Mega Mega Mega Fanfic Poll!!!!

[teaberryblue]

I was having a discussion with sunnyrea about fanfic yesterday and I decided to make a poll about it!



[Poll #1784264]



Whew! Um. That thing. Cookies if you read it all?

Note: the last question is not to suggest that anyone should/should not feel a certain way, but is just to collect most of the major objections I have heard from people and see how many people actually feel that way!

Comments

[butterbuns.livejournal.com]

Hm. I realized after I voted in it that I probably skewed the results with some of my answers. Would you consider stuff like fandom auctions where fic is "sold" for charity donations as paying for fic, or not, since the author isn't actually on the receiving end of the money and/or goods?

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I should have included something like that! I forgot about those. I would consider that exchanging something that isn't money for fanfic, because it's like giving the author a charitable donation in their name.

[butterbuns.livejournal.com]

Okay, then I will edit my poll answers, haha, because I definitely looked at it as exchanging money for it XD

[rowena742.livejournal.com]

Wait. Do H_E points count as payment? I might need to go back and change that answer.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

LOL NO.

[yachiru]

That last question reminded me of something I'd seen recently. Some British TV show about how television ruined love for us. He said something like we've been conditioned to autopair up anyone we see on television. Fanfic seems like an extreme condition of this.

At it's meanest it's like I WANT THIS HAPPY ENDING AND GAY COWBOY RAINBOW SEX DAMMNIT. Gimme. Penis! Everywhere! But I think the other coin is that it brings out creativity and this shared expansion of a fandom that can be pretty awesome and strange and awesome. I can understand why an author or artist might object (especially if money is involved) but I'd lean towards let people write what the hell they want. It can only serve to make people more interested in the fandom.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree with your sentiment here. I don't write fanfic in a fandom where the author explicitly discourages it but to me it's all about creating more love.

This isn't a disagreement because I know that's not what you're saying-- I think television/fanfic may have altered the way we perceive romance in a lot of stories but to be honest, I don't think it ruined love-- love goes so far beyond just romantic pairings and into realms that even human imagination has never completely worn out, and in some ways turning things around and around in words and seeing every permutation of a single creation adds to that and enhances it.

[yachiru]

I agree with you there. Ruined might be too strong a word. It was this snarky British show. Booker or Brooker I think and it was mostly that our expectations have been colored. Love at first sight, your one true soul mate and no other, etc... the expectation is that finding and keeping someone to love is terribly easy. When in most cases it's not. :(

[oneonthefence.livejournal.com]

I forgot to check the "includes subjects such as rape or pedophilia in a fandom where the canon material does not" in the last question. Oops. But I'm not a fanfic writer's target audience, since I don't really read or write it (so I hope I didn't skew your poll:) Occasionally I will read it for a friend (more so for editing purposes than personal enjoyment), and I have no real issues with fanfic existing, but it's just not my thing.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

No it's cool! The point was to get answers from a variety of people! You can edit the poll, too, if you wish.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_samalander/]

I have never paid money for a fic, but I have once or twice written FOR another person specifically.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's a good permutation that I'd never thought of adding.

[gabbygrl.livejournal.com]

I never paid for fanfic but that isn't an option so I'm clicking "I don't read fanfic" on that one even though that isn't true at all!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I didn't put in an option because it's tickyboxes so you don't have to tick any if none are true!

[gabbygrl.livejournal.com]

I wish I could vote twice for "deliberately contradicts canon." I ticked a few other boxes but that one gets to me like no other and is the only surefire way (short of comma splices) to make me close your fic without finishing.

[skirmish-of-wit.livejournal.com]

Even if it's purposely AU?

[gabbygrl.livejournal.com]

Not always, but I'm not a fan. And you HAVE to warn me first.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

This thing is the reason I hate Wicked.

[rainy-day.livejournal.com]

At this point in my life I pretty much only write/read for H_E contests, but I do really enjoy retellings/sequels to works of fiction. :)

I would have been interested to see a question in this pollabout publishing in physical fanzines, because I'm a little curious about how people view physical publication of IPs that are not their own. :)

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I had print publication on the list!!!

