Fanfics or original content?

[MouseDestruction]

Personally I would much rather write or read an original story than a fanfic's take on a popular universe.
Is it just me or are other people like this?

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Yep. Fanfic is hard to sell, but there's a direct market and less effort to build the character and the world as it's already there.

Still tho, Fanfic is a good way to practice making dialogue and interaction within estabilished characters.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Fanfic is a great way to learn writing. Writing an original story takes a lot of work, and trying to do everything, all at once, by yourself, is too much for a new writer. It takes practice, and fanfic gives you a chance to chip away at it. First, a new character. Then a new plot. Then a new setting~.

I haven't read a fanfic in years though...

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Personally I would much rather write or read an original story than a fanfic's take on a popular universe.
Is it just me or are other people like this?

I feel much the same, but there are two stories where I have started them off as fanfics, and then I grew them, or incorporated them, into another, more original fic. Neither are out yet, but that's beside the point. They make wonderful stepping stones.

 

[mainzmainzmainz]

The problem I have with fanfics is if they are bad. Imagine really liking a story and then someone adds something that does not fit at all.
I understand why people write them, but I do not like reading them.

 

[Tyranomaster]

Fanfic is a black hole of questionably legal content. It basically only exists so long as the copyright owner doesn't know about it. The second money gets involved it is even more troublesome.

The better way to build up your worldbuilding skills and writing, imo, is to play ttrpgs (d&d, pf2e, etc) and to preferbly DM in them. This helps build multiple skills needed for successful writing.

I've seen many people go into fanfic, get the positive feedback loop going, then get stuck in fanfic writing because it is where their audience is, and restarting would be hard, only to suddenly have their patreon pulled, get a dmca, and stop writing (and depending on how much money is on the line, be dealing with a lawsuit).

 

[HelloHound]

fanfiction is a decent way to explore an already established universe but I'd prefer to explore something new for the most part

 

[SailusGebel]

Fanfiction is trash. However if you want some quick and easy popularity, you should write fanfic. A lot of people will read it even if the quality is bad.

 

[StrongArm]

I have never read a single fan-fic. I'm just not interested in reading someone else's version of an already established work.

...

wait... thats not true...

I read NTR hentai versions of "iS iT WRonG tO tRy tO pIcK Up GiRLs iN A duNGeOn?". I read them because I hate the original work and want to see it destroyed in the most vicious way possible. (plus, lets be real - Bell & harem protagonists like him deserve to be NTR'd)

...

but other than that, no fan-fics...

...

oh wait, any movie that has a sequel written by a different writer is TECHNICALLY a fan-fic if you think about it...

And if you REALLY stretch your logic then any story that recreates mythology - like vampires werewolves or greek gods Ect. is just a fan-fic....

... Damn, seems like the fan-fics are inescapable!

So might as well give a fan-fic the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, maybe we'll find a diamond in the trash.

 

[Rhaps]

Fanfic for me is a way an author expresses their love for a series. I would only read fanfics that are reimagining of the world, how it look through someone but the author's eyes, or expanding the lore and connecting the plotholes the author had.

I wrote a Naruto fanfic which I now put on hiatus because I feel like I did the series dirty/didn't do good enough to show what made me love the series in the first place. I felt I wasn't good enough.

Any fanfic with the 'system' keyword is just lazy writing for me.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

The problem with most fan fics is that most people aren't fans.

Male fanfic writers wind up doing harems or they have an OC character that they want to be awesome. What better way than having your OC be awesome by beating up Batman?

Female fanfic writers can write a better story, usually, except there isn't even the pretense of respecting the source material. Everyone starts acting out of character and does whatever the plot demands. You wind up with Batman in an apron doing house work and pledging his undying love and shit.

Take vector in DC.

Now, I don't know what the hell a vector is, but he's in DC and can defeat everyone with a thought, create super technology by reading the internet, gets laid by all the women he meets, and has AI servants to stroke his ego when nobody else is around to tell him how awesome he is.

He has no real set backs, and never suffers the consequences of his actions. He gets a bunch of civilians killed, but doesn't give a crap. He murders many a nameless Mook without so much as an eyeblink, then shoots the joker.

I highly recommend it as a wonderful example of how not to write a fan fic.

No. I mean it. It's entertaining enough you won't scoop out your own eyes, but it keeps falling into the same traps over and over that you get a good feel for why it's bad fan fiction.

Most fan fiction writers aren't fans.

Batman is a moron. Lex Luthor is a cartoon. The power sets of the DC characters are nerfed or not respected because this Vector dude is the soooo kewl. He's always ten steps ahead of everyone and he's using the DC to stroke the MCs ego. Hey, to each his own. Its got an audience. If you like a power fantasy, great. Go for it, dude.

But since DC comics has been turned into fan fiction by the owners of the IP, finding stories about DC characters is hard to come by. You can write about your OC, and do justice to the originals. Most fan fiction writers don't understand the value of losing, or being overshadowed, or just flat out being saved.

Defeating the bad guy isn't as interesting as picking a fight in over your head, barely holding the line, and getting your ass saved at the last second so the the MC goes, "damn. I need to learn from this."

But that might make my OC look weak and we can't have that, can we?

So, fanfics get a bad wrap because if you are good enough to write the story well, you aren't likely to be writing fan fiction. The system is self selecting for crap.

 

[K5Rakitan]

In that case, please be sure to drop by my story and give it a one-star review!

