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Aaah, yes. Nothing like a little kerfuffle to clear the air. For those out of the loop, I had a little run in with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bonesffrants, which was bound to happen because the place, I gotta admit, rubs me entirely the wrong way.
I love the creative chaos that is fandom. I dislike being told by other fans what I can and cannot do. It gets in the way of the whole anarchy thing we got going. Hence my general problem with places like that rant comm, where some folks have very clear ideas what a good fic must look like.
Which brings me to a thing that's been bugging me for months, not just limited to that comm: I keep hearing people say that teenagers shouldn't write Bones fic because their fic sucks... really, I read that so often, without anybody disagreeing, that one could almost get the impression that's the prevailing opinion.
Quoting - because I'm lazy like that - from a mail I wrote to one of the mods at ffrants (who btw was very reasonable and friendly and I'd like to emphasize that my beef is not with her personally):
"Just one thing: I saw someone post in the header to their fic on ffn something along the lines of, "I wasn't sure if I should post this because I'm kinda scared of bonesffrants." Someone else agreed. And this sort of thing honestly bothers me, because the deal with Sturgeon's law is that it's a package deal. We need all the crap to get the five to ten percent that's good. I think that thing you guys do can smother creativity, like when someone happens to stumble over it who hasn't got a thick skin. And many writers are awefully thin-skinned, not just the teenies. This is why I care about this so strongly.
Well, apart from that there's the whole issue of how fanfic can help teenagers become more literate and hone their writing skills which is why they shouldn't be discouraged no matter how much their dreadful high-school teen fik makes you want to spork your brain out. Ten years from now their stories might kick our collective butts." [eta: btw, not meaning to imply that teenagers' fic in general isn't good - in Bones fandom alone I've seen some very young writers who write kick-ass fic that makes me deeply jealous. :)]
Henry Jenkins, author of 'Convergence Culture' and 'Textual Poachers' wrote an interesting article on the subject: In Defense of Crud
In the end, no one's holding a gun to anyone's head to make them read stories they dislike or find offensive. I don't know about you but I can usually tell within the first paragraph if a fic is my cup of tea. With badfic, I don't even need the first paragraph, the summary will do.
And while it makes me boggle on occasion (ok, often) how some poorly-spelled, OOC fic at the pit gets 250 reviews while the beautifully crafted story right next to it gets only 10 which seems quite unfair... it's not like these two stories are in direct competition with each other. They got different target groups and fulfil different functions. I certainly know which one I'll read, but there's no reason to wish for the other story to go away. Others must've liked it well enough to comment. The interwebz is huge, there’s enough room for all.
No more meta for at least a week; I haven't even read fanfic in days.
*** Oh, oh, also... I don't remember if I linked to this already. I found it in the comments of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lim's fantastic meta vid Us: Also a meta vid, but a totally different approach. *g* Check it out: I put you there. It's BtVS but since it's very, very meta it's probably fun even if you're not in the fandom. (By the way, can someone tell me how I get an imeem vid to display in full screen?)
bonesffrants, which was bound to happen because the place, I gotta admit, rubs me entirely the wrong way.I love the creative chaos that is fandom. I dislike being told by other fans what I can and cannot do. It gets in the way of the whole anarchy thing we got going. Hence my general problem with places like that rant comm, where some folks have very clear ideas what a good fic must look like.
Which brings me to a thing that's been bugging me for months, not just limited to that comm: I keep hearing people say that teenagers shouldn't write Bones fic because their fic sucks... really, I read that so often, without anybody disagreeing, that one could almost get the impression that's the prevailing opinion.
Quoting - because I'm lazy like that - from a mail I wrote to one of the mods at ffrants (who btw was very reasonable and friendly and I'd like to emphasize that my beef is not with her personally):
"Just one thing: I saw someone post in the header to their fic on ffn something along the lines of, "I wasn't sure if I should post this because I'm kinda scared of bonesffrants." Someone else agreed. And this sort of thing honestly bothers me, because the deal with Sturgeon's law is that it's a package deal. We need all the crap to get the five to ten percent that's good. I think that thing you guys do can smother creativity, like when someone happens to stumble over it who hasn't got a thick skin. And many writers are awefully thin-skinned, not just the teenies. This is why I care about this so strongly.
Well, apart from that there's the whole issue of how fanfic can help teenagers become more literate and hone their writing skills which is why they shouldn't be discouraged no matter how much their dreadful high-school teen fik makes you want to spork your brain out. Ten years from now their stories might kick our collective butts." [eta: btw, not meaning to imply that teenagers' fic in general isn't good - in Bones fandom alone I've seen some very young writers who write kick-ass fic that makes me deeply jealous. :)]
Henry Jenkins, author of 'Convergence Culture' and 'Textual Poachers' wrote an interesting article on the subject: In Defense of Crud
In the end, no one's holding a gun to anyone's head to make them read stories they dislike or find offensive. I don't know about you but I can usually tell within the first paragraph if a fic is my cup of tea. With badfic, I don't even need the first paragraph, the summary will do.
And while it makes me boggle on occasion (ok, often) how some poorly-spelled, OOC fic at the pit gets 250 reviews while the beautifully crafted story right next to it gets only 10 which seems quite unfair... it's not like these two stories are in direct competition with each other. They got different target groups and fulfil different functions. I certainly know which one I'll read, but there's no reason to wish for the other story to go away. Others must've liked it well enough to comment. The interwebz is huge, there’s enough room for all.
No more meta for at least a week; I haven't even read fanfic in days.
lim's fantastic meta vid Us: Also a meta vid, but a totally different approach. *g* Check it out: I put you there. It's BtVS but since it's very, very meta it's probably fun even if you're not in the fandom. (By the way, can someone tell me how I get an imeem vid to display in full screen?)
no subject
Yup. And if they don't like it and finish it anyway, it's really their problem. Not rocket science, that.
Usually you can tell right away if a story is for you, anyway. I've read only one Bones fic that started so promising that I put it in my potential-rec folder and printed it out (multi-chapter!) to find that the author lost track of the plot near the end. It was a very ambitious story, just the plotholes got so huge that the second half would've required a complete rewrite, and I couldn't finish it. Like Debra said, that sort of thing is kind of exasperating... partly because of the time invested reading, but more because of the wasted potential. (And I didn't feedback because how do you say, "Hi, you don't know me, I think your story could be great if you just rewrote the last ten chapters.")
I don't like the idea of telling anyone that they shouldn't/mustn't/can't write because of their age - or any other characteristic.
Oh man, don't get me started. I'm starting to get an allergic reaction any time someone says that 12-year-olds shouldn't write Bones fic. Who do they think they are? Man, be glad that some kids actually do something creative with their time. And I've heard from many folks in fandom whose kids are writing fanfic as well how you can see them develop their own writing voice over time. That's fantastic. And to write them an acidic review that could turn them off writing... yeah. I don't get it.
Also, this notion that concrit is for weaklings, and honesty is more important... *twitch* Dudes and dudettes, those two actually don't have to be mutually exclusive.
And the funny thing is that I always thought of myself as something of an elitist. Huh.