random thoughts on fanfiction

[edenfalling]

*examines reviews and hit statistics*

You know, I have been writing Harry Potter fanfiction for over three years. I have been writing Naruto fanfiction for about seven months.

It never ceases to puzzle me that I seem to be at least five times as well known for the second as for the first.

Smaller fandom, perhaps? Or maybe it's just the faster writing speed on my Naruto WIPs...? Hmmm. Must get cracking on more "Secrets," in that case. I sort of remember having an audience for that back at the beginning. :-)

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I have decided to make "Knives" HBP-compliant. This will probably take today and tomorrow, after which the new version should go up on ff.net and be submitted to FA. Gosh, I haven't sent anything to FA in ages...

I figure that if "Paint the Town" could qualify as an R rating, then probably "Knives" can too, despite all the squicky bits, since violence seems to slide past with less protest, and all the actual sex is off-screen.

Comments

[lukita.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think it's because the HP fandom have far too much fanon in some of its most popular fanfics for anyone else to write. If a lot of the readers want certain things in a fan fiction, they're not going to read something that doesn't have their requirements.

Lets take Naruto for example since I'm not familiar with the HP fandom. I like a well written Sakura, a non-emotard Sasuke and a shit grinning Naruto. I'll read some other things, but I'm not going to tell people about them, so if I'm going to rec stories, I'll only rec the ones I enjoyed the most.

I guess it just means being lesser known because you don't cater to the rabid fangirls.

[edenfalling]

Maybe so. And maybe it's because I tend to write one-shots lately -- my only really long WIP is a retelling of Chamber of Secrets from Ginny's point of view, which is not the most obviously popular sort of thing. Also, I've slowed to about 2-3 chapters per year on that. *sigh*

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, I'm on a bit of a hurry now, but I wanted to say that I love your fics and on your profile page it says you've got a fic called "The Guardian in Spite of Herself" wich I searched for, but couldn't find. Mind linking it?

[edenfalling]

It's here.

Basically, it's a semi-sequel to "The Way of the Apartment Manager," in which, after Itachi slaughters the Uchiha clan, it's decided that Sasuke shouldn't be left completely on his own. And Yukiko finds herself stuck with another screwed-up kid to deal with.

It's on indefinite hiatus until I finish "Apartment Manager," and the bits that are currently written are pretty short and sketchy, but I think you can get a general sense of where the story would be going. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Tranks ^^

[rhysdigital.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter fanon expanded too fast so most good authors don't get realized. It's not possible to sort through that many fics in such a short time. Whereas in 2000 to later 2001, while it was still relatively tame, most good authors were known and put on people's Author alert/bookmarked. (PoU/DD-DS-DV before Goblet of Fire came out!!)

I think once ff.net put in the sorted by update feature, HP fanfic started to really take off. It hasn't really peaked but has settled into a comfortable plateau, which I'm sure will be broken with the release of HBP. Lot's of good fics get uploaded everyday there and at Schnoogle, it's again just a volume problem. I don't have time to sort through all that, though I'm sure some people do with the sheer amount of reviews most of the stories get. (Many good ones are ignored-.-;;)

Naruto though...hit it's peak along time ago. It's in a Gundam-like downward spiral, by my count really starting around later 2004, really November when it got noticeable. Most fics there, not that I have anything against yaoi or romance genre's, are horribly written. more come in but quality has taken a definite hit.

Now there's very few good fics being published that the good ones, yours, spread by word of mouth, and get read and Author-alerted real fast, though it boggles the mind why all the 'generic-bad' fics get the most reviews now...

[edenfalling]

Interesting. I don't really maintain a close enough watch over fandoms to judge whether they're growing, shrinking, or shifting in emphasis and interests. I tend to feel that Sturgeon's Law is correct, and 90% of just about everything is crap, so if the fandom is large, it's not surprising that there are a lot of bad-to-mediocre stories.

However, in a larger fandom, even if 90% of the fic is crap, that still leaves ridiculous amounts of good stories. And then, of course, everyone has a slightly different definition of what counts as a bad story, which may account for the appetite for generic fic.

Eh. Mostly I don't think about that sort of thing; I'd rather just read and write. :-)

[rhysdigital.livejournal.com]

Eh. Mostly I don't think about that sort of thing; I'd rather just read and write. :-)

::nods:: Yes, please ^o^v