Why I don't read Fanfiction...much...
Jun. 8th, 2003 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabid1stEveryone I know writes fanfiction. And many of my cyber friends and community write extremely well. I don't read as much as I am read and sometimes that makes me sad...and sometimes it makes me...well...defensive.
Which leads me to this essay...a consideration of why I don't, as a general rule, read fanfiction.
1. I'm a snob. See? I said it! The fact is fanfiction is often poorly written. I won't give you samples because why would you care? But I say this in the same way Simon Cowell says someone can't sing. It doesn't matter one jot that Simon, himself, may not be able to carry a tune in a bucket. What matters is Simon has EARS. When I say fic is poorly written...I say that NOT because I write BETTER than the author...but because I can READ.
2. I am the Simon Cowell of fic readers because I am a collection development librarian by trade. This means James Patterson and Stephen King have to get by me with their fic presentations. They have to sell ME on an idea if they are going to sell my patrons. I am the person that decides what people will be reading. The pitch stops at my desk...it sits in a catalog alongside every other book published that month...begging for the tax payer's money. Of course, James Patterson has a lot more leeway to pitch a stupid story than say Donna Andrews because James has a built in audience...but that is another rant. Point is I have to pick out the books that people WILL read from a slew of totally unknown authors based on the pitch. This means, quite simply, I know an overworked or unworkable plot when I see it.
3. Some views don't mesh with mine. Sometimes a fic is well written and has an interesting plot but it doesn't take the characters in a direction I support or believe in myself. Xander becomes President. Buffy becomes an abused housewife. Whatever...it's not BAD but it's not something I can readily accept from my own knowledge of the characters.
4. Then again...sometimes a writer's character vision is TOO close to my own. Sometimes I discover the writer and I are on the same wavelength with a plot line or character. And I don't want my fic to be corrupted by subconsciously picking up ideas from another person's similar fic.
5. Some writers intimidate me. I'm sure you all know who you are! :-D They write so effortlessly and so elegantly that I start to feel like a talentless hack. This feeling is counterproductive to my self esteem. I need to write to improve and I can't sit around going "I WANT TO WRITE LIKE THIS...BUT I NEVER WILL" if I mean to finish my work. And so I avoid reading any author who intimidates me to the point where I freeze up.
6. Time...keeps slipping, slipping, slipping into the future...and I never seem to have enough time to do the things I want to do once I find them! ;-D Anyway, basically I have cyber buddies and RL buddies and loads of reading in RL and writing of my own to do and the occasional update to this journal and to my site and basically there are loads of fic that fit all of my criteria and yet I cannot seem to find enough time in the day to write and read. My first priority must be my OWN readers. So, I put my pleasure off and put my writing above my reading.
And so, after we narrow it down...I read short sweet fic by my BoB buddies and I read Nauti and Mary...because they are talented but not personally intimidating. Still, truthfully...I haven't read them lately...for NB see reason #4 and for Mary see reason #6.
Rae
Which leads me to this essay...a consideration of why I don't, as a general rule, read fanfiction.
1. I'm a snob. See? I said it! The fact is fanfiction is often poorly written. I won't give you samples because why would you care? But I say this in the same way Simon Cowell says someone can't sing. It doesn't matter one jot that Simon, himself, may not be able to carry a tune in a bucket. What matters is Simon has EARS. When I say fic is poorly written...I say that NOT because I write BETTER than the author...but because I can READ.
2. I am the Simon Cowell of fic readers because I am a collection development librarian by trade. This means James Patterson and Stephen King have to get by me with their fic presentations. They have to sell ME on an idea if they are going to sell my patrons. I am the person that decides what people will be reading. The pitch stops at my desk...it sits in a catalog alongside every other book published that month...begging for the tax payer's money. Of course, James Patterson has a lot more leeway to pitch a stupid story than say Donna Andrews because James has a built in audience...but that is another rant. Point is I have to pick out the books that people WILL read from a slew of totally unknown authors based on the pitch. This means, quite simply, I know an overworked or unworkable plot when I see it.
3. Some views don't mesh with mine. Sometimes a fic is well written and has an interesting plot but it doesn't take the characters in a direction I support or believe in myself. Xander becomes President. Buffy becomes an abused housewife. Whatever...it's not BAD but it's not something I can readily accept from my own knowledge of the characters.
4. Then again...sometimes a writer's character vision is TOO close to my own. Sometimes I discover the writer and I are on the same wavelength with a plot line or character. And I don't want my fic to be corrupted by subconsciously picking up ideas from another person's similar fic.
5. Some writers intimidate me. I'm sure you all know who you are! :-D They write so effortlessly and so elegantly that I start to feel like a talentless hack. This feeling is counterproductive to my self esteem. I need to write to improve and I can't sit around going "I WANT TO WRITE LIKE THIS...BUT I NEVER WILL" if I mean to finish my work. And so I avoid reading any author who intimidates me to the point where I freeze up.
6. Time...keeps slipping, slipping, slipping into the future...and I never seem to have enough time to do the things I want to do once I find them! ;-D Anyway, basically I have cyber buddies and RL buddies and loads of reading in RL and writing of my own to do and the occasional update to this journal and to my site and basically there are loads of fic that fit all of my criteria and yet I cannot seem to find enough time in the day to write and read. My first priority must be my OWN readers. So, I put my pleasure off and put my writing above my reading.
And so, after we narrow it down...I read short sweet fic by my BoB buddies and I read Nauti and Mary...because they are talented but not personally intimidating. Still, truthfully...I haven't read them lately...for NB see reason #4 and for Mary see reason #6.
Rae
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Re: LOL Circe...
Date: 2003-06-08 05:24 pm (UTC)Rae
Re: LOL Circe...
Date: 2003-06-08 08:20 pm (UTC)Yes, isn't it purdy? Wisteria posted a whole bunch in her LJ a few days ago. Steal one for yourself, you iconless hussy you ;)
And I always value your feedback, so I'm very happy I get read ;)