Fanfic

Posted on May 11, 2010 by James Ashman

It started with a post on Teleread about an author who detests fanfic. In follow-up, there was another blog that took that and noted two more responses, which I responded to in comments. To copy my own comments, and then expand on them. With the mistakes corrected… I made the comment with my phone and only managed to make two errors! Anyways, what I thought:
”
I can only hope that one day my works are popular enough to spur fanfic. It’s actually one of my goals as an author to have others create side stories and ideas that expand on my own. I believe in the power of publicity, and fanfic is just another version of it. After all, a fanfic writer is someone that has purchased your work; a fanfic reader is someone who might go purchase the original to find out more.
I’m undecided on whether we should profit off fanfic, meaning both the fan or the original author, but that’s something that really doesn’t matter until a fanfic brings in actual profit. If it doesn’t cannibalize sales (and it would take a lot of evidence for me to ever believe it does anything but promote an author’s work) then it should be allowed. Of course, I’ve read fanfics in the past an enjoyed them, so maybe I’m biased.
”

And to continue, now. I read and watch a lot of Japanese works, mostly anime and manga. There is another form of work called doujinshi. The actual definition is a clique or group, but it’s used to mean an amateur self-published work. And there are millions that are fanfics of known anime/manga, etc. And they are also profitable. Some are so terrible that no self-respecting author would be caught dead with one. And other’s are amazing. They can happen within another story, keep the continuity, and provide an insight the author never thought of that still could be true. Or they can concentrate on some minor characters and flesh out their story, something an author wouldn’t spend their time on. They are fanfic.

I like my characters. I like my work. Granted, they are mine. They will always be mine. But if someone sees them, loves them, and wants to create a story I haven’t thought of, I’d be interested in knowing. If it’s true to canon, I could use it. If not, then the fan has written their own selfishness. And writing is selfish. It’s very, very selfish. We write what we want, not what others want (most of us; no offense to ghostwriters), and control that environment we create. The world that only exists inside our heads. And to hear a fan wants to get inside and spray paint on that world makes some authors shudder.

A character is always inside a person’s head. Each person has their own version of any character, period. Several great authors only described a character with a couple words. Old man. Tall man. Pretty woman. A great dame. A gentleman wearing a fedora. I saw a few different people from each entry. And a hundred different people would give you a different description of that exact same person. Each person already owns a version of the character that started with a single author. Controlling that impression is impossible. The author is the canon, but that doesn’t mean non-canon works should be burned.

So I endorse, to a certain point, fanfic. I wouldn’t say to not write it. I’m much more cautious about profiting from it, though. As an original author, we have rights to our characters. So… 10% or 15%, right off the top. Must be discussed beforehand. Any free work must disclose the original work, allude to it’s greatness, and then provide proper attribution and links back to the original author’s creations. Ain’t I generous? This is in jest. But seriously, fans are great. They are my customers. If they love something enough to write about it, isn’t that good?

671 words that could have been used in a novel or possibly a fanfic!

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Reviews should be from familiar viewpoints

Posted on May 11, 2010 by James Ashman

I’ve been somewhat enamored by Goodreads lately, but the reviews I see on various updates reminds me of certain statements.

To be brief, the question is why do critics judge creative works they aren’t interested in to begin with? Lately there have been some flashy, low-plot high entertainment movies. Oh, yes, I did see Iron Man 2. It was a superhero movie. I loved it. Tony seemed like a jerk; that was great. The physics were unexplained and impossible. That was perfect. And it was flashy. That also worked. So it was designed in a certain way, for a certain demographic, and it exceeded at pleasing that demo.

Was it perfect? No. But it wasn’t trying to be. I’m just using it as an example; I haven’t read any reviews. Why should I? I already know exactly what they will say. Some reviews will say it’s good for those who like this kind of stuff, and the bad ones are probably written by people who wouldn’t have liked it either way.

And thus I come to Goodreads. There are some great reviews that detail exactly why something deserved such and such star. Some rate it as a 1-star, saying they are a fan of the author or the genre, and this particular work was weak in comparison. Others a 5, and you already know what they said.

But the problem is the low raters who said: I hated the idea to begin with, and only read it because everyone else is. It disappointed, just like I expected. – Just an example, not one I copied from anywhere. But you get the idea. Why did this person even read the book in the first place?

Amazon, Apple’s app store, Goodreads, overall the rating system works well. However, overall it’s disappointing to see that people rate stuff that they didn’t want to see in the first place.

Now, here is the interesting thing: I almost never see things I’d give poor reviews to. I simply don’t read, don’t watch, and don’t care about things I’d hate. I’ll never read a teen vampire novel. I’ve got friends who love French films – I prefer Japanese. I don’t watch French films and then complain. They don’t ask about the Asian works I watch and read. And if I really don’t like something, I stop reading, stop watching, stop caring about the thing I don’t care about. I don’t have to finish it just because I started it. I don’t like it, therefore why should I care about finishing it? I wish I’d done this more in the past, it would have saved me some much-wasted time.

A Republican doesn’t read a Democrat’s work and say: “Yeah, I’d vote for the guy, but he’d be much better if he took a different stance on gun ownership. No democrat should vote for him because of that.” Of course not! He’s not going to influence a Democrat’s vote. What is better is a liberal Newspaper reviewing various liberal candidates. Like rates like. Opposite should not rate like.

Reviews should be written by people who are interested in the field they are reviewing. An outside looking in has no basis to judge. Isn’t that simple?

