Why does badfic happen?

[dunmurderin]

A recent discussion over at the Slash Haven at the Padded Cell, plus countless rants on FFRants as well as the lingering holdovers of Fanfic is Srs Bizness from Strikethrough 2007, have inspired me to blather talk about why badfics happen.

Why do writers feel the need to create stories that are, by the standards of most fans, bad? Why do people feel the need to bend canon like Beckham in order to justify pairings or characterizations or scenarios that are for lack of a more polite term, stupid?

In some cases, it’s because the writer is young and foolish and thinks that they’re the first person to stick the cast of their favorite book/movie/TV show/rock band/etc. in high school. Or the first person to magically fall into the world of [insert fandom] due to [insert reason]. Or that they are the ONLY PERSON in the history of EVER who has created a character who has their name, a lovely singing voice and the ability to warp the plot around them. Oddly enough, some of these young and foolish writers are in their early to mid 30s and 40s.

Sometimes these authors learn better and start worrying about characterization, grammar and logic like the rest of us and their stories improve according to the standards of the community. But sometimes, these authors just continue on doing whatever crazy crack comes into their heads and get hundreds of reviews saying OMG! Write MORE! while more deserving fics get nothing and it’s not @#$#@ FAIR! seem perfectly content to live as heathens among us.

But, why? Why would they do this? Why write stories where the improbable, the impossible and the down right implausible happen? Why drop your authorial pants and moon Lady Logic and Father Canon? Why would anybody write a story where they didn’t take time to run it through their spellchecker, do a line edit themselves before handing it over to a beta-reader to have it checked for grammar, spelling and canon before finally posting it?

The answer, I think, is pretty simple: because they’re having fun doing it. They’re doing it for shits and grins and they really don’t give a good goddamn if meets the standards of a publishable work, they just did it for the sheer hell of it, so whadda you think?

Note: this isn’t to say that people who do take time and effort to make sure their stories are grammatically correct, plausible and logical aren’t having fun. It’s more to say that not everybody approaches the fun of fanfic in the same way and that, to paraphrase Kipling, there are nine and ninety ways of constructing fannish lays (as in ‘laws’) and every single one of them is right.”

“Right” in this case meaning good, in the sense of being suitable for a particular purpose -- i.e. the entertainment of the author and/or others. Sometimes you want to read a well-crafted epic and sometimes you just want something silly, light and entertaining.

Not everybody writes fanfic because they’re practicing so they can write the Great Novel. Not everybody writes fanfic because they MUST write to appease their muses. Not everybody writes fanfic because they’re subverting the dominant paradigm or playing with a form of modern oral literature or claiming a space for women in a heteronormative patriarchy by having Jack Sparrow take it up the ass from Will Turner, Norrington, Davy Jones and the monkey.

Some people just write fanfics for the sheer hell of it. They write what they want to read -- and sometimes what they want to read is, well, bad -- painfully so -- to other readers. And there’s nothing wrong with doing that.

Personally, I think I stand somewhere on the border of “Fanfic is Serious!” and “Fanfiction is Fun”. I write my stories because they’re the kind of stories I want to read but that I don’t often find, but I have a tendency to want those stories to be good (i.e. for other people to enjoy reading them). So, I’m careful with my spelling and my grammar and my attention to details both real and otherwise. I want my stories to be internally consistent and to be consistent with other stories that I’ve written. Getting things right (for a given value of ‘right’) is important to me.

This doesn’t make me any better or any worse than the writer who chugs a bottle of Mountain Dew and a package of Pop Rocks and says “Wouldn’t it be cool if the cast of NCIS were all squirrels!?” Yes, the latter writer will probably never be taken seriously with that sort of an attitude but that really only matters if the writer themselves wants to be taken seriously. If they don’t then, it’s rather like being denied admission to a club you don’t want to belong to.

Comments

okay, fine, I admit it....

[oasis-pink-peng.livejournal.com]

Sometimes we just need a level-headed individual to point out how bad it is so that we feel a proper sense of shame. One can get so carried away with her great idea/whimsical thought that it truly takes someone else to tell her what she's doing wrong.

Re: okay, fine, I admit it....

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but there's a difference between "I think you wrote those guys OOC, here are X and Y reasons" and "omg, you suxxor!" and "your writing offends every right-thinking being out there". There are ways to point out someone is doing something badly without getting yourself dismissed out-of-hand.

[nightwind69.livejournal.com]

I think you've nailed it, Dun.

