Karen Funk Blocher
said:
Ah, this takes me back to the days when I was actually reading fanfic, ranging from pro-quality to utter crap. I wasn't even thinking in terms of gratuitous suffering, or suffering that the character could not overcome or learn from. I specifically remember a story in which Sam had to lie there and die. No attempt to change the situation, no leap out, no resolution - no conflict.
Date:
Julie
said:
Oh, I seem to recall that story - or one very much like it. Might have a copy of the zine in my archives somewhere.
Date:
Shelly
said:
Well, heck, bad writing is bad writing, be it PWP (plot, what plot?) or not. A lot of writers, especially fan fic writers (and I got into fan fic in 1980, so I've seen a lot of fan fic and known many of the writers from print zines) get wrapped up in the hurt/comfort cycle but don't know how to construct a story or even what a story is. That's probably one reason (of many) that fan ficcers write a lot of vignettes, including the infamous missing scenes, which when written in fan fic tend to be full of comfort and prove there was a good reason they were missing in the first place: They're boring!
Fan fic writers also tend to gravitate toward buddy shows so they can focus on the friends on the show and not deal with other characters and that leads to, in many cases, slash.
And of course, there's the Mary Sue factor where the MS character stands in for the author and gets to be involved with the author's lust character.
A lot of fan writers work out their own feelings through the non-stories. And there's an interesting side aspect that a lot of fan fic writers who write male slash (as opposed to Xena/Gabby or Buffy/Willow) are lesbians. I've always found it interesting and a bit odd when my lesbian fan fic writer friends gush over male actor X's body and then write him, as his character X having sex with character Y.
When Freud found sex at the core of fairy tales, I don't think he was all that far off and I'm no Freudian.
Date:
Karen Funk Blocher
said:
Ah, this takes me back to the days when I was actually reading fanfic, ranging from pro-quality to utter crap. I wasn't even thinking in terms of gratuitous suffering, or suffering that the character could not overcome or learn from. I specifically remember a story in which Sam had to lie there and die. No attempt to change the situation, no leap out, no resolution - no conflict.
Date:
Julie
said:
Oh, I seem to recall that story - or one very much like it. Might have a copy of the zine in my archives somewhere.
Date:
Shelly
said:
Well, heck, bad writing is bad writing, be it PWP (plot, what plot?) or not. A lot of writers, especially fan fic writers (and I got into fan fic in 1980, so I've seen a lot of fan fic and known many of the writers from print zines) get wrapped up in the hurt/comfort cycle but don't know how to construct a story or even what a story is. That's probably one reason (of many) that fan ficcers write a lot of vignettes, including the infamous missing scenes, which when written in fan fic tend to be full of comfort and prove there was a good reason they were missing in the first place: They're boring!
Fan fic writers also tend to gravitate toward buddy shows so they can focus on the friends on the show and not deal with other characters and that leads to, in many cases, slash.
And of course, there's the Mary Sue factor where the MS character stands in for the author and gets to be involved with the author's lust character.
A lot of fan writers work out their own feelings through the non-stories. And there's an interesting side aspect that a lot of fan fic writers who write male slash (as opposed to Xena/Gabby or Buffy/Willow) are lesbians. I've always found it interesting and a bit odd when my lesbian fan fic writer friends gush over male actor X's body and then write him, as his character X having sex with character Y.
When Freud found sex at the core of fairy tales, I don't think he was all that far off and I'm no Freudian.
Date:
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