I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
--W.B. Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
Creative Writing
Newly updated with progress listings and a few new links.
Fanfiction
Fanfiction is the art of amateur creative writing based on TV shows, movies, and in some cases books. It's a huge interest and there are literally thousands of pages dedicated to it. The earliest fanfiction was probably based on Star Trek. In the "olden days," fans would type up their stories, photocopy them, and sell them at conventions for copying costs. Fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels had a fan magazine, and Bradley published several fans' short stories in anthology collections. With the Internet, it's now easy to publish works online, and to find an audience you can get a response from.
Writing stories based on someone else's intellectual property might be seen by some as a kind of infringement, or a wasteful pursuit at the least. But the truth is, fan writing can be a very meaningful form of interaction with the shows, a way to take the viewing experience and give it personal meaning. It's also not bad writing practice. There have in fact been fanfic writers who went on to write licensed novels (Susan Garrett, for Forever Knight; Kate Orman, for Dr. Who) and even scripts (Missy Goode, for Xena: Warrior Princess).
Fanfiction Terminology
Because there's so many kinds of fanfiction, not just shows to base them on but different approaches, here's a list of terms that might be useful to know if you don't already. These are, for the most part, my definitions, and other writers may use them differently.
- Fusion
- This describes what happens when two stories are merged together so that one set of characters plays the roles of another show (for example, parodying the Blair Witch Project with the cast of Scooby Do in place of the original movie characters).
- Crossover
- When characters from one show encounter the cast or action of another (such as Buffy visiting her friends on Angel, or Ally McBeal showing up on The Practice.)
- Elseworlds or Alternate Universe
- Refers to re-working an existing story but with some crucial element changed, which causes the story to develop in new and interesting ways.
- Slash, or Slash Fic
- The fanfic contains a same-sex couple pairing; it may only be an intense emotional connection, but it usually has actual sexual content. For example, any Xena fic which explicitly features her and Gabrielle in a romantic relationship would count as slash. "Slash" goes back to the start of fanfic writing when early fan authors would delve into the possibilities of the relationship between Kirk and Spock and denote such fics with "Kirk/Spock." Any show with a hero/buddy element tends to draw a lot of slash fics (but this is by no means the only basis). The biggest examples of this are The Sentinel, which is probably the most popular male/male show for slashing, and Xena, Warrior Princess with is probably the most popular female/female show for slashing.
- Yaoi
- Specific term for slash fic based on anime/manga, and dealing with male/male relationships. The term comes from a Japanese phrase which pretty much boils down to saying it's a story with a plot that doesn't mean much, it's just an excuse to have a pair of guys being tender & emotional. Basically Yaoi is a kind of romance story, often popular with women. Despite having the male/male aspect, Yaoi is really not like gay fiction. Note that some writers use Yaoi to specifically mean the story will definitely have explicit content, but I prefer it as a "blanket" term. The female equivalent is Yuri, but I can't provide more context information for it.
- Lemon & Lime
- Lemon and Lime refer to degrees of severity of sexual explicitness. They're used exclusively for anime, manga, and game fanfiction. Lemon means the story is pretty explicit, Lime stops short of actual sex. Sometimes people use other citrus fruits to denote even lesser degrees. Terms like "lemon-scented" might also be used to refer to heavy amounts of innuendo. The term 'hentai' also shows up in relation to Lemon quite a bit. Properly speaking, hentai is the Japanese word for perverted, but its usage is bit more casual on the English-speaking net. It often just refers to adult content such as lemon - but it more properly should be used to refer to hard-core material.
- Original Flavor
- An original work, based on the style of a particular genre of anime or other influence.
- Fanfic Disclaimer
- A statement clarifying that the work is a non-commercial, unlicensed use of media elements. Traditionally, the original creator of the series is credited.
- Mandatory Disclaimer
- The so-called Mandatory Disclaimer is a statement warning readers of potential adult content. In some cases, of specific "objectionable" elements. This is something that has developed on the net in an attempt by writers to protect themselves from charges of exposing minors to "inappropriate materials." Because some fanfics are based on material popular with young people, I concede the appropriateness of labeling material as not-for-children. (A popular device is to label stories comparably to movies, using G, PG, PG13, R, and NC17 ratings.) However, writing is the most pure expression of free speech we have, and therefore I believe that an author of online fiction has the same right to have mature themes and elements in their work that a published author such as Jackie Collins has. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of parents to control what their children watch and read. Therefore, I am against labeling of specific story elements for this reason.
My Anime Fanfiction
My own efforts at fanfiction have primarily been five-finger exercises in writing, mostly anime parodies. However, I do have a few substantial pieces to share:
- Minako: Warrior, Princess, Sidekick - The Director's Cut
- This is a crossover with a dash of fusion, between the Sailor Moon universe and that of Xena Warrior Princess. I'd like to assure you that despite Sailor Moon being a kids show, this story is a pretty serious fic. The story primarily occurs after the end of the second season of Xena and goes off in its own direction and features Xena encountering the Moon Kingdom in its founding days. This is a revised version. Amazingly, this story has garnered over 20 thousand hits (just on my site alone. It's available elsewhere too).
- Mythic Sailor Moon
- This is the sequel to Minako: Warrior, Princess, Sidekick. Again, it's a fusion of the two shows universe, and this time it's more of a traditional crossover with Xena journeying through time to the Sailor Moon universe, in the era of Crystal Tokyo. After a long period of inactivity, new chapters have been released and more are in the works.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
- This is an Oh! My Goddess/Ranma 1/2 crossover. I planned four parts, but only wrote two. Actually, I did start on the third act but got stuck; since it was more of a lark than anything, I don't expect to go back and finish it anytime soon.
- Crimson & Azure
- This is a Bakuretsu Hunter fanfic, and it's "yaoi" (but then, Bakuretsu Hunters has that element originally...). It's just a work-in-progress, and only two chapters are up. Plus, I'm suffering writer's block on this but check it out if you're interested.
- The Shoujo Highschool Project
- This is a shared-universe original flavor series that I participate in. We never really got this off the ground but I still hope to. The original page faded away and I have started a new, local page, but it's mostly just an outline for now. As of April, a story is in the works, collaboration with Greenbeans.
My Favorite Fanfiction
Time for an admission. I don't read much of other people's works. When I do, it's got to be the very best stuff. And it's usually the darkest, most riveting stuff you can find.
Children of An Elder God by John Biles and Rod M. This is an Elseworlds fic, re-working the story of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion with the Cthulhu Mythos. Mind you, I don't LIKE Evangelion but this story is so good I can't wait for more of it.
Ill-Met By Starlight by Susan Doenime and Mike L. This is a Ranma fic based on a simple premise: What if Ranma's training in the art of the Neko-ken left him insane?
A few more fics to follow, I may have to organize or categorize this section a bit better...
