Things that annoy you in fanfiction discussion

[Dullahan]

I want to be very clear about this, because periodically I do hear expressions of interest about MIAL, and those deserve a clear answer if nothing else.

Will MIAL be finished? This is not the right question to ask, because it presupposes things which are from the outset dubious. The question is not 'will' but 'can'. And here I will say that MIAL cannot be finished by me, because - to use an unlovable but necessary figure of speech - I am sufficiently removed from the person who wrote it that it could not feasibly be finished by me while still remaining MIAL.

I regret the way things turned out, because it was a lot of fun at the time. But that time was the better part of a decade ago, and I also have come to think that it was necessary that it ended (well, I should say simply 'stopped' or 'terminated') when it did. If I can venture a very general and unsupportable claim: writing is something learned only by doing it. 450,000 words of writing is, I would like to hope, an at least detectable amount of learning. But it turns out that all you learn from writing MIAL is -- how to write something that is not MIAL. The banana peel I slip on comes from the tree I planted. And there's nothing to be done about that.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Your comment about how people who write fanfiction are just green horns of literature, powered by passion, reminds me why I gave up commenting on fanfics: turns out, I am too much of a sour prune to appreciate the starry-eyed wonder of people.

Maybe I should get back to writing fanfic just so that I can feel some empathy for them.

Yeah, it would be nice. I think this response, sincere or sarcastic, pretty succinctly encapsulates what my unintentional essay was about. You lament that MIAL wasn't finished and idolize it and other bygone stuff to the point that you can't accept what is available to you and the people who are still able to put their effort/passion/care/whatever-you-want-to-call-it into fanfiction. The fact that Dullahan was and is singularly talented in prose amongst his peers doesn't mean that nobody else has anything valuable to say. It's unkind toward anyone who'd like to contribute and also an unfair amount of pressure on the guy whose work you idolize. ["You" in the preceding paragraph should be understood as a generalization, not terribly presumptive about your exact frame of mind. My only understanding of that comes from what you said.]

I want to be very clear about this, because periodically I do hear expressions of interest about MIAL, and those deserve a clear answer if nothing else.

Will MIAL be finished? This is not the right question to ask, because it presupposes things which are from the outset dubious. The question is not 'will' but 'can'. And here I will say that MIAL cannot be finished by me, because - to use an unlovable but necessary figure of speech - I am sufficiently removed from the person who wrote it that it could not feasibly be finished by me while still remaining MIAL.

I regret the way things turned out, because it was a lot of fun at the time. But that time was the better part of a decade ago, and I also have come to think that it was necessary that it ended (well, I should say simply 'stopped' or 'terminated') when it did. If I can venture a very general and unsupportable claim: writing is something learned only by doing it. 450,000 words of writing is, I would like to hope, an at least detectable amount of learning. But it turns out that all you learn from writing MIAL is -- how to write something that is not MIAL. The banana peel I slip on comes from the tree I planted. And there's nothing to be done about that.

I sympathize with this a lot, and I want to say that any interest I express in it comes from a very cursory beginning of reading and not the kind of deep, idolatrous disappointment you face from people who were around to see it happen.

As I mentioned in my most recent essay of a post, I feel like BL sort of damaged my ability to churn out fanwork as quickly as I once did, intentionally or not, and I could easily imagine a scenario in which being the pinnacle of Type Moon writing according to some part of your social circle, being a myth and a legend, with an "unfinished legacy" could also be a similar kind of weight on one's shoulders creatively, not to mention whatever might go on offline.

My expressed interest in it is mostly to see your ability to interact with something that clearly means as much as it does to you (or you wouldn't still both show up and be willing to talk about it this long later probably?) in a creative, positive sort of way. I know your fanboys would really enjoy it, but this is just empathy for a fellow writing-inclined person who's helped me with KnK lorepicking as an English-only.

I started writing my current Type Moon WIPs in 2015 (Empty Gold) and 2016 (Strings and Sevenfold) and for a long time I thought them practically abandoned but a stubborn part of me wanted and still wants to see at least one of them finished in full. But you're completely right about becoming a different writer and person over the course of years. I cannot fathom how I've been into Type Moon for five going on six years and it's sort of melancholy to look at how that passion and creative itch to make things for it seems so concentrated right at the beginning for myself. If I ever do finish one of these fics, while I remember the broad strokes of what they were meant to be, they will be very different end results from what past-me would have wanted or envisioned, especially with Empty Gold. I lost track of the person who started that fic before 2016 was over.

