The other day my buddy Liz from Fictional Candy and I were talking about a book she was currently reading. Liz informed me that the book was considered a Twilight Fanfic but she wasn't really sure why it was called that, because it wasn't really like Twilight at all. Then she asked a really important question that got me thinking...What the heck is a fanfic?
Now I wasn't really sure what a fanfic was until I read Fifty Shades of Grey. So many people were claiming it was a Twilight Fanfic and I just couldn't see the comparison. I mean I read Twilight and unless I got a different version I don't remember Edward spanking Bella. The more I read Fifty the more I realized the characters were exactly like Edward and Bella...only add in erotic sex scenes and a side of vanilla every so often.
This made me believe that maybe fanfics were books that take the characters from a book like say Twilight and plop them into an entirely new story. Am I right? I have no clue I convince myself crazy things all the time, but I think I am onto something here. So I decided to take it to google to see if I could find any real answers.
Now here is the definition of fanfic: Fiction written by fans as an extension of an admired work or series of works, especially a television show, often posted on the Internet or published in fanzines. Wait a second I think I know what it is now that definition brings it all into perspective...No... No it doesn't actually.
Now I do remember a site awhile back that had fanfics on it but they were outright fanfics like the definition says. Fans would write let’s say Dimitri and Rose from Vampire Academy into another adventure, but an extension of the story they were already in. I remember I would read those fanfics when I would go through withdraws from my favorite series and some of them are pretty amazing.
So this is my question to you tonight is to help me and Liz fully understand because we grew up in a time when Fanfics didn't rule the shelves. What the heck is a Fanfic?
Sincerely,
Clueless
Well I can say that having stories that bloom straight from fanfiction being published is a bit...weird. I personally don't like it when it happens, because as you can see everyone figures it out rather quickly and it feels a bit...cheap to me.
ReplyDeleteAnyway! I think the rather open definition of fanfic that you gave is probably the most acceptable because of how much the actual fanfiction base varies. Some fanfic is true to the story and the characters and others end up delving into what is known as OOC (Out-of-character) type things. It is basically just an extension that someone writes either of the storyline or of the characters themselves. People even mash up several different stories sometimes...if you can dream it up I'm sure there is a fanfic for it. Things like 'What if Ironman met Batman?' or 'What if Harry chose Hermionie?'...fanfiction is all the things the fans want to see. I believe it was Joss Whedon who said, "There's a time and place for everything, and I believe it’s called 'fan fiction'".
I would love to read what if Harry Met Herminone!! haha
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ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI clicked on the link to this post when I saw the title on my reader because I personally love FF and have written some of my own. But your confusion over FF confuses me! You certainly have the right idea in your fourth and fifth paragraphs, so now I'm wondering what you're wondering about! =P
With respect to Fifty Shades of Grey, I don't think it counts as FF any longer, if only because the characters' names have been changed. ("Real" FF either comes with or needs the disclaimer, "I do not own these characters . . ." E.L. James obviously owns her own characters.) That it is known as "Twilight FF" is just the marketing.
See and I totally thought that. Like I remember the fanfic sites and I loved some of them. But people claim Fifty is a fanfic and the only connection I could make was the characters. Also am confused by why some of the other books are considered fanfic if by the definition (and lacking disclaimer) they are not. I am game if it is marketed as "for Twilight Lovers" but I notice a lot of readings throwing Twilight Fanfic into reviews, and recommendations. Maybe they are slightly confused as well?
DeleteI think I know what book you're talking about and if it's the one I'm thinking about, I actually DID read it when it was still fanfic. I even talked to the author (under our fake names of course), laughed with her and told her how funny her story was. I didn't know it had been published until recently and now I'm dying to get my hands on the book to see what was changed.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people don't like when fanfic gets published but here's why I DO like it:
It may start off as a story taking two (or more) already known characters and writing them in different circumstances BUT if a really GOOD editor gets a hold of it and works their magic with the writer, then it can turn a diamond in the rough into a sparkling gem. I don't mean just changing names and physical descriptions but taking the characters and turning them into something unique.
