A Female Phenomenon

[Angela 1]

Just a random thought, but one based on experience. From what i can tell fan fiction tends (unless it is slash Homosexual stuff) to be written and aimed towards women. is this others opinion?

 

Also what gender are you and do you read fan fiction? If so what styles do you read? If you don't is it because your experience has been one of mary sue fics (where a writer places themselves in the story as someone central and also as a sexual play toy) or is it because it has been poorly written?

 

Is there any advice you would give to a fan fiction writer?

[BakulaBabe 2]

The fan fic I enjoy is "romantic" (i.e. "adult"), and all I've seen is written by women. I haven't read any in a while, though, and I haven't read any 'Slash" yet. I may read some just out of curiosity. "Mary Sue" fic isn't my cup of tea. How many kinds of fan fic are there?

 

(btw, I voted "yes" because most of the fan fic I've come across has been written by women.)

Edited September 20, 2005 by BakulaBabe

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

I'm not really into fan fiction, but I have seen some written by guys without all the romantic stuff.

[fredbroca 0]

The only fan fics I have read is the strange new worlds books. I never really paid that close attention on if the writer was a male or female but I think that they had about the same amount.

[Mr.Picard 12]

I can only talk about Star Trek TNG fan fiction, so, all that comes next is about TNG fan fic.

 

I am a fan fiction writer and reader, and I can tell you that "slash" is almost ALWAYS written by women (and "femslash" as well).

I'm a very eager reader of slash stories and I've met VERY few guys who write about that. (I sometimes write such stuff myself, so... um... I'm guilty, too. :lol: )

 

I read fan fiction (anything but P/C or P/female for me, please :P ) because I find it an interesting way to see how differently people view characters. I guess I've read everything, every obscure pairing, nothing surprises or shocks me anymore. :lol:

I don't like it when people write the characters TOO out of character, for example, letting Jean-Luc talk like an 18-year-old teenage boy who has nothing else on his mind than women (or guys *lol*). :blink:

 

I know guys who write fan fic. Their fan fiction is completely different, which surprised me a great deal at first. Theirs is almost always action-centered, ships blowing up, people getting killed or hurt, a war is going on or whatever. I'm not much into such stories, so I rarely read fan fiction that's written by guys - only if they include some romance for SOMEONE.

Guys also often tend to invent bigger ships, bigger crews, heroic characters and stuff while women often use the ships they know about and the characters they know.

 

I'm guilty of sometimes writing Mary sue fics, so, don't kill me. :P

[krysis 2]

Yes, I enjoy fan fiction although I am very choosey or picky about them. I never read slash or eroctic fan fic. I totally avoid romantic fan fiction. I do not know how to appreciate literature that describes romantic emotions or relationships as the primary plot. I enjoy romance plots if only its a minor sub plot. I do not read Sues. I love crossovers.

 

I've read loads of fan fic and I've come across some really excellent once. I've wondered why they've not managed to publish their own.

 

One site I've enjoyed going is fanfcition.net. I find loads of lousy writers there but there are a couple who are excellent. One particular good writer would be AlbertG (pen name only). Another site I like is Orion Press.

 

Generally, I prefer male writers. Ladies tend to write about stuff I'm not interested in. Even in the real world, I prefer books written by the guys, with the exception of Diane Duane. I'm not saying the ladies are not good. Their work are normally not my cup of tea.

 

I like some new ships, but not always. New tech is good. Great conflicts between characters that doesn't have to be romantic. It could be moral conficts or political onces. I find guys are better at writing about interstellar political conflicts or dark stuff . That's good for me. I like them. I like writers who can make me love or hate a certain character or a particular race, or just put in on the edge. I like stories laced with tragegy... e.g. characters going through a divorce or death of a spouse or child as a sub plot. Murder or even espionage.

 

Mebbe that explains why I like Generation where most considered it a weak movie. I liked it because of the tragedy Picard had to face and the conflicts it presented. I liked the Sisko character about him having to raise a child alone and losing his wife. It did lead to him marrying Kass bit the focus was his pain and how he handled it. These are the examples I like to see in fan fic.

