The Similarities Between Fan Fiction and Professional Fiction · 7:41am Oct 28th, 2014
It is often remarked on how different fan fiction is from original fiction. There is definitely truth to these remarks; the amateur nature of fan fiction and the baggage of using an existing setting creates many differences.
Over time, however, I’ve noticed some similarities. One could say that some of these are reaching, or that they happen rarely, and that is not unreasonable. I thought it might be an interesting mental exercise regardless.
The “It'll be done when it's done” Attitude: This is not universal, obviously, but many different artists have a habit of delaying their projects for extended periods of time. Naming them all would take forever, but a partial list can be found here. Valve Software and George R.R. Martin are probably two of the most infamous examples in modern pop culture.
I personally don’t consider this a bad thing, to a degree. Creativity is not a faucet—it can’t be turned on and off at will. There are hundreds of examples of video games that were rushed out the door and tanked as a result.
The main difference here, of course, is that fan fiction has no professional obligations. Taking its time is expected with fanfic. Admittedly, with things like Patreon that line is starting to get fuzzier, but the majority of fanfic authors don’t use that.
Popularity snowballs and A-listers vs. Mid-listers: To become more popular, one needs to be popular. For every popular author, there is another less popular author (or, as devas pointed out in the comments, five less popular authors). This gap between the most known authors and creators shows up in both amateur and professional settings. Stephen King is almost a household name, Charles Stross less so, and Ken Liu even less than that. For every Descendant there is an ocalhoun behind them and a cleverpun below that.
The obvious difference here is the scale. If a youtube user only has 5,000 followers, or a book only sells 5,000 copies, then it is not that popular. Meanwhile a FIMfic story with that many story views has done well, and if it has that many upvotes it is in a group of only a few dozen fics.
This gap between different entertainers is a combination of many factors, but I would say that most of them apply to both fanfic and original fiction. Amount of output, timing and cultural relevance, subject matter, and ease of digestion all affect how popular someone is, and all those and more apply equally to all mediums.
Relationships Between Fans and Creators: There was a time when this was exclusively the purview of fanfiction. In modern times, however, authors and creators have increasingly become friendly personalities. Cons, email, and blogging have all made communication between individuals easier, and artists are no longer on this lofty pedestal above their fans.
The difference here, naturally, is the distance. With fanfic, a direct line to the author is right there on the story page, either in the form of a comment window or a PM button. With other media, you often have to dig up the author’s email or the company’s website before you can actually talk to them.
This also goes in the opposite direction. Reclusive artists can be found in both fan fiction communities and professional settings. It is perhaps a bit harder to be reclusive on the internet, but hardly impossible. The fanfic author who answers no comments is a sort of parallel to the original fiction author who answers no email and goes to no cons.
So there you are, three ways in which fan fiction and original fiction are not so different. Interesting to note, though, is that all these reasons relate to the presentation of the work. They focus on how the work is received and the interactions of creators with their audience. I considered a few reasons related to content (like how sex sells or shallow entertainment gets a bigger audience), but those seemed like more subjective issues. Perhaps in another post.
As always, comments and counter-analysis welcome.
About your second point: I think it's more accurate to describe popularity as a power* law: twenty percent of authors have eighty percent of the fame, since a popular person doesn't have an unpopular counterpart: he or she has five.
*mathematical term, not common usage
2560164 That actually didn't occur to me while writing this--been a while since I took a math class. I added a note to that effect
Another thing that has occurred to me is that fanfics are often released one chapter at a time; and while until a decade ago this mostly happened in Dickensian times, nowadays legitimate authors (see: RX, a tale of electronegativity) are also starting to adopt this model.
nice little comparison post. And below Cleverpun you find Super Trampoline. Though I interact with a lot of ponies, so I think most people on this site at least recognize my name.
Cool comparison.