color me curious, per usual

[kaigou]

A few questions for those who write and/or read fanfic, about what triggers your fanfic juices for one canon/story (or dulls your juices for another story, in contrast). Feel free to pass along, link, whatever, because I'd really like to see (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) what gets people the most fired up when it comes to writing (or considering writing) fanfic for a story.

Because it wouldn't let me put this in the middle, for questions #4 and #5, here are the definitions I'm using for the terms:

• individual = solo creator (novelist), and solo-owned copyright. (also two-author partnerships; count them as one merged-author for this poll's purposes)
• consecutive = single creator at one time, but multiple creators overall (eg long-running comics); usually corporate-owned copyright.
• collaborative = multiple creators at one time (eg movies: director, screenwriter, actors, editor, etc); corporate-owned copyright.
• group-produced/influenced = consecutive & collaborative, with coporate-owned and -managed copyright

Also per the definitions above, thanks to inkstone: if you're in a Japanese fandom, it's not quite so cut-and-dried, b/c in Japan, manga is usually solo-copyright, while anime is (obviously) corporate copy-right, and a manga based on an existing anime thus becomes a shared copyright. So copyright isn't always a valid guide -- you'll need to just use your best judgment on whether the fandoms you're thinking of would qualify as solo work (canon created and determined by one person) or a type of group work (canon influenced and developed by multiple people).

Next point, thanks to mikkeneko: the phrasing could use some tweaking on the first three questions, since they currently might give the impression there's a distinction being made between "what have you ever read/written" versus "what you're currently reading/writing". Since I can't edit the poll's questions now that it's posted, I figure so long as you think of the two consistently, the stats will hold up (as much as they can, given the non-validity here). So either think of questions in terms of "for all time/ever" OR in terms of "only right at this moment", and answer all questions in light of that.

thanks, you two. *wry*

my poll skills are way out of practice.

Poll #3089 the inspirations of fanfic

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 57

1. Do you write and post fanfic?

yes, currently writing
37 (66.1%)

yes, used to write but not now
8 (14.3%)

no, but I read/crit
11 (19.6%)

2. When READING fanfic: how many fandoms do you read in, but NOT write for?

only 1
3 (5.4%)

2-3
6 (10.7%)

4-6
13 (23.2%)

7-10
4 (7.1%)

more than 10
30 (53.6%)

3. When WRITING fanfic: how many fandoms have you written for?

only 1
4 (7.3%)

2-3
10 (18.2%)

4-6
9 (16.4%)

7-10
9 (16.4%)

more than 10
15 (27.3%)

thought of fanfic but never written it
8 (14.5%)

4. When READING fanfic, which canon-types do you most often read in?

individual
10 (18.2%)

consecutive
1 (1.8%)

collaborative
9 (16.4%)

group-produced/influenced only
2 (3.6%)

all three are equally likely
33 (60.0%)

5. When WRITING fanfic, which canon-types do you most often write for?

individual
13 (26.5%)

consecutive
0 (0.0%)

collaborative
10 (20.4%)

group-produced/influenced only
1 (2.0%)

all three are equally likely
25 (51.0%)

6. In general, which is more likely to get you writing/thinking fanfic?

the story's so great, I want more of it
9 (16.4%)

the story sucks so much, I want to fix it
1 (1.8%)

mostly the first, only rarely the second
13 (23.6%)

mostly the second, only rarely the first
2 (3.6%)

both first and second can get me writing
30 (54.5%)

7. Which specific things get you writing/thinking fanfic? (yes, do check all that apply!)

a massive cast of characters
30 (53.6%)

an intriguing premise
43 (76.8%)

plotholes in conflict development
26 (46.4%)

discontinuity issues in sequels
17 (30.4%)

dropped/ignored story complications
42 (75.0%)

lots of subtext (of any kind)
43 (76.8%)

potential romance not explored
35 (62.5%)

actual romance too low-key
15 (26.8%)

specific favorite archetype is MC
32 (57.1%)

premise good but execution faulty
35 (62.5%)

potential ignored for background character
41 (73.2%)

non-MC more interesting than MC
40 (71.4%)

plotholes in story resolution
25 (44.6%)

unanswered questions in resolution
44 (78.6%)

crucial scenes played out off-page
27 (48.2%)

character development too sketchy
32 (57.1%)

unexplored character development
40 (71.4%)

other (see next question)
14 (25.0%)

8. If "other" for #7: what else in canon would inspire you to create?

9. Obligatory ticky!

cake!
20 (36.4%)

pie!
26 (47.3%)

both!
30 (54.5%)

ticky!
30 (54.5%)

also: continuation of poll per thoughts in comments: two more questions, thanks, all ya'll.

Comments

[edenfalling]

Re: question 6

I am actually not likely to write fic based on either of your options. If a story is 'so great,' I am generally happy with it and would not know where to find a loose end to start my own work. If a story 'sucks so much,' I generally don't read/watch enough of it to care enough to write fic. What tends to interest me is a story that's decent with potential, or awesome with flaws.

For fandoms I write in only once or twice, my motivation is most often along the lines of, "I like this canon, but flaw X is bugging me; I wonder if I can fix/explain it." (Or they are for Yuletide, in which case my motivation is, basically, "I know the canon and could probably do something with that prompt..." *wry*) For two of the fandoms I've written in more extensively, I started off fixing, explaining, or arguing with something, but I picked a long project as my first fic. As I wrote that first project, the characters took up residence in my brain and became available for stories that explore, expand, or alter canon rather than fixing or explaining canon. (My other two major fandoms just have so many gaps to fill and points I want to explain or argue with that I could keep writing that type of fic for years.)

[kaigou]

The problem is that how we define "it was bad" and "it was good" (and all permutations in between) is actually really personal. I mean, I've read stories that I could say were, for the most part, pretty good, but the unresolved conflict in the denouement leaves me saying the story was good except for how much it sucked... in a way that is specifically of huge importance to me. So it didn't suck, per se, so much as suck in such a specific way that it's a bad-good story.

Unfortunately, it's damn hard to get that into a poll question unless you're a professional at such things. Which I'm not. So I suspect the "equal amounts of both" -- that there's good in the story worth investigating AND bad in the story that needs fixing, might be the answer most folks are picking that best fits the description you just gave. (Or alternately, that they mean the story might be one, or the other, but either is decent motivation. That would be example of bad validity in question, I suppose.)