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Sep. 7th, 2010 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veleda_kA note to anyone who has ever used the the "They call it FANfiction for a reason" argument (Or sometimes "They call it FICTION for a reason") to excuse their OOC dreck:
Yes, they call it FANfiction for a reason. And that reason is that it's fiction written by fans of another piece of work. It has absolutely nothing to do with how well the characters are written or how believable it is. Writing fanfiction does not mean that no one should have problems with the characters acting nothing like themselves, nor does it mean that no one has a right to criticize your canon warping Sue. The argument you keep using is meaningless.
The only circumstance I could see that argument being valid is if you were writing RPF, and someone told you that what you were writing about never happened. Then, yes, I suppose "Well, that's why they call it fiction" would be a suitable response. But I've never seen it used in that context, so right now it's a moot point.
And I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but for me, I think that the fact that it's fanfiction means that accurate (or at least defensible) characterization is all the more important. If someone wrote a fic that was perfect mechanically, with lush description and engaging plot, but none of the characters acted like themselves, I would say that it was a good story, but terrible fanfic. I think that working with what you're given is the unique challenge of fanfic. (Note: that's not bashing AUs or anything. I like AUs. But even in AUs there's still a need to keep to the original somewhat, or else you're just writing poorly disguised original fic.)
And that's Veleda's two cents.
(Edited to correct a typo.)
Yes, they call it FANfiction for a reason. And that reason is that it's fiction written by fans of another piece of work. It has absolutely nothing to do with how well the characters are written or how believable it is. Writing fanfiction does not mean that no one should have problems with the characters acting nothing like themselves, nor does it mean that no one has a right to criticize your canon warping Sue. The argument you keep using is meaningless.
The only circumstance I could see that argument being valid is if you were writing RPF, and someone told you that what you were writing about never happened. Then, yes, I suppose "Well, that's why they call it fiction" would be a suitable response. But I've never seen it used in that context, so right now it's a moot point.
And I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but for me, I think that the fact that it's fanfiction means that accurate (or at least defensible) characterization is all the more important. If someone wrote a fic that was perfect mechanically, with lush description and engaging plot, but none of the characters acted like themselves, I would say that it was a good story, but terrible fanfic. I think that working with what you're given is the unique challenge of fanfic. (Note: that's not bashing AUs or anything. I like AUs. But even in AUs there's still a need to keep to the original somewhat, or else you're just writing poorly disguised original fic.)
And that's Veleda's two cents.
(Edited to correct a typo.)