd want that, and if you want to complain about it, I will sympathize. (I won't promise to fix it or anything, because it's better for me this way, but I understand that loss of power can be painful, and I swear if you want to complain about it I will feel sorry for you.)

  4. Fan fiction folks are better at the internet then you are. Oh, not all of you (or, for that matter, all of us), but, um. I don't know how to put this gently. A lot of professional writers (and editors, and others associated with the publishing industry) appear to lose their brains and their ability to write (and to understand what they've written) when they're online. It's sad, and it's pathetic, and it's hideously painful for those of us with an embarrassment squick. Meanwhile, fandom is organized, fandom knows the rules (fandom even codified many of the rules), and fandom is - well. If you're making an ass of yourself on the internet ("You're interrogating the text from the wrong perspective!" "You're RAPING ME by writing fan fiction about my characters!"), fandom is mocking you. If you're proving that you're an ass in real life ("There's no racism! It's all classism!" "But there aren't any female writers of SF. I mean, I don't know any, so..."), we're probably pointing that out to you fairly loudly. (And we are not watching our tone.)

    And I do see that that sucks, that you think the internet is your playground and it turns out there are actual real people watching you and calling you on your bullshit. I think you could probably solve this problem (either have less bullshit or limit your audience, your choice), but I will still understand if you just want to complain about it.
But if you're going to tell me, yet again, that fan fiction is illegal! Immoral! Dirty! Wrong! EVIL! ASSAULT! RAAAAAAAAAAPE!, well, I cannot promise to have sympathy. I can't promise to care. I can't even promise to read your rant, or indeed anything you write.

I'll just read some fan fiction instead.
merrily: Mac (Default)

[personal profile] merrily 2010-05-10 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Brava! And yes, the last line, that's basically what it comes down to for me. Firmly in my mind is that great essay by Joanna Russ (and [personal profile] cupidsbow's follow-up on it) where women, being told they can't write, stare incredulously at the speaker, turn their backs, and go on writing. Because jeez, I can get involved in The Author Of The Day decrying fanfic, or I can go read something amazing on the internet. I choose the second.
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)

[personal profile] cesy 2010-05-10 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Rants in which a published fan fiction writer - someone who writes primarily tie-in novels in someone else's universe - announces that fan fiction is evil, because doing it for love is wrong, but doing it for money is right. This makes me make a frowny face, because that isn't what they said in Sex Ed.

I think I love you.
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)

Re: Fanfic + Fandom = FTW

[personal profile] cesy 2010-05-10 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
The basic rule I follow here is one I learned in stand-up comedy: Always punch UP. I am a relatively successful typing human whose words are physically produced using millions of dollars and is distributed nationally by a massive billion dollar corporation to millions of people. Exactly how is a free web page with a 1000 word story about Eliot and Hardison fighting a trans-dimensional incursion of Elves hurting my brand, exactly?

Tell you what -- if some fanfic writer is so good they manage to amass a million-person audience with their web-distributed free stories using my characters, I am going to consider that evolution in action and hire that bastard. Or, at the very least, urge them to go create their own show. But odds are it ain't gonna happen. And that's okay. We write for different reasons.


Haha, awesome.
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)

[personal profile] cesy 2010-05-10 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I have since discovered that apparently his original "fan fiction" was in comic book worlds where the characters were in fact trademarked, not just copyright, which at least explains where he got the misconception from, though it doesn't explain why he hasn't learned the difference yet.
turlough: Gabe Saporta doing thumbs-up ((cs) gabe approves)

[personal profile] turlough 2010-05-10 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
AWESOME!!
branchandroot: oak against sky (Default)

[personal profile] branchandroot 2010-05-10 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
*disgusted*

*not surprised but disgusted*

Given the MZB-name-machine in documented operation at that point, I have to say I find Lamb's version the most believable.

