mordinette:
who-is-page:
castlevania:
castlevania:
you all want my opinion?
the reason fanfic got left behind and fanart didn’t is because artists made a deliberate effort to get better at their craft. of course there are shitty popular artists who make generic or horny art. but there’s a pretty big pool of genuinely good art, of artists that tried to make their own comics or stories or whatever and actually improved in their craft. unlike the majority of fanfic authors who churn out garbage after garbage horny fic and then throw a tantrum when anyone criticizes them AND THEN get upset when no one appreciates fanfic. and i say this as a fanfic author myself. the vast majority of fanfic is garbage and does nothing but resort to worse cliches and stereotypes than mainstream media does.
Alternate, but not entirely mutually exclusive, opinion: fanfiction is getting left behind because most fanfiction authors who write large amounts and get a following as their talent increases (alongside their ability to write dynamic plot, interesting characters, and the amount of stories they have w/o sex or romance of any kind) eventually just end up moving on to original fiction and non-fiction. While sometimes us artists end up stuck in our niches, because fan art can help you make excellent money if you know who to go to or use it to build your fan base, while fanfiction does not as a general rule. Fandom + art = $$$. Fandom + writings = nothing, nada, zip.
Bullshit. A lot of fanfic authors work hard on improving their craft, and there are a lot of fanfic writers who are as good - if not better - than some published authors. Are there fics that could be better written? Sure. But those writers are still trying to do their best, and this generalized waving off of fanfic as garbage is not helpful at all.
And yes to the post above: many fanfic writers move on to writing original fiction. It’s also true that fanartists can make money with commissions, which, I imagine, is both an incentive and a reward in itself. Fanart gets reblogged way more often than fanfics, too. All fanfic authors can basically hope for is a few reblogs and some comments, and when those things don’t happen, it’s easy to get discouraged and feel like it’s not worth it to work so hard on their art.
Let’s talk about the time it takes to write fanfiction, because, my friends, it takes a whole helluva a lot of time to write 50k words, to edit all those words, to rewrite, to have someone beta if you’re so lucky. If you can average 500 words an hour (some can do more, some can do less and bless them for keeping at it), that’s 100 hours of work you put into writing JUST THE FIRST DRAFT. Even if you can do 1000 words an hour, that’s still 50 hours of work. That’s a full time job plus some. Then there’s the editing. The rewrites. The waiting on someone to beta (because they have a life too, donchaknow). Then more editing because maybe you should move that scene there, and maybe you should add some smut (and oh gawd you’ve started posting the first chapters and your few loyal followers are nudging you for smut so where is that gonna go?) Oh and let’s not forget about research. Time spent putting yourself on some watchlist because you want to be sure you get blood splatters right and what do hallucinogens really feel like and what’s the Portuguese word for potato and is that really the word or is Google translate lying to me so who do I know that speaks Portuguese…
Not everyone has that kind of time. Not everyone has that sort of sustainable energy. For a few kudos, even fewer comments, and maybe a nice note in a bookmark? Yeah. I sincerely hope, OP, that you leave extremely nice and cheering comments on all the fic you read, otherwise fuck you. If you’re not willing to cheer on writers, then sit down.
And how dare HOW DARE you suggest that fanfic writers don’t improve? I’ve watched my own writing improve. I’ve watched the writing of my friends improve. I’ve followed authors for years and note with glee how much better they are than a year or two ago. And even if someone *doesn’t* improve, so what? They’re still putting something out there. They are brave enough to publish something that means *so much* to them, something that burns in their heart so strongly they have to put it down in physical form.
Bravo to them.
Boo to you.
Love all fanfic writers.
