Mindless rambling...

[ostarella]

Just taking a little break from my rewrites, and I was thinking about Forest, and I looked over at the ten stories I have over at ff.net. So strange. Forest is one of my personal favorites, along with the Randy set, but that doesn't seem to be the case over there. The hands down favorite is Neverness. Forest comes in at number 8; Changeling is dead last (and by a *huge* margin), and Mon Bell Ami is 6th. Covenant, thank goodness, has been coming in 2nd for some time now; I'm almost having a competition in my head between that and Neverness  :D

It's just odd, I guess. Thinking about what my favorites are, versus what readers (at least on ff.net) seem to prefer. And why they prefer the ones they do.

Makes one have a little more sympathy for publishers.  ;-)

Comments

[bevimoo.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't think thats pompous at all. I totally agree. I'm as guilty as the next person, really. When I started reading fanfic (Starsky and Hutch originally, boy did I get a shock when I discovered slash! :o )I wanted Starsky h/c. And that's it. I'm sorry, I'm a sucker for tall, dark and handsome men in distress. :D When I moved onto TAT fics I did exactly the same thing, Murdock h/c. The great thing with TAT, though, is that there is much more fic available, so you get the luxury of being choosy. And as I spent my weeks plowing through it all I realised that not all fanfic was poor to average in quality, with little to no plot. There were actually talented writers who chose to construct wonderful plots and intricate stories around our favourite foursome. Not only that, the team were just like they are in the show, just even more rounded, more detailed.

But thats TAT. I know from reading other fandoms that we're lucky. There's a lot of shit out there. That sounds rude, and I don't mean for a second to imply that my own work is brilliant, not for a second. Just that, as an avid reader, I can distinguish between whats good and what isn't. A lot of it is writers with some particular fixation, be it gay sex, torture, whatever, which they then hang a very thin plot onto. Torture, particularly in reference to the POW camp, seems to be a favourite with readers and writers. Somehow people have it in their head that if you put the characters in this horrible situation, well, that's it. What more story do you need? That's what is so wonderful about Reunion. It's not a torture fic. If that had been written by a typical fanficer, Murdock would have been a weeping wreck by the end of the third chapter. As it is, he is strong enough to get through horrible humiliations, and to help Hannibal face up to his own suffering.

My point (I think I have one... ) is that in a fandom where the quality is below par, readers will except what they're offered. And for the most part they will enjoy it. We're all a little spoilt too because we're used to reading fics on the ATSB, a place which by it's very nature inspires people to improve their work and strive to be better writers. Fanfiction.net doesn't share that culture, it's all about throwing it all out there.

I think I lost the plot with that rambling nonsense after the second sentence. Ignore me, I'm talking rubbish again. :)

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's rubbish. I do think we're lucky with TAT, but maybe because it's been around longer (talking fanfic here). I haven't read Trek stuff, but I would assume that the quality there has also improved over the years, as with other fanfic that has gone through its growing pains. (And that shouldn't be construed to denigrate fanon at all.) And I think as the fandom has grown up, and new readers have come in, they've gravitated to the more "polished" works, and demanded higher quality.

Newer fandoms are still in that "Oh, wow, new stories!" period - readers are just happy to have stories out there. Eventually, if the fandom survives at all, it will also evolve more and better stories. I think they have to, because if they don't, after a while, people will get tired of the same-old, same-old, and go elsewhere. Or start writing themselves, striving for the quality they're looking for.

*Now* who's rambling? LOL

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

okay, neither of you were rambling...you made perfect sense to me ;o)

I don't think I read enough fanfic to really comment. Mostly I read what's put on the ATSB, or as much as I can with time allows. (I always worry I'm choosing favourites, and I wanted to try and read everyone's on there..but it's not always possible) and JFM's...just because she had her own site, the writing and stories are great and she writes pretty much the kind of stories I like to read. But I've found a new website I need to work through ;o) (Finished Forest Primeval last night...will email you!) ...which is good, coz I've pretty much read all of JFM's work now lol!

I have read enough to know that there is some crap out there... even to the point I've thought, blimey, even I can write better than this. And I by no means think my writing is that good ;o) and constantly worry that my plots are weak!

I do tune out a bit on Slash.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

Slash is something that I absolutely refused to read at first. In fact, the very first fanfic I read was slash, but I didn't know what that meant - what a shock! LOL But then I thought, well, I'll take a look. And there were quite a few really good stories, and some that were pretty good if you swept over the slashy parts (that's where they seemed to lose it), and others that were just crap. But lately, even the good authors in it seem to have gotten stuck in a rut - I read a couple recently from an author that's usually pretty good, and I could practically tell the story before I read it. :(