And if you really think about it, a lot of stories are similar these days.
Now back to "What is Fanfiction?" It was easily put by a person I once asked as "An original(ish) story that involves already established characters from well known stories/movies/tv shows. They're FICTION stories written by FANS."
I used to read fanfic ALL the time, most were bad, some were good and a select few were great. I personally don't have a problem with fanfic being published as long as, like I said above, major changes with the characters are made. The storyline can stay the same but I don't want to see obvious similarities between the fanfic authors' characters and say, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight characters. I don't want similar dialogue either.
Bottom Line: There are ALWAYS similarities between books. Off the top of my head, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia have drawn comparisons to The Bible. Does that mean they were "fanfics" of The Bible? I doubt it. LotR and TCoN are both fantastic books with their respective audiences.
Each fanfic turned published book should be judged by their content, NOT by the fact that they were once "fanfic." Otherwise we're, in a way judging books by their covers, or by their beginnings.
Great topic by the way!
oh!! SO they start off as a fanfic and then later are edited into an original piece of work. Readers who had read them when they were still in fanfic form still refer to them as fanfics!!!
DeleteI am guilty of still referring to them as fanfics even though I shouldn't. If good editing is done then there's no reason why it shouldn't be considered an original work.
DeleteFor the most part, I have seen some former fanfic stories that were published that could have had better editing done. I don't begrudge fanfic authors their chance to be published but I do think that better editing should take place to make sure it's not so obvious which fandom it came from.
"Start off as a fanfic and then later are edited" This, yes. Specifically to answer why 50 Shades is called Fan Fic, see this Dear Author post: http://dearauthor.com/need-a-rec/if-you-like-misc/if-you-like-fifty-shades-of-grey/
DeleteMy son reads tons of fanfic and loves it. I've read a couple years ago in the Stargate SG-1 series and loved the thought of two of my favorite characters getting together.
Stargate!!! A gal after my own heart! I love Stargate. I'm going to check that out.
DeleteI have only read a one fanfic series, and it was obvious it was based on Harry Potter series, it was all about James Potter, Harry's son and I love it. I think Adria defined it perfectly.
ReplyDeletePretty much everyone gave you a great definition of fanfic. All it depends is on the indivual and their take on it.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to fanfic through a friend. She enjoyed writing anime fanfic. Her favorite was Sailor Moon, writing different scenes and scenrios. Often she would cross it with other anime.
She would pair Usagi with Heero from Gundam Wing or Goku of Dragonball Z. Once she put in a character based on me so I could have Duo. LOL
I was a closet writer. Fanfiction was a start on the writing bit. I would work on a fanfic but all the while work on my own story in the background. Its a great start for those bitten by the writing bug (along with role play).
She encouraged me to put my fanfic on a place called fanfiction.net. I even ventured into literary fanfiction. See I wrote a fanfiction with Johanna Lindsey's Jeremy for a group. It never went far because I really did not feel right using a published author's character.
So it encouraged me to write more on my own. Because it got me to thinking... "These characters come from the creator. I would not want anyone to use Kiirri (Kiirri is an original character of mine". So I stayed away from fanfiction to really work on my own stuff.
Some may start out as fanfic... then someone would suggest that they change the names to something "orginal" and change the placement to break from the "fanfic" mold.
I have one like that. Friends helped start it. For my birthday two friends wrote me a fanfic. In it I got my favorite character in Kenyon's Dark Hunter story. It inspired me.
I wrote one scene but didn't go far. However I scrapped where it takes place (from NOLA to South Carolina) and the hero (Dev for my own), gave it a major overhaul. Now it is its own story.
Hi Rao!!! *waves*
DeleteHey Adria!!!