 

Well, there's a lot more to write about but I understand that my cup of earl grey could be someone else's cup of poison. So yes, I do love and enjoy fan fiction. There was once, when I don't have any ST books and TV doesn't show ST, I had to live on fan fic alone.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

A couple years ago I read some pretty good fan fiction about what a second season of the original Battlestar Galactica could have been. (This was before SciFi Channel anounced they were working on a miniseries.) It did a good job of bridging the gap between the original series and the ill-fated Galactica 1980. Pretty good stuff really.

[APW 0]

I've been writing my own Trek stories since the 8th grade.

I still have some of them, and occasionally read them (they're terrible, but at the time I thought they were as good as anything D.C. Fontana or Alan Dean Foster could write :lol: ).

I haven't written as much in the past 5-years.

I think the last story I wrote was one I planned to submit to the second volume of the Strange New Worlds anthology, but I never got around to mailing it in. It was a TOS Mirror Universe story.

 

I have also penned horror fiction involving myself and my friends. The stories are set in a post-apocalyptic "Dawn of the Dead" world (I'm a huge fan of Romero's Dead films, and the spoof "Return of the Living Dead").

I don't have time to set back and write anymore.

 

In college I penned a couple of stories a friend of mine (who worked at Malibu Comics) bought from me for $200 bucks. Don't know if he ever used them.

[Matt 0]

I don't read fan fiction mostly becuase I simply don't think it's very good but I would have to agree that it does seem to be a "female phenomenon" with some exceptions of course.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

I know men who read fan fiction, I know men who write fan fiction.

 

I think it depends on what type of book series you are talking about, because I think men write fan fiction more about Star Trek, than they would about Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

 

I"ve read some fan fiction, LOTR based.

 

You have to be very careful when you read because alot of it is just Mary Sue stories. Which basically means the authors are writing themselves into the story. All the first chapters I read that had the author joining the Fellowship were dumped. :lol: Meaning I could see the writing on the wall and there was nothing original about it.

 

I'd say I found a handful that were worthwhile. I followed one story for two years because the author was so spectacular and could easily make a living writing her own original stories.

 

There are a ton of them out there that are poorly written, but you have to give them credit, because at least they tried and took the bad reviews that came their way.

 

As for slash, I don't think it's homosexual's reading it. I know a number of so called "straight" people that love it, and lesbians seem to like it too. Just like fantasy, sci fi, and romance, it's a different category, just one that's not typically the norm. You aren't going to find a section at the book store called "slash".

 

 

Advice would be to get original with your story idea. make it multilayered. Don't make yourself the main character, and stay true to your idea. Don't add your friends as characters, and don't make a book written in good thought and language turn into Valley or Chav speak.

[krysis 2]

Talking about LOTR, I once read a fan fic with Worf and Alexander being mistaken for an Orcs in LOTR after saving the Hobbit. I've not come across one where Tuvok and Spock mistaken for a elves.

[Yillara Skye 1]

I actually am not sure, I have seen stories written by both men and women, though truth be told I have actually read more stories written by women that are fan fics

 

If you don't is it because your experience has been one of mary sue fics (where a writer places themselves in the story as someone central and also as a sexual play toy) or is it because it has been poorly written?

I do not read much in the way of fan fics, even though I actually sorta helped out on a fan fic by proofreading and sorta editing on one TNG based story (Lessa asked Takara, dsbs and I to assist in checking her story way back when).

 

 

I have attempted to write one, but always

a) got sidetracked (compiling an encyclopedia/dicitionary of various mythologies and my research papers were more interesting for me)

b ) the story was getting so complex that it would drive the readers, not to mention it was driving me, completely batty. Time travel mixed with mythological & Star Trek stuff can be a pain to write about. Could have broke the story into a bunch of short stories, I may try to if I decide to try writing again

c) Got bored with it

d) Would not probably post it or have it published

 

 

 

I actually am not much into Mary Sue fics, especially if the writer puts themself in as a central character who is a sex toy. If they put a character that is based on themselves, but not exactly that is fine. They can even be a main character.. that is all good and fine. But if tehy are in there only as a plot point to bring the sex in, makes me kinda want to gag or just flat out puke. Sex in a fan fic is fine, as long as that does not make up majority of the story.

 

So you can figure on the fact that I do NOT like porn fics or slash fics AT ALL.

Edited September 22, 2005 by Yillara_Soong

[BakulaBabe 2]

Earlier, I posted that I haven't read any Slash yet. Well, I read some Enterprise Slash yesterday - written by a guy - and O.M.G.....

 

I'm hooked! :P :blink: :lol: