[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Raison d'Fanfic

[Michela Ecks]

An apology if I did answer this already.  My brain is fogged from lack of
sleep.  I was up till midnight last night working on cover letters... and my
recall ain't so hot.

----- Original Message -----
From: Rosmerta <tmayor at mediaone.net>
To: <HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 8:11 PM
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Raison d'Fanfic


>1)What're plot bunnies? I'm picturing Gloria Steinem with a cocktail
>tray serving up the denounement to a story, but that can't be right.

I know of  three, lately four, definitions of plot bunny and it depends on
which fandom you're in on how you use it.  They are:

Plot Bunny (1) A story idea that arises at a bad time.

Plot Bunny (2) A story idea that spawns many story ideas.

Plot Bunny (3) A story idea that the author has no intent of writing.

Plot Bunny (4) An author's muse.

(Part of the Michela has no life so at one point set out to create a
dictionary with fandom, fan fiction specific words as a reference and has 30
pages edited on paper that never seem to make there way on-line.  Whoops.
Speaking of such, how ever fandom created such an almost unique language of
its own never ceases to amaze me.  Over 500 words with almost 600
definitions....)

>3) And "gen" is general?

Gen does stand for General.  Gen is considered to be most anything that is
either plot driven, not character driven OR not a romance....

>4) And "het" is heterosexual?

Yeah, het is heterosexual and is usally used to point out a romance
story/pairing between people of the opposite sex.  The opposite being slash
which is two people of the same sex or two people of the same sex plus
multiples IE m/m/f or f/f/f or f/f/m along with the traditional m/m and f/f.

>So what does the slash refer to..just the slash between the m and the
>m or the f and the f, or is it something more intriguing?

The use of the slash comes from the Kirk Spock pairing in Star Trek fan
fiction :o) It was used to infer that couple.  It is now often used (the sla
sh that is, not slash in general) any pairings hence H/Hr isn't slash but
uses the slash.  Most fandoms use the + to symbolize friendship so a H+Hr
would mean a story about Harry and Hermoine being friends.  (This isn't
always the case though and sometimes is used in liue of the slash which is
the case in the Friends fandom.)

>belongs to the entire fandom. And Michela wrote: "I love the feeling
>of belonging to such and such a community, so I'll contribute to this
>community."

>This is very interesting. Xlibris and all the other new pseudo-vanity
>publishing projects are all  building this same kind of "community"
>into their business plans.

Xlibris?  I keep thinking this X-Files fan fiction archive by the same
name...

> And it's not because it makes their
>potential authors feel warm and fuzzy; it's because it guarantees an
>audience of at least some size if/when a book comes out either
>electronically or in pulp-i.e., that particular author's fellow
>listies.

Actually, I'm rather suprised that television producers haven't caught on to
this phenomen more as a way to boost their audience...  (I have many
theories about this and one of my pipedream jobs involves doing research for
and producing a television show for a network that has a lot of fan
participation on-line in the making of the show.  The closest shows that I
know that has come to this are Babylon 5 where jms was on-line and answering
questions and Star Trek Voyager where they trolled the newsgroups to guage
fan reaction...  Chris Carter has apparently done similar stuff but not in
excess amounts where the results were seen on the screen but IMHO Star Trek
Voyager messed that up by not looking at the market of the demographic they
ended up catering to and not using that information inconjuction with other
plans.)  Whoops... massive digression there...


>Michela wrote: "A lot of authors, especially younger authors who
>haven't yet grasped the fundamentals of writing, may not be able to
>write their own stuff." And Stacy wrote: "For me, if it hadn't been
>for fanfiction, I would still be thinking about becoming a doctor
>instead of majoring in creative writing (thank goodness for
>fanfiction!)."

>Also very interesting and a side effect I wouldn't've anticipated.

It doesn't seem that much of a surprise to me...  The number of fan fiction
writers who have grown pro is small but those authors are known...

>Is
>it maybe that using characters that are already familiar to you and
>your audience is a way to give yourself permission to be a writer or
>to try it out without actually having to write the obligatory 350-
>page first novel that sits in a drawer?

Hmmmm...  No clue.  For me, fan fiction had a small motivation in why I
chose to become a communications major focusing in Media Studies.  I loved
analyzing television shows. Part and parcel of writing fan fiction is an
analysis of the show and the characters.  It also has to deal with, at least
for me, being able to do it better than the pros and sharing and community.
On a large scale, mass medium such as television is the way to go...

<snip>
>Sorry guys, this argument I just can't buy when trying to apply it
>specifically to the kind of fanfic we're talking about here. But
>maybe it's a matter of the macro view vs. the micro view. In the very
>biggest-picture sense, yes, all stories are ultimately derived from
>other stories; people have always written about life, death, coming
>of age, etc.

The Bible argument I personally don't buy personally because I see fan
fiction as requiring authorization in order have the fan fiction writer
violate that authorization or diverge from the official, established line.
I don't see fan fiction as coming into existence till the first copyright
law.

I see fan fiction as part of a long history of folk lore though.. :o)


>Maybe we should let Jenkins, as quoted by Michela, have the last
>word? "Unimpressed by institutional authority and expertise, the fans
>assert their own rights to form interpretations, to offer
>evaluations, and to construct cultural canons." That seems to sum up
>fanfic to me.

Doesn't it?  Jenkins is brilliant and I love him (okay his books and
theories...) to pieces. I highly reccommend people buying "Textual Poachers"
by Henry Jenkins off Amazon.Com if they want to grock more fully that which
is fan fiction and fandom :o)

Michela Ecks