Fanfics and FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES

Fanfiction Week Mark 2? Apparently. Let's just roll with it.

Anyway.

Bad fanfiction.

It can be annoying. There's a lot of it. FanFiction.net is a glorified slush pile. However, bad fanfiction can also be a little like watching a bad sci-fi movie. Horrible and hilarious at the same time. *nods*

Today is a day of Full Life Consequences.

For those who don't know, Full Life Consequences is Half-Life fanfic that became an internet meme after it was immortalized on YouTube. Now, don't be scared if you've never heard of Half-Life, because honestly, you don't really need to know anything about it in order to appreciate this.

It's just the simple story of how original character John Freeman saves his brother, Gordon Freeman (the main character of Half-Life), from his "enemys." Enjoy:

See, wasn't that beautiful? Isn't your life complete now? And the moral of the story is this: next time you're hunting the net for some good fanfiction, remember that the not-so-good fanfiction can bring joy as well.

How do you feel about the hoards of bad fanfiction plaguing the internet? Amused or annoyed? Did Full Life Consequences change your opinion at all? And has anyone ever heard of My Immortal? Tell me in the comments!

Fanspeak?! A brief fanfic glossary

On Monday I talked about fanfiction archives and how well-labeled archives rock. But, if any of you went running off to read fanfiction, confident in your skills, you might have noticed all of the crazy acronyms and terminology. And then you might have run back in confusion and fear.

I don't really blame you.

Because Fanfiction has its own lexicon.

However, my friends, I am here to save you! Today I'm gonna quickly cover what I consider to be the basics of fanspeak--the terms that newfledged fanfic readers should find particularly useful when scouring the archives. So check it:

Fandom
Fandom refers to the fan-based community dedicated to a certain book, movie, tv show, video game, comic, etc, etc. It includes everything and anything that is fan created--so fanfiction is a huge part of fandom.

Gen • Het • Slash • Femslash
All of these terms have something to do with romantic parings in fanfiction. Gen refers to general fanfiction where there is no romance. Het is short for a heterosexual pairing. Slash refers to male homosexual pairings, and thus, femslash refers specifically to lesbian pairings. Many fandoms also have character specific terms, which you'll have to figure out on your own, since they can be pretty much anything, including: names, acronyms, initials, and spliced words.

Canon, fanon, and head-canon
Canon refers to elements that are officially established by the source material. For example, it's canon that Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts. Fanon, on the other hand is a combination of "fan" and "canon," so it's usually something that the fandom has accepted as canon. In the case of Harry Potter, before the last book came out, a lot of people had decided that Hermione was going to be Head Girl. Head-canon is what you personally think to be true about something in a fandom, even though it's not officially canon of widely accepted by the fandom.

Shippers and their OTPs
A shipper is a person who ships a certain ship. Yes. It's two different nouns and a verb. Just understand that "ship" is short for "romantic relationship" and shippers are all about supporting their favorite one. Hopefully you get the gist. Anyway, OTP stands for One True Pairing. It's usually used as an expression of one's support for their favorite ship.

OCs and Mary Sues
OC stands for Original Character, which is pretty self explanatory. Mary Sues are technically OCs, however Mary Sues are usually a self-insertion of the author. They are characterized by being perfect, exotic, and tragic, yet horribly obnoxious. People like OCs and they hate Mary Sues.

Citrus: Lemons and limes
Citrus is a, uhh, term that refers to the steamy romance times in a fanfic. Lime is usually anything up to heavy petting and lemon is sex, be it chaste or graphic.

Fanfic labels
There are about a billion different acronyms and terms to quickly describe the content in a fanfic, and I'm not going to cover all of them, because, like I said, a billion. Instead, I'll give you some of the most common labels:

• AU: Alternate Universe. Wherein the fanfic takes place in a different world from canon.
• PWP: "Plot? What Plot?" Unabashed adult fanfiction.
• RPF: Real Person Fanfic. Fanfiction about real people--usually actors or musicians.
• OOC: Out-of-Character. In which the characters do not act like themselves. WHICH IS LAME.
• X-Over: Fanfiction that combines characters/situations from two different fandoms.

And that's all for now! Like I said, this is only a smidgen of fanspeak, so if you ever run into something you don't understand, there's always Moonbeam's Fanfiction Terminology. It's a little dated, but definitely a good resource.

Now tell me, what do you guys think about fanspeak? Have any crazy stories about not knowing what something means? Think it's ridiculous that there's a learning curve to this nonsense? Or did I miss a term that desperately needs to be added posthaste? Tell me in the comments.

Where to go fanfic hunting

So, I'm kind of on a fanfiction kick right now and I realized that back during Fanfiction Week, I never told you guys how to find fanfiction online. I just ranted about it for while and assumed that you all knew what you were doing.