 

[Y2N1]

I honestly wouldn't be able to write anything based of another series, unless I throughly knew about the characters that well. I mostly going to have a hard time when going to make a fanfic, so I'll just go with original that's within my hand.

 

[Shard]

I like a few specific fanfics, but I can't stand the idea of writing one. Original or nothing for me. Maybe I could write something in the same setting as someone else, but not directly based on an existing story.

 

[ElijahRyne]

Personally I would much rather write or read an original story than a fanfic's take on a popular universe.
Is it just me or are other people like this?

Original, only because I am not a fandom person.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I honestly wouldn't be able to write anything based of another series, unless I throughly knew about the characters that well. I mostly going to have a hard time when going to make a fanfic, so I'll just go with original that's within my hand.

I recommend it, as a writer.
The reason being, it is a good skill. I did ghost writing fro a while there, LONG AGO, back in the hay-day. (it's dead now.) Being able to read the IP and write a story in someone else's IP is a good writing skill to have. I did writing for D&D content back for Bardic Press. Being able to write something and respect a character that you did not create is a skill every writer should develop.

Let me ask you, lets say Marvel gets it's act together and the woke mind-virus running the place dies out. They want to hire new script writers for the comics. Or lets say, more likely, you wanna write manga. Well, guess what? The people paying money own IPs. You'll need to study the character then write it as the IP intends the Character to be.

People give Fan Fiction a bad rap, but some of the worst FanFiction turned into 50 shades of Gray, and I think Twilight is basically fan fiction. And Anne Rice's Interview with a vampire then launched that series of Soft core porn about a woman who could speak with the dead having wild sex with vampires and werewolves and that shit made serious bank.

I mean, I would never admit to ghost writing anything, because you don't get work that way, but let's say I know someone who claims to have written half that Roquelaure/Soft core shit. True? I dunno. But she wasn't the kind to flex, ya know?

You get to make money at this, when you prove your worth. You prove your worth by learning how to write things you aren't good at. I recommend every serious writer write one Fan Fiction about an IP they know well, then one they DON'T. The very act of figuring out how to fake it is a skill that will serve you well for decades to come, not just in writing, but in all walks of life.

 

[3guanoff]

Original content. Though I've read a few Chinese and Russian language fanfictions that were far enough removed from the original to be called original themselves. And I enjoy parodies. Write more parodies, please.

 

[Y2N1]

I recommend it, as a writer.
The reason being, it is a good skill. I did ghost writing fro a while there, LONG AGO, back in the hay-day. (it's dead now.) Being able to read the IP and write a story in someone else's IP is a good writing skill to have. I did writing for D&D content back for Bardic Press. Being able to write something and respect a character that you did not create is a skill every writer should develop.

Let me ask you, lets say Marvel gets it's act together and the woke mind-virus running the place dies out. They want to hire new script writers for the comics. Or lets say, more likely, you wanna write manga. Well, guess what? The people paying money own IPs. You'll need to study the character then write it as the IP intends the Character to be.

People give Fan Fiction a bad rap, but some of the worst FanFiction turned into 50 shades of Gray, and I think Twilight is basically fan fiction. And Anne Rice's Interview with a vampire then launched that series of Soft core porn about a woman who could speak with the dead having wild sex with vampires and werewolves and that shit made serious bank.

I mean, I would never admit to ghost writing anything, because you don't get work that way, but let's say I know someone who claims to have written half that Roquelaure/Soft core shit. True? I dunno. But she wasn't the kind to flex, ya know?

You get to make money at this, when you prove your worth. You prove your worth by learning how to write things you aren't good at. I recommend every serious writer write one Fan Fiction about an IP they know well, then one they DON'T. The very act of figuring out how to fake it is a skill that will serve you well for decades to come, not just in writing, but in all walks of life.

I get the idea, but I only write for fun and for the sake of creating life for the story and characters that I made.

I will probably think about making one of fanfiction for my favorite series, because I find it amusing but I'm not too proud of writing one right now.

 

[Sabruness]

im very picky on fanfics because most were (and still are) dumpster fire cringe (sometimes self-insert) trash. that said, i have read some epic fanfics that were well worth the effort of sifting the trash to find them (even for IPs that i've never looked into before) and which made interesting believable stories within the world canon.
so it's a conditional 'both'.

some of the worst FanFiction turned into 50 shades of Gray, and I think Twilight is basically fan fiction

that's not neccesarily a positive towards fanfiction. that just proves that even trash can be sold to someone.

 

[Chrono157]

In my experience, writing fanfic is certainly easier because I don’t have to create a ton of characters. I do agree that I did struggle with thinking whether or not to post my story or not, but after reviewing the copyright of the original series and the terms of use, i decided it would be fine based on the conditions of use. I am not planning to make money with my story, so I don’t have to worry about that part. That said I the main reason why I write fanfic was to give the original series more exposure. The original series is popular in Japan but a bit more niche in other countries. I absolutely love the music in the games and wanted to introduce the series to more people.

I added my own custom spin on things to make the story more interesting in my opinion. In the original game, the backstories of many of the characters is barely explained, so I took a few creative liberties and imagined them on my own. Of course I am basing these liberties on the existing information, just building on them. I added a system to my story because it is the easiest way to show the capabilities of the oc I added to the story as well explain some information of the original game. Well another reason why I added a system is because I want to adapt this story into an original work. Probably as a sequel, but oh well, that’s only my experience and thought process of being a fanfic writer. In conclusion, it’s definitely easier for me to write fanfic than a completely original work.