Social Classes · 4:30am May 10th, 2012
Mini-rant:
I feel that sometimes in this community of fan-fiction writers we have developed a sense of elitism. Now, to clarify, there's a difference between earning your stripes and assuming control. Let's take two writers for example. Let's say both writers have the same amount of skill, yet one has never had a fic on EqD and the other has had two. (By the way, this is secretly Lucefudu and I. Well, except the skill thing. I'm pretty skillful I'd like to say, but Lucefudu reaches places I can't reach yet.) Because he has more fics than me up does that give him the authority to look down upon me? Neigh! And he doesn't! The only thing that separates us is time! I have the same amount of skill as he does, so I'll follow the same route. It's like when in the school yard there's a group of really smart kids and they don't let a slightly less intelligent kid into their group and look down upon them because of this fact, when in reality all of the children are equal under the authority of the school's staff, so why should we look down upon people when we're truly at the same level? We should accept people for people, and not for the amount of 'work they've put into the fandom.' If I wasn't working would I be writing and editing at all? I think not, so give us a chance. This goes for reviewers as well.
Sometimes though, regardless of "social status" as described, some authors DO look down upon people and think themselves to be almost Gods. I can think of one in particular who actually tried to attack my computer because he was upset that I criticized his fan fictions, which if you read them, you'd see why they were never submitted to EQD. I personally have had 2 stories make it on EQD, and I'll probably have a few more in my time, but I don't see myself better than most authors. I think I'm "decent", and I've learned to be a good critic, but I don't think it's a good way to gauge talent by how many stories you've gotten on EQD, considering they won't accept certain stories that are actually VERY good.
If you're a good author, and the message of your stories is enjoyable and clever, I will promote your work regardless of how long you've been here.
108078 That's the way it should be. Just because your story gets 5k views doesn't mean you're automatically better than everyone who didn't. You might have more skill, but you definitely don't have more rights over another author.
108081 Well at least you aren't running into people trying to fuck with your computer... OVER FAN FICTION.
108093 I AM having an argument on Ponychan right now about this kind of thing though! Ha!
108100 Your mistake is arguing on Ponychan.
108103 I didn't really start it though, but you're right.
108104 I agree though, some people's egos are big enough to trip over.
Pretty much. I'm not sure why, but I'm about to start a mini-rant of my own.
Thing is, this isn't a corporation: ultimately, we write stories about magical cartoon ponies for fun and/or creative expression (the fact that I don't yet have any stories published is hopefully irrelevant). This point leads to a few others.
1. Fan-created content doesn't contribute to any profit margin or whatever, so authors ultimately don't have to answer to anyone unless they want to. The derivative aspect of fanfiction aside, this is first and foremost a means of self-expression.
2. The only external return anyone gets for contributing creative content to the fandom is the esteem of their readers, and using that as justification to look down on others is the kind of thing you see from stereotypical highschool bullies.
3. My third point had something to do with extending the metaphor about quarterly profits, but I've completely forgotten what it was going to be. It was probably very clever, too!
tl;dr - fuck those guys.
108161
>Writes a very intelligent and well executed argument with
>Tl;dr - Fuck those guys.
Lol'd
Well, I have to say that sometimes I behave like an asshole on this site. A minor one, but still... Not the one you're talking about in here (except for a few times when I slip and I talk down to someone {mainly from group B, see below}). I always try to give constructive criticism, but there are times in which the words simply fail me completely... for better and for worse, unfortunately. But there are a few who ire me to some extent... mainly authors with that elitist complex. Those can be divided into two distinct groups:
A) Stories are good, but they brag about it endlessly.
B) Stories aren't good and still they brag about it.
Regardless of the group one belongs to; he/she/it will have two fundamental flaws: They actually believe that this behavior is a good one (well, maybe within the ranks of fanboys inside the kool kidz gr00p) and they also think that they have reached the top. Meaning that they don't think they can improve, because they think themselves to be so goddamn good that even God itself is ashamed of looking upon them.
Since Ponychan was brought up:
Except when reviewed by Logician, all the times I sent a story to Ponychan, it came back filled with snarky remarks, not-so-subtly hinting at how stupid I was for missing X or Y. I just don't get too worked up about it. I know that I'm not good at writing. I, like Mist, consider myself to be mediocre; average if you may. What I like most is to think about a fanfic's plot. Writing it is... a real deal of trouble to me, to be honest (to me, you write far better than I do, MrMusical. It's just that you forget some stuff sometimes).
When I first crossed Mist's path, I replied to him about one of his comments on a Cupcakes Spin-Off. I remember telling him politely that I did not agree to what he said because to me, Cupcakes was (and still is) a very interesting thing. It's not the first or the best gorefic out there; but it was the first one that I read about and made me realize that, if Sgt. Sprinkles was able to twist, shape and deform (using the term loosely) the MLP:FiM universe to his own will, I could as well. And that is what I told to Mist. Then I realized that Mist was the one who wrote What Happened Last Week and ?arity. (Actually, why am I bringing this up? This is getting off-topic.)
Anywho, what I'm trying to say is: There is more to writing than just writing, y'know? I've seen some stories work out OK with a crappy premise and stories that went from bad to downright "I want to gouge my eyes out" (me being an asshole again) with a fucking brilliant premise. And while some are good at X and others good at Y, that isn't all there is to it. (I think I might be rambling incoherently, I better stop now before it gets worse).
PS: FiMFiction is being a little bitch. If this message gets lost, I'm going to be SO MAD!
PPS: It's like everything p0nee-related is slow today!