Personally, as a reader, I like your experimentation. It makes for stories that are worth saving and definitely rereading later to get even more out of them. Otherwise you just have a rehash of plot #39, character set #14, situation #8, basically brain candy or worse. Though there can be some outstanding brain candy worth saving.
Kingfisher was an emotional brick upside the head for me. I've read it through 4 times now, and even just thinking about it while writing this still has me tearing up. The impact is associative as I've had several relatives that have had strokes and/or headed into Alzheimer's. The symptoms are similar except most of my folks went in the opposite direction, not getting better. That's hard to watch. Being blindsided like that by your fic makes it hard to pick out just one memorable part.
Anyway, back to the other points. No research is ever wasted, whether you are a writer trying to add verisimilitude or a reader intrigued by some factoid enough to find more info. Once you own that piece of information, it's in your brain ready for future reference, later use, depth of understanding on the same or similar topics, or merely for personal satisfaction. Um, why yes I have spent far too many hours chasing weird bits of info all over the internet just so *I* could know.
The writing of fanfic, in regards to a writer looking to become published, seems like a fairly safe set of 'training wheels'. You wind up with a built-in, self-help therapy group ready to hash out the latest story, willing to be bourne along on an experiment, who seem to be somewhat more forgiving than the orig fic groups full of those wanting to write the 'great American novel'(tm). In the SF/F field I've noticed that some published authors will thank their writing groups and name names. Some of those names have also been published. Seems like sticking within a chosen genre you wind up with a better critical support structure regardless of whether you are writing fanfic or orig fic.
As I am so *not* a writer, all this can be taken with a shaker of salt.
rambling while at work
Date: 10 Nov 2004 10:34 pm (UTC)Kingfisher was an emotional brick upside the head for me. I've read it through 4 times now, and even just thinking about it while writing this still has me tearing up. The impact is associative as I've had several relatives that have had strokes and/or headed into Alzheimer's. The symptoms are similar except most of my folks went in the opposite direction, not getting better. That's hard to watch. Being blindsided like that by your fic makes it hard to pick out just one memorable part.
Anyway, back to the other points. No research is ever wasted, whether you are a writer trying to add verisimilitude or a reader intrigued by some factoid enough to find more info. Once you own that piece of information, it's in your brain ready for future reference, later use, depth of understanding on the same or similar topics, or merely for personal satisfaction. Um, why yes I have spent far too many hours chasing weird bits of info all over the internet just so *I* could know.
The writing of fanfic, in regards to a writer looking to become published, seems like a fairly safe set of 'training wheels'. You wind up with a built-in, self-help therapy group ready to hash out the latest story, willing to be bourne along on an experiment, who seem to be somewhat more forgiving than the orig fic groups full of those wanting to write the 'great American novel'(tm). In the SF/F field I've noticed that some published authors will thank their writing groups and name names. Some of those names have also been published. Seems like sticking within a chosen genre you wind up with a better critical support structure regardless of whether you are writing fanfic or orig fic.
As I am so *not* a writer, all this can be taken with a shaker of salt.