One of the annoying things about writing fan fiction is that people keep asking, "Why don't you write a story of your own? You're so good, you could be published
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Another writing friend of mine likens it to gardening: Just because she loves doing her own yard doesn't mean she wants to become a professional landscaper. Hobbies are hobbies; jobs are jobs. (And writing takes enough work without adding the pressure of the profession to it.)
This is also why I enjoy editing fanfiction so much and wouldn't want to edit professionally. There's a huge difference between working with creative folks like you and sitting in a cubby, editing tech manuals. Oy! Leave me be to do what I love. :)
Argh, the "why don't you write original stuff?" question drives me nuts (and I do want to go pro, but I don't intend to quit ficcing anytime soon either...) It bugs me how writing is one of the few creation-based hobbies that gets that - I crochet all the time but no one ever tells me I shouldn't be using other peoples' patterns.
(And your fanfic is totally stories of your own - not your characters or settings; but the stories, they're all yours!)
I think it's completely sexist, TBH. Nobody ever asks men who play sports on the weekend why they don't become NFL players. Or guys with pool tables why they don't become sharks. Guys can fix up cars in their driveways, nobody tells them to become a mechanic.
But women's hobbies are only legitimate if they make money, or do something beneficial for someone else. Cooking. Looking pretty. Making things other people can use.
Oh wow, oh wow, Kita, I never thought of it like this and YOU ARE SO RIGHT.
Almost all the hobbies I've been urged to make "pro" are ladyish, non-sport hobbies; my jewelry (which I did begin to sell before I shattered my elbow, and will again) my sewing, my acting, my singing and then my writing.
Very very affirming and such, but also really frustrating, especially when it was my father *complaining* that I was spending money buying beading supplies, while he was perfectly fine outfitting himself for quail hunting in a Gucci leather shooting jacket.....
(Oh, and threatened to disown me if I went pro acting. Yeaaaaah.)
I may have some strong feelings about this issue. And I may be about to rant about them at length. Sorry.
Fanfic is writing, but it's not quite the same kind of writing as mainstream professional authorship. It is no better or worse, just different. Okay, yes, I do both, and I know that the professional world on the whole does not agree with me. But hey, the professional writing world can get a bit snotty sometimes. Fellow poets, for instance, get really snide with me if I mention that I sometimes write *gasp* so-called genre fiction. They act like it pollutes, or even invalidates, my other work. I shudder to think how they'd respond if I mentioned fanfic at all
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This is also why I enjoy editing fanfiction so much and wouldn't want to edit professionally. There's a huge difference between working with creative folks like you and sitting in a cubby, editing tech manuals. Oy! Leave me be to do what I love. :)
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I have smart friends. <3
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(And your fanfic is totally stories of your own - not your characters or settings; but the stories, they're all yours!)
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Ditto sewing patterns.
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But women's hobbies are only legitimate if they make money, or do something beneficial for someone else. Cooking. Looking pretty. Making things other people can use.
Fuck that noise.
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Almost all the hobbies I've been urged to make "pro" are ladyish, non-sport hobbies; my jewelry (which I did begin to sell before I shattered my elbow, and will again) my sewing, my acting, my singing and then my writing.
Very very affirming and such, but also really frustrating, especially when it was my father *complaining* that I was spending money buying beading supplies, while he was perfectly fine outfitting himself for quail hunting in a Gucci leather shooting jacket.....
(Oh, and threatened to disown me if I went pro acting. Yeaaaaah.)
Reply
Fanfic is writing, but it's not quite the same kind of writing as mainstream professional authorship. It is no better or worse, just different. Okay, yes, I do both, and I know that the professional world on the whole does not agree with me. But hey, the professional writing world can get a bit snotty sometimes. Fellow poets, for instance, get really snide with me if I mention that I sometimes write *gasp* so-called genre fiction. They act like it pollutes, or even invalidates, my other work. I shudder to think how they'd respond if I mentioned fanfic at all ( ... )
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Wow.
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