fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2273 ]

[ SECRET POST #2273 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2273 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 117 secrets from Secret Submission Post #325.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ], [ 1 2 3 - trolls ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

point me towards some fic that's as good as GOOD published fiction, any fandom

Well, you have to tell me what you consider good published fiction first. :)

+1

this. exactly.

exactly.

have you even seen what incredible crap routinely gets published tho

esp. in the YA fantasy/romance genre

I don't think it's about being as 'good' as published fiction (although hello, when was the last time you were in a bookstore? There is a lot of crappy crappy crap being published, and some of it even started out as fanfiction (and a lot of it didn't). Quality in published fiction is subjective too.

But my point is, I'm a grad student in literature. I read books all the time. But I get things out of fic that I don't get out of published fiction, and that's why I read it, and I bet a lot of people feel the same way.

Me too. And it's the same with enjoying trashy TV shows and art-house films. They're both important to my life because I get different things out of them.

What do you consider "GOOD published fiction"? If it turns out I agree with what you think is good, and know of a reasonable match, I'll be happy to pass the link along. I'm not a huge consumer of fic, so I may not be able to find what you're looking for, but hey, you never know.

But I don't want to get into some goalpost moving thing. If we're going to do this, let's have the standards for "GOOD published fiction" we're working from established in advance. And debated, if it turns out there's material disagreement on the point.

If you could link us to your Amazon wishlist please, just so we can gauge the level we're aiming at.

Er, that's not how it works. People don't read fic for the purpose of reading stories that are cream of the crop Balzac or Twain or whoever the fuck else. They read it to read stories about established fictional characters, which are a very different kind of story than original fiction - any original fiction. Fanfic that is good, even if it's not as "good" as the best published fiction, is more desirable than the best published fiction in the universe if you're in the mood to read fanfic. It's an entirely different desired outcome.

Say I want to eat Doritos. Barging in and presenting me with the finest meal ever cooked might make me eat that instead if I was just hungry and was only eating Doritos because I wanted to eat any food available, but not if I very specifically want to eat Doritos.

Or say, if I have a craving to watch a sitcom, and turn on reruns of Friends to satisfy that craving, dropping in and telling me that Breaking Bad is a way better show than Friends is gonna earn you a blank look from me, because it's irrelevant. I don't want to watch Breaking Bad. I want to watch Friends. Breaking Bad is not "better" than Friends to me at this specific moment, because my goal at the moment is to watch a sitcom, and Breaking Bad fails at being a sitcom. The quality of the show is an utterly irrelevant factor when it defies my entire goal.

Things with specific attributes exist because someone, at some point in time, will want that thing, with those specific attributes, and not anything else, and telling them that something is "better" is pointless, because "better" according to what criteria? You're assuming that the only critera someone would rate how much they want to read something is writing quality, and that's not always true. If someone wants to read fanfiction, giving them Huckleberry Finn isn't going to score a higher rating because they are not judging something by the criteria of "writing quality". They are judging it by "is this or is this not fanfiction?" and only considering the criteria of "writing quality" if it satisfies the primary criteria of "being fanfiction" first.

/tl;dr

Actually, I read fic for literary merit. The form is capable of effects that you can't really get in other literary forms, and I like seeing what writers who take advantage of that can do with it.

I grant that this isn't the majority of writers, and there's a lot of fic I'm not interested in or doesn't work for me or both. But there's a lot of published fiction that I'm not interested in or doesn't work for me. And that isn't aiming for literary quality. I'm not sure that fic is really all that different, at least along those axes.

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

intrigueing - 2013-03-25 02:30 (UTC) - Expand

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

katekat - 2013-03-25 05:19 (UTC) - Expand

that's subjective as fuck what are you even doing

I can do it, but you have to consider a few things:

1) Fanfiction is usually written with the assumption that there are certain points the author doesn't have to explain to you- plot points, characters, world building, etc. You'd not get as much enjoyment from a fic not set in a fandom you are familiar with and/or invested in.

2) Good fanfiction is subjective. Your good =/= my good, etc.

3) Even experienced, talented writers usually publish their original fiction after it's been reviewed and edited by professionals. Internet fanfic authors usually don't have that benefit, at most, they have other fans check their fics as beta readers.

That being said:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/644694/1/The-Final-Step

http://archiveofourown.org/works/407723

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3033409/1/The-Journal-of-One-Kenny-McCormick

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4874767/1/Is-an-Alien

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3579174/1/Butterfly-Tears

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3915335/1/Stalker

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-24 23:12 (UTC) - Expand

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-24 23:30 (UTC) - Expand

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

netbug009 - 2013-03-26 21:36 (UTC) - Expand

Fine, but keep in mind you may not like the original works I enjoy either. You know, since people like different things.

