High quality fanfic... by SuzFromOz

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

High quality fanfic...

POSTED BY: SUZFROMOZ
UPDATED: Monday, June 12, 2006 10:20
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VIEWED: 2810
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Saturday, June 10, 2006 6:09 AM

I hadnt ever read fanfic of any kind till on this forum. I have been working my way through the categories, and have been impressed with how well it is written, especially capturing the 'voices' of the characters. So, I went looking online tonight for fanfic for some other shows I like. I am now convinced of the high standard of writing on this board. Im not sure why it is so consitently better (good Beta readers, the type of person who likes firefly,?? who knows) but the stuff I just read is rubbish. And not just one, I read about 6 stories on several boards, and a few I just couldnt finish they were so bad. They mainly sounded like they were written by teenagers....I guess they probably were.

What am I gonna do when I run out of serenity/firefly fanfic to read??

So, thanks to all the authors on this site - you are doing a great job and I am loving your work.

Suz

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Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:21 AM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by SuzFromOz:

What am I gonna do when I run out of serenity/firefly fanfic to read??

just be sure to give positive feedback to the authors you like,
and encourage them to keep writing more!

**********************************************
watch the R. Tam Session vids: http://www.hittarivertam.nu/
and buy the 'Serenity' comics published by Dark Horse
have you checked out this thread?:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=15816

and listen to 'I'm Going To See Serenity':
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=a0
c814e1229742ce77ed4497cbf4631c

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Saturday, June 10, 2006 8:32 AM

SAMEERTIA

It's very true.
I've been in the online fanfic community for ten years, and the norm is 1 good story to every 10 bits of absolute trash.
This site consistently has some of the best fanfic written. I was so nervous posting my first piece here!!!

It also seems like everyone writing here is genuinely interested in becoming a better writer. I've seen a new author repost a story several times, taking in the suggestions of reviewers, and drastically improving not only their style, but the quality of their story.

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Saturday, June 10, 2006 8:45 AM

EPEYON

What the ones before me have said. Generally fan fiction writers are teenagers, and teenagers who are writing the fic for their friends, or they don't think about it or care about the characters. They just want to see character A and character B get together. Or you have the ones were it's basically dream fulfillment, the writer placing themsellf inside the world. Or a horrible character who is perfect in every way and has sex with the writer's favourite character.

On some sites, such as www.fanfiction.net it's more like 100 bad fics to every 1 good fic. Depending on the fandom. If you're interested in Star Wars there's a fanfiction section at www.boards.theforce.net which has some pretty good stuff. And the community's a good one. But generally you really have to search to find a place with good fanfiction.

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Saturday, June 10, 2006 8:50 AM

SAMEERTIA

Quote:
Originally posted by SuzFromOz:

What am I gonna do when I run out of serenity/firefly fanfic to read??

Suz

You won't run out. We'll just keep writing!

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Saturday, June 10, 2006 5:35 PM

SUZFROMOZ

I must have it some of the worst sites then, because fanfic.net was one of them.

Hmm, writing my own...... I do like to write, or I used to. Im not so sure Id be able to get the voices right, or the details in some scenes.. The last actual story I wrote was a novel aimed at pre teens, and that was a very long time ago (and I never finished it). To much else on my plate I guess.

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Sunday, June 11, 2006 12:00 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I used to find some really good X-files fic when I was still a fan, but then some of it was really bad, too. I don't have much experience with fanfic; I only read it if I'm a HUGE fan, because other times when I've tried to wade through all of it I just felt sick. It does tend to be very good here, doesn't it?
Although I have to admit there have been stories even here that I haven't been able to finish. Can't remember them now, but I got about half a page in and just said "I can't take it!" Sometimes it was spelling errors, sometimes the characters didn't ring true, sometimes a combo. Or maybe it didn't ring true to me because the grammer was bad so it just seemed like the characters were babbling. Not sure; I'm rather picky with that kind of thing, though.
You should try writing your own! I've done just a couple drabbles to get the feel of it; it's very satisfying.

***********

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Sunday, June 11, 2006 5:54 PM

LEIASKY

There are lots of sites out there that have good Firefly fic. This one has a lot of good stuff, but a lot of horrible stuff too.

fanfic.net has some of the worst I've seen.

I only discovered Firefly in Dec of last year and I scoured the net to find all the fan fic I could. When you visit Firefly sites, look at their link sections, because they'll send you to all kinds of other places that have good fic.

When you read something that you like, be sure to comment on it. The authors will appreciate it greatly.

"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."

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Monday, June 12, 2006 2:37 AM

SUZFROMOZ

Do you have any links to sites you reccomend?