Which is a stupid assumption. Because fanfiction archives are kind of messy. There's a lot of mediocre writing out there and there's also a lot of writing directed towards an audience that's 18 years and older. Finding good fanfiction can be difficult and ultimately discouraging. Especially if you don't know where to start.

So I'm going to give you some sites to work with. You can explore them, you can ignore them, but if you ever want to read fanfiction, then these are the places to go:

• FanFiction.Net
  http://www.fanfiction.net/
  FF.net is . . . well, it's the easiest place to find fanfiction, but it's also the easiest place to post fanfiction. So while there's variety, it's basically a giant slush pile. You have to be careful too, because while they supposedly family friendly and don't allow 18+ fanfiction, a lot of people ignore that rule and things aren't labeled well. If you're gonna tackle FF.net, find ONE good story and then work from that author's favorites list--good writers tend to flock together.
   
• MediaMiner
  http://mediaminer.org/
  An alternative to FF.net, though if I had to make a comparison, I'd say it's like the MySpace to FF.net's Facebook. The site is active, but it feels pretty dead. The setup is similar to FF.net, but MediaMiner has a heavy focus on anime and is totally fine with 18+ fanfiction. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan and I only mention it because it's a notable contender.
   
• LiveJournal
  http://www.livejournal.com/
  LJ is the place to go if you're looking for high quality in small doses for specific topics. The way it works is that communities/groups are formed in LJ that revolve around a certain fandom or pairing, and then people contribute fanfiction to these groups. However, LJ is for the older crowd, as this is where the 18+ fics thrive. It's easy to avoid that kind of material, since everything's well-organized and well-labeled, but be aware.
   
• Archive of Our Own
  http://archiveofourown.org/
  Yet another setup similar to FF.Net and MediaMiner, but AO3's big perk is the fact that it's fan-created and fan-run. Right now it's still in beta, but there are a ton of fantastic fanfic writers flocking here, which has created a higher standard than what's seen at FF.net and MediaMiner. However, the archive is open to any and all fanfiction, so many LJ people are present and there's a ton of 18+ material, which is, however labeled.

These four websites are only the ones that I have the most personal experience with. Hopefully they'll help the curious on their journey into fanfiction land. However, just remember that there's more out there. For example, if you're a Harry Potter fan, FictionAlley and all of its offshoots might be the place for you. Just make sure to have fun with it!

And before I leave, a quick disclaimer: Fanfiction can involve a lot of crazy stuff. Adult themes run rampant and you need to be careful when perusing material. Make sure to read story summaries and warning labels so you aren't surprised later on. Only you can decide what you're comfortable with, but just remember that fanfiction is supposed to be fun, not traumatizing. :)

Now, if you're the type to read fanfiction, where do you go to get your fix? One of the places I mentioned above, or somewhere else? Or do you prefer to avoid fanfiction? Tell me in the comments.

Fanfic Week: What makes fanfiction suck

Fanfic Week day three is here! On Monday and Wednesday I stressed on how great fanfiction can be, but today it's time to admit some faults. Why? Because fanfiction isn't perfect. From when FanFiction.net made it extremely easy for minors to read NC-17 rated fics to the drama revolving around Cassandra Clare, its reputation has always been on shaky ground.

Anyway here are some reasons why I think reading and writing fanfiction is not always helpful for writers:

1. 90% of it is written horribly
   Sure, we may have discussed that the slush pile effect can be beneficial, but it's also crazy annoying. Sometimes, you just want to read something good. But it takes forever to find a worthwhile fanfic, especially if your fandom of choice is old. Fanfics can be beneficial, but for someone with little patience, it's it difficult to get that far.


2. It's the ultimate ego boost
   In a bad way. No matter how horrible your writing is, there's a very good chance that someone is going to tell you that you're awesome. This is bad because when legions of unknown people talk about how amazing you are, your ego explodes. Fanfic writers have been known to be pompous--they fail to learn and they fail to take criticism gracefully.


3. It encourages so many bad writing habits
   Like I said above, no matter what you write, someone will tell you it's awesome. Someone will encourage a trait that should be smothered. Be it a cliche plot, purple prose, Mary Sues, or a story that's starting to reach 200,000 words, someone will think you're the next best thing. Yes, everyone goes through these phases, but we also need to learn that our writing can be bad.


4. It will never be your own
   One of the greatest things about writing is creating your own worlds and characters, but when you write fanfiction, you're missing out on that. Yes, there are other delicate things to test your writing (ie: keeping the players in character and representing the world correctly), but you still miss out. Playing with someone's story elements is cool, but creating something on your own is amazing and wonderful and indescribable. And missing out is kind of depressing.