[mel06.livejournal.com]

I've only paid for fanfic when it's for a charity cause, like the Haiti quake or the Japanese nuclear disaster.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that counts more as paying for something with something other than money.

[batchix.livejournal.com]

It doesn't bother me if the real person is just a passing background character... but when the fic revolves around a real person or persons that seems stalkerish to me. :<

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

I've been in a lot of RPS fandoms and I may be screwy in the brain (because an RPS fandom was one of my first fandoms when I was a wee thing) but generally the sane parts of the fandom see the people in the fics as characters based off whatever the actor/musician/whoever displays to the media and nothing like the actual person. Like there's a fic version of that person that follows certain fic rules and cliches and is totally disconnected except in name and appearance from the actual person.

And since a lot of RPS is AU it's usually more like reading original stories where the characters happen to have the same names as celebrities.

[guingel.livejournal.com]

yeah, I agree. Although I read a lot of RPS so I'm biased as well - I remember being creeped out but I got weaned into it with people who didn't speak english, so I felt like they would be low-risk of finding it and being creeped out, and it was people who clearly had created characters for media consumption, and that's definitely how I see RPS. When I get creeped out is when the writer seems to genuinely think they've got special insight into the person's inner life... it's hard to describe what gives a fic this vibe but it's usually really obvious.

And AU RPS is my fave anyway. :D

[erinm-4600.livejournal.com]

I had some trouble with the last one, because while I don't like RPF, I am guilty of writing it. In my defense.. it was 10 years ago and I didn't know any better.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's anything wrong with finding something you've done objectionable. You just have to be cool with being like, "self, I find this objectionable!!"

[evil-laugher.livejournal.com]

The only fanfic where I can recall maybe being offended by the subject matter was the Lucius Malfoy skullfuck. You all know what I'm talking about!

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

What about the Harry/James/Sirius necrophilia fic? That one was ok? XD

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING WHEN I SAW THIS COMMENT TOO.

[evil-laugher.livejournal.com]

Who was the corpse in this scenario?

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

James, obv, for many years.

I think it was supposed to be set around/before OotP?

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

A year ago I would have said no to all these things, and then Dragon Age 2 happened, and now I am deeply entrenched in the fanfic writer swamp. Though, to my defense, I've been using it to learn how to write adventure/action/romance stories instead of horror, and to work on my dialogue. So it has been a VERY useful exercise for me.

[eschatologies.livejournal.com]

RPF weirds me out unless thalialunacy is behind it. I can't help but think how awkward and embarrassed I'd feel if people wrote porn about my life.

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

SECONDED ALL.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I think Dymphna's counts because it is technically Harry Potter fanfic :-P

Anyway, that is kind of exciting. I think the thing with fanfic is that there are so many motivations for writing it-- much very silly and playful as you say but I know some people who have written some beautiful, very serious and epic fanfic.

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

Slightly late to the game, but I've never paid for or been paid for fanfic.

Also on the last question I marked Something Else because the only thing in fic that bothers me (other than people getting paid because hey, the whole idea of fanfic that I was taught is it doesn't really effect the author because we don't get money for it) is fic about Real People That I've Met.

Like, I was in bandom for a couple years but as time has gone by and I've met and hung out with a good number of the bandom groups, I'm basically down to only one band I can read fic about, because otherwise it gets difficult for me to remember that the people in the fic are fandom versions of themselves, not the real deal.

Also, I have trouble reading fic written by people I know, especially porny fic. I like reading stuff by strangers but the idea of reading something a good friend of mine wrote - or of said friend reading MY fic - skeeves me out slightly.

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

YEEEES POOOOLLLLL! Just had to get that out before I fill it out. Okay, going now. Hee!

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

The only 'payment' has been when I've written fanfic for donation/auction sort of things, like the help Japan one that was going back when the tsunami hit.

