And here I am posting for Filipino Friday on a Saturday. Sigh. As I said in my first Filipino Friday Post: Better late than never.
So, here's this week's prompt: Fanfiction is pretty popular, no doubt about it, but it has been received with mixed feelings by many authors and writers. Some don’t mind it, and even welcome readers who give their own spin on their work. Some writers don’t like it at all, to the point that they contact fanfiction authors to take their work down. Others use it as a jump-off point for their own writing.
How about you? What is your take on fanfiction? Do you read fanfiction, and if you do, what kind of fanfiction do you read? Do you write fanfiction, and why? Or are you against fanfiction? Enlighten us.
My answer: Reading and writing are not meant to be isolated acts. In the end, it is a story being told and a story being heard. It is part of human experience. Let that be my underlying principle.
So, on to fanfiction. I don't think there's anything wrong with fanfiction. It's a way to engage with a written piece of work. I think writers should embrace fanfic because it's part of a conversation. Once a writer publishes work, it belongs out there. It no longer belongs to the writer. That's just how it is. No use being in denial.
I think fanfic is a great exercise in writing. My very first fantasy novel (the one that I lost a long time ago) could be considered fanfic after reading Ursula LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea. I copied the style of archaic writing and world-making as well as the idea of mapping that world (which, if you think about it, started further back with The Lord of The Rings which I hadn't read at the time). I also got encouraged to write love stories when I first read Sweet Dreams books. So, there, gave away my age. Haha! One of my favorites was P.S. I Love You. I was such a fan. I later read her other books, The Summer Jenny Fell In Love and Winter Dreams. Fanfic is a good starting point, especially for a writer who's just starting out.
But do I read fanfic? Not really. But this is not to say that I would discourage anyone from reading it. That's totally different. It's just not my preference. I would rather read the original stories.
So, in conclusion, I think fanfic is great. It's a great creative activity for fans. Some worlds are just so engrossing they have to be built upon. It's a great activity for writers, especially when they are inspired by a piece of work and are just starting out in a genre. As a reader, I have a preference for original stories. But that's just me.
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