If you don’t like YA teen fantasy fiction, then please, don’t read it and then proceed to review it. It wasn’t written for you, the people who read your review aren’t looking for your viewpoint. They are looking for other fans of that genre who have honest things to say about the work from a familiar viewpoint, and then trusting their good/bad/could be better/excellent rating.

606 words I could have used in a novel.

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Don’t slow down

Posted on May 10, 2010 by James Ashman

If you are tall and have long legs, how fast do you walk?
If you are tall and have short legs, how fast do you walk?

“I walk at a normal speed,” both answer. And then you both turn, look, point, and say, “No you don’t!”

And the answer is: You’re both right; you both walk at a normal speed. If the tall person walks 8 miles per hour, and the short person walks 3 miles per hour, does it make sense for the short person to scold the tall person, saying: “You’re too fast! Slow down! Enjoy life more! Don’t be in such a rush everywhere!”?

No, of course not. Well, it happens all the time. But not between short people and tall people. It happens between people of the same height, same length legs. It happens with people who talk loud and people who talk quiet. It happens with people who eat fast and those who eat slowly. It happens with people who write constantly, and those who write in bursts. Do this, do that, go fast, go slow.

Ever be walking along, not minding anyone, not being with anyone, and a random stranger tells you to slow down? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Or it can happen in hundreds of different settings and situations, with different metaphors for it.

And they are wrong. What is normal for one person is outlandish for another. What is natural to one person doesn’t work for another. What’s strange to one person is the only way to work for another. I encounter these thousands of different ways, and am still in the midst of admiring the connections.

For example, at work, different methods allow people to work at the same rate. One person may need absolute silence. Another may need to have rock music playing constantly. Both get the same amount of work done, but their level of normal, or comfort, is different.

It also reminds me of my writing. I write in bursts. I’m extremely busy with an actual day job, and thus don’t really have the time and energy to spend on serious writing. I get in what I can. Maybe 100 words after work are all I can think of. But I rarely ever write only 100 words. I don’t have a goal, other than 90,000 for the completed book, or around there.

But no one should tell me I need to write 250 words a day. Or even write daily. Sometimes, that doesn’t work. It gets sloppy. Others cannot slack from their needed 500 a day, period. That’s normal for them. For me, 1,500 or 5,000 in a single Saturday afternoon is a bit more comfortable. Right now, I don’t have the time to do more.

So I write what is normal for me. I read what is normal for me. It’s not constant. It’s not measurable. But for some reason, it still ends up taking exactly the amount of time I had planned, assuming I wrote 250 a day. Go figure. My pace was fast, but only in bursts. I didn’t need to slow down, take time.

Don’t slow down. Go normal.

527 words I could have used in a novel.

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Read great works

Posted on May 6, 2010 by James Ashman

I’m currently reading Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose.” It’s an intriguing work. But it’s not the point of this post. Its contents could be controversial to some, and great to others. No, what I want to focus on is an argument in it. One that still goes on, and can affect writers as well.

It is about the heretical works that were in this Catholic monastery. One of the monks argued that every evil thing, every work of heretics, etc., was unnecessary. They saw no use for them, and thought the abominations should be done away with. And one of the others raised a counterpoint, that in viewing imperfect works, it gave them a greater appreciation of the true and pure works. Not just that, but using heretical examples to prove an orthodox point by examining the error. Now, I’m just summarizing this, as the actual details and arguments are far too much to even begin to describe. What I want to point out is that they used “bad works” in order to see “good works” better.

And this is the parallel to us: Should a writer purposely read works they know are bad or terrible, in order to know what not to do?

After all, knowing something is bad isn’t reason to not watch or read it. Sometimes, it’s even moreso a reason. A campy B movie has its place. I have a few books that are silly and somewhat nonsensical. Ah, but wait, the books I have that are silly and nonsensical are written by Douglas Adams and Isaac Asimov. On second look, they are great books, written with an unusual twist.

So, that’s an example of what not to include in your list of bad books not worth reading. Confused? Yeah, so am I. Let’s try this again.

Read books by Douglas Adams and Isaac Asimov. They write great works of all kinds.

See how much easier that is? Instead of saying what not to do, I said what to do. What to learn from. There is an illustration I hear often. To spot a counterfeit currency, how do you do it? Do you get a copy of every single counterfeit, learn what makes each of them counterfeit, and then try to spot those in the wild? Or do you learn how a real currency looks, exactly, and then look to verify it? The latter. Learn what the real one looks like, and then the fakes will be apparently.

So, same should go for reading. If you know a book is terrible, there isn’t a reason to read it! If you read a terrible book and a good book, what separates them? Is every single thing in the terrible book bad? It might even have some good parts in it, even if the whole is terrible! But, with the good book, there is no second guessing. Recall the points in it, do what it does, and if you’ve done it right, it’ll work.

Don’t listen to don’t do this.
Do listen to do this.

Wasn’t that wonderfully hypocritical? Yep. I’m confused now too.

Better yet: Read great works. Then write great works.

534 words I could have used in a novel.

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Kindle and html

Posted on May 4, 2010 by James Ashman

With another book on kindle, I found out some oddity with uploading works. Only use HTML. I did for both books, but for the recent one I checked with a normal MS Word created .doc. I cleared every ounce of formatting and copied back and forth into new documents to check, but no matter what I did the spacing on certain new lines was off.

I didn’t use spaces or extra returns as the kindle guidelines dictate, but to no avail. I saved the exact same document as a full HTML page created by word, and the formatting was perfect. It’s simple an easy, so none of this is an issue, but it is something to keep in mind before uploading to kindle.

132 words I could have used in a novel.

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