MESSAGE BOARD TOPIC #36

[Comicality]

You know, I can remember around the late 80's, early 90's, when there were litterally thousands of teenage boys to drool over in movies in tv! I mean, some of them were downright DELICIOUS! Hehehe! And I can remember fantasizing about them all the time! One of the first things that ever let me know that this gay erotica online even existed...was from reading sex stories about Brad Renfro, or Eddie Furlong, or Hanson! Some others were from 'The Good Son', or 'Lord Of The Flies', and others! It was awesome! They were written fantasies about the same boys that I was dreaming about.

 

There are tons of really good fanfics out there now, and I'm sure that they are still grabbing new readers all the time. The same way they grabbed me. So, to sort of explore this phenomenon, this weeks question is...

 

=What are you thoughts, as a reader or a writer, on fanfics?=

 

Do you like them, do you dislike them? Do you think they're easier to write and easier to share with a larger audience because they follow characters and a storyline already laid out for you? Or...do you feel it's HARDER to do because the fanbase is already locked into a certain ideal of how these characters act and how their world works? Or maybe you have a much SMALLER audience, because if you're writing about a celeb that someone doesn't find attractive, they may not be interested? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of writing one? And do you readers get the same kick out of them as any other story? Maybe even more?

 

I, myself, have only written ONE, and I am not good at it at ALL! Hehehe! But I've seen some celeb fanfics that were pretty damn realistic. Researched and believably written. Makes a guy wonder, you know?

 

So, let me hear your thoughts folks! The board is open!

[Myr]

hmmm... I used to read pretty much every NSYNC and Backstreet Boys fic that crossed my path. But I've grown up. lol

 

I'm not much into Celeb fanfics any more. I like book fanfics. (Like Harry Potter or Valdemar (Mercedes Lackey))

 

That's not to say that I won't read something good that comes along... especially if written by a favorite author.

[Taima Matsumushi]

Myself, I have no problem with fanfiction. In fact, I think it's actually more difficult to write it than normal fiction--mostly because the author is charged with writing a story true to a precedent set by another writer, and readers will eat an author alive who mischaracterizes a character, gets obscure (or not-so obscure) facts about the fanfic's world wrong, or a smattering of other complications (not the least of which the obsessive fans who know more about a given franchise than you could hope to).

 

The same principle applies to celebrity fanfiction, especially, because you're dealing with a human being who is, albeit extremely rarely, perfectly capable of reading your story him/herself. Of course, the problem of ultra-specifics comes back into play here, because you have to keep a balance between getting enough facts right to keep the fanboy sharks away and artistic license. I've never written one about a celebrity myself, but it always seemed kind of creepy to me somehow (no disrespect to those who do). I always end up asking myself what the object of the story would think if he happened to read it. The answer has almost never been positive in my experience. Most often, I end up writing the story anyway, but with changed names (and thus, increased freedom to alter the character).

 

On the other hand, I suppose it's part of being a celebrity to have stories written about you. Come to think of it, my argument thus far has been under the assumption that the stories are erotic in nature. Leaving that assumption behind, I would only abridge my argument to say that non-erotic fantasies might still be thought of as creepy, but considerably less so. I suppose since I'm not a celebrity (yet), I can't predict with 100% certainty how I would react to fanfiction written about me, specifically. Maybe I'd be a little flattered, but most likely I'd be a little creeped out. Still, I don't really have a problem with fanfiction as such; I just have a hard time writing it without considering the feelings of the celeb I'm writing about.

 

I'm rambling now, aren't I? o.O

 

...

...

...MY MIND!!?