What do other writers think of fanfiction? Does it help as a writing exercise or, given that a lot is badly written with scenes copied from books and TV shows, should it be avoided at all costs? Or is there a case that although some fanfiction is actually good and, apart from one or two main characters, entirely original, there is just a general snobbery about it and all fanfiction is dismissed as "rubbish"?

I recently started reading fanfiction for inspiration, however most of it is as you said poorly written so it's not good for inspiration or as a tool to improve your own writing.

However writing fanfiction yourself can be a useful exercise in flexing your creative skills as it forces you to write character personalities that you wouldn't normally, or attempt to write in a style/genre different from your usual one.

What is fanfiction?

There's quite a lot of it about, Jem!

Stories/spin-offs etc with characters taken from books, TV shows, movies etc. The main difference between fanfiction and original fiction is that the characters are not the author's original creations tho, having done some fanfiction myself (*blushes*), I know that some authors frequently use their own originally created characters too.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Star Trek was one of the first TV shows to have fanfic written about it, back in the 1960s. J K Rowling encourages Harry Potter fanfiction while some authors won't have any of their work "copied". Most don't seem to have any strong views one way or the other.

Fanfiction is something I got into accidentally and, while I'm still writing original fiction, I'm currently working on a fanfic about Follyfoot (anyone old enough to remember the Yorkshire TV series from back in the early Seventies? Steve, Dora, Follyfoot Farm, the home for old and unwanted horses? It was based on the book Cobbler's Dream by Monica Dickens.) I find it keeps me in the swing of writing and even tho I have some characters not created by myself I've also created several other characters and somehow taken the whole setting back to before Dora and Steve, the main characters in the show, were even born.

The debut of WW's own RT104, otherwise known as Rosy Thornton, was inspired by fanfic: her More Than Love Letters is based on/inspired by Gaskell's North and South.

I don't know much about it, but I know quite a few people who do, and it seems to me that it can be a very fruitful way of flexing writerly imagination and muscles, and working on lots of useful technical stuff. But like any creative form it has its silly, exploitative and banal face, as well as its hilarious, creative and inspiring face.

The genre even has its own academic study, by poet and novelist Sheenagh Pugh: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Democratic-Genre-Fiction-Literary-Context/dp/1854113992

Emma

As EmmaD says, I am a huge advocate of fanfiction, a it is how I began writing. I had never written any fiction - nor had the urge to - until I was in my 40s, and in 2004 watched the BBC's wonderful adaptation of 'North and South'. A fanfic site sprang up amongst a bunch of women who had also watched and loved it, and I began to post my own. Three months later I had completed a novel-length pastiche sequel to Gaskell's novel - for which I found an agent, and got as far as a final purchasing meeting at Orion, implausible though that now seems. Anyway, it didn't sell, but I'd got the writing bug by the time the fanfic novel was written, and began my own independent writing - and have since published four novels. Of the original dozen or so women who were posting N&S fanfic there, five of us now have published novels or have novels accepted for publication - and none of us were writing seriously before we embarked on the fanfic. So, yes, the quality of fanfc on the net is variable, but some of it is truly excellent. There are plenty of famous autors who trained on fanfic - from Meg Cabot to Russell T Davies, who posted Doctor Who fanfic as a youngster!

What is good about it? Well, it's the perfect training for a new writer. The characters are there, the setting is there, all the seeds of a plot are there, you just have to pick up the threads and run with them - so much easier than having to invent everything for yourself. Plus you have an audience prime to enjoy but also to provide useful feedback - whereas most authors have o one to read and feed back on their stuff except for longsuffering family and friends... And if the book you are basing your story on is by an author long dead, as Mrs Gaskell is, it isn't even of dubious legality!

Rosy x

Here's the N&S site, if anyone is interested...

http://c19.proboards.com/index.cgi


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Oh, and this is me writing about the N&S fanfic phenomenon...

http://rosythornton.com/how/howitbegan.php

Good to know fanfiction has improved its much tarnished image (too many people associate it with the incredibly badly written stuff that is out there ) and is endorsed by genuinely talented authors!

I am working on a fanfic at the moment, not the Follyfoot one that I mentioned, but one based on an Australian TV show that another author asked me first to co-write around the tenth chapter and then to take over the reins completely. It's been incredibly difficult at times as I keep having to work back to her original ideas, some of which I didn't agree with, but at other times the creative juices flowed. I keep breaking off however (like now)!

