17-Sep-2001
In Defense of "Bad Fanfiction"
When I was attending yaoi-con, one of the panels that sparked my interest the most was the "Writing Good Fanfiction" panel. Aside for gawking at writers that I have long admired and getting a brief glimpse at Talya Firedancer there was a lot of valuable advice given. There was quite a bit of advice on what not to do by example of bad fanfiction. While I greatly respect the authors present at the panel, there were some points that I disagreed with. The following little discourse presents some of my opinions in defense of certain types of "bad story writing".
Writers who saw the dubbed series:
There is some animosity among the older fans of Gundam Wing and yaoi fandom in general towards people who got into GW and yaoi through the Cartoon Network's run of GW. Despite the complaint of many people that the dubbed version was vastly inferior to the original Japanese version, the dubbed version was fairly faithful in the characterization of the pilots and the general plotline. I do not think not seeing series in the original subtitled version makes any difference because subtitles are also translations. I think a little of the resentment comes from the dissolution of an once small and tight knit community of yaoi/GW writers. Certainly, nowadays there are five new writers popping up every day, and it is highly unlikely for anyone to know a significant part of the yaoi community. Nonetheless I feel that the increase in the number of yaoi writers gives more chance for great fanfiction writing. New people brings new ideas, and I think it makes the community a lot more interesting. Had it not been for this vast flow of new fans, I think I would have missed out on quite a few brilliant pieces of fiction.
Pregnancy Fiction:
Although this has been said time and time again, it bears being said again. If you do not like something, don't read it. Almost all pregnancy fiction is labeled as such. If you think pregnancy fics are a blasphemous thing, don't read it. Obviously there is an audience out there who does like pregnancy fiction or there would not be so many pregnancy fics. Just like many people are not into BDSM, there are many people who really do no like pregnancy fics, but that does not mean it's necessarily bad fiction. Reading something is an investment of time, if you don't want to invest your time reading pregnancy fics, no one will force you since most these stories are so well marked. People are sometimes forced to listen to certain type of music and smell certain type of odors depending on where they are -elevators, barns, etc.- but reading a story is unique in that it is a matter of choice. I encourage people who absolutely, positively hate pregnancy fiction to exercise that privilege. I personally do not write pregnancy stories and generally avoid them but I have read Tabs' and Sephiroth's 'Precious Little Angel', which I consider a great story. As I said before -- a pregnant man alone is not an indication of bad story writing.
PWPs:
PWP by definition is 'Plot What Plot'. There is a sentiment among certain writers that even a PWP can and should have some plot. I personally prefer a lemon that has a plot, but I have also enjoyed a great number of stories that were pure and simple smut. There are different motivations behind writing and there are different kind of stories. While I certainly enjoy to be put into a thoughtful stupor because of a good soulful story, occasionally I just want smut. I disagree that a good story should be able to stand alone with or without sex. Sometimes the sex is the payoff at the end of the story, and at other times sex is the story, and in both cases the story can be great. Once again, read what you like. Most archives will label these stories. There is a difference between PWP and lemon. PWP by definition indicates that there is no plot while a lemon simply indicates the presence of explicit sex. If someone does not like sex without any plot whatsoever, don't read PWPs.
With that said, I also would like to agree with the fanfiction panel that a writer shouldn't feel pressured to write lemons. I do think that people will read a story if it is good with or without a sex scene.
Lack of Realism in General:
No writer, not even a published one, can accomplish complete accuracy and realism. I do believe that research definitely helps a writer, but only up to a point. As Zaz pointed out in this panel and in others, a lot of women read mystery novels and thus they have a pretty good knowledge of guns and poisons, so if you were to write about those things and you didn't know anything about them, it would probably be a good idea to research them. However, there are things like quantum physics, which almost none of your readers will know about. With such subjects that are extremely specialized, if you are not an expert in the field itself, no matter how much research you do, a real expert will find lots of flaws in your story. Obviously those are extreme cases, but my general point (which I made several times at yaoi-con) is: know your audience, and know what you can and cannot get away with.
Lack of Realism in Sex:
Aside from obvious things such as can a person really get into that position, and can you puncture someone's lungs from penile intrusion, I don't think most readers are looking for absolute realism in fanfiction. As Phoenix stated, real sex involves body odors, bad breath and sweat, imperfection of the body etc, and people don't really want to read about those things. Pornography is often a form of fantasy, and I don't think too much realism would enhance it.
As I said at the beginning of this miniature essay, I respect and admire the writers of the 'Writing Good Fanfiction' panel, but I do have different opinions. As a side note, and I have said this before, Jade on this panel and various others was extremely gracious and I was very impressed by her.
~Owari
(:./draco/badfic)
