Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - On Fanfiction · 2:38am Nov 26th, 2017
I had never given fanfiction much thought before I was on the brony scene, and what thoughts I could spare on the subject were typically not very kind.
This fandom changed my mind in a big way. After reading Circle of Friends, Scoot Along Loo, and Fallout: Equestria, I realized that writing set in an already existing universe could still be riveting material.
It should seem like an obvious conclusion. After all, some of the finest works of literature ever written have not only taken place in existing universes, but also expanded, adapted, reinvented, and reinterpreted them. Just like fanfic. From Shakespeare, to Paradise Lost, to The Once and Future King, to Ulysses, the tradition is pretty solid.
Why, then the stigma against fanfiction? It’s actually kind of strange when you think about it. We are, after all, in a time when nearly every aspect of geek culture is exploding in the mainstream. The stuff that my peers and I got picked on for liking back in the day - sci-fi, fantasy, comic books - now dominates pop culture. Fan-fiction, however, still carries with it all the same negative connotations and associations that fandom in general used to have.
I never really considered where that taboo came from until I started writing a fanfic of my own.
(I’m going to talk about myself and my writing a little bit more than usual for now, and I hope you’ll bear with me. I assure you, I’m doing it to make a point).
You see, in my previous writings, I used to focus on constructing witticisms. Whenever I sat down to write or to edit, I always had a little voice whispering in the back of my mind telling me to be clever – to impress my readers with my writing style – to impress potential publicists with how very clever I could be.
It all sucked.
When I started writing My Little Pony fanfiction, I knew that there was no potential of publication, nor any hope of getting praised in a fancy literary world, so I simply stopped trying so hard. Instead of asking myself “what is clever,“ I started asking myself, “what’s real? What’s true to the character?” I learned to listen to my characters to find out where they naturally wanted to go, rather than imposing stupid ideas on them.
I’m still an amateur. I’m no great novelist. I’m learning as I go. So when I say that my pony fiction is 1000 times better than anything I’ve ever written before, I’m not doing it out of egotism, but simply cringing at how terrible my writing used to be before I embraced fanfic as a medium.
I am inspired by the MLP universe, and that love and admiration for the source material is what has helped me to grow as a writer.
Okay. Now that I have rambled about myself a little bit, let me explain where I’m going with this, and how it’s relevant to fandom, and to pony.
Once I realized that pressure to succeed had been holding me back as a writer, I also had an epiphany or two about fanfic in general, and its place in society as a whole. The real reason that fanfic is still considered taboo, is that you can’t make money off of it.
Big business has taken over and co-opted many aspects of fandom. Cosplay is hip because they can sell costume-related hoodies, and sell us magazines of scantily clad people dressed up as geek culture icons. Comic books are acceptable now because there is a multibillion dollar industry tied into them - movies with budgets larger than the gross national products of some countries. Fantasy has been “in” ever since the Lord of the Rings movies; the Game of Thrones television series has only accelerated the genre’s popularity.
Everyone loves something geeky, and everyone wants merch.
Writing fanfiction, however, is not profitable. (There are a few fanfics that got turned into novels, but those are the exception, not the rule, and even those had to get turned into something fundamentally NOT fanfiction in order to be deemed remotely acceptable).
It’s considered a waste of time, or if your critic is feeling generous, a waste of talent. Why? Because our culture quantifies and commodifies everything. We are taught from birth that that which does not have monetary value, has no value at all.
A kid who watches one hour of TV a day gets exposed to 10,000 commercials per year, and these commercials are pushing more than just the individual products, but rather a holistic message – that we are not good enough - that we are incomplete. So many of them start with someone feeling bad about themselves, and then, after they are exposed to AMAZING PRODUCT, they are suddenly jubilant and happy, and spiritually whole. We are taught to seek comfort in material goods. We are taught that our worth as human beings is attached to numbers on a checkbook, rather than our deeds in the world, and our devotion to our loved ones.
It’s so deeply ingrained, that society ends up asking us “why are you writing fanfiction when you could be writing real stories?” Our friends may ask us this too. We might even ask it of ourselves. I know that it was something of an existential dilemma for me.
Why write fanfiction if it’s never going to “go anywhere“?
When you stop to think about it, the mere act of posing this question is kind of sick. Why should I feel guilty for doing something harmless that brings me joy - for sharing a little bit of my soul and my perspective with others?