Me, I used to take fanfic way too seriously. This was back when I was in Trek fandom. I used to be very snooty, would look down my nose at anyone who didn't write fanfic The Right Way (Which was, of course, a euphemism for "My Way." :) ) Very sanctimonious, I was. Still am, sometimes, though not generally about fanfic.

But I realized something over the years. For me, fanfic was always something done for fun. I never had any illusions about it being or morphing into anything resembling High Art. However, "fun" for me was defined as researching stuff and challenging myself to make my stories as "canon" as I could while at the same time adding outrageously un-canon stuff like slash. I assumed that because this was fun for me, it must be fun for other fic writers, too. It wasn't until later that I learned that *gasp!* other people thought that that which I absolutely detested in fanfic was fun to write! That other people had very different definitions of fun! That some people's fun thinking goes something like this: "Gee, Omega Supreme and Rumble are meant for each other! BANZAI!"

And really, who am I to argue, you know? People are going to write badfic no matter how much I kick and scream about it. Some people RELISH writing badfic. Live and let live, sayeth I, nowadays. I'm done with the Fic Police stage in the Evolution of a Fanfic Writer, I guess. :)

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

I can go you one better: I used to be a snob about fanfic period -- why bother writing something if it wasn't your own universe? I suppose it's alright if you're using it to practice REAL(tm) writing but as anything else? Please! *sneersneer*

Then I grew up and got over the need to be 'mature' -- and learned that fanfics could be well-written and that a lot of fanfic writers took the craft of writing just as seriously as original fic writers. Some of the better writing advice sites I've found have been written by fanfic writers trying to help other fanfic writers improve their skills. Hell, some of the fanfic grammar sites out there made concepts I'd never understood clear to me because hey, they were accessable!

This isn't to say that I don't still see fics that make me roll my eyes -- I could be quite happy if I never saw another fic where the minibots were treated as being weaker than the taller Autobots -- but at the end of the day I can walk away from those fics and do my best to write fics where things happen the way I want.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

You know, when I finally figured out that the people writing badfic were enjoying themselves and there was nothing wrong with that... I relaxed a whole heck of a lot more.

No one forces me at gun-point to read their stuff. So just because someone writes something I dislike doesn't mean I have to read it.

Someday I ought to blather on about reviews, constructive criticism, criticism, and flames. Because there is a big difference between criticism and constructive criticism that I don't think a lot of people grasp.

[wrongly-amused.livejournal.com]

Heh, I think you're more or less right on the matter. That's why I'm fairly picky about who I leave critique for. If it's somebody I can obviously tell is trying to improve themselves, they definitely get a review. But if it's a bad-to-semi-decent fic, I generally don't bother, especially if it's clear they're just having fun.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Generally, I'm a lazy reviewer. I'll review a fic if I like it. I don't (usually) critique a story unless I'm asked to because I don't want the grief of being bitched at for telling someone they have an ugly baby.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

My rule-of-thumb for reviews is that if I can't find at least one thing I want to praise the author for, then I shouldn't leave a review. Easier to catch flies with honey and all that.

[newsy891.livejournal.com]

Or that they are the ONLY PERSON in the history of EVER who has created a character who has their name, a lovely singing voice and the ability to warp the plot around them.

Hey! My character only has a lovely singing voice! =D

Anyway. I think I'm about where you are as far as my approach to my writing. I want my stories to be consistent with each other and to be written well by my editorial standards, but I'm not practicing to write the Great American Novel.

However, I do often write after chugging Mountain Dew, which could explain anything crack-ish that I produce. =D

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying, but I still don't understand. If we're all here to play with the nice shiny toy that is Fandom A, how is it fun to break Fandom A until it no longer resembles itself? What is it I'm missing here?

[dragoness-e.livejournal.com]

People are different.

'Fandom' is a new-fangled way of saying 'folklore', and humans have always shaped folklore to suit their own needs and views.

[newsy891.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I think maybe it's fun for the same reason that it's fun to daydream about "what my life could be," or for the same reason that it's fun for a small child to invent an imaginary friend or an imaginary world. It's fun because it's fantasy, it's an escape from the real world and its troubles, and it's a chance to be silly or smutty or totally on crack or any number of other things that one might never dream of being in the real world.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing the idea that while you look at a badfic and see a broken toy, the writer and/or the people who enjoy said badfic see a toy that's working perfectly well to their standards. Not everybody feels the need to keep their toy in perfect condition -- heck, some people like to take toys apart and put them together with parts of other toys to make a completely new toy.

