I believe that 'Fan' fiction is a valid genre in its own right. certainly, to do the subject matter justice, the research requirements are at least as challenging as, say, Historical dramas. In certain respects, the audience for Fan Fiction is likely to be more critical, particularly amongst the more 'enthusiastic' fans who know every little detail of their pet subject inside out but who can become very possessive about the characters. I can personally attest to this; the Captain Scarlet novella I wrote, for the most part was given a warm reception - with one notable exception - a lady. herself a fan writer, who threw her copy across the room in disgust because what I had written did not tie in with her ideas of the Spectrum universe.
As with all literature, some authors are more talented than others. In the 'Real' world, you get the greats such as Asimov, Wells, Pratchett  etc, through to those whose work, although popular, could be best described as formulaic, derivative pap (Jeffrey Archer, Barbara Cartland and Dan Brown come to mind)
This seems to be particularly true in Fan Fiction which ranges from DC Fontana who started in FanFic and ended up writing Trek scripts, through to the really obsessive fans who really cannot see that there's a REAL world beyond their particular 'universe' and tend to commit the worst 'Mary-Sues'.
I find thast the challenge of keeping within canon gives me both a challenge and discipline. I'm sure I could create my own fantasy universe but I enjoy the ones that I've been given

MkIXHawk wrote on Jan 17^th, 2011 at 7:54pm:

Can't they just. 

If the author is taking their writing (and their readers) seriously then yes, I do think the research needs to be as painstaking as for any other variety of fiction. And yes, you’re also right: the readers are likely to be knowledgeable and more critical than someone reading an original standalone story or even a series.

MkIXHawk wrote on Jan 17^th, 2011 at 7:54pm:

You must have been very proud!  Is this novella available to read on tinternet anywhere?

MkIXHawk wrote on Jan 17^th, 2011 at 7:54pm:

Canon vs non-canon concept - as often discussed here - is very interesting, I think. While I would not particularly want to read about a Straker who’d been married three times before Mary (as an off-the-top-of-my-head and daft example) because that would mess with what is (to me) a fixed aspect of the series, to what extent can sticking entirely to canon prevent an author being as inventive as the muse directs them? Can it inhibit a plot going where it chooses? I suppose I’m saying: does staying strictly on-canon reign in imagination and is that potentially a bad thing?

Elentari wrote on Jan 18^th, 2011 at 12:02am:

How very unsupportive of them. I'd have applied for a parent upgrade.

Elentari wrote on Jan 18^th, 2011 at 12:02am:


Yes. It would be nice if the arrival of readers like the Kindle and Sony enabled readers to download fanfic stories… even if a (small!) fee was payable. It would be a brilliant way of making fanfic more easily available and portable. Is some fanfic already available to be downloaded onto readers? Not having got an e-reader yet, I’ve not investigated how it works – if I buy a Kindle, would I be tied in to only what I can download from Amazon?

Calebschosen wrote on Jan 19^th, 2011 at 11:32pm:


Hmmm, I think you may be being a tad over-modest. But, yes, I know what you mean. I wrote a few (very) short stories – and even had two accepted for publication in wimmin’s magazines - years ago… like about 30+ years ago… but I could never come up with anything that really approached a plot and would stretch to even long short story length.

However, I had an idea which I tried writing during NaNoWriMo two years ago and achieved about 38,000 words… before one of the key characters who'd rather taken over the action told me very firmly that the vital plot twist they were required to initiate at that stage of the story was, by then, utterly out of character. I couldn’t make it work without going back to about page 3 and re-writing… so I’m afraid I gave up.

Calebschosen wrote on Jan 19^th, 2011 at 11:32pm:

Good grief! 

Over the past 10 years or so, I have seen so many series tie in books from Babylon 5 to Torchwood (and some of the latter were quite good but at least some were from established writers iirc) to Buffy (and the few of those I read were really poor) that I wondered if book tie-ins were a way for fanfic writers taking their work to the next level. From what you say, then, only on very rare occasions is the answer.

