Fan Fiction – The Ugly

Welcome, dear reader, to the last in a mini-series of articles about the positive and negative attributes of Fan Fiction. “But we’ve already gone through the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ articles!” I hear you cry. This simply means, dear reader, that we have traversed to the ‘ugly. I will have to warn you now however…this is not for the faint of heart.

I suppose I’ve written this article as a bit of light-heartedness. Although admittedly, it does hold some semblance of truth at its core. So without further ado…let us make our careful way through the ‘Ugly’ truths of Fan Fiction.

Imagine this; you’re an avid fan of a book or TV series. You own everything there is to own, and know the characters better than they know themselves. At one in the morning, you stumble across a Fan Fiction and decide to read it. In the dark quiet of your room…you begin, and then throw your head back and scream in anguish…

Okay, maybe I went a little overboard with the reaction. But I hope at least it has made you curious as to what could provoke such a response. Why, the sight of your favourite characters and places being butchered by uncaring wannabe writers of course! The best character in the series has suddenly fallen in love with someone they shouldn’t have, there’s a back-story which simply doesn’t fit…and there will be at least one new character with strangely coloured hair or a sob-story background.

Unfortunately, this happens more in Fan Fiction than anyone could ever stomach. All of the established rules which work so well in some respects go out of the window, and the new writers get to work maiming the characterisation of every living thing in sight…And did you just see a dragon fly past that Star Ship?

Which brings me to another horror. Crossovers. Oh sure, it’s amusing when it happens on TV…but that’s usually because both shows are made by the same people. Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice for example…or any of the Star Trek series. But suddenly, we have Harry potter flying through the air not on a broom, but on a Pernese Dragon. (Yes, that particular crossover does exist. Google it, I dare you).

It’s this blatant disregard for even a loose cannon, as well as cliché, ‘perfect’ characters and a painfully constructed storyline and actual style that constitutes as the ‘ugly’ part of Fan Fiction. Granted, it’s the ugly part of any genre of Fiction, but in my personal opinion, these digressions are much more acute within this genre, because it’s the mauling of characters which unwitting readers already know and love.

So there you have it, dear readers! The Good, Bad and Ugly of that terrifying realm of the Fan Fiction genre. I hope you find yourselves both a little more informed and a lot more amused now you’ve read them.

3 Responses to “Fan Fiction – The Ugly”

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2. Elliott Chiarelli says:

   April 16, 2010 at 10:54 pm

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3. Sara Slack says:

   April 18, 2010 at 2:34 pm

   Heheh. No, there are no copy writers. Just me as the Editor.