It's like coloring. Some people, myself included, like to stay inside the lines and color things the colors they're supposed to be -- sky blue, grass green, etc. Other people can get whacky with it. I may look at them and cringe because OMG, not inside the lines and they may look at me and go OMG anal much? but neither one of us is wrong. It all boiils down to preference.

[calcitrix.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...badfic: to make myself feel better, I tell myself that most of the worst is written by younger people, or at least folks who don't have a lot of writing experience. If they don't practice, they won't get better. At least that's the idea, right?

Now, that doesn't stop me from thinking that X story was a sad waste of a couple of hours for the author.

Still, I tend to equate everything with drawing--one needs to acquire specific skills and techniques to do it well and spend many an hour turning out rubbish before things start to shape up. For many fanfic authors, it's like they've picked up a pencil for the first time and set out to draw, say, a horse on a hill, and end up with a bloated cow-dinosaur that looks like it's falling off a cliff.

That said, if someone critiques the "artist" and tells her helpful things about perspective and she ignores it...then may her toes rot off.

Er...that's my pet peeve, anyway. Many new writers don't seem to realize that there are techniques and tools that they must learn and understand, just like with any other skill, and that helpful crits shouldn't be ignored.

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

These would be the new writers who are too embarrassed to show their work to a beta, preferring to launch it unspellchecked onto an unsuspecting comm...y/n?

I think you really do have to have a different approach to the young - I have a daughter of 14 who is keen to write. She writes her age, or a little older, and she isn't going to write like an adult until she is one. But she writes for more than fun - there's a need there to tell stories, to get things out of her head. I've taken to using Emma's comments for stories I know are written by young people, because she says some sensible stuff at the right level (eg "read a variety of styles, even if you wouldn't normally read it, you learn from it") She can say that without it sounding patronising.

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Not everybody writes fanfic because they’re practicing so they can write the Great Novel. Not everybody writes fanfic because they MUST write to appease their muses. Not everybody writes fanfic because they’re subverting the dominant paradigm or playing with a form of modern oral literature or claiming a space for women in a heteronormative patriarchy by having Jack Sparrow take it up the ass from Will Turner, Norrington, Davy Jones and the monkey.

Here via metafandom, and I would like to extend a proposal of marriage.

Great post.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

*grins* Thanks; I'll have to check with the girlfriend but...

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Why drop your authorial pants and moon Lady Logic and Father Canon?

Is it deeply wrong of me to desperately want someone to leave me that as feedback?

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

No, no it is not.

Heck, I'd love to see it as an icon

[cirrussundog.livejournal.com]

“Wouldn’t it be cool if the cast of NCIS were all squirrels!?”

Is it deeply wrong of me that I would totally read this?

Even more disconcerting, someone, somewhere out there, could write this and make it good...

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Abby would make a cute squirrel. Particularly if she looked like the little fella in this picture (http://torontoist.com/2006/02/black_squirrels.php).

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom...

I pretty much agree with what you're saying here - writers have different goals and if literary excellence isn't one of those goals, then there's no point in judging them for failing to achieve it. Which isn't to say that the members of the Serious Club shouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about what, in their view, does constitute literary excellence and how it can be achieved.

I do have one slight niggle, and I apologise for being such a pedant about it - Kipling's tribal lays aren't laws, they're songs and ballads, so the quotation perfectly fits what you're trying to say (much better than the "laws" translation does).

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks! I heard the "laws" translation a long time ago, not entirely sure where.

[teh-faolkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much fanfic is fun, but it's funner when it's good. And from funner, you can see how high my standards are :D I'm all for people writing and posting badfic. I take the easy way out; I just ignore it. Also, my wish-fulfilling badfic never makes it off my comp/lj. Therefore, I feel a bit better about it.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly with 'good is funner' much as it might make a grammarian cry.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

because they’re having fun doing it. They’re doing it for shits and grins and they really don’t give a good goddamn if meets the standards of a publishable work, they just did it for the sheer hell of it,...

I'll second that. And smooshing unlikely characters together is an exercise in 1)wish-fulfillment and 2)a challenge--can I REALLY get X&Y in the same story, and maneuver them into bed?

I am perfectly happy for anyone to write whatever the hell they want: I always know where the back button is.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes part of the fun is seeing if you can make the improbable or the implausible work. One of the best crossover fics I've ever read managed to cross Highlander and The Andy Griffith Show and made it work. They actually made me believe in Barney Fife, Immortal.

