hazliya: (scheherazade with book)
hazliya ([personal profile] hazliya) wrote2011-10-03 12:31 am
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On new writing ventures

I kind of want to start writing fanfiction as a creative outlet.

Anyone have any opinions on fanfiction.net and that whole shebang? Beta readers?

I... don't really know how to start this. The only fanfiction I've ever written was a few years ago for [livejournal.com profile] nyren's Nobilis game, which was short and thoroughly ridiculous.
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[identity profile] captainecchi.livejournal.com 2011-10-02 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I told myself I'd stop giving solicited advice, but this was solicited!

So. Um. A lot of fanfic writers do still post on ff.net, just because it has a large audience. There are certain authors who don't want you writing for their stuff and have asked ff.net to remove those sections, so you won't be posting, say, Anita Blake fanfic on the Pit of Voles. But if there's a section for it, it's probably worth posting on the Pit.

A few years back (okay, more than a few now) they added C2s, which are basically lists of fics in a given section that someone has decided Don't Suck, which means that avoiding badfic is a lot easier. If you're interested in writing for a particular fandom, I'd check a C2 or three in that fandom to get started.

Some people don't like that you can't post adult fic on the Pit but... well, lots of people secretly do. Unless someone asks the admins to audit your fic, it usually goes unnoticed. Especially if it's already rated M, which don't show up in searches unless you specifically ask for them. Fics marked M can't be in C2s, though.

Beta readers are good. Although, I've certainly posted stuff without them.

Also good to look up LJ communities for your fandom of interest... the ones that haven't moved over to DW or the like, that is.

And um, I might as well hook you up to where I live on ff.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/~asenath), although I haven't written fic in yeeeears. In fact, what I know about fanfic may be years out of date. I understand there's a lot tied up these days in RP and anonymous kink memes, although I suspect that you'll learn aaaalll you need to know about that from any LJ comms you find.

So what fandoms are you thinking of writing in, anyway?

[identity profile] usernamenumber.livejournal.com 2011-10-02 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
A friend-of-a-friend is trying to start a wordpress-based ff.net alternative site called fanfic.me (http://fanfic.me/). They had some site design issues early on that affected usability, but they seem to be in the process of fixing that. I'm not connected enough to fic to have too strong an opinion, but maybe worth looking at if you're looking for places to contribute?

[identity profile] hazliya.livejournal.com 2011-10-15 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
Probably Dragon Age. It's one that has a lot of options, so anything could be canon. xD

[identity profile] juldea.livejournal.com 2011-10-02 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Most of the good fic that I find is on ArchiveOfOurOwn.org.

[identity profile] relique.livejournal.com 2011-10-03 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
fanfiction.net tends to have things of WILDLY varying quality, although it is a good place to put it that you can link to from all sorts of places.

I'm mostly familiar with Harry Potter, and then mostly familiar with slash, and then most familiar with kinkier slash. But the best stuff I read is on LJ and dreamwidth (lj clone of the moment for fanfic), and mostly I see authors putting the stuff on their LJ (sometimes a community, sometimes a fic specific journal), and then it often gets linked to communities. (Erotic Elves and Pornish Pixies, Daily Deviant(on IJ))

If you want people actively reading, I'd suggest writing a few things to get your bearings, then enter a few open challenges/fests. You can get your feet wet just in time for all the holiday exchanges-- some are open, some are invite only. Yuletide is the most popular, and is cross-fandom. Anyway, once you've written a few things, been in a few fests/exchanges/etc, then you can work on getting into the invite-only/audition communities. Lots of people aren't reading many new authors anymore (... in Harry Potter, which is an older, more established fandom these days), so getting into one of the more popular and active communities is key.

I'm happy to beta things if you write in a fandom familiar to me.
darkoni: (Default)

[personal profile] darkoni 2011-10-03 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
I remember that story. It was fun to read.
franzeska: (Default)

[personal profile] franzeska 2011-10-04 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
*here from lj search*

If you just want to blow off steam, go for it! It doesn't matter where you post or what anybody else thinks. If you're looking for more readers and community interaction, it will depend on what kinds of things you're interested in. fanfiction.net is certainly the largest archive, but it's just one of hundreds, and a lot of people post fic to LJ or Dreamwidth or other places. I hate to rain on your friend's parade, but fanfic.me looks pretty dire to me (though YMMV). They key qualities in a place to post fanfic are either audience or ease of use, neither of which I see on fanfic.me.

Beta readers can be fantastic content editors or nitpicky line editors or your friend who means well but can't edit to save her life. It just depends on what you need and who you get to beta. Different readers will have different opinions on how necessary a beta is and what it says if your story doesn't list one in the headers.

If I were you, I'd sign up for Yuletide this year. It attracts a lot of people who write the occasional take on a fairytale or missing scene from 19thC lit in addition to people who write fic all the time and who are hooked into a specific fandom culture.
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