Fanfic vs. Profic

[lunabee34]

When I reviewed The Democratic Genre a couple posts back, some of the comments turned to a discussion of fanfic vs. profic. executrix suggested I take that convo top-level, so here I am. Doing that. *g*

Anyway, I said that I think that fanfic and profic are equally challenging to read and write, and I don't privilege one over the other. I also said that fanfic and profic often have different aims and pull out different tools from the toolbox.

Now, I can't speak very much about the writing of profic, as I've never had anything published. However, I *read* a lot of profic, and some of my RL friends are writers and one of them in particular has been encouraging me to do some writing of original pieces (*nudge nudge* krayat). So, from my position of dubious experience, here's a handful of comments about fanfic and profic.

I think that fanfic provides someone who's not interested in world building a way to write stories without having to worry about or spend time creating from whole cloth a universe for her characters to inhabit.

I think fanfic provides an excellent opportunity for creativity. Because the infrastructure already exists, doing something truly novel and shocking and intriguing takes a heck of a lot of work. Taking those bones and building something unexpected and different from the original model (or even just the original model from a different angle) on top of them makes for damn good reading. And because your readership is familiar with the original model, making it leaner or showing it only from the ass side immediately creates tension. Fanfic is, for me, all about subversion. Taking this thing that already exists and wringing the hell out of it--sometimes as Pugh says to make more of it and sometime to get more from it.

I know with this original fiction story I'm making pages of notes on and creating outlines and Venn diagrams for writing, I couldn't decide what to write about at first. And then I thought, "Wait! I'm an interesting person. All kinds of traumatic interesting things have happened to me. I'll just fanfic my life." And what I meant by that was, okay, I can take the bare bones of an event from my life and then fictionalize around that foundation. And I know it sounds like I'm calling fanfic a crutch here, but I'm really not. I *am* saying that reading/writing fanfic creates a different way of approaching reading/writing profic, at least for me.

Most profic I think also necessarily has to contain more descriptive passages than fanfic. For instance, most fanfic doesn't spend a lot of time describing characters physically because we all know what the characters look like. Same with, oh, the library in Sunndale or the lobby of the Hyperion. (0f course, always exceptions to the rule)

What do you guys think?

Comments

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I think fanfic can be as much about not having to character build as world build for some

*nods*

You've got the template of the character already--you can subvert that template or work within it's confines, depending.

The rest of the characterization is simply shown in actions.

Show, don't tell, right? :) I like that type of characterization best anyway, when you figure out what kind of person someone is from what she does, rather than an authorial aside about her laziness or whathaveyou.

For me rethinking how one does a plot, that the beginning, middle, and end all need to fit together properly, which it doesn't always have to in fanfic, was the real learning experience in trying to write orig stuff for sale. Still working on it.

Oh, this is so true, and something I didn't think to put in the post. But fanfic allows us in many ways to experiment more with how we construct narrative. For instance, if I write a little story about Zoe and Wash in the galley right before they lift off from Miranda, and Wash agrees that they should have a baby, it's more poignant because WE ALL KNOW HOW IT ENDS. I don't have to write the ending; we've all seen it. And it makes that little slice of hope hurt to read.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

lunabee34 said:
because WE ALL KNOW HOW IT ENDS. I don't have to write the ending; we've all seen it.
Oddly enough I have a corresponding pro example. Last week's Masterpiece Theater (damn, I've forgotten the girl's name): Carrie's War (I think). It's about a 14-year-old girl who's evacuated to the countryside during the Blitz, meets a VERY TALL slightly older boy who likes public libraries so you can tell he's a good 'un. Then the girl thinks that he died when the local castle burned down. Cut to umpteen years later, when she's divorced and taking her kids to see the place. THen she has tea with her old friends who aren't dead either, and then a car pulls up and a very tall bloke gets out and walks toward the house...THE END.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

*nods*

It's like you say below about fiction being RPF. When we read stories set in a historical period, our reading is always against the backdrop of what we know happens next.

[mgsmurf.livejournal.com]

Show, don't tell, right? :) I like that type of characterization best anyway, when you figure out what kind of person someone is from what she does, rather than an authorial aside about her laziness or whathaveyou.

The only story I have yet to sell while in critiquing got the comment that the reader felt they knew who the characters were just not exactly what they looked like. So I added a few sentences of description and figured it was the easier part to fix.

For instance, if I write a little story about Zoe and Wash in the galley right before they lift off from Miranda, and Wash agrees that they should have a baby, it's more poignant because WE ALL KNOW HOW IT ENDS.

Fanfic greatly lends itself to vigenettes while without the reference to the characters it's harder to do in profic. Although ultimately it's that in profic versus fanfic you have to give the story a greater driving force for existing so the editor doesn't want to put it down. In fanfic, people will read only decent or even crap stories because they already have the drive to.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I hope you have success selling the story. :)