One of my favorite slash fics? A fic called "Don't Quack, Don't Tell" (http://members.aol.com/negaduck9/dontquak.htm) which managed to combine Darkwing Duck, a twist ending and a serious statement about homophobia and NOT be overly preachy or pendantic!

Sometimes the crazy ideas can work.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Oh, lor' bless you. Yes. I'm at this stage too, I think - I want to hold my writing to a high standard, but if other people don't, that's... well, it's not my job to make them. You can't live other people's lives for them. If they want to learn, they will. If they don't, they and I don't have to meet, and I don't have to let that trouble me.

I can see the point of constructive criticism, but (I think) it's rarely appreciated, when it's unsolicited. I sometimes have a nearly overwhelming compulsion to write a comment along the lines of "This would be so much better if you did this, didn't do this, and please god ran it through a spellcheck,", but then I remember my sanity and my own learning curve, and back away. It's not reasonable to expect everyone is going to be grateful for my pearls of wisdom. :)

(Here via metafandom, btw.)

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Thanks and I agree wholeheartedly. There are fics and concepts for fics I think shouldn't have happened and writers I heartily wish would take up other hobbies but as crazy as they can make me at times, they've got every right to do what they want to do.

Not that this will stop me from ranting about said fics and writers because the idea that a female character is a virgin because she's wearing white panties is just to WTF not to rant about.

[katewallace.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is that some of the people writing out there are just BAD writers. Back in the Mimeo Age, before the "I thought it up, I wrote it and I put it on the Internet" era of fan fic, most stories that were widely dissemintated were edited and re-written at least once before they saw the light of day. Nowadays, your erstwhile author can take out their grocery list, slap a title on it "Favorite-Fandom-Character's Grocery List', put it up on the Net and, shazam, their work is 'in print'. Then again, I suspect some mainstream authors with books on the Best Seller lists have done much the same thing, only they get paid for it. Bad writing is unfortunately not exclusive to fan fiction. The stuff that gets between hard covers may be spell-checked to death and have nice margins, but it's still a sow's ear trying to look like a silk purse. (Plus, I think there's a rule in the Universe, that if you have a book/TV show/movie with two guys/two girls in it, someone, somewhere will be writing "/" fiction involving them. I think it's tied up to the whole entropy, matter/antimatter thing. )

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some people are bad writers but my main sticking point is that I'm tired of the assumption that because a person writes fanfic, they HAVE to take writing seriously. Granted, I treat writing fanfic about the same way I do writing original fics, but that's how I write and my standards aren't universal. Some people just want to toss up "Favorite-Fandom-Character's Grocery List" for shits and grins and there's nothing wrong with that.

As much as I like meta and talking seriously about fanworks, I think a lot of the time the idea that for some people Fandom Is Just A Goddamn Hobby gets lost.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Why do writers feel the need to create stories that are, by the standards of most fans, bad?

The thing is, I don't think those are the standards of "most" fans. Most fans who write essays and think about this stuff, maybe, but going by the majority of fic posted out there, most fans like that stuff. So yeah, they're writing for fun, but they're also writing for other fans like themselves who enjoy blatant Mary Sues and high school AUs and the cast of NCIS being turned into squirrels.

It only bothers me in the sense that the mainstream then decries all fanfiction as crap. There's less of an audience for original fiction online, so it rarely gets pointed out that most fiction is crap, and the internet's made it easy to share. But I'm all for fun, and I wrote my share of self-indulgent insanity in high school.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I don't think those are the standards of "most" fans. Most fans who write essays and think about this stuff, maybe, but going by the majority of fic posted out there, most fans like that stuff.

Point and a very good one.

It only bothers me in the sense that the mainstream then decries all fanfiction as crap.

On the other hand, though, the mainstream says all fanfic is crap because the mainstream doesn't know what it's talking about -- so why listen to the mainstream?

Here via Metafandom

[bluealbertaskys.livejournal.com]

But, why? Why would they do this? Why write stories where the improbable, the impossible and the down right implausible happen? Why drop your authorial pants and moon Lady Logic and Father Canon?

Well first-off I'd better say I'm not a writer. I am however a reader and I think a lot of it depends on how you define "canon", especially for the above description.

I personally really like well-written crossovers and "six degrees" fanfics and when you get into those, whereabouts does the "canon" - for at least one character - exist? Given that crossover/six degrees fics are practically genres in themselves is it really fair to lump them all into the "badfic" category even when they are very well written?