Calebschosen wrote on Jan 19^th, 2011 at 11:32pm:

Remind me what the question was... 

Thanks guys. Really interesting replies. And apologies in advance if I've attributed any of the quotes incorrectly. I got very confused at one stage.

Elentari wrote on Jan 18th, 2011 at 12:02am:
I used to write fanfic before it was probably even called that but after extreme parental disapproval I gave it up....for decades.
How very unsupportive of them. I'd have applied for a parent upgrade.

If only a parental upgrade had been possible...but I probably wouldn't have taken it.  In other respects my parents were really great.

However as far as my feeble efforts at fanfic were concerned....you don't know the half of it.  Parental disapproval actually meant not only was I not allowed to waste my time writing, everything I had already written was taken away and destroyed.  So it was back to school work etc for me.

The real irony is, my mother is quite proud of my simple stories and will tell anyone who asks (and probably a lot who don't) that I'm 'a writer on the internet'.  I've come to the conclusion she actually doesn't remember that earlier episode.

As I never had any real ambitions to be a 'proper published author' I don't bear any grudges.  There was quite a concerted push to conform when I was growing up so I get where they were coming from.  Got to love the baby boomer era.

 
Having said upthread...

Normandie wrote on Jan 20^th, 2011 at 7:15pm:


...I did some research. I had assumed that fanfic writers would have to make their work available in a specific format to be downloaded to readers. That .pdf files (for eg) wouldn't work because a text file needs to "flow" to enable it to be easily read electronically. A .pdf file is formatted to display fixed pages, A4 in Europe (not sure about the US) which would make it unsuitable. 

However, it appears that e-reader owners can convert files themselves for download to their reader with this free software:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

I now really want a Kindle or Sony.

MkIXHawk wrote on Jan 29^th, 2011 at 5:37pm:

Sorry, Hawk, I'm only half way through the story. Friends decided they wanted to escape from the grey and rainy north of England and have some time in... grey and rainy Normandy. So we've been out and about with them a lot over the past 10 days and I've had very little time at the 'puter. However, they're due to leave today so once the beds are stripped and the laundry is in the washer...

I have enjoyed it so far. I don't remember the Spectrum universe that well so I'm reading it as a straight-forward scifi story and it really works.

Thanks Hawk, I really enjoyed it. For me – I’ve not watched the series for years - the recap on the premise was useful and fitted in nicely, it didn’t jar or interrupt the narrative. As an aside, reading it in parallel with the extreme budget cuts underway in Europe, it feels very contemporary! All in all, it read well and it represented its roots well in the way it read. A bit script-like and slightly comic book in style. Very clever.

There were some nice light moments to contrast the dark: liked the musings of the ambulance crew considering a literary career. Loved the reference to bumble bees defying the laws of aerodynamics…

Small observation: occasionally, the story jumps from one scene / location to another – very much as would happen in the show – but the reader doesn’t have the visual clues to know where we are. A couple of times I had to read back to figure out what was going on. I guess the scene can be so clear in the writer’s head, it’s easy to miss totally setting the scene clearly in the reader’s head too. Or maybe I just read too fast. 

I liked the positive note re Captain Black at the end.

Well-written and I enjoyed it. Maybe you and Lightcudder should collaborate on a comic-style production. You write, L draws…

Getting my coat now… 

Normandie,

My first foray into writing was over twenty years ago. I had started a Star Trek TOS story that I never finished. My muse went into hiding and that was that. A year and a half ago I discovered the SHADO library and seeing other's write stories about a series that I truly loved got me to start thinking about a story that had been in my head for years. Deb's comment in the library about adding to the UFO mythos, and being brave enough to share a vision was probably the thing that most inspired me to put my story down on paper.

I write for the sole purpose of sharing my vision of the series, and I have no plans or intentions of ever being published. (Although it would be nice to see one of my stories make it to sci-fi publication. *grin*)