Monday, April 16, 2007

Fanfiction

I'm a fanfic writer. Sorta. I don't really write things like "ships" and crossovers, but I have been known to write/roleplay stories based on other author's works. I have never, mind you, written a fanfic that involved anyone else's characters (don't like to... I write original characters in other worlds.)

I'm going to rant a bit about fanfic writers, today. Not because I'm particularly against fanfic, (I'm not... when I am published, I won't ban it) but I do get annoyed with fanfic writers.

If you write it, this applies to you.

People have no idea what your acronyms are. If you are talking about your fandom with anyone OTHER than another fan of that fandom, don't use acronyms. H/R, R/Hm, JUGHHSTT, or whatever, has no meaning outside of that fandom. Even if the discussion is regarding fanfic, and you are speaking with other fanfic writers... don't assume that everyone knows your cutesy abbreviations. Don't assume we care to find out if we don't know. If someone starts spouting acronyms, I generally ignore them.

You're a writer. Take the time to do just that, and write it out. Acronyms are all well and good, but we as writers have gotten caught up in the tide, and have started getting lazy. It's just a couple of extra letters, people... for clarity's sake, USE them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with the acronyms. Really make me mad.
I tend to write for people that have never seen the fandom I'm writing within, and sometimes get mails saying "but we saw that ep, you don't need to add little hints" - but if you don't, you're left with people saying "I didn't get that bit - why did he not think like this?" etc.
Can't win.
However, nice to see another fanfic writer NOT just reading any old shite cos it's "in their fandom".

:)

Carry on.