Rant about fanfiction

Brigade XO wrote:Oh, a "Professional" Critic.
That is somewhere close to a professional politician except if they actualy called themselves that, some people would start returning "politician" to its original slot as the oldest profession. Big Smile

Hmmm professional critic = politician = blood sucking tick

drothgery wrote:When I saw the title of this thread, I was half-expecting someone complaining about no new chapters of my stuff in over nine months ...

Though the next chapter of "An Offer She Can't Refuse" is about 2/3 done. Sadly, it's been that way for a while.

That's a very interesting tale, and one of the few examples of fanfic in this universe that works. Back to it sir!

drothgery wrote:When I saw the title of this thread, I was half-expecting someone complaining about no new chapters of my stuff in over nine months ...

Though the next chapter of "An Offer She Can't Refuse" is about 2/3 done. Sadly, it's been that way for a while.

drothgery, please finish the novel(la) and submit it to Mr. Weber for inclusion in an anthology, after all there are plenty of other authors who have done the same.

To be honest even though Mr. Weber and Baen have intimated that fanfic is not welcome on the forum, if it is submitted for inclusion in an anthology surely it may be considered. How about if a good few of the forumites could submit their own manuscripts for review and consideration for an anthology made up entirely of forumites offerings. Baen should be able to spare an editor to review the submissions so that Mr Weber's time is not impinged upon and he is then left free to finish the mainline stories he is working on for the various "verses" he created.

Unlike 1632, admission to Honorverse anthologies is by invitation only. AFAICT, everybody who has been invited is personally known to Himself, as well as having a body of work that he knows and likes.

There don't appear to be any plans to change this.

George J. Smith wrote:

drothgery wrote:When I saw the title of this thread, I was half-expecting someone complaining about no new chapters of my stuff in over nine months ...

Though the next chapter of "An Offer She Can't Refuse" is about 2/3 done. Sadly, it's been that way for a while.

drothgery, please finish the novel(la) and submit it to Mr. Weber for inclusion in an anthology, after all there are plenty of other authors who have done the same.

To be honest even though Mr. Weber and Baen have intimated that fanfic is not welcome on the forum, if it is submitted for inclusion in an anthology surely it may be considered. How about if a good few of the forumites could submit their own manuscripts for review and consideration for an anthology made up entirely of forumites offerings. Baen should be able to spare an editor to review the submissions so that Mr Weber's time is not impinged upon and he is then left free to finish the mainline stories he is working on for the various "verses" he created.

Guess I am just an independent old cuss. I have never seen why anyone would feel justified taking someone else's work, and writing FANFIC. I can see doing it if ASKED and you are dirt poor and have no other income, but otherwise? Are they imaginatively bankrupt themselves that they cannot create a world/universe? Or just lazy? (I'll go with heaping plateful of lazy with a side helping of low imagination)

The whole idea of writing is to explore new avenues. To extrapolate ideologies cause and effects of said ideologies.

Relax wrote:Guess I am just an independent old cuss. I have never seen why anyone would feel justified taking someone else's work, and writing FANFIC. I can see doing it if ASKED and you are dirt poor and have no other income, but otherwise? Are they imaginatively bankrupt themselves that they cannot create a world/universe? Or just lazy? (I'll go with heaping plateful of lazy with a side helping of low imagination)

The whole idea of writing is to explore new avenues. To extrapolate ideologies cause and effects of said ideologies.

IMO, fanfic is the ultimate homage that can be paid to an author. If one likes your work so well that it stokes one's own imagination to the point that his fingers quiver to wield the quill in your imaginary world as well, then what more is the true measure of success and artistry?

If everyone shared your sentiment then perhaps the Star Trek world would have sadly died long ago and we never would have received such brilliant and truly epic works (in proportion and scope) of such classics as Spock's World by Diane Duane -- from which I borrowed my handle, cthia.

Fanfic also relegates works to immortal status that will often go on after the author dies.

Fanfic... is like macaroni and cheese. The best mac&cheese is that which uses many different cheeses.

And some talents are more contained in the area of recreating, reverse engineering, than in creating. See => the talents of the Japanese and Chinese industry. At one point in time.

Perhaps many of you are being too hard on the guy. He isn't doing anything that we haven't done ourselves in this very forum -- with the exception of managing to draw a salary from it. We all have voiced our own inability to suspend belief in certain areas and I'm sure all of us aren't completely thrilled about the spinoffs as much as we'd prefer a mainline, Harrington, title.

In fact, this critic has opined an exact thought of mine in addition to that -- The degree of verisimilitude concerning the League's obliviousness and lack of concern for Haven sector tech, that I've mentioned right here in a thread a time or two.

At least this critic hasn't logged onto David Weber's forum and laid out his... pontifications. Now that would truly be a pitchfork&pickaxe offense.

And he did say that he liked the Honorverse. He's just a bit more vocal regarding the timeframe between mainline publishings. And you aren't?

While I am (amongst other things) a fanfic writer, I've never really done a story based on RFC's work.

However...

I did manage to cameo Sharon Rice-Weber (with her permission and feedback) in one of my stories*.

Is that enough to make me count as a Weber-fanfic-writer?


*For those who want to know, she appears in the Institute Saga III, chapters 17 and 21.

::a Naughty Moose replies::
No, not a count.
No more than a chevalier.

Naughty Moose,
noting that "count" is a French title, not English.
If you'd tried for earl, I'd have ranked you gentleman.

Michael Everett wrote:While I am (amongst other things) a fanfic writer, I've never really done a story based on RFC's work.

However...

I did manage to cameo Sharon Rice-Weber (with her permission and feedback) in one of my stories*.

Is that enough to make me count as a Weber-fanfic-writer?


*For those who want to know, she appears in the Institute Saga III, chapters 17 and 21.

George J. Smith wrote:

drothgery wrote:When I saw the title of this thread, I was half-expecting someone complaining about no new chapters of my stuff in over nine months ...

Though the next chapter of "An Offer She Can't Refuse" is about 2/3 done. Sadly, it's been that way for a while.

drothgery, please finish the novel(la) and submit it to Mr. Weber for inclusion in an anthology, after all there are plenty of other authors who have done the same.

Even if RFC stumbled across it and liked it (which as he actively avoids reading fanfic for very good professional reasons, is extremely unlikely)... while the premise of that story is fun to play with, it's also very, very AU. My other series is far less so (even ignoring some minor continuity issues), but has other problems that would make it unpublishable. I wrote them for fun; I do just fine writing software for money.