The Stigma of Fan Fiction

Bad Fan Fiction

Bad Fan Fiction

Why is bad fan fiction so common? It's not just a matter of Sturgeon's Law but also a lack of skill, ability to take criticism and restraint from the authors themselves. Criticism is one of those things that keep an author grounded in common sense and improvement. In a way it's analogous to getting an injection, it's going to hurt but that will help you avoid getting really sick to put it bluntly and simply. It's also a matter of self-restraint which is hard for many writers to do but it is possible over a period of time no matter how short it looks to some. You don't just learn how to restrain yourself but writing too much blocks of text, violence, sex or word count but you also learn how to avoid making annoying Mary Sue don'tsteal original characters, characters with contrary characterisation and being able to take these characters to a new dimension in a good way. In the case with fan fiction it's also a matter of respecing the canon whilst putting a personal spin on the characters though it's likely that a number of good fan fictions are well written enough to easily have been written by a professional at DC or Marvel for instance. But those are harder to find because they actually respect the spirit of the original stories while bothering to fix up problematic characterisations.

Most of the fan fiction stories are painfully random. You don't just have random pairings though some are more popular than others but also crackfics, hurt/comfort, angst, humour, alternative universe and what have you been writing about. You also have to deal with Mary Sues, contrary depictions and horrid grammar. Even if it's not surface level bad it's still kind of boring to read an uninteresting fan fiction story if you're looking for a good story to read and have written some stories yourself. If it's sounds like a harsh generalisation of fan fiction, I've read some of them in the past and having written only a few myself (because I've done a few Flash webcomics on my previous blog) I can tell you that it's easier to do random stories using familiar characaters than it is to do stories that are professional written and respect storytelling canon in a way.

Good fan fiction exists but you have to look hard enough for it especially if you don't want to deal with sexual/romantic content, violence, swearing, bad characterisations, random plots, inexistent plots and anything that goes in the weird world of fan fiction. Like with what I said before, it's even harder to write a good fan fiction because you want to change the characters but you also have to respect the canon and pay homage while you're at it. That isn't to say that drastic changes in characterisation is bad but it's easier to go for this example than it is to do a thoughtful and practical change that helps the story and the characters in them. If I were you, it's not just a matter of striking a fine balance but also being able to work around those stories and being respectful to the actual canon. That's why a lot of bad fan fiction exists because not a lot of it respect the canon and some disregard it real badly. But there is a cure for it and it's much harder to do. It is worth it if it brings power to those who know how to do with and use it real well. Writing isn't for the faint-hearted and moreso for those who are familiar with fiction storytelling. You have to be better at it or else you'll get worse off for it.