My Problems with Fan Fiction in General · 7:15am Jul 4th, 2016
(Warning: I am writing this to get this off my chest. Sorry that it is so wordy. This is pretty much a rant. Feel free to comment though!)
Fan fiction is a wonderful yet frustrating thing. I mean, who doesn't love free stories about another familiar story? Yes, many fan fiction stories are amateur work, but that doesn't make them inferior to traditional works necessarily. Usually I can easily overlook spelling and grammar issues, and style problems don't usually bother me, especially because I struggle with style myself. (However, I can get frustrated when I cannot tell who is the subject of a sentence... but usually it's decipherable.) No, my real problems with fanfiction are a) some aspects of the stories themselves and b) the lack of completion. And... well... c) the fact that I don't feel comfortable talking about these problems.
Fear to talk about it.
Now why wouldn't I feel comfortable talking about my problems with fan fiction? After all, comment sections and ratings both serve important purposes: to better the writers, to better the stories, and to warn potential readers. But here's the thing: The stories are free. I didn't pay to read them, and the authors usually aren't getting paid. They're doing it on their free time. So, while I used to be openly critical, casually stating the flaws I have with a piece of online work, now I often spend many minutes trying to decide whether I should post my lengthy critical comment or not. And, seemingly more often than not, I decide to delete my lengthy critical comment or save it to a private text file, never to reach the eyes of the author. I don't want to ruin the day, or worse, ruin the hobby of a budding author. I don't want people to take my words the wrong way.
I am certainly not entitled to have a good story to read. I knowingly take a risk every time I start reading a new story. But reading fan fiction takes time! I can spend 8 hours reading an entire fan fiction in one sitting just to discover that the tagged "completed" story leaves more questions than answers and has an incomplete sequel that seems abandoned! Or I stay up all night reading chapters of a lengthy story that starts out amazing but devolves into nonsense later on. Or I read chapters upon chapters, expecting a story to get better, just to realize how foolish I was to expect the ending to be any better than the beginning. Or I get really hooked into a fantastic piece of work that I have no qualms with except!... except... that the story updates every two months or doesn't update at all.
Alright, I'm getting ahead of myself.
My point is, I may not be paying with money, but I am paying with my time and attention. Is that not worth anything? But I fear that I'm sounding entitled when I write this. I knew what I was getting into! Every story is another risk. And this is where my conflict lies. Should I just stop reading fan fiction altogether? Well... no... But would it make any difference if I just picked up a physical book that seemed enjoyable in the beginning but ended terribly? Yes, the difference is that I wouldn't be afraid to speak up! Because the author got paid! Augh, but is that even a good argument?! We don't pay for Youtube videos, we don't pay for a lot of things, yet we still talk about them! I actually do appreciate comment sections. I do think we have the right to speak up, just like authors have the right to ignore us. But at the same time, I really don't want to ruin somebody's day. This is one of the reasons I'm afraid to write fan fiction of my own! But we do need to learn how to be able to take constructive criticism and learn from it without being defensive. Another reason I'm afraid to speak up is simply because these stories are works in progress. If I tell an author how they should write their stories, what if they give into the comments and write something they never wanted to write? Or what if they had a trick up their sleeve and decided to toss it just due to my comment? And I would never intentionally post destructive criticism or insults, but I don't want to unintentionally discourage writers to the point that they abandon their stories, because the completion problem is huge.
Lack of completion.
Ever had a good story idea, began to write it, than abandon the story after writing a couple chapters? This completion problem happens all the time in fimfiction.net and fanfiction.net alike. And I get it. I know how it feels like to lose motivation or hit writer's block or just not have the time anymore. But it can be just as frustrating for readers to invest time and emotional energy in a story just to see it die. And, yes, it arguably requires more time and energy to write rather than read, but as a reader, I'm not usually just following one story. I check the number next to "Favorites" almost daily, hoping to see the counter go up by one or two, but for many days now it has remained at the same number.
There's no easy solution to this problem. I've never finished writing a lengthy novel or draft of a novel, be it original or derivative, in my life. So I'm a prime example of this problem. But before I publish any fan fiction, I'd want to write at least three chapters, but that may be why I have never uploaded anything! Since I've only successfully written maybe a chapter or two of fan fiction, I wouldn't bother uploading something that might never get finished.
Encouragement might help authors along, but I wonder how helpful it is to read, "When are you going to upload another chapter? I love your story!" Such a commenter might have helped put pressure on the writer, getting a response such as, "Oh, I'll try my best to update before the end of the month! The story's not dead yet!" Or even, "I'm a little too busy in my life right now, but I will get back to this story ASAP!" But, unfortunately, the commenter might get defensive reply: "Please be patient. I'm doing this on my free time, and you're not entitled to another chapter. It's only been a few weeks since I've last updated." I can see how "please update!" comments can be irritating as hell and stress someone out who has pressing, IRL things to do. But without pressure from the comments, how will the author know that they have people eagerly waiting for another chapter? Well, they might know this, but it's one thing to know, and it's another thing to feel it. The number of favorites and likes may put pressure at first, but they might seem like numbers more than people. Maybe, perhaps, simple compliments are enough to encourage the author to write more?
As a writer, I would like to try someday is keeping a strict schedule of writing. Maybe then I'd actually upload something! As a reader, I certainly would be happy with a chapter a week. Of course, this could only apply to my own work, because expecting someone else to stick to such a schedule is silly.
