Fan fiction, good or bad?

by A.L Star
19th December 2011

This is mainly for the people who have had their work published in any fiction genre, but anyone can answer but, do you think fan fiction is good or bad?

I myself think it's good since it's a nice safe place for new wanna be writers to start off, since any child can come up with a character, but what they might lack is a strong plot (Or sometimes visa versa), so is there really any harm in borrowing characters and placing them in different plot point? I understand if some people wish for their characters not to be used in such away (E.g. I know Anne Rice doesn't want her character from Interview with the Vampire to be use in fan fiction), but as long as credit is given where it is due, do you agree writing fan fiction is a good idea, or do you disagree? If so please explain why.

Replies

Depends, doesn't it?

I think it's hard to create character, not easy at all - and it's harder still to create iconic characters, or characters that embody a myth. That's the sort of character fan fic's interested in, isn't it? Ancient Greek and Roman writers almost never created characters from scratch, and Shakespeare borrowed most of his. The measure of writers' achievements in those eras was how cleverly they adapted existing characters (and stories) to serve their own turns.

I do agree that fan fic is a good place for someone to start honing skills, but I suspect that most of these efforts really don't belong outside of the study or bedroom in which they were written. Of course, once someone's established that they can write more than fan fic - that they really can create their own character and plot - there's no reason they can't return to it. Anthony Burgess, Michael Dibden and Anthony Horowitz have all had a go at Sherlock Holmes stories, after all, and Kim Newman's got a lot of very good mileage out of Dracula.

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Patrick
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Patrick Kincaid
22/12/2011

Fan fiction sparks ideas! I think its fine to write it as long as it's only for fun, (no money being made by it) plus it can give people a chance for their writing to be read by other people, as people are already attached to the characters from the original plot and will be more willing to read it. And who knows, maybe if they write good fan fiction, people might even be interested to read a story they've made up entirely by themselves if they do so. :)

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Jessica Florie
21/12/2011

well you can borrow as i know, but i won't recommend it

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