I'm trying to figure this out; have been making notes into this post over several days, as I ponder. Feel free to jump in for/against my observations. Might help me clarify what I can sense in some stories, but can't articulate (yet).
[Aside: via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lilithcrow, an astute response to the 'omg fanfiction is bad!' rant, by liviapenn. Summary of argument: plenty of fanfiction has been published, professionally, and even won awards.]
I think there are two kinds of fiction available in this modern world, but three if you subdivide. There's fanfic -- ffic -- and original fic -- ofic; the second has two parts. Professional fic, published fic -- pfic -- and efic: professional-format stories regularly distributed via a dedicated site. When I refer to ofic, then, I mean everything from efic from independent one-person serialized stories to minor online publishing houses, right up to pfic and its gateways of assessing, reviewing, negotiating, editing, proofing, etc. When I say efic, I mean folks who've not made it past those gatekeepers, or who have chosen the lesser-height jumps of online publishing.
The past three or four weeks, I've set aside the stack o' TBR pfic waiting around the house, and have been focusing on efic. A few stories from Loose ID, two or three from Ellora's (which, I note, seems to have lower quality than Loose ID), and a handful via single-author sites. It took me a few novels (and 99% of what I've read has easily been in the medium-to-large novel size, that is, 120K or more), but one reaction kept surprising me, regardless of story.
With nearly every efic story -- despite clearly being ofic -- each feels like ffic.
( Being a long and somewhat rambling contemplation on original fiction written with fanfiction sensibilities. )
[Aside: via
lilithcrow, an astute response to the 'omg fanfiction is bad!' rant, by liviapenn. Summary of argument: plenty of fanfiction has been published, professionally, and even won awards.]I think there are two kinds of fiction available in this modern world, but three if you subdivide. There's fanfic -- ffic -- and original fic -- ofic; the second has two parts. Professional fic, published fic -- pfic -- and efic: professional-format stories regularly distributed via a dedicated site. When I refer to ofic, then, I mean everything from efic from independent one-person serialized stories to minor online publishing houses, right up to pfic and its gateways of assessing, reviewing, negotiating, editing, proofing, etc. When I say efic, I mean folks who've not made it past those gatekeepers, or who have chosen the lesser-height jumps of online publishing.
The past three or four weeks, I've set aside the stack o' TBR pfic waiting around the house, and have been focusing on efic. A few stories from Loose ID, two or three from Ellora's (which, I note, seems to have lower quality than Loose ID), and a handful via single-author sites. It took me a few novels (and 99% of what I've read has easily been in the medium-to-large novel size, that is, 120K or more), but one reaction kept surprising me, regardless of story.
With nearly every efic story -- despite clearly being ofic -- each feels like ffic.
( Being a long and somewhat rambling contemplation on original fiction written with fanfiction sensibilities. )