The Student Room Group

Opinions of Fanfiction?

I was just wondering if any of you liked fanfiction?
I admit it's a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine and I don't think I would admit to reading it to my friends or family.

What do you guys think of fanfiction and what types do you read?
Reply 1
I've never written any (sometimes I think it would be a good way to practise a bit of creative writing, but I get embarrassed at the thought of it. :redface:), but I have read some on occasion. Not regularly, but it's an alright time-waster sometimes.

I like the ideas of some of the stories, although often the writing isn't all that good. I like some of the Sherlock fan fiction ideas though, NCIS sometimes too. I used to love reading Westlife and Casualty/Holby City fan fiction when I was a teenager as well. However, I really, really do not like the fan fictions where they all seem to become sex-obsessed love affairs (the 'slash' ones, Sherlock/John Watson etc). I prefer reading ones where there is actually a vaguely interesting plot!
I think it is a guilty pleasure of mine, but I haven't read (or wrote) it for a long time (years). I lost interest when the fanfiction became all love/sex/marriage/babies. Of course there's non-fluff fanfic but it doesn't do as well with readership, subscription, or reviews. I think this put me off. It was almost like there was a predictable formula to write a popular fic, which I guess is good if you want gratification but if you want to write serious stuff that could pass for actual storyline (canon), then fanfic isn't probably the thing for you.

Previously read and wrote Criminal Minds and Grey's Anatomy fanfic. I preferred to write believable storylines hence why I've lost interest.
I'm currently writing a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic. I'm extremely fond of it because of the supportive community surrounding it. Every time I post a chapter I'll get lots of reviews encouraging me to keep going. Fanfiction is like creative writing with training wheels, people already have an attachment to the characters so you don't need to develop that sympathy to the characters, you simply have to avoid deviating too far from the common perception of the characters and the universe in which they are set. I'd like to have a go at writing a novel someday and I think using fanfiction to discipline yourself, forcing yourself to write for an hour a day, is great practice.
As far as reading fanfic goes I think that wading through the 95% of garbage for the 5% of gold is well worth it. I genuinely think that Fallout Equestria is better than most of the great classic literature I had to read when I did my English degree.

The biggest problems are Mary-Sues, (people who write themselves into stories and make that character beloved by the others) hate-fics (the most common example of this are the Harry Potter fics in which Ron is portrayed as an absolute scumbag) and generally insane pubescent romance fics which often involve insane stuff like male characters becoming pregnant.
Original post by BefuddledPenguin
As far as reading fanfic goes I think that wading through the 95% of garbage for the 5% of gold is well worth it. I genuinely think that Fallout Equestria is better than most of the great classic literature I had to read when I did my English degree.

The biggest problems are Mary-Sues, (people who write themselves into stories and make that character beloved by the others) hate-fics (the most common example of this are the Harry Potter fics in which Ron is portrayed as an absolute scumbag) and generally insane pubescent romance fics which often involve insane stuff like male characters becoming pregnant.


Pregnant male characters are the worst. Anything that is totally AU, is just ridiculous sometimes. Stuff like this really put me off FF. I think sometimes it's good to experiment but then it all becomes very out of character and people would be better off writing something original with their own characters. If you see my earlier post I wrote about how it is hard to write anything serious because of the niche market for some categories for love/romance as in my case, the TV show was very linear and only recently started deviating into the character's personal lives.
I cringe at it. The majority of it is just awful, and finding decently written and non-cringy fanfic is like finding a needle in a haystack.
If you're able to filter through the cringe-worthy stuff, fanfiction can be pretty damn amazing. I've been reading and writing it for five years now and I've never looked back -- mainly I'm into Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire, both of which have some absolutely brilliant writers and stories.

Quick Reply