Fanfics are like AMVs...

[Otohiko]

The water trickled silently beneath the porcelain bowl. Just nearby, a leaking tap measured an even beat in 11/8. Shadows of a nearby acacia fell on the floor silently and embraced the still figures upon it.

Lo! It is the creature avarice that imbibes the cascading referendum to posits and dissects from formative actualization.

Incoherent fantasies streamed through crevices in the ceiling, touching the singular hairs of the bear carpet in the immedieate proximity.

Doesn't the sparrow 'tweet', whether pleased or disappointed? Doesn't the interminable 'tweet' indicate that for the sparrow, there is no being pleased or disappointed, just being?

The state being, floating next to the mirror, exuberated the inebriate flavors of contemplative meditation.

Caged rocks are still rocks. Shaking ellipses are still ellipses. The foundation of concurrent desires is akin to the oblivious 'tweet.'

Birds flew through the sky, posing no interest to those underneath, above, and circumlocuted. Pulses of triangular nature deviated off the semi- fractured motion axis.

The reality of the true 'interest' lies in the quadrant sequestered for stammering, pulsating Romanian hairdressers who have lost their scissors, yet retain their razors.

Realization came shimmering through the concrete cacti.

Phase out of symmetrical perception and grow towards the understanding of the life belt. It is the taste of the color yellow. It is the scent of a sunrise. It is receiving the answer before the riddle.

[SarahtheBoring]

bah most fanfics are just like the stories in penthouse redone with anime characters, sex sex and more sex...or where animes crossover, nothing like how many characters suddenly go "supersayian" and start killing stuff in some of these fanfics...im done

Only in that most anime is porn and robot battles: if you have seen one or two of them, yes, it LOOKS that way.

Anime fans should know better than to generalize like that, or so I thought.

[Otohiko]

Now, for a real response - while generalizing might not help, for me it remains a fact: I still find fanfics, more often than not, to be more enjoyable to the writer rather than the reader. Sure, they're fun, but largely don't have something to hold me down as well as the real thing. Because, really, I miss the graphical side of anime/manga, and rarely does a writing style capture it as vividly as it should.

Case in point, the blabber above - I'm fairly certain I had a lot more fun writing than the rest of you - reading it. Fanfics tend to be like that too, more often than not.

[BrahRizor]

bah most fanfics are just like the stories in penthouse redone with anime characters, sex sex and more sex...or where animes crossover, nothing like how many characters suddenly go "supersayian" and start killing stuff in some of these fanfics...im done

Only in that most anime is porn and robot battles: if you have seen one or two of them, yes, it LOOKS that way.

Anime fans should know better than to generalize like that, or so I thought.

No I know better, its just more fun to bash the bad ones than praise the good ones, people who are good at it know they are good, because other people still read their fanfics.

[dokidoki]

Successfully manipulating a character into doing anything different than what they do onscreen (aside from adding subtitles and foward-reverse edits *cough cough*)

It's all in the mind.

[madmallard]

How long have you people been fanfic fans? It sounds like you've been jaded after being around for a couple years.

I don't know about any of that, but I'll tell you the online fanfic scene has always been like this. Its just that much more apparent now.

I can tell you about the cheeze from 10 years ago, and it still stinks the same way. Boring 4kb long stories, poor characterizations, author soothing (making the characters get together) stories, bad porn, stupid crossovers (these two characters have the same hair, what if they traded places!!). . .

the only thing really different is the yaoi sub group. No, it didn't used to be yuri, it didn't used to be anything except rabid character loyalty. DOS attacks were even launched back then on people who wrote fanfiction that portrayed a favourite character in a bad light. Ukyou comes to mind, and before that, was KOR and LUM.

and this was just after people stopped using newsgroups as the primary distro for fanfics and mailing lists started taking over.

I'll be running the fanfiction panel at AWA. If interested, PM me.

[SarahtheBoring]

Oh, I don't doubt for a second that it was always that way.

Now, for a real response - while generalizing might not help, for me it remains a fact: I still find fanfics, more often than not, to be more enjoyable to the writer rather than the reader. Sure, they're fun, but largely don't have something to hold me down as well as the real thing.

I agree. Thing is, I often agree to that applied to AMVs. I don't expect any fanwork to surpass the original; they're just supplemental, something to pass the time or wander down different avenues tangential to the original. The exception is doujin with a better visual style than the original - but even then, I would bet that most dj stories aren't as good as the originals (unless the originals' stories suck too ).

Anyway, yeah, it's not great, but neither are most AMVs. I am of the "we are all geeks having fun with our computers, and no geek hobby is inherently better than another geek hobby" school of thought. (Which is why I go postal on all these hypocritical AMVers bashing cosplayers and ficcers, but that's another story.)

[Castor Troy]

So... who's like the Kevin Caldwell of fanfics?

[Dannywilson]

So... who's like the Kevin Caldwell of fanfics?

John Biles. Wrote Daigakusei no Ranma and fucking fell off the face of the planet before totally finishing it.

[SarahtheBoring]

Thing about fic is that it often doesn't cross series lines. Each series will have a few "famous" authors, but unless you write a shitload of stuff for different series, it's unlikely everyone will have heard of you.

Because most of the time, if you don't like a series, you can still enjoy a decently made video. Most people aren't willing to sit through a story if they don't already like the series. So there's less crossover appeal.

My theory, anyway. I never got into too much anime fic, because I could never quite get the visual tone of the originals into the text. >_< I worked mostly in gaming. yep. nerd.