Why is any of this even an issue? Why are fan fiction authors looked down upon? Simply put, because we dare to devote our time and energy to a “product” that can never be sold.
I am grateful to this fandom, and to Equestria in general, for inspiring me, for helping me find my voice, and for breaking down this stupid taboo.
-Sprocket
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Intersting; thanks for sharing your thoughts. Your hypothesis seems plausible, and the question is one I don't believe I've considered all that much before.
I recall Skywriter, who actually does scribe for a living, saying once that it was precisely because he couldn't sell it that he loves writing pony fiction. That way he gets to write what he wants rather than what sells.
I always figured that fanfic had a bad rep because Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crud). Since there's no editor telling you that you can't expose your writing to the public it it's still part of the 90% most fanfic that a first time reader finds is somewhere between bad and awful. If someone is expecting to read something as polished as comes from a publishing house (and thus a professional editor) they are likely to come away feeling like they wasted their time.
Of course I'm not a writer so I don't ever get asked why I'm "wasting" my time on fanfic so I've never run into that complaint. As someone on the consumer end I get asked why I waste my time reading something that's so bad.
Another reason why fanfiction gets a bad rep is that it is inherently derivative. You're essentially piggybacking on someone else's intellectual property, which others may attribute to laziness or a lack of creativity. Not that there aren't derivative 'original' movies and books out there, but it's just extra obvious in fanfics.
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Well, in my opinion, that line of logic is inherently flawed. True, many authors will simply use the medium of fan-fiction to kickstart a story without having to put in much effort to creating an intricate and interesting universe, but most fan-fictions I have read don't do that.
Instead, and this is the reason I consider the MLP fandom to be one of the best out there (yes, I know I'm biased), many MLP fan-fictions take the MLP universe (which is also inherently flawed, and actually, not particularly good) and expand it to become so much better. Take for example, the furry fandom. There is no originating piece of media (though there are many with anthropomorphic animals, none are central to the community like MLP.) so the community make their own stories and universes, which in itself is commendable. However, it is not an improvement. Instead, it is simply the evolution of an idea. The MLP fandom takes an average show (certainly better than many others, but not the pinnacle of television media) and expands it far, far beyond it's original boundaries. I have read stories that cross over popular games, and not only are an engaging and exciting read, but expand both the MLP and the game's universe (check out Stardust by Arad.) I have read stories that take simple concepts; being a support character (Background Pony, by shortskirtsandexplosions), shadowy beings controlling the universe (Them, by Chaotic Dreams and Ether Echoes), or simply being a student (Silver Glow's Journal, by Admiral Biscuit). I know, I'm heavily biased, but I believe that the most incredible thing someone can do is take something incredible, and improve it.
Okay, rant over.
May I quote this? I don't know where yet, but this quote may be useful eventually.
There is some logic to this, but that's not the vibe I get. The taboo is much stronger than that. Playing baseball isn't taboo; doing charity work isn't taboo.
One aspect is that baseball and charity work don't compete with money-making businesses. The publishing industry is motivated to slander fan-fiction, because they're losing a lot of money to it. But I don't think that's the explanation, either.
Writers are motivated to slander fan-fiction, because they get their status from being "approved" writers, from having cleared a bar that fan-fiction knocks down. But I don't think that's the explanation, either.
I think a lot of it comes from the historical origins of fan-fiction, which was largely bad romance and sex stories. If you read interviews with authors from earlier fandoms, especially the Twilight fandom (which was mostly middle-aged women, not teens), they had a big focus on hot sex and had no ambition to write well. If they did, they denied it. They constantly denigrate their own writing in interviews.
But that's not the whole explanation.
4735108 Please tell me how you got the vertical whitespace at the end of that comment.
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Like that.
See?
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Huh. Comments must use a different renderer than other pages.
These are still very rare exceptions, but there's plenty of fanfiction that is commercially sold as unlicensed fanfiction without being adapted into original productions. They're just hard to find unless you keep a close eye on that facet of the community.
Gosh, I've just found out about these sort of editorial, article type things in regards to pony & you do it so well with the insight that you give in which I agree with and love every time! I love the connections that you've made and reasons that one might dislike or frown upon fan fiction. The fan fiction from this fandom is one that continues to amaze & astonish me with all those fantastic, emotion eliciting stories! All the creativity that is waiting to be ouletted and all that joy with pony spirit, really fills you with glee! Super great points made with this ahhhhhhhhh, really love these