Ultimately, though, I don't have any surefire solutions. It's very frustrating, though, to know that many, many stories I've favorited have been abandoned. And as a self-described "sort of a completionist," I'm usually not satisfied with half-written works. They inspire me like starter stories, getting the gears turning in my head, but I don't feel comfortable writing a fan fiction of a fan fiction to attempt to fill in the blanks because... I don't want to be seen as a rip-off. And an unfinished story can be like getting a small taste of a wonderful meal. One might find pleasure in unfinished works, but to me, they feel like a tease, like the frustration may not be worth the joy. Sometimes, though they do inspire me to daydream, to forget my troubles for a while, which I suppose can make some stories worth the while regardless if they're finished or not. But my preference, of course, is always towards finished stories.
You might say that the solution is to just read stories that are tagged as "complete". However, I have come across stories that are tagged as "complete" but haven't truly ended and continue with an unfinished sequel. It feels deceptive because I'll sometimes filter for complete stories, spend hours reading one, just to discover that the ending lies in a sequel... that is not complete. I know I don't have the right to tell authors how to organize their stories, but, personally, I think there should be some clear conclusion to a story before you can split it off into a sequel. You might be able to get away with that in physical book form, but publishers put a lot of pressure on the writers to follow through with the sequel. You might have good intentions, thinking that the sequel will be done in no time, or maybe you just want to split off because the tone or point of view is different, but... can you see how this might cause frustration? You can alternatively split the story into parts, which I find to be a much more reasonable solution to a change of tone or point of view. Also, if you split into a sequel, the view count unfortunately seems to go down between originals and sequels, making it seem like people don't care for the sequel and discouraging the writer. Which may be part of the reason sequels don't always get completed. Sequels can be fantastic, and I usually don't mind if the original story can stand on its own or if it was a chapter or two (since I didn't put all that much time into it anyway). But the longer your story is, the more disappointed I'll be if I find out that it relies on a sequel to feel complete. The "complete" tag is a big deal guys!
The stories.
Now we're getting into hefty stuff. I don't claim to be an expert in writing, and I'm not quoting any website or textbook, but I do have some opinions on the matter. And, keep in mind, this is all subjective and picked up from simply reading fiction. Of course, I'm talking about plot and characters, not technical aspects. I do think spelling, grammar, style, and formatting are all important because they can mean the difference between a reader or a... leaver. lol But I can get used the technical issues usually. What I cannot get used to is disappointment.
I really don't like when I begin reading a story and I'm invested in one conflict, where the author builds up suspense and drama over the course of several chapters, just for the author to get bored and afraid to drag it on, solve the conflict quickly and anticlimactically, and move on to something else entirely. And, what's worse, is that the six chapters were not short, so I feel like I wasted my time. That isn't to say that a story can't make this transition, but the first conflict has to be resolved properly, not quickly and anticlimactically. And, look, even if the first conflict was solved in the midst of gunfire, that doesn't make it climactic to me because the gunfire is part of a totally different conflict! If the story started out as a drama, please don't turn it into a slice of life or a lighthearted comedy midway through, at least until the original conflict was solved properly. The second-half of the story may be good still, but, in a way, this type of writing is deceptive, even if done unintentionally.
I'm not sure if I explained this well, so I'll try to give an example without calling out stories. Suppose Bob has a crush on Amy, but he used to be a bad guy and is afraid that she won't like him. So he meets her disguised as a good guy. They date a few times, and she figures it out. So she tells him, shrugs her shoulders, and says that the past doesn't matter. Then you get 10 chapters of their life together filled with quirky little problems or, slightly better, 10 chapters of them teaming up to fight bad guys. One way the first conflict could have been handled better is if Bob made a mistake, accidentally breaks his disguise, upsetting Amy, which causes Bob to act foolishly. He reverts to his old ways, realizes his mistakes, and then Bob and Amy team up to fight bad guys. This doesn't sound particularly original, nor does it sound well written when I'm telling it so simple and straightforwardly, but I hope I got the point across. Maybe if the story had started out as a comedy, I wouldn't mind if Amy's response was simple, but if it starts out dramatically, there is some expectation of a dramatic climax.
Flat characters is another problem. I know everyone's used to this one. The Mary Sues and Gary Stus. But I also really dislike reading about the big bad guys who are bad just because they're bad. This can work sometimes, but usually not if they're a major part of the story. Or characters that, even though they're not flat at all, hardly change at all throughout the story when you feel they should. Or they did change, but, disappointingly, it didn't affect the outcome of the story.
Also not a fan of stories where you're waiting for a twist, but the whole thing ended up being fairly predictable. Or the story overall ends anticlimactically.
Anyway, I have more to say about stories themselves, but this rant has been pretty long as-is, and I'm getting tired. I may add more to this post if more comes to mind.
All in all...
I know I was being fairly vague throughout this rambly critique, but I hope you have found some things in common. I don't really expect anyone to read this, but if you have, you get a smiley face. :) Please don't take anything I said here personally. I really do enjoy fan fiction despite my conflicted opinions of it, and I've read many stories that have these issues but are overall still pretty good. So, if anyone actually did read this, feel free to tell me what you think or what you might add in the comments!
(Also, is it "fan fiction" or "fanfiction"? Firefox doesn't seem to like "fanfiction".)
I can say I've been affected by this. Multiple times actually. Usually, it makes it better, but sometimes it makes it a whole lot worse.