I have actually written one:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hollyoaks-Lives-Loves-Finn-Redmonds/dp/075227211X

except I didn't know it as "fanfic" which is why asked. When I was asked to write this tie-in novel for the teen series "Hollyoaks" it meant visiting Liverpool Mersey Studios (no longer existing!) and spending two days trawling through all the videos that my character, Finn, (James Redmond) appeared in and taking home my copy of the Hollyoaks Bible. I had three weeks in which to write the novel with no editorial input whatsoever. It was very scarey but I did it. Wouldn't do it again though.

PS Ignore that first review - it was my older son, taking the piss!

I've never read it and never written any, however I've just finished writing a sample for Working Partners, which is a bit similar in that you're presented with an in-depth synopsis, characters, etc. and then have to 'turn it into book words'. So you're not making anything up - in fact, in fanfic you would make up more because you create your own plot. I have found this kind of writing incredibly difficult and not very satisfying. But if it works for others, great.

In fanfiction, you inevitably have to "make up" the characters as well as the plot! Most TV shows/movies don't have time to study their characters in-depth and rely heavily on the actors to convey emotions. Their background stories are often vaguely hinted at eg Joe Bloggs, rough diamond, been in jail for fraud, two grown-up daughters, wife died in suspicious circumstances... That would give an author plenty of scope to create previous scenes and build up the personality.

Not sure how fanfic would work when taken from books tho. Sometimes books to screen doesn't work and vice versa. I watched Maeve Binchy's Circle of Friends and was hugely disappointed in the movie but when I later read the book I enjoyed the story. I've also read the follow-up to Wuthering Heights (sorry, can't remember the author's name tho I remember she was American!) and enjoyed that too tho, of course, it wasn't a patch on the wordstyle of Emily Bronte.

Jem, that was an interesting post about Hollyoaks. I've never watched the show but my teenage niece loves it and I know it's hugely popular with young people. I wasn't aware authors were invited to write tie-ins.

I find the most frustrating part of fanfic is that everything has to tie in with the original idea. It's great as a writing exercise and receiving regular reviews makes it addictive, but it's much easier to create your own characters/fiction and take them wherever you wish.




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In fanfiction, you inevitably have to "make up" the characters as well as the plot! Most TV shows/movies don't have time to study their characters in-depth and rely heavily on the actors to convey emotions. Their background stories are often vaguely hinted at eg Joe Bloggs, rough diamond, been in jail for fraud, two grown-up daughters, wife died in suspicious circumstances... That would give an author plenty of scope to create previous scenes and build up the personality.

Sometimes books to screen doesn't work and vice versa. I watched Maeve Binchy's Circle of Friends and was hugely disappointed in the movie but when I later read the book I enjoyed the story. I've also read the follow-up to Wuthering Heights (sorry, can't remember the author's name tho I remember she was American!) and enjoyed that too tho, of course, it wasn't a patch on the wordstyle of Emily Bronte.

Jem, that was an interesting post about Hollyoaks. I've never watched the show but my teenage niece loves it and I know it's hugely popular with young people. I wasn't aware authors were invited to write tie-ins.

I find the most frustrating part of fanfic is that everything has to tie in with the original idea. It's great as a writing exercise and receiving regular reviews makes it addictive, but it's much easier to create your own characters/fiction and take them wherever you wish.

I've never heard of this before, but it sounds absolutely fantastic.

I think I'll have Sid Vicious re-cast in a farcical medieval romp.

I know a 14 yr old who writes fanfic on a Twilight web forum; it is a big craze for young people. I think it is a great thing, it encourages writing as a hobby and turns authors into role models for teenagers. I can understand the urge and pleasure of writing fanfic. When you're gripped by a book and don't want it to end, but the author hasn't written a sequel (or is writing it too slowly for your hunger) then yes, writing your own homage is a great way to indulge more in the characters and expand the story within your imagination.

For the most part I don't think it really matters if fanfic is of publishable quality, I get the impression that most FF writers do so for themselves (and posibly their friends) rather than for a commercial readership.

Joolz.

There's even Archers fan fic, on the BBC site...

Emma

Oh, really? I'd love to have a go at that!