Opinion on Fan-fiction?

[Dreich]

I don't read fan fiction, but I don't blame the people who are into it for being into it. It seems like some harmless fun.

[ChapterAquila92]

Three factors come to mind on this issue:

- The material the fanfic is derived from;
- The amount of research into said material; and
- The proficiency of the author to write a story.

The subject material of the fanfic is always going to be the initial draw of the fanfic while at the same time being the most subjective factor, depending heavily on the interests of the audience. It is barely any wonder then that the vast majority of a fanfic's audience happen to be fans of the material it was derived from, and there is more than a likely chance that fanfic reviews will often be biased as a result.

The amount of research into the original material is a harsh quality control - it is all too common for fanfic writers, who themselves tend to be passionate fans of the setting they're writing in, to have a rather limited scope of what the entire setting has to offer. Straight off the top of my head, there are three settings that suffer immensely from a general lack of invested research: Mass Effect, Halo, and Warhammer 40,000 - all three suffer from fans who are only familiar with their respective settings through the games, with very little awareness that there is an expanded universe for each of them (Mass Effect doubly so, with its in-game Wikipedia that many fans inaccurately reference).

Just as bothersome are the crossover fanfics that use one setting's flaws to justify why the other setting is better. Mass Effect is an easy butt-monkey for this, and a particular Halo crossover gave the impetus for a surge of such HFY (Humanity, F*ck Yeah!) fanfics, featuring ME!humanity swap-outs that still somehow follow ME!canon while making everyone else hold the idiot ball, because HFY "bypassed" the Reaper trap. On the other hand, Warhammer 40,000 suffers from a different problem - fans who paint in broad strokes, often making everything lather in the setting's tagline of "grimdark" or assuming that what little they know from the tabletop and computer games is sufficient material to work with in the fanfic, even though the setting is vast enough that anything can be possible without even having to mention the default game content.

And last but not least, I can't stress enough that the ability of an author to write a story will have a significant impact on the fanfic itself. On one hand, it's the difference between retelling the original story with a different skin and telling a new one with elements of the original source. On the other, it's also the difference between a well-structured story and a poorly-worded block of text.

One further thing: when trying to make a serious and mature fanfic of a series otherwise geared towards children and young teens, "grimdark" is too far unless you intend on writing a horror fic. This is something I've been keeping in mind for a Pokemon military fanfic called Forgotten Army, if anyone is interested.

In addendum, it ultimately comes down to what you want to read. Sometimes you're not interested in the whole package, instead focusing on elements that you like. While not a literary fanfic, a good example of this is I.M.P.S. The Relentless which while heavily using many elements of Star Wars (especially the forces of the Empire) neither takes place in the canon setting nor contains canon characters.

Again I come back to my previously-mentioned work - Forgotten Army takes the premise of the Pokemon games (a franchise that is fairly black and white, pun intended, for simplicity), turns it into a morally-grey political-military thriller, and sets aside the pokemon trainer in favour of soldiers, politicians, revolutionaries, and reporters, all while taking place in a world where the regions are superimposed over real world geography.

[Fuzzy Wizard]

Fanfiction is fine if it maintains it's world laws. Keep to the premises already laid out otherwise you create contradiction, and thats all anyone will remember. The other aspect that needs to be upheld, maintain story elements with realism. Without that nothing seams natural and emotion is lost. Take any news story in detail from real world. Place any caste of characters into story roles and expand on it. I find you can create some stunning stories this way, and allows you to just focus on characterization.

Yes I don't mind fan fiction.
Wizard

[Lance]

I have nothing against fan fiction, especially since I have dabbled in it a little myself. For a person to love a story and world so much that they write about it is a huge compliment to the minds that created the lore in the first place. But it is a touchy subject, especially if the FF writer is dabbling with characters already fleshed out by the author; capturing the personalities of those characters would take quite a bit of skill. One of the reasons why I haven't touched that kind of FF yet. My dabbling has been merely using the *world* of the Elder Scrolls, but I am not touching actual characters, and barely mentioning actual in-game story.

[00ACE00]

I have pretty much the same opinion on it as Fuzzy Wizard. Never been a fan of the more "fan service/fap" type though they have made me laugh.

[Owl]

There is good fanfiction out there. I remember Ken Levine actually wrote fanfiction for his own game, System Shock 2. I think fanfiction by itself is alright.

Most fanfiction tends to be terrible and I tend to treat it as just practice for writers before they actually write something better.

[Zadon Mew]

Some fanfics are enjoyable and fun reads, but some are so bad it's hilarious, or it's cringy as hell.