Fanfiction snobbery

[ostarella]

I've once more been exposed to the "fanfiction isn't real writing" thing. And from a couple different directions. And while sitting quietly fuming, I found myself wondering why these nay-sayers don't make the same statement about television writers. You know, the ones that take "pre-determined" characters in a "pre-determined" setting with "pre-determined" circumstances and grind out a new script every week. How can that possibly be called "real writing"? Sure, they may throw in an OC now and then, or put the canon characters into a new situation, or delve more deeply into a canon character's psyche - but that's not "real writing". They didn't, after all, come up with these characters themselves. They didn't set up the premise by themselves. They're just taking what the original writer(s) made and taking it somewhere else. And with the added caveat that other people can come along and make them change things, or toss it all together - so they don't even have complete creative control over their "not real writing".

But nobody says television scripts aren't real writing. So apparently the only difference is that "real writers" are hirelings and fanfic writers do it for love.

How odd...

Comments

[beckyblack]

It's not as if it's even technically anything new. People have always written stories based on previous stories, existing characters from legends and folk tales etc, or their own version of a story from another culture. There's no sign of anyone stopping writing about King Arthur anytime soon. Is The Magnificent Seven nothing but an unimaginative rip-off of The Seven Samurai? People want to see more of good stories and good characters.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

Oh hell no - not new at all. Only difference is we use the internet to move around the world telling stories of TV shows and movies, instead of donkeys to go from village to village telling stories of Hercules and Ulysses.