The Fan Fiction Thing

white avenger

white avenger

white avenger
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This sort of came up in another thread, but I was just wondering...How many of us are fan fiction readers? I enjoy some of the stuff out there, even the non-canon stuff. Up until the Season 8 comic came out, it was about the only Buffy fix available, and, as I have said before, some of the writers are quite good. Anyhow, as much as I'd like to think it was all written just for me, I'm sure that there must be a few other readers out there somewhere, and I'll bet there are a few here.
 
While I was a Roswell fan, I read every single thing about it -articles, interviews and fan fiction ( I even wrote one, veeery odd one lol won't happen again ) but with Buffy it's somewhat different. I think it's because the way everything started. I didn't see it like normal people - one season after the other. I jumbed to and fro, I even missed episodes just to caught something with Spike *rolls eyes*. Same with Angel. So it was very important to keep my idea of the characters and not to mix it with the ideas of fan fiction writers. My memories are too mixed up without it anyways 😀

But it's always tempting, you know. To be aware that somewhere there's a story, excellently written, just waiting to be read and appreciated 😛P
 
white avenger said:
Up until the Season 8 comic came out, it was about the only Buffy fix available,
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I started reading fanfic after Angel went off the air. I don't remember how it started exactly, but I stumbled on a story about what happened that night in the alley. I was hooked from there. I spent my freetime at work on Buffy/Angel fanfic sites. Some of them were really, really good. I found myself thinking, "I could totally see that happening". And a lot of fanfic is just really, really, REALLY bad. I enjoy the infinite possibilites of stories out there, or reading a re-write of a story gone wrong in the author's eyes. It is still a good way to get a fix while waiting a MONTH for that next Season 8 comic to be released. Basically, I'm all for fanfic as long as it's not AU, I can't handle reading about Buffy and the gang as normal high school kids, that's just...weird.
 
I read some, but most of what I've come across is pretty bad (including stuff that's been recommended to me as "excellent." And anything described as "better than the show" is virtually guaranteed to suck beyond the telling of it.)

A very small percent of what I read is actually not all that badly written, but then the devil is in the details: it's pretty jarring to be reading a story written by a "Willow/Tara fan" and see Tara's eyes described as hazel and Willow's as emerald green (or blue. Or blue-green.) No. No. Nononono!

Nit-picker? Me? Well...::mmm:: yeah... : grinyes
 
i've only read a few fanfics, almost all were faith/buffy related. but yeah i must say some of the writers are just amazing. half the time i was sitting there thinking 'wow, that sounds EXACTLY like them'
 
Unfortunately, I really can't say that. Very few of the writers I've picked up really have the characters' "voices" down, and the ones who did tended to rely way too heavily on repeating "stock" phrases. On the good side, most of the professional authors who write the tie-in novels don't really have it, either (although some get fairly close at times.)
 
Re:

I enjoy a decent fan-fic every once in a blue moon. I've read several just here on the boards that I thought were excellent. The "fan-fic thing" isn't for everybody. Some people see it as a way to "get their fix" , other people aren't so easily satisfied. I think it's an awesome way to get a persons storyline ideas out there. You know...The way it could have been. But if your overly critical, I'm sure alot of what gets read is a dissapointment- as there is only one Joss Whedon. 😉
 
I read once in a while, kinda to get my buffy fix, theres been quite few that have been pretty good, i think those that were good enough and a bit long , could have been real good spin offs....some i stopped reading after a few lines of reading. But lately iv just read the s8 comics.
 
i used to read a lot of it, and i do believe that though maybe some of the decisions and storylines people choose arent always the best, they sometimes are, and even despite that, a few people can actually capture the characters voices perfectly. after all, its not like buffy or willow is just written by joss whedon. many different writers contribute to her lines in the different episodes. i dont read them nearly as much now, though, because some are long and elaborate and i dont have time too; i mostly read ones that are relatively short.
 
I also started reading the odd bit of fan fic after Angel ended just to see how other people saw the outcome of the battle and, more particularly to see how they would survive. Some of the stuff was alright, it was interesting enough to get me looking at other stuff that is out there. I don't like the really long stories, but i do like reading short stories that are 'missing scenes' based on particular episodes. they are quite fun. But short is definately the big criteria for me! I've written a couple of things - mainly wondering about how Buffy found out/finds out about Spike being alive.
 
I can truthfully say that some of the fan fiction I've read over the years has been at least as enjoyable as most of the Buffy paperbacks on the market, and the stories (the ones I read, at least) seem aimed more at the adult fans that the "young adult/teen" audience the books cater to.
 
i think some of the fanfics out there are certainly better than some of the buffy paperbacks, because the true fans are more in touch with the characters, and obssessive about the details. a lot of the writers probably dont even watch the show, and there are often complaints, from me and others, that the book authors write things that dont make sense to the show, or characterize the characters badly.
 
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