I find that there's definitely a bias against television as a medium...especially in the book community. People tend to have this belief that books can be deeply metaphorical and philosophical, but TV is just about sex, violence, and slapstick. I don't think people realize that TV can just be like a really long play...and PLAYS are certainly recognized as having the ability to be deeply metaphorical and philosophical.
Basically, I'm saying that I know what you mean about the book-people not understanding. One of my sisters works in publishing, and I haven't actually told her about my writing in fandom.
The way I see it though is that when I started writing fanfiction for fun, I was pretty goddamn depressed with my life and I hadn't touched my "real" novel in 5 years. Fanfiction basically gave me a training room...it let me practice my writing using other people's characters and stories...and then I could get my confidence up enough to start working on something that I can legally publish.
But that being said, I don't think you need to have an eye on publishing in order for fanfiction to be justified. There's a quote out there by someone...Hemmingway? Gaiman? Some author...that says that in order to live a happy life, one need only produce art. It doesn't matter what KIND of art. And that's what I see fanfiction as - we can't all be painters and musicians, but some of us can write stories - and fandom both conveniently stocks you with characters AND provides you with an eager audience.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 07:04 pm (UTC)Basically, I'm saying that I know what you mean about the book-people not understanding. One of my sisters works in publishing, and I haven't actually told her about my writing in fandom.
The way I see it though is that when I started writing fanfiction for fun, I was pretty goddamn depressed with my life and I hadn't touched my "real" novel in 5 years. Fanfiction basically gave me a training room...it let me practice my writing using other people's characters and stories...and then I could get my confidence up enough to start working on something that I can legally publish.
But that being said, I don't think you need to have an eye on publishing in order for fanfiction to be justified. There's a quote out there by someone...Hemmingway? Gaiman? Some author...that says that in order to live a happy life, one need only produce art. It doesn't matter what KIND of art. And that's what I see fanfiction as - we can't all be painters and musicians, but some of us can write stories - and fandom both conveniently stocks you with characters AND provides you with an eager audience.