Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

[Heavenli24]

The twi-tards seem to just copy what they read in the books and that isn't creative. A lot of them are children over there and we have to remember that. A lot of us are in our mid-20's, 30's, 40's and so on. If Roswell was brought back as a new show now the younger crowd would love it. Then we would be flooded with pre-teens screaming over team max and team kyle! LOL.

While there are a lot of young writers and readers of Twilight fic, there are in fact a ton of older Twi-hard fans... many of the crazed fans are actually in their 30's and 40's (the 'Twi-moms') and several of the authors pulling their fics and acting this way are in fact adult women with husbands and children . They also seem to like trying to police the younger readers, telling them that they shouldn't be reading or writing anything involving smut or sex, which I suspect may be part of the reason for limiting who can read their stories (one forum member asked for recommendations of fics involving Bella losing her virginity, and one poster wouldn't reply until they'd confirmed that the member was over 18).

It's not like the fics at Twi-Tard are like so amazing that they are reread. I can say that I have reread so many stories for Roswell, HP and The Tudors more than anything at Twi-Tarded... Sorry but they annoy me sometimes with their stupidness.

There are only a couple of Twilight fics that I am likely to re-read and that is because of the quality of the writing and the well-thought-out plot, but apart from that I haven't found any Twilight fics that compare to some of the amazing Roswell stories over here.

In the last couple of weeks, I have actually pretty much given up reading Twilight fic all together. There are a few stories that I will continue to read on Fanfiction.net, but I think I've finally realised why I've been so frustrated with the whole Twilight fandom lately... because it doesn't make me feel anything: there's no emotion or investment in the characters/story from my side, and that's what I really need (especially because I've been feeling kind of crappy and tired lately).

Which is why a couple of weeks ago, I went back to search out all the old Buffy fics I used to read and I've also been re-watching my DVDs of the first 3 seasons... I watched season 2 again with the Buffy/Angel storyline (losing his soul, killing people, her sending him to hell) and by the end of it, I was in tears... and for the first time in ages I actually felt emotional because the characters and plots were so amazing. It really made me see how much better and 'real' Joss Whedon's vampire world was than SM's Twilight world. Twilight has never made me emotional in that way before, and SM's writing wasn't good enough to bring that out in me... which is possibly why I don't find the fanfic satisfying at all. Fic writers in the Buffy fandom had/have so much more to work with than in the Twilight world... genius plots, incredible writing, amazing attention to detail in the 'world' of vampires etc, but the Twilight fics are very straightforward and boring, at least the All-Human ones are (they meet, they get together, there's a bit of drama, and then a happy ending... same story over and over again). Similarly with Roswell fics - the mythology of the aliens has been explored so well by the authors here that the fanfics make for amazing, thought-provoking reading and of the writers who have managed to get published, you really feel that they deserve it.

[Roswellian117]

Why thank you, I try to be thought provoking! KIDDING... LOL.

I am with you with the whole buffy thing... There's more to it than what meets the eye and about twi auWOvamps... Yeah they do seem to be boring... I personally have read like 2 twifics and that was it. I wrote one but it's really different than twilight... Same idea but it incorporates BtvS.

Back to the plagerism thing... Seriously... I can read an old Roswell story from like 6 years ago and go read a twific and find similarities because fanfic is nothing new! They do think they invented it. I went on the chat over there once and I was asking the
questions about why they liked twilight. Then I started telling them an idea for a twific I wanted to write which was just the show roswell but with bella and edward and they said «OMG! I would so read that! That sounds so cool» I said well i'm changing the names to max and liz and they were like why? I said because that story I told you is a show that was on and it was called Roswell. One of the girls was young and rude and said to go back to alien land this is a home for twilighters... I laughed and left. Haven't been back since. I no longer even open my twilight books. Haven't read them in a really long time. I'll watch the movies on bootleg. LOL... I am evil!

[Misha]

I saw this and thought of you

http://antwinowrimo.webs.com/

[Roswellian117]

I saw this and thought of you

http://antwinowrimo.webs.com/

Misha I love you!! That site is awesome!!!!

[girl afraid]

Writers have a right to pull their work from the internet if they want to, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't think they were an absolute tool for doing so. In my many years of following fandom I've become more than a little weary of fanfic diva hissy fits.

[Kath7]

THought I'd reply to Heavenli's original post before reading what everyone else had to say. ; ) Sorry if I repeat anything anyone else says, but I just had to comment.

WHAT?????? That is the weirdest thing I have ever heard, and so completely opposite of what goes on here. On RF, everyone WANTS to be read. I don't think I would even bother to write anything if I didn't think it would be read. What's the point?

How odd. And really punishes readers instead of plagiarists.

ETA - when I first saw this post, I thought it was going to be about fanfic writers who have "made it" in the real publishing world and pull their fanfics from the 'net when that happens. I don't really have a problem with that, since most of the Roswriters who have done it are happy for people to keep private copies of the fics.

[Kath7]

That reminds me of our "holding a fanfic hostage" rule. I'm so used to coming here and knowing no fic will ever be held hostage until certain amount of feedback is given, that when I go to other sites and see the authors blatantly asking for X number of reviews or else no more story, I'm stunned

I think the point that the Roswell fanfic world has always been more of a "mature" crowd (for a high school show, Roswell really had older viewers, which was one reason the WB/UPN didn't get totally behind it - wasn't their demo). This results in less of this nonsense. The few who tried this back at the beginning were quickly ignored.

