Fanfiction Pimping

Yeah, I'm all about fanfiction. I know I've said it here before. Just don't ask me where. I don't remember. Brain. Sieve. Dig? Anyway, like the concept of a fandom, fanfiction has been around a lot longer than fanfiction.net and Harry Potter. Remember those Trekkies? They released member zines chronicling their fanfiction escapades with their favorite characters back in the 70s. It's an old beast that's been reinvigorated.

Unfortunately, fanfiction has a pretty bad name because, well, there's a hell of a lot of shit out there. Don't believe me? Hit up ff.net under, let's say, Harry Potter and time how long it takes you to come across something that doesn't have your teeth shuddering. And I'm not even talking about the cream of the crop stuff either. Just something decent that you can get through. It's not going to be pretty.

But it is there. And I think it's a wonderful way for people not only to come together for a common bond but to enhance their writing skills, if that's what they aim to do. Otherwise, it's just fun to write.

Now I'm sure a lot of people are like, "why would you want to write other people's characters instead of creating your own stuff?" To that I say, if you're inexperienced enough but still want to learn how to write, the task of building an entire world is one hell of a daunting one. You do writing exercises using snippets from technique books that you didn't write, right? So what's the difference? It's like learning to swim. You're not going to jump right into the deep end the first time around, are you? Of course not. You're going to start off in the shallow end with your swimmies and work your way to the other side. Some people need to ease into it and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Then there's the whole fan side of it, where you get to expand on something that you love because you can't get enough of it. What's wrong with that? Most creators are flattered by it.

I think it's pretty cool that libraries are actually encouraging teens to write fanfiction and holding contests and leading them down the way of the non-Sues and spell check. Discouraging writing at all, I think, can be detrimental to a budding writer. Of course we don't want that person outright plagiarizing but like I said: baby steps.

When I eventually (please god) get published, I'd be thrilled if people loved my work enough to want to write fanfiction about it. I might just pee a little, to be a little too honest. Would I read it? No. Aside from the legal repercussions (as backwards as that is), I honestly wouldn't want to see what people are doing to my darlings. Maybe it's a little hypocritical but they're my babies. I'd like to dress them myself. But I'd encourage fanfiction. Why not? Just don't attempt to profit off of it.

What do you think? How do you feel about fanfiction? If it were your work, would you want someone writing fics off of your stuff?