DeleteI used to read FanFic back in the late 80s and early 90s when it had to do with Highlander and Forever Knight. I had never heard of fanfic off of books until 50 shades of grey. Every fanfic I read wasn't well edited or even that well written. What it did give you a chance to do was think of your characters from TV shows off on adventures other than the ones you got weekly. I haven't read fanfic in a very long time.
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ReplyDeleteI must admit that I thought that FanFic was just that, Fiction written by a Fan of a specific book, tv show or movie. The only one that I have ever read are the fanfics of J.D. Robb's In Death series. Some of them are actually pretty good. And they explore subjects that the author has point blank said won't happen. One of my favorites combined NCIS characters with Eve, Roarke and the gang. It was such a hoot to see them combined together into a new storyline. I thought that was what Fanfic was all about, telling a story with characters already established.
ReplyDeleteBut now, after reading your question, I am a little confused. Are all those Star Wars, Star Trek and Marvel novels Fanfic? Or, if they have the original author's permission does it become something else? If only the names have been changed to prevent copy write issues, should it be called something different as well? I guess it is going to come down to the basic tenant of whether the author tells a good story or not. If you like it, read it. If you don't, someone else might.
Ok, I'm still confused. The book I read (which I am reviewing for a tour in a couple days) really didn't have any similarities between it and Twilight, other than a love triangle. But even then, the triangle was different. Confusing!! Maybe this is one of the instances where it's been edited and transformed, because it does say "This started out as fan fiction". In any case, as far as I know, its the only FF I've read. Yep, I've not read Shades of Grey.
ReplyDeleteBut I totally cracked up when you said you didn't remember Edward spanking Bella. I'm sure he did, it just got edited out, right?
I am in awe of all you readers that actually know whats going on, cause I am clueless! In the book I read, in particular, I would have never in a million years drawn a line from it to Twilight. But man oh man, it sure did get some bad comments on GR. And its too bad, cause it was a pretty good book.
Thanks for posting this, Danielle! I'm totally going to keep my eye on this and see if anything else comes up.
Liz, it could have been AU fanfic. And by AU I mean Alternate Universe.
DeleteFanfic has its own genres and sub-genres. You have cannon fic (stuff that goes along with an already established plot line)and AU (alternate universe where you take characters you already liked in put them in a different setting/situation/lifestyle, etc.).
You also have people who take a certain storyline and then rewrite it from the point they started disliking it into what they now like. Take Twilight: say a Bella/Jacob fan dislikes Bella saving Edward in New Moon. They write a fic (fanfiction) where Edward in fact does die and Bella and Jacob bond further with him helping her get over her grief and they fall in love, have some kids, live happily ever after.
You have people who will take a character they like and have that character fall in love with an OC (original character). This character usually winds up being a Mary Sue and wholly frustrating, but it's fanfiction, so anything goes.
Google Mary Sue. There are plenty of Mary Sue's in published literature. You'll giggle and agree.
In case you can't tell, I've been writing and reading fanfiction for YEARS. It's really honed my writing skills and introduced me to a lot of cool people.
Oh lord Hannah, that is certainly a lot to think of! I'll have to adjust my thinking a bit, cause if I hear "Alternate Universe" I'm automatically thinking something supernatural or paranormal lol. But these are some great explanations. And yep, I definitely have to go google Mary Sue lol. Thanks!
DeleteThis is a touchy subject with me right now, I just tried to read one of these fanfic books.... it was supposedly based on twilight but has been reworked so much that I would NEVER peg the characters as bella/edward. And, this particular book was seriously lacking in development and the quality of the writing was subpar. However, as a fanfic, it garnered HUGE success... I just don't get it... Book Savvy Babe
ReplyDeleteI cut my teeth writing naughty Star Wars fanfic when I was a teenager. It was a safe way to experiment with story structure (and the joy of writing erotica!), and I soon moved on to original characters. I still enjoy reading well-written fanfiction, but I don't write it any more. I see nothing wrong with it as harmless fun and wish-fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteI'm too busy being offended by the ghastly misrepresentation of BDSM in 50 Shades to be offended by its origins as fanfiction. :)