Maybe I'll clean up the ridiculous angstcrack scene where Neal is vaguely suicidal circa As You Were and discovers that Peter has an invisible dragon living in his house.
.... OH YES, PLEASE DO. :D I would read the hell out of that.
I find that fanfic rises or falls on something more like, broadly oversimplified, its ability to be an efficient delivery mechanism for squee.
Yes! I think this is a really good statement of what fanfic is, and what it does, and why it's different from original fiction (though the squee/ "shiny!" element exists in a lot of original fic too -- it's not usually at the forefront, though). Which is what makes it so much fun, and why people really don't care about a lot of the details that become an issue with original fiction ... well, assuming that it's somewhat competently written.
But yeah, you can't just port that over to original fiction; it doesn't work the same way. I've read original novels where I could see that the author was trying to do something vaguely fanfic-like (squee above plot, basically) and it didn't work; it was simply a self-indulgent mess. It's obvious that the writer is deeply in love with their characters and their tropes, but they didn't give ME any reason to care ...
And yet, while I know I need to focus more on craft in my original writing, I also sometimes think that my original fiction needs, perhaps, a bigger dose of the "squee!" element too -- that one of the things which makes fanfic so much fun is that it's so vibrant and playful, and people are drawn to that sense of joy in any genre. My earlier -- 15 years ago -- attempts at writing are joyless and melodramatic and stilted; I think fanfic did a lot of good for me as a writer because it taught me to loosen up and listen to the part of myself that gets excited about stuff. It taught me that writing from your id isn't all bad. You have to dial back on that in original fiction, but I kinda wonder if it isn't possible to dial it back too much -- there are a couple of pro writers whose fanfic I like better than their original stuff, and I kinda wonder if this doesn't have something to do with it.
no subject
.... OH YES, PLEASE DO. :D I would read the hell out of that.
I find that fanfic rises or falls on something more like, broadly oversimplified, its ability to be an efficient delivery mechanism for squee.
Yes! I think this is a really good statement of what fanfic is, and what it does, and why it's different from original fiction (though the squee/ "shiny!" element exists in a lot of original fic too -- it's not usually at the forefront, though). Which is what makes it so much fun, and why people really don't care about a lot of the details that become an issue with original fiction ... well, assuming that it's somewhat competently written.
But yeah, you can't just port that over to original fiction; it doesn't work the same way. I've read original novels where I could see that the author was trying to do something vaguely fanfic-like (squee above plot, basically) and it didn't work; it was simply a self-indulgent mess. It's obvious that the writer is deeply in love with their characters and their tropes, but they didn't give ME any reason to care ...
And yet, while I know I need to focus more on craft in my original writing, I also sometimes think that my original fiction needs, perhaps, a bigger dose of the "squee!" element too -- that one of the things which makes fanfic so much fun is that it's so vibrant and playful, and people are drawn to that sense of joy in any genre. My earlier -- 15 years ago -- attempts at writing are joyless and melodramatic and stilted; I think fanfic did a lot of good for me as a writer because it taught me to loosen up and listen to the part of myself that gets excited about stuff. It taught me that writing from your id isn't all bad. You have to dial back on that in original fiction, but I kinda wonder if it isn't possible to dial it back too much -- there are a couple of pro writers whose fanfic I like better than their original stuff, and I kinda wonder if this doesn't have something to do with it.