Author: It's a Matter of Pride

[lozlan]

Spinning some thoughts off of lotesseflower 's meta thought process...As a wannabe pro-fic writer, I've spent several years learning to swallow my pride. I've managed to crush the first-draft-is-virtuoso-performance bug, and the must-be-constantly-writing-a-classic-bug. I've managed to subvert the indignity I used to feel when editing, and have stopped issuing

Comments

[lozlan]

In reading over this, I'm cringing a bit - I certainly wasn't trying to imply that all fan work is pornographic in nature. Authorial response to fan work often hinges on fic of a critical nature - I know from experience that fic serves to pry apart as well as laud. It is Nikki Wood's Fucking Coat, after all.

[ladymordecai]

If it helps, you've managed to articulate pretty much my thoughts on the matter--and no, I didn't read it as you saying all fanfic is pornographic in nature. Your use of it as a response is, I feel, legitimate because the porn is so much of what gets thrown in fanfic writer's faces as "corrupting the original."

Seeing as this was a thought and not an essay or book, I think it's okay that you didn't go into fanwork as re/deconstructionist as well as additive.

Man, but you're much better about a variety of readers' interpretations than I am, I think. I've been working on it, but it's one of those things where I'm okay with certain but not all possible interpretations of my work, emotionally, even though intellectually I know I have to be gracious about all interpretations if this is the viewpoint I'm going to espouse.

I'm far more nervous about legitimate, critical/academic reaction to my work than fanwork, actually.