I wonder if you're similar, and therefore I kind of just... wish you to create more for your sake and also perhaps to break a bit of your own mystique to the fanboys.

Unsolicited advice: Could you possibly just spitball what might have been the culmination of the project(s) people hold over your head and post it as like a short series of paragraphs that are summary in nature and not prose? Could kinda break the spell and sate others' curiosity. Not a demand just a thought.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I'll be honest, I think part of why fandom reproduces the same plot structures and ideas over and over is that most fans feel most comfortable with that part of the Nasuverse and don't really feel comfortable with much else. I know that's definitely a problem for me, who doesn't know moonrunes and only knows about some of the more obscure TM stuff thanks to CF translations on here and through osmosis from some of the more senior users. Is that enough to write with any skill about TM? I don't know, but it sure feels daunting. I don't think too many other fandoms present this unique problem.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Yeah, exactly. But there's plenty of negative space and good characters to do stuff with that you can access, and not everything has to be an EU novel with all original characters.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Fair point, and good writing is good writing, no matter what you have access to.

[Mattias]

I know different sites have far different rules from BL, but I was just reading a fic over on Spacebattles that has the most absurd/hilarious case of self censoring I've ever seen. The fic is full of 'fuck's but the author for some reason decided to use a****** instead of asshole. Or did I miss something big and now asshole is very politically incorrect?

[Walnut Sparks]

It's not a fic about a canon character if it's about an OC incarnated in a canon character's body. Back me up on this.

[OnesFleetingGlory]

I'll be honest, I think part of why fandom reproduces the same plot structures and ideas over and over is that most fans feel most comfortable with that part of the Nasuverse and don't really feel comfortable with much else. I know that's definitely a problem for me, who doesn't know moonrunes and only knows about some of the more obscure TM stuff thanks to CF translations on here and through osmosis from some of the more senior users. Is that enough to write with any skill about TM? I don't know, but it sure feels daunting. I don't think too many other fandoms present this unique problem.

I don't know if you're still active, I don't know if you'll ever read this, but to me personally, yet strangely I still can't take to heart yet, is the advantage of it being a fanfic. Not all the fans possess the same level of knowledge of Nasuverse, but it shouldn't stop fans to write something that they like, and when they aspire to write a story they find interesting. It's admittedly scary and intimidating.

What if I wrote this character wrong? What if it violated the rules? What if the whole thing came crashing down from inconsistency?

Those thoughts should not stop us to write a fanfic we want. Personally, I acknowledge that I'm an amateur, that my so-called writings won't be up to standard to the veterans, let alone the actual writers, but the point of fanfic is to write for fun. As a newbie, I have to let my imagination guides me, not restricts me, and put some afterwords that can ease up such pressures. And given how passionate the fandom is, there could be people that would criticize and point out stuffs, which can be discouraging but can also push you to write better. All in all, to write fanfic is to have fun, not to compete with some professional works even if some might think so.

Wish I could take my own advice.

[Leftovers]

It's not a fic about a canon character if it's about an OC incarnated in a canon character's body. Back me up on this.

It's not a fic about Type-Moon if it's only about OCs. Does that help?

[Kotonoha]

It's not a fic about a canon character if it's about an OC incarnated in a canon character's body. Back me up on this.

I want to see the reverse. Like while some self insert is in the canon character's body, meanwhile in another universe the canon character is walking around in that guy's body.

[Comun]

We could make a thread for people to create OC bodies for a canon character. Create-a-Roa.

[Mattias]

I want to see the reverse. Like while some self insert is in the canon character's body, meanwhile in another universe the canon character is walking around in that guy's body.

"Shirou went to his job at Krogers that day. Afterwards he fed his cat, Mr Snuffles."

[MuramasaMachII]

We could make a thread for people to create OC bodies for a canon character. Create-a-Roa.

Oh my lord. That sounds hilarious.

Then again... Cagliostro as an incarnation of Roa has been itching my head recently soooo...

[Walnut Sparks]

I want to see the reverse. Like while some self insert is in the canon character's body, meanwhile in another universe the canon character is walking around in that guy's body.

That sounds better than how these fics usually go.