Essays on Fan Fiction

by Nic

The more stories I write, the more opinions I develop, and the more confident I become about airing them.  Hey, I've got experience and I've been here a while, so I might not be the Ultimate Authority on these things, but I certainly have a widely-researched point of view.  What follows are random opinions on fan fiction - the writing of it, the reading of it, things that make the online fanfic community so great or not so good.
 

How to write Fan Fiction

An Argument Against Warnings or The Case for Reading Death Fic   (Controversial opinion within.)

Why Xena is Like Fanfic

Why not to write X-Files Fan Fiction  (personal)

Too Much Fanfic? - Why the explosion of fan fiction is reducing the number of writers.
 

Coming someday...  A Rant against the pointless PWP. (ie why endless sex in fic is a BAD THING)

Why do we write?

Why do we read?

I love The X-Files.  Always have.  Probably always will.  I'm not one of the fans who is blinded by the brilliance of the series - there have been some clunkers of an episode, and more than one where I yawned the entire way through.  To be honest, it's often the relationship between Mulder and Scully that keeps me intrigued from week to week (along with the comedies, or the cool sci-fi).  And there's so much to write about their relationship.

The problem is, so much has been written about it.  And because I don't read every story that comes out, or even a decent percentage of them, there's no way to find out what's been done and what hasn't been done.  The activist in me says, "So what?  As an author, you have the right to write whatever you damn well please."  And that's true, I do have the right to write something that may have been told by many authors before me.

The problem is - would anyone want to read it?  Would I want to read it when I know that there are similar stories out there by talented authors who live and breathe the X-Files fandom?  It takes work to become a reputable author in any fandom.  You have to be truly dedicated.  And while I love the show, I find that the fandom itself just takes too much work.  (Or maybe it's because I'm busy in other areas.)

So we have millions of stories, often very similar, especially in terms of the Mulder/Scully relationship.  Recently I wanted to write a vignette based upon "Within/Without", to capture the emotional intensity of everything.  But it's been done.  And I honestly think I'm better off just enjoying the episode.  I don't want to make it work.

The other major problem with X-Files fandom is a little factor I've mentioned before, that is, canon versus AU.  I like to write fanfic to Fix things, or to Wreak Havoc.  Both of these stories are an impossibility in a universe that is ongoing, because more often than not, the latest episode will completely invalidate your story.  This sort of thing makes me scream because I'm not a fan of AU's, and whenever I come across a story that contains the author's notes, "I began to write this a year ago so please ignore everything that happened from Season 7 onwards..."  I hit the delete button.  It's not because I disrespect the author, in fact, I admire her/his persistence to finish something old.  But I don't want to be reading about Mulder and Scully back in that timeframe.  The show's moved forward, and so have I, and if Scully's married with three kids then I just won't believe it.  Or enjoy reading it.

Once The X-Files has finished on television, or perhaps when Mulder and Scully are both gone from the screen, then I'll be able to write in this universe again.  If only to marry them off or kill them both.  Until then, I'll just stop by Gossamer every time an episode gets to me, and read all the post-ep angst fic I want.

The title of this mini-essay may sound like a contradiction, and at first glance it is.  Too much fanfic is most definitely a problem, particularly when you look at The X-Files or another universal, long-running fandom.  And I won't even begin to mention fanfiction.net.

(Actually, I will.  I don't like it.  Why?  It seems to be populated with children, or maybe I've just had the misfortune of running into too many badly-written stories there.  Not to mention the nasty feedback that happens, demonstrating that anonymous public ratings and feedback are a Bad Thing.  I don't like the attempt to centralise fan fiction, to categorise it, to make it into a universal thing, because universal things begin to reflect each other until you're left with nothing but a series of boring, identical stories.)

Where was I?

That's right, the explosion of fan fiction.  It seems like everyone's writing now.  Writing equals feedback equals fame equals power on mailing lists equals world domination.  Well, maybe not the last part, but in fandom it seems like if you want to be someone, you have to be writing.  It's a trap I constantly fall in; when you love the show and the characters that much, of course you want to be famous in the fandom because that way you can feel that little bit more connected to them, that little bit more important.  It makes it more worthwhile.

It's a bad thing.  People should not be judged on the standard of their fan fiction yet they constantly are.

Now.  Let's take a step back and look at the early years of fanfic.  (This includes the early years of the Net as we know it today.)  The people who were writing then weren't the people who are writing today.  Today = almost anyone and everyone because it's the done thing.  Before = people who needed to get a story out and didn't really care about the medium or the response.

Look at the last sentence.  I've classified early writers as people with a need.  Why do authors write?  Because they have a cool idea, because they feel obligated to (to achieve fame), or because the damned muse won't leave them alone?  In my opinion, only the final case is a reason to write.

So how does this need to write arise?  In my case, it's generally inspired by a certain episode of the show itself.  There's something I want to fix, a missing scene I'd love to see, or a character trait I'd love to explore.  And when a show's been cancelled, the possibilities are endless.  There are fascinating characters out there just screaming for further adventures, and that's where the muse comes in.

BUT...what if the stories have already been written?  What if that missing scene has already been written by six different people, and at least two versions are very good?  Isn't it so much easier to go hunt down these stories rather than write your own?

The answer, sadly, is yes.  Writing takes work and TIME.  Those with the most time to write are people at school, or without a full-time job, and from the first category we get the young adult writers who aren't as practiced and generally not as good as older writers because they don't have the life experience.  (There are some younger writers who are excellent at their craft, but these are rare.)

So we have a plethora of stories out there - not necessarily very good stories - but stories to cover every possible consequence written by the people who have time to write.  So your burning idea's been done, and you don't really have the time to write, so why not just read it instead?

That's the trap I've fallen into in the past six months.  I fell headlong into due South fandom, one that's been around for quite a while.  There are thousands of stories out there.  I have yet to have an idea in this fandom that hasn't already been done.  Maybe that's because it's not really sci-fi and I know that sf is my favourite thing to write.  Or maybe it's because I'm tiring of fandom and fanfic politics.

Fan fiction isn't so special any more.  It's everywhere, it's acknowledged by television producers, we're no longer the underground.

And where's the fun in that?

Xena: Warrior Princess is a show that gets a lot of criticism and ridicule in many circles.  Why?  I suspect it's because the people involved have never sat down to truly watch the show (and only manage to catch the "battles") OR they've seen an inappropriate selection of episodes...say, mostly first season.

Xena is a show that can break your heart.  It's the most inventive thing on television and I mean that honestly.  What else can get away with regularly killing major characters and still have a reasonable explanation for it?  The show has magic, both of the explained and unexplained form, and that's what I love about it.

The episodes themselves vary widely in context and themes.  One week you'll have an outright comedy, the next week, something dark and horrifying.  Musicals.  Wrestling.  Romance.  Death.  Spirituality.  Outright farce ("Married with Fishsticks", anyone?)   An entire range of styles are present. X:WP is not consistent from week to week, nor is it meant to be.  The sheer variety - which matches the variety in fanfic - is what makes it so entertaining.

So what if the characterisations aren't consistent from week to week?  In fanfic, every author has his or her own take on how the characters should behave, and these are often quite different.  You have Xena in love with Gabby versus Xena in love with Ares.  And that's all okay, because that's the nature of fanfic AND the nature of the show.

I love it.  So please, X:WP producers, don't stop what you're doing.  Give us everything, and I'll continue to love it.