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

Totally separate comment necessary for the issue of creator approval/disapproval - I think views on that tend to depend on multiple factors such as

a) how you would feel yourself as a creator - if you had an original character you were attached to, would you be okay with other people using that character? If you're possessive of your own characters and work you're going to care more about what the creator says.

b) what kind of creators you had in your first fandoms. If you started in Harry Potter fandom, where JK says its cool and fanfic writers have gone on to be published novelists, I think you're more likely to NOT write fic in a fandom where the author disapproves of fic. My first non-anime fandom was Anne Rice, though. Anne Rice not only dislikes fandom, but is predictably a crazy bitch about it, which really annoyed me when I found out because the only reason I started reading her books was because I read some fic online that made me want to give it another chance after disliking Interview with the Vampire, so not only were the fic authors not profiting off the work, it had actually resulted in more profit for her because I went out and bought a bunch of books. Ever since then, I can't muster any give-a-shit about creator preferences.

[rowena742.livejournal.com]

I think you might be on to something with B. When I was filling out the survey, I was initially going to say that going against the creator's preferences made me uncomfortable. But then I thought of Orson Scott Card...and as much as I love Ender's Game, some of his later work and RL essays make me want to write fic of his stuff just so I can make everybody gay. And I hate it when people do that in other fandoms.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

What's funny is that in fandoms where the authors are like that, their attitudes have just turned me so off of them that I stopped reading their books, or participating in fandom at all. I'd much rather play with the work of people who want me to play.

[liret.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this. I only write fanfic when people dare me to or if it is for h_e. I think for me, it comes down to a reluctance to put too much effort or attachment into something that can never be totally mine.

I don't believe creators have the right to completely forbid others from writing fanfic, any more then they can stop people from speculating or talking to each other about their book/show/whatever. Because at heart, fanfic is like an extended conversation about the original work. But creators very much do have the right to say they don't want to see or hear about people writing fanfic of their things, and I hate the sense of entitlement that leads some fans to believe they are doing a better job then the original writer and so they deserve all the appreciation and/or money.

Generally, the fanfic I really like is canon compliant and fills in emotional loose ends or backstory. I am very nitpicky about the character voice being consistent with the 'real' story, so that's probably the #1 reason I stop reading fics. I don't think retelling a story in a way that breaks the original story is bad - in theory, I really like the whole 'That book was a lie, let me tell you what really happened,' theme, and I like what-if type AUs. But those are even harder to do well, at least if they're completely serious, because you have to acknowledge the original story while selling the changes. ( I've realized the main reason Wicked the musical is so much better then the book is because while it's not outright parody, the musical admits the ridiculousness of it's own premise. The book doesn't.)

[guingel.livejournal.com]

I just love fanfic. And I'm really casual and fairly easy-to-please and non-intellectual about it. Some of it is that I just love erotica and written porn in general, and I do read original erotic fiction but if it's going to be of the romance-feelings-cuteness type, it's much much easier to quickly enjoy it with fanfic. (The smuttier it is, the less important the characters are, so original fic is just as enjoyable...if not more, in extreme cases.)

So yeah, I think I kind of treat fanfic as like a quick hit of fun more than literature. Like a goofy superhero comic - you read it cos it looks pretty and there are fun adventures, not because it'll make you think or is so well crafted. So while I sometimes do seek out and read lovely plotty well-written epics, in general I'm just looking to see the characters have some sort of enjoyable romance and thus don't get too fussed about the writing (beyond it being readable) or how it reflects on the original work or the extent to which it is an original work or anything like that!

[lenfaz.livejournal.com]

Awesome poll!
I have not written that much in ages but I was quite the reader/writer back in the day... not much bothers me to be honest. I just stay away from things I don't like and that is it. One thing that really bothered me at some point is when R/NC-17/controversial themes were not correctly labeled and/or restricted at some site, but that is just about it.

I've only been heavily involved in two fandoms, so I am not sure if the authors like it or not when they used their characters. I just enjoy reading. A LOT.

[coldwriter.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I missed out on this poll. I used to be more into fanfic in the past and am slowly getting back into writing it again. I don't think I've ever paid for fanfic though. Fanart and graphics, yes but those were mostly for charity cases (like Japan this year). But I don't think I've ever bought fanfic. I don't think I've been paid for it either unless it's (like mentioned before) for charity or H_E house points :P