There is lts of fic here I ahve glosse dover as not my cup of tea (slash etc) but OI have worked my way through most of the general fiction, and most of the romance section, and I ahvent found many to complain about. Vut yep, I definately hit an all time low at fanfic.net. wow that stuff was bad.

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Monday, June 12, 2006 2:45 AM

DEEPGIRL187

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but in the Blue Sun Room forum, there is a thread that links to the 2005 Strawberry awards. I haven't read everything yet, but the stories I have read are really excellent.

**************************************************

It's just an object. It doesn't mean what you think.

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Monday, June 12, 2006 8:53 AM

ELOISA

Yeah, like Deepgirl said, generally sites that have contests (in any fandom or sub-scene like slash) will feature good authors in its shortlisted, honourable mentions or winners categories. You can use that to find more by the same author - for instance I recently found out that a story that I'd admired for several years, having found it as a competition entry, was actually part of a ten-story series. That was a very good and very long night.

There are actually some decent things on FFN but they can take a devilishly long time to find. If you hit one person who writes well - in any fandom, but including Blue Sun Room cross-posters - navigate by their favourite stories or favourite authors lists, and on from there in the same way, as generally the people who write well on FFN will only flag other good authors by their lists. Bizzarely enough, I have been introduced to not only new authors but two entire new fandoms by this method.

Out of interest, what are your other fandoms, Suzfromoz?

***
http://forums.ffonline.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19
Creative Writing

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Monday, June 12, 2006 9:48 AM

MORWEN112

I, too, have found the fanfics here to be better than most I've seen in other places.

But please, don't think that all teenagers write as badly as some. True, a lot of the stuff I see is ridiculous, not only in the Firefly fandom but in the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fandoms as well (don't even get me started on some of that HP stuff

) But as a teenage writer myself, I can say that we aren't all bad...even if some of us could use a couple of lessons in spelling and punctuation.

Happy Reading!

Mine is an evil sugar high laugh! Bwahahahaha!

Morwen

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Monday, June 12, 2006 10:01 AM

SAMEERTIA

And honestly, I would hope that we would all ENCOURAGE the teen writers in our midst, helping them become better writers, rather than tearing them down and mocking them.

I make it a goal to read one thing a month that I normally wouldn't, and leave a review.

Funny note here- Has anyone else read William Souder's "Under A Wild Sky"? It's a brilliantly researched and engaging story of John James Audubon, and early natural science in the Americas.

IF I had clicked on it online, I would never have read past the first line! The first line is a hopelessly entangled run-on sentence!!!!
I read it and thought "How did this get published????" - and then I read the next line, and the next paragraph, and a half hour later realized that it almost time to go home and I had't actually entered it into the computer. (oops)

They say don't judge a book by it's cover, but I also think judging a story by an opening paragraph can be a terrible mistake.

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Monday, June 12, 2006 10:19 AM

ELOISA

However, as most publishers judge books by their opening paragraphs, that's very rare.... It's nice you found an exception, though. (Not read it.)

Regarding the teenager comments, aside from the fact that *ahem* I started writing before I was a teen (OK, I was dreadful till I was sixteen or so), one of the best authors I've ever met online was a thirteen-year-old girl in the FFVIII fandom (now seventeenish and getting better and better; in ten or twenty years' time, watch out for a Liz or Elizabeth Tan down your bookstores). I don't think readers should give teenagers the excuse that they are writing badly because they are teens when there are so many counterexamples (I know of a lot of good teen fanfic authors). This is especially true in the matter of spelling and grammar. Generally, in my experience, teens who have grammar problems turn into adults who have grammar problems - it's too late for them to learn otherwise.

SameErtia, that's a wonderful resolution that I have made and broken several times in the past. I admire you for leaving your fanfic comfort zone.

***
http://forums.ffonline.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19
Creative Writing

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Monday, June 12, 2006 10:20 AM

SPACEANJL

I'd like to put in a little prop for ff.net, actually. Mainly 'cos that's where I started out. Thing is, it is a completely open site, and world-wide. Anyone can put something out. And yes, a lot of it is juvenalia and fanwank. But there are a few gems. You have to practise discrimination, as in all things. It is a lot easier to sort by pairing etc, too, so you can avoid nasty surprises. I've been attracted by more than one title over here, and then been confronted by Rayne or Jaylee when I wasn't expecting it, which I find truly distressing.

And the crossover?...I mean, I found a LoTR/Discworld crossover that made me hysterical. And John Constantine as the Dark Arts teacher? Sweet. And where else would you find Spike, Lex Luthor and Constantine getting pissed in a bar together?

SpaceAnJL

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