Also, regarding the "Edward and BElla together are SOOOOOOO cool" variety of fanfic - we had our fair share of it back at the beginning too, but most readers quickly got bored with it. The fandom quickly evolved into more complex stories. However, if you read my History of Rosfic thread, there was a time that a story couldn't be considered "good" unless all the characters were having explicit sex (well, really romance-novel sex). That seemed to disappear when plotting and characterization started to take over too.

The question re: the Twilight fandom - will it have the staying power for these writers to mature into sanity? Not sure. I don't see Twilight becoming a classic in the vein of Harry Potter. I have a feeling it will wind itself down as the writers mature beyond it (I know many, many adults - including myself - have read the series. My question - are they in the fandom? I doubt it).

ETA - I just read the comment about alot of Twihards being older as well (sorry, forget who said it!) and it's a good point. But we used to have our fair share of those crazies around too (Jason Behr used to have major security...doubt he'd even need to look both way before exiting a builiding these days). Most have faded away. I'm assuming that this will happen in Twilight as well. Interesting to see where this fandom will be in five years.

Also, the monitoring of the "under 18s" by the older crowd amused moi. Especially after that scene in Breaking Dawn (you know the one).

[Kath7]

Back to the plagerism thing... Seriously... I can read an old Roswell story from like 6 years ago and go read a twific and find similarities because fanfic is nothing new! They do think they invented it. I went on the chat over there once and I was asking the
questions about why they liked twilight. Then I started telling them an idea for a twific I wanted to write which was just the show roswell but with bella and edward and they said «OMG! I would so read that! That sounds so cool» I said well i'm changing the names to max and liz and they were like why? I said because that story I told you is a show that was on and it was called Roswell. One of the girls was young and rude and said to go back to alien land this is a home for twilighters... I laughed and left. Haven't been back since. I no longer even open my twilight books. Haven't read them in a really long time. I'll watch the movies on bootleg. LOL... I am evil!

Okay, this made me laugh! Hee. You are evil (but funny). I have always said that SM CLEARLY watched Rosewell. Rosalie IS Isabel Evans, and the other similiarities are too close to even comment on.

[Heavenli24]

ETA - when I first saw this post, I thought it was going to be about fanfic writers who have "made it" in the real publishing world and pull their fanfics from the 'net when that happens. I don't really have a problem with that, since most of the Roswriters who have done it are happy for people to keep private copies of the fics.

Well, some people do pull their fics to get published, which I don't have an issue with in general, but it seems like they will often pull a fic partway though to re-write it with the hope of getting it published someday, whereas I believe when Roswell writers have been published, they usually don't pull their fics unless they have to because they have a publishing deal and can't keep the fic online any longer. As I said in one of my other posts though, many of the 'published' Twilight works are actually being published as ebooks by an online company made up of other fanfic writers who specifically publish fanfic authors! I wondered why suddenly all the Twilight authors were able to publish stories that weren't all that great when only a couple of Roswell fic writers have managed it with their amazing stories... it's because the company they use isn't really a 'proper' real-world publisher and there are no actual, physical books involved!

ETA - I just read the comment about alot of Twihards being older as well (sorry, forget who said it!) and it's a good point. But we used to have our fair share of those crazies around too (Jason Behr used to have major security...doubt he'd even need to look both way before exiting a builiding these days). Most have faded away. I'm assuming that this will happen in Twilight as well. Interesting to see where this fandom will be in five years.

Yeah, I remember hearing about some of the crazies, although they were dying out when I started reading Roswell fic in late 2004. I'd like to see what happens with the Twilight fandom over the next few years too. Right now, I just think the whole fandom there is getting a bit out of hand - there are so many members on Twilighted (nearly 145,000) that you just kind of get lost in the mass of people and fic there... and a lot of the stories are the same plots over and over and aren't much good at all (on FF.net there are 166,700 Twilight fanfics, compared to just 3,500 Roswell fanfics!).

Also, the monitoring of the "under 18s" by the older crowd amused moi. Especially after that scene in Breaking Dawn (you know the one).

I do think it's quite funny because in the 10 years I've been reading fanfic, this has never come up before. I found Buffy/Angel fanfic when I was 16 and I used to read a ton of smut - never did me any harm! However, back then it was different because the majority of the fanfic authors were teenagers themselves, so it was teens writing smut for other teens to read. With the Twilight fic, it's a lot of middle-aged parents writing the smut and then feeling uncomfortable because then they realise that teens are reading it, so they try to prevent them from doing so the best they can... except now it's out there on the net and anyone can read it if they want, and they can't stop young people from reading (which I think is partly where the idea to pull the fics and then monitor who can read them comes from).

[Sundae]

Also, the monitoring of the "under 18s" by the older crowd amused moi. Especially after that scene in Breaking Dawn (you know the one).

Lol, this made me laugh. I thought the last book was very age inappropriate. For catering to the tweeny-bopper crowd of 12-15 years...If I was a mom, I wouldn't let my Kid read that.

And I know it sounds horrible considering that I'm pretty liberal and it takes quite a bit to shock me but I was a little disgusted with the whole pregnancy bit of the book and the idea that this book is meant for a younger crowd.

Bella was shown as weak, mal-nourished, bruised and beaten up (by her own kid, yeah but still) add that to how the baby was delivered. I thought it was all too gruesome.

I was just horrified at the fact this book catered to 12-13 year olds, and quite honestly, I wouldn't let my kid read it....but then again, I'm not a mom.

I don't think the sex bit was as bad as the pregnancy bit.