So what with all the time hanging out in hospital I have become a fan of fanfic. Yeah. What I like about it is that it's kind of the opposite of writing - and by extension reading.
Because fan fiction starts from a common, "canon" idea, which is not the same as most writing. Usually your attitude as a reader is "I've paid for this, I don't know what you're on about, impress me." With fanfic, it's "ok I picked this but you did it for fun, I'm doing it for fun, we both know what the rules are, let's go". More like dating than an arranged marriage. Much less room for recrimination.
Also, the vast majority of fanfic is about "shipping" - i.e. relationships you jolly well wished had happened in the book/film/tv series BUT SOMEHOW DIDN'T. You will be thrilled to know that in various fanfic universes, Sherlock Holmes is going out with Molly, not realising he's in love with Molly, or married to Molly with children (idk how. I think those stories must be wildly OOC. Snobbish sniff). In the more likely universes, he is with John. It is possible that somewhere he is alone, solving mysteries, but usually he isn't.
I adore the fact that fanfic world is a chandelier reflection of the fiction that it sprang from; anybody can do anything - can wake up in a world where they are a graffiti artist instead of a lost princess, or a hockey player instead of a salesperson. Thought you got married at the end of the film, babe? Guess again.
What's fun about it is that it can be wholly without proper story, or bizarrely accurately detailed - you can always spot the people who are writing from their own experience of the navy or military or European history degrees - that it can be a one-off, or a multi-chapter fic which offers the pleasure of weekly updates - and the corresponding pleasure of cliff-hangers. There aren't actually very many places you can get that. And with fanfic it's thrillingly secret; sometimes somebody gets well known, but usually - it's just you and the fan base. All twenty seven of them.
You can also leave hopeful hints for what you hope will happen next, because that's part of the culture - read and review.
The weaknesses are that some stories are awful, and many are pretty derivative; you can draw the comfort of familiarity from this or you can go and find something else. There's plenty. A worse conundrum is that PEOPLE DON'T FINISH. Or update slowly, or irregularly. This is the biggest annoyance.
The only defence of paying for reading matter is that it is - well, it should be - better. The weakness here is that my reading this summer has included We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (unattractive first person narrator), After the Fall (worthy - all right in a glum sort of way), Sunshine (Robin McKinley - info dumping, emotionally shallow) and Queen of the Damned (oh my LIFE would it ever finish?) I'm really looking for something to read. David Mitchell and Marian Keyes have new novels out in the autumn; it's a long wait.
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