& Moira Bianchi: 10 myths about fanfiction

terça-feira, 13 de novembro de 2012

10 myths about fanfiction

Hello, there. How are you all doing?

All is fine here in Rio as we experience an uncharacteristic winter day. As a dear friend likes to quote: 'Winter is coming.'

Sorry friend, but it is a perfect joke! I will finish the 1st book so we can discuss and I can blog about it.

Ha, it's not! Scorching summer is already here. But it's such a relief, this drizzle and 25ºC.

Anyway, I'm glad (and proud) to report that 'Friendship of a special kind' is doing well on Kindle. Let's just see its cover one more time, just because we can. Shall we?
moira bianchi mr darcy sex hot rio chickIt takes a lot of work to format files and make them to a presentable epub - a lot! Especially for one like me that was always arrogant enough to say that 'there's no need for MS Office classes'. Well, there's need. Big need
Anyway, now it's finally done and listed on the major ebook sites such as Ibookstore, Kobo, Sony, Nook. 
Let's wait.




But this is post is not about my book, just so you won't think I'm a one track minded chick, I want to talk about the fanfiction myths.

friendship of a special kind
'Oh please, Moira! Not a one track minded chick? Come on!'

Well...

I think the first fanfiction I ever read were Sirius Black's letters to Harry Potter. If I'm not mistaken, Sirius sent Harry letters from heavens, as he was already dead. The gap between HP book releases was too long and I wanted to keep in touch with the wizarding world so I googled one thing, and another and found those letters.

fanfic myths
Mr fave HP character. Siriusly!

I found many other fanfics at the time, some I liked and some I didn't. But I never thought it wrong and it never wavered my thirst for HP. 
After those I met Edward and Twilight fanfics were a must. 
As I 've said before, Darcy is the man. So here I am.

Now having self published my own fanfic, I'd like to discuss some myths.



hot rio chick JAFF
cool cap!
1_FANFICTION IS A SIN. It´s not. Fanfics are an exercize of imagination giving life to loved characters, sometimes literaly. Absolutely not stealing. See, a work as old as Pride and Prejudice that will celebrate its bicentenial next year is still alive and kicking. Of course Ms Austen was one of those people who on her birth God touched her head and said: 'She's gonna rock!', and her work will live forever but not only on library bookshelves and specific works in Literature graduation classes. Everywhere, in the iternet, on Kindle, in the smart phones. Rich and cherished so people can see how contemporary it can be, in spite of its Victorian setting.
hot rio chick cap
Yeah!

2_FANFICTION IS A PRODUCT OF/FOR UNEDUCATED FOOLS. It's not. Here in Brazil, my Darcy friends are mostly Masters and some PhDs. I felt a little undereducated among them since I only have two Latu Sensu masters degrees. And it's like that all over. Lots of professionals with sucessfull practices in many areas - medical, science, marketing, law who found a nice hobby recreating their favorite characters in AU or writing sequels.

3_FANFICTION IS POOR LITERATURE. It's not. Not at all. Concerning plot: I've posted here my favorite Twilight and P&P fanfics, and they are awsome. One - in my opinion - makes a lot more sense to Bella and Edward than Breaking Dawn. It gives them a dignified closure. Concerning language: I've read best seller books by professional authors that needed serious grammar revision. And read fascinating books that had a grammar of its own like E.Leonard's La Brava.

4_FANFICTION CAN´T MAKE MONEY. Not true. See what happened to the Fifty Shades Trilogy, fantastic! I think Fifty shades is liberating not only for allowing the modern woman to own that she likes sex openly - we say we do but in a low voice. With the books it's said in the news. But that's another discussion. So, Fifity is liberating for amateur authors like me that now have the way made wide opened. I have published Darcy friends who have sold more than 6000 copies of their delightful stories but only after working a lot in promoting. Urgh, promoting. Let's not get to Frustrated Ville.

5_FANFICTION CAN´T GO PRO. It can. Look at Fifty. Look at Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. And the great PD James and Death Comes to Pemberley ? And the funny The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? These guys are making history. How cool is that? And how about all the books based on Greek mythology? Who's to say they're not 'The Odyssey' ff?
hot rio chick
Oh, the horror!

6_SELF PUBLISHING IS THE END OF EVERYTHING. Nah, it's not. As O'neal and Schinsky said the other day on Huff Post 'the publishing industry is not the same thing as the "reading" industry'. Self publhising can be a threat to the Publishing industry but never to readers. It's a sign of our times, DIY things made easy. Look, I'm an architect and I'm used to be compared to design magazines that offer the same (ahem) work as I do. Can you see the difference? So can I.

7_FANFICTION IS A CHICK THING. Well, mostly but not only. There are great fanfic male authors and many fanfic male readers. Not only slash material get male interest, but sci-fi stories, LotR and GoT would get as well if it was allowed. Which brings us to the next topic.

8_FANFICTION IS BAD FOR CANON. It's not! RR Martin is one of the many authors that forbid fanfiction with his many many many characters. Btw, I know the saga is called A Song of Ice and Fire , it's just too long a title. He's supposed to have said that ff is 'copyright infringement and a bad exercise for aspiring writers'. I disagree. I think it's flattering to canon, as said above, it gives canon a life transfusion. I don't think it's disrespectful, but it's my opinion and opinion is very subjective. JK agrees with me.

9_FANFICTION IS FINITE. No! Have you heard Fifty has fanfiction? How much fun!
10_WHAT ABOUT PARODY? If you are twisting your nose at me but is still reading this list, tell me: What about parody? Parody is as old as ever.The Harvard Lampoon - let take a moment here to say that in Brazil 'Harvard' is a big word. Anything that has the 'H' word is automatically perfect and respectiful - so, the HL has a famous Twilight Parody: Nightlight: A Parody . Is that bad? And Lincoln as a vampire slayer! Is that ok when fanfiction is not?

'Reading is discovering ourselves in someone else's experience.' True.
Maybe it's because here in Brasil we (shamefully) still have a high number of illiterates but I am of the opinion that ANY reading is a good reading. If a person who doesn't have the habit of reading saying it's boring decides to read Mr Grey's kinky fuckering, well that's valid. 
One of the biggest EL James accomplishments for me was this: make it cool to carry, read and quote a book.
Maybe live it off. Who knows? ;)





Do you agree?
See ya.




Disclaimer: Mine are only the published book (yay), the babbling and the opinions. Pics from Googles. Quotations have their hyperlinks.

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