5. You're never going to make money off of it
   Seriously, if you're make money off of your fanfiction you are 1) in Japan, land of doujinshi, or 2) about to get yourself into big trouble. If you're the kind of person who always needs to be making some tangible progress towards publication, you're going to find fanfiction a waste of time. Because really, nothing comes of it but subtle improvement and wish fulfillment.

So what do you think? Agree or disagree? Could I have made some better points? A lot of the reasons that fanfiction are good coincide with why fanfiction is bad, which I find interesting. Tell me what you think in the comments.

Fanfic Week: What makes fanfiction rock

So, we're onto the second day of Fanfic Week. Yay! This is the day of positive thoughts, because to put it simply, I think fanfiction can be a great learning tool if you look at it right. Not only can fanfiction allow for fun experimentation, it helps writers understand different plot structures and elements.

But let's cut to the chase. So let me explain in more detail with five reasons why I think fanfiction can be beneficial towards you as a writer:

1. It is a living, breathing slush pile
   If you've ever wondered how agents can turn a manuscript down based on one page of writing, you have never read fanfiction. If nothing else, this is one of the best things you can learn about. Seriously. Go to FanFiction.net right now, find your favorite book or movie, and peruse the selection. You'll start to understand how a first page can show the different between a good story and a great one.


2. It lets writers experiment
   The fact that fanfiction is based off of an existing world and its characters lets writers focus on what they want to focus on. Maybe you want an awesome plot, maybe you want a character sketch, maybe you want to see how certain characters would react in a completely different setting. The choice is yours, and when you don't have to focus on an entire story, you can hone your skills on something specific.


3. There's no pressure to be perfect
   Really. There isn't. So many of us are trying to write a manuscript that we'll eventually publish that we start freaking out about all sorts of little things. Fanfiction will never be published. If you want, you can write under a penname and no one will ever be able to connect your writer-life with your fanfic-life. Hey, you can even leave a story unfinished without too much hoopla.


4. It's good for instant feedback
   Many people share their fanfiction and if your premise sounds interesting enough, a lot of people will read your fanfiction. If you post somewhere like FanFiction.net or in a livejournal community, you'll definitely get feedback. Not all of it will be great, and the internet is always home to trolls, but it's still an opportunity to learn.


5. It encourages people to write
   So many people who write fanfiction would never sit down to write a book. And then there are others who would never think that they'd want to write a book until after they wrote fanfiction. Fanfiction gets people to practice writing, and as we all know, practice makes perfect. Supposedly every writer has a million bad words before the good ones start coming out, so why not use them on fanfiction?

On Friday we'll talk about the cons to fanfiction, but until then, what are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with anything I've said? Has fanfiction helped you at all, or hav you been mostly in the dark?

Fanfic Week: What is fanfiction?

Guess what everybody? Today is the first day of Fanfic Week! It's been something I've been thinking about doing since this blog was a baby, and now we're finally there. Yay!

For anyone that doesn't know, fanfiction is exactly what it sounds like: fiction written by fans. It's when you take an existing world and its characters, and then write your own story involving them. Of course, you don't get paid for writing fanfiction and it'll never be published, since that would be plagiarism to the first degree.

However, fanfiction is a force to be reckoned with. There are dozens of websites built solely for fanfic, and like everything on the web, there are trashy places and hidden gems. It even has its own rules and its own lingo. But most importantly, there are thousands (maybe millions) of people actively participating.

But why?

Mostly because it's a glorified form of wish fulfillment. Fanfiction is fun to read and write because you can make anything happen. Romances that didn't exist before, events that were glossed over, characters with fuzzy backgrounds--all of these can be elaborated on. If the ending of a book or a movie frustrated you, there's a good chance you can find a fanfic where everything happens the way you wanted it to.

As you can imagine, the writing community is pretty split on the matter. Anne Rice has publicly stated her displeasure with fanfiction and has told her fans to go write something original. On the other hand, some authors, like Cassandra Clare, actually started off as fanfic writers before getting published.

Personally, I think fanfiction has value. This might come from the fact that I spent several years writing Kindgom Hearts fanfiction and several more years reading Stargate Atlantis fanfiction. What can I say? I'm a geek. Now would I feel differently if someone was writing fanfiction about my story? I kinda doubt it. Not only is that incredibly flattering, but it'd be really cool. Just saying.

But yes. In the next few days I'll be discussing the pros and cons of actually writing fanfiction--so look forward to it! Until then, what are your thoughts? Have you guys read or written any fanfiction? What fandom did you dabble in? Or do you think it's a waste of time and effort? Tell me in the comments.