Fan fiction. Or, the crap of the literary world.

Attention grabbed? Good!

Now, let's get something straight, here. I don't -hate- fan fiction. I think it's a great way to practice writing as most of the work is already done for you, and when it's done well, it's fascinating to see established characters you love through someone else's eyes. What Ifs are great when something didn't end the way you wanted to. Not like the original writers owe people anything... That's a whole other blog post. Just because you are a fan of something, it does not entitle you to direct how the original artist progresses and ends something THEY created.

But apparently, if people complain enough, they cave and placate the entitled idiot masses. 

Artists do not owe anyone shit. Write your fan fics and convince yourself it's real.

But with fan fiction, you've got established characters with traits, mannerisms, and goals, you've already got the details and mechanics of their world, and you've got reference material that is fairly recognizable.That doesn't mean your badly written slash porn is any good, however. My problem with fan fics being regarded as the next great source of literature is simple. None of it is original thought, and your OC's getting injected into established story lines and copyrighted intellectual property isn't original, and most of it is horribly written Mary Sue/homoerotic fantasy smut. So no, Tumblr is not a source for your next great read or worthy of being published if the author changes some names around.

Not kidding. This bitch has made billions and set feminism back thirty years with this garbage. 

I'm not entirely without sin. I have a subfolder where I have all of my fan fiction. Because, as I said, it's good practice, and all writing, however bad, or unoriginal, or ridiculous, helps the crafting of your individual voice and skill. I take lots of inspiration from video games, books, film, for traits or characteristics I want to mold into my own imaginary friends. For example, I've been a fan of the Thief video game series since I painstakingly helped my older cousins play through the first game on his (circa 1995) amazing PC. I have a little fan fic with Garret and a few OC's in a kind of competitive protege type of thing with another thief who took over ransacking The City after Deadly Shadows when Garrett relives his recruitment into the Keepers when another young kid tries to pick him. It helps me write from the view of a person with traits I can't really relate to on my own, since I'm not a selfish, materialistic, self serving antagonistic creep. One of my main projects right now started as Sandman Slim fan fics set between Kill the Dead and Aloha From Hell. He started as a "Hey, I'm the only thing you've met that is close to your level, and if you're not gonna bang Candy, I will" type of character. He was someone who Stark could relate to, but also be kind of at odds with  simultaneously. He was meant as the equal but opposite of Slim, and the only one who even stood a chance at beating him. He completely evolved past that, and he has his own three book story arc with a few nods to the original inspiration peppered in.

I guess my main point here, is that I've spent literally three years now trying to build a world, mythos, and everything else for another project that had sparked in high school, got it's first couple of pages my senior year of college, and has been outlined and researched on and off ever since. Being literally god to a whole new world is exhausting. I'm afraid of contradictions, little things that don't make sense or fit in, minute details, anything of even the most insignificant trifle I could miss that That Guy will bring up at my Q&A to make me feel like an asshole.

"Um, Ms. Woods, *snort, wipe nose* on page 147 of book one your main character, who I love and cosplay as and masturbate to says, and I quote, *holds up beaten, stained, signed first edition hard cover copy* 'I wouldn't patron his establishment if he had the last jar of peanut butter in the galaxy,' but in book 3 on page 381 her traveling partner, while allergic to peanuts, as previously established, convinces the stubborn stalwart heroine into going INTO said establishment for peanut butter?"

And probably make me want to beat the shit out of him in the parking lot afterward.

So props to the magic man in the sky who created existence as we know it in seven days, and piss off to the lazy unoriginal fanboys and girls that work solely off of other people's creations.

I wish.

TL;DR

It's not easy to literally play god to an entire imaginary universe. And I quietly resent people who take the easy way out.

- RaRa out.