...and I actually have to wonder if the initial editorial advice handed out in the wake of that wasn't more like "don't try to get fans to ghostwrite, get other contracted pros to do it, they understand (read buy into) the system!"
dessieoctavia: (Meta)

[personal profile] dessieoctavia 2010-05-10 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
You win the Internet. *hands it over*

Also, my icon has another possible character for this fandom....
turlough: Gabe Saporta doing thumbs-up ((cs) gabe approves)

[personal profile] turlough 2010-05-10 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)
fandom and fanfiction *is* a conversation

So much YES to this!!
monanotlisa: symbol, image, ttrpg, party, pun about rolling dice and getting rolling (Default)

[personal profile] monanotlisa 2010-05-10 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I love you more than words can say. But a resounding YES! will do. ;)
turlough: large orange flowers in lush green grass ((mcr) bob approves)

[personal profile] turlough 2010-05-10 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Awesome!!!
sarkka: southpark Daniel Jackson text reading slash (Danny reading slash)

[personal profile] sarkka 2010-05-10 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
=)
wyldbutterflies: (Reno - srsly)

[personal profile] wyldbutterflies 2010-05-10 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
This totally needs fan art! Someone needs to illustrates this now!
nellacitta: (Default)

[personal profile] nellacitta 2010-05-10 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Fantastic. I want a pretty poster of this.
niciasus: (Dancing)

[personal profile] niciasus 2010-05-10 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Amen!
tabaqui: (spikefuckoff)

[personal profile] tabaqui 2010-05-10 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Perfect, spot on, fun and funny and *oh so right*. Yes. :)
beachlass: red flipflops by water (Default)

[personal profile] beachlass 2010-05-10 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
*loves on you*
msilverstar: (medieval bunny)

[personal profile] msilverstar 2010-05-11 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
good!

I have some authors you should talk to...
msilverstar: (they say)

[personal profile] msilverstar 2010-05-11 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe some of them have adjusted their opinions to reality since I've read their blogs. I sure hope so, because otherwise they are clear thinkers.
alg: (Default)

[personal profile] alg 2010-05-11 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
I guarantee you that every single clear thinker you know has a blind spot. For some people, that blind spot is fanfic. For others, it's romance novels. For some, it's gay marriage. Etc. I myself have plenty of blind spots -- but I'm a clear thinker when it comes to fic and fandom. :)
branewurms: (Default)

[personal profile] branewurms 2010-05-11 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. Oh wow. That makes all sorts of no sense in so many ways I can't even begin to count them. The thought that surfaces above the rest though is pretty much summed up in the first comment to that post - like, wait, if they're "real" in the sense that you say, aren't you doing horrible things to them to begin with? And if they're you, doesn't that make you your own victim and your own assailant? Just, WHAT???

I have no problems with the belief that characters are in some way "real" (I even entertain this to some degree), but that is just crazypants, that right there is.
justhuman: (colour)

[personal profile] justhuman 2010-05-11 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
*applauds*
msilverstar: (drowning in splooge)

[personal profile] msilverstar 2010-05-11 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not talking about self-publishing, which 99% of I agree, should just waste electrons instead of paper.

I am talking about traditional book publishing, where so much of what was good has been lost. I miss the work of real editors and proofreaders, and proper marketing of midlist books. People who are within the industry seem to miss that and make excuses.

As a corroboration of thefourthvine's point about changing the way I respond to stories: I have been reading a new Nora Roberts romance/mystery, and it's below my level for reccing fanfic. There are no typos or spelling errors, but it desperately needs editing, if only to cut down on the constant repetition. The situations and emotions become clichés very quickly, which is a shame because I'm sure she can do better.

jumpuphigh: Pigeon with text "jumpuphigh" (Default)

[personal profile] jumpuphigh 2010-05-11 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
We totally need a Captain Copyright comm.
mllesays: Tiny Titans Wonder Woman (c-dc // facepalm)

[personal profile] mllesays 2010-05-11 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
I LOLed more than I have all week. Thank you for this.
jumpuphigh: Pigeon with text "jumpuphigh" (Default)

[personal profile] jumpuphigh 2010-05-11 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
Beautifully stated.

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