But considering how much I love THG, I'd consider these more or less equal

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3227295/1/Dancing-with-Demons

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1803297/1/Dark-Convergence

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4175371/1/We-That-Are-Young

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3574266/1/Breaking-Point

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/Embers

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6797855/1/Mara-Weyrling-Brown-Rider
hell that one I enjoy way more than the author's recent coauthored works and WAY WAY more than her son's

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6904038/1/Bringing-Out-the-Blue

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7434133/1/Blue-Sky

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6187002/1/The-Saffron-Soul

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4414541/1/Another-Brother

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5942075/1/Reluctant-Hero

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5517545/1/Thorny-Path

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2542827/1/Blind

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2919908/1/White-Dog-Night

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/948492/1/Summon-the-Lambs-to-Slaughter

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1106495/1/What-I-Didn-t-Know

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

orangescones - 2013-03-25 06:14 (UTC) - Expand

http://archiveofourown.org/works/90259?view_adult=true

16 Days In Semptember: Nate Fick decides to take a year off before graduate school and join the Peace Corps. Set in referendum-era Indonesia.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/276641/chapters/438397

Lieutenant Nate Fick is a UN military observer in Jerusalem. Staff Sergeant Brad Colbert is a peacekeeper waiting to be transfered to Egypt. Together they're caught up in the events of the Third Arab-Israeli War.

Just because your lazy ass can't discern doesn't mean it's not out there.

Fanfic's a lot of crap, but what's good is often even better than published -- you're allowed to explore things and the boundaries set up by publishing houses don't exist. No limits.

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-24 23:45 (UTC) - Expand

Re: For everyone disagreeing with this secret...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-25 01:32 (UTC) - Expand

http://www.thekeep.org/~rpm/vertigo/sailor-hellblazer/

http://www.pixelscapes.com/sailornothing/

http://addventure.bast-enterprises.de/frecent.php?tag=Dungeon+Keeper+Ami (Pusakuronu authored chapters)

I kept this to completed fics that read like actual books. I figured, I always do a recs request, so I figured it was time I answered one myself.

Harry Potter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2009130/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Battle-of-Wills

Glee: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7222219/1/Go-Your-Own-Way

Doctor Who: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3380164/1/All-that-s-left-behind

How I Met Your Mother: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5951453/1/Near-Wild-Heaven (the fandom for this show is so small that I almost didn't include it, but it's the only fic that's actually made me sob in public, so here it is.)

Sherlock: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7077614/1/The-Green-Blade

I recommend e.g. "Another Man's Cage" (note: consent issues in Nerdanel's chapters), "Awakening" and "Stars of the Lesser".

Both "50 Shades of Gray" and "City of Bones" were originally written as fanfiction for the Twilight and Harry Potter fandoms. "50 Shades" is awful, and "City" is not bad. I have read some truly gorgeous fanfiction and have often wondered why the author is not a published author. Yes, plenty of fic is atrocious, especially in larger fandoms, but some of it is INCREDIBLE.

"The Hunter of Waverly Iowa" "Symmetry" or "The Evolution of Clint Barton." Avengers film fandom. Knock yourself out.

But hey, even for the stuff not "as good" as, it still depends how you're defining "good." Fic works under a different set of rules than published fiction--the assumption that your audience is already familiar with the characters and the regular events of their lives, for one, which gives you a basis to create on or subvert. It's a whole different ballgame.

But bad prose is bad prose in whatever format. And there's plenty of fic out there with very good prose. And heck, if 50 Shades of First Person Present Tense Porn can be published, well...the bar you set is already so low that Hermes Conrad in his heyday couldn't limbo under it.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-25 03:49 (UTC) - Expand

Anyone recced Twist and Shout yet? I, for one, thought it was amazing.

How about I do you one better and point you to an actual published work that is so bad it completely ignores it's own logic multiple times per a chapter.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Prince-Unicorn-Karen-Brush/dp/0380750627/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364180851&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Pig+the+prince+and+the+unicorn

I Bring My Better Angels to Every Fight: http://archiveofourown.org/works/189674
Your Heart Outside Your Body: http://archiveofourown.org/works/241537 (Hunger Games/Glee)
http://collidingkiss.tumblr.com/post/6874354235
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6481017/1/bravi
http://dollsome.livejournal.com/1553599.html
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5588964/1/Sparrow
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8030857/1/The-Art-Of-Dollmaking
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7279832/1/To-Make-Me-Feel-So
http://bellinaball.livejournal.com/1216.html
http://narceus.livejournal.com/40501.html
http://tamakito.livejournal.com/10597.html

^Because Glee sucks, but a lot of fanfic writers actually know what continuity is.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5932342/1/House-of-Cards (Veronica Mars)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2794699/1/The-Queen-s-Return (Narnia)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3220437/1/Rewrite (Death Note)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4874455/1/Silent-Consonant (DN)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4337092/1/The-Gentlemen-s-Tea-Party (DN)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4490067/1/Name-and-Face (DN)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6360866/1/The-Problem-With-Zuko (ATLA)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3036180/1/When-All-Your-Dreams-Come-True (ATLA)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4414541/1/Another-Brother (ATLA)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3455875/1/This-Pendent-Heart (Princess Tutu)
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5119480/1/Time-Passages (Yotsuba)

Hobbit/LotR fic: http://archiveofourown.org/series/36072

It's into the third fic of the series, and currently is not updating very often due to the writer having a busy Real Life at the moment. When her schedule isn't busy she updates every day.

It's not shippy at all (only implied canon pairings and a couple of implied CC/OC pairings), but hella plotty and enthralling. I consider this fic to be good - nay - fucking great writing.

And I'm a shippy shipper who ships. And this fic is gen.

Not that this isn't subjective, but since you brought up a chance to rec a great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fic, Falling.

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