Rantidy rant rant rant...

[agilebrit]

Reading stuff like this pisses me off, but not for the reasons you think.

I refuse to be a gorram victim. No one EVER discouraged me from writing--in fact, one of my MALE classmates, clear back in 1981, signed my yearbook "To a good friend and future best-selling author." Everyone in my life cheerleads me and wants me to make it. Not a single person has ever said to me, "Dude, you're on crack. Don't even try because the odds are so stacked against you."

Is the publishing world a man's game? Eh, maybe. For now, especially in the genres I write in. But more and more women are getting into it all the time. Our "capitalist society" may have some problems, but it's that same capitalist society that allows women to go out and build our own businesses--including publishing businesses!--from scratch.

The reality is that fanfiction is very much under the radar for some very good reasons. Can you imagine the outcry if some MAN started making money writing Harry Potter fanfiction and taking money out of Jo's pocket? It ain't the fanfiction ghetto keeping us poor, it's the lack of desire--or maybe guts--to go out and create our own worlds and send them out to be "judged" (heavens, such a harsh word) by others. It's easier and safer to stay within our own insular little section of fandom and get praised by our insular little set of friends. The occasional flamer can be laughed off and ranted about, and we can get petted by our LJ peeps and assured that our writing isn't really the crap that person said it was.

The choices you make determine the life you lead. Harsh reality is that we're not going to get paid for writing fanfic. If we want to get paid for our writing, we're going to have to write our own original characters in their own original settings...and then send it out. You're not going to get paid if the stuff just sits there on your hard drive getting moldy.

And I daresay that most of the people on my flist could get paid for their writing. Their technical skills are up to par, they've honed their craft, they've figured out what works and what doesn't. But for many of them, writing is a hobby; it's not what they want to do with their lives or how they want to make their livelihood. And why should we get paid for our hobbies? My husband likes to go Jeeping. Does he get paid for that? Oh, hell no. But I don't see him whining about being "kept poor" because he's chosen to do something for fun that he knows he'll never be paid for.

Same thing with fanfiction. You might, maybe, get tapped to write a tie-in novel someday, if you become a well-enough-known fanwriter. It doesn't happen very often; it's one of those million-to-one chances. But instead of crying about how fanfiction is keeping you poor, write stuff you can actually sell.

Fanfiction isn't devalued because it's written by women. That's the victim mentality again. Fanfiction is devalued because (a) most of it is crap, sorry to say; and (b) it is derivative. I'm not going to go all elitist on you and call it a "waste of time" like some folks do--hell, I cut my teeth on the stuff and it taught me valuable things about writing that I couldn't have learned any other way. But if you're going to whine that it's "keeping you poor," I'm going to laugh at you. Well, DUH. If you want to get paid, then you are wasting your time writing fanfic. That's just a fact of life.

Pop culture is never taken seriously by the people experiencing it at the time. If you want to write fanfiction and be taken seriously, write fanfic of stuff that's in the public domain. Write a Tom Sawyer story from Becky Thatcher's perspective. Cross Dracula over with Sherlock Holmes. How about "A Christmas Carol" from the POV of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come? That stuff was pop culture in its day, but it's "literature" now--play with it! But writing fic for stuff still under copyright and then whining about how it's keeping you poor is a fool's game.

I am not a victim. And I refuse to let people I don't even know classify me as one.

*goes back to staring at the WerewolfFic*

Comments

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Considering a greater part of the books in my personal collection were written by women, I'm finding the whole suppression-of-females angle ludicrous and tiring. I don't read books dependent on the author's sex, color, age, or any other criteria other than the ability to write either a good story, create a great character, or use words in a pleasing manner. Reading is probably one of the most unbiased and unprejudiced medias out there. (I'm fully aware female authors in the past faced many obstacles, and I don't doubt there have been women of today who have hit a hurdle or two. Don't we all in everyday life, white males included?)

As for capitalism holding this poor woman back, does she think socialism would pay her to use other people's creations for her own gain? Unlikely.

I appreciate a person who won't be made a victim. Keep writing your own worlds. Someday...

[inlovewithnight.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's her point.

I think her point was that *some* women may choose to remain in fanfic *instead* of wanting to develop original writing because of social pressures and conditioning, which operate more on the unconscious level than the conscious.

The poverty aspect is actually a very minor part of her essay, and I think she made a mistake by making it part of the title.

But I know that you and I approach this sort of thing from very different perspectives, so I'm not trying to start an argument here, just offer a comment.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister! I fully admit one of the reasons I write fanfic is because I really don't want to deal with the emotional fallout of sending my stuff out and getting the rejection slips back. Just not a place I am right now. As you say, it's a hobby, I get paid in feedback which is damn good pay for a hobby. :)

Some day, when I have more time (yeah, right) I may go the original fic route, gird my loins for the flurry of rejection slips and get paid. But it's my choice either way.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I cannot think of any good reason to take on that twisted woman's cult programming, though once I would have. Thus I slowly learn wisdom.

Her world view is one of perpetual victimhood, and that's a comfort zone for her; scapegoats are always convenient, and she's always among people who agree with her.¹

Anyway, life is simply horrible for us middle-class, college-educated white Gender-Ed Majors. We’re so sooooo horribly oppressed and no one cares. And if you don’t give us everything we demand and if you don’t do everything we say, then you’re sexist. Got that?

So in place of rational thinking or empirical analysis (which are “patriarchal” and evil because they might force us to consider questions for which we don’t already possess ready-made answers) us feminist bloggers prefer to rely instead on a simple ideological chant which neatly explains everything in the world. Here it is: Whatever the problem, men are the cause and women are the victims. Period.

Isn’t that simple?

It’s VERY simple, indeed! Plus it makes us feel good inside, so it must be true...

¹ That in reality it is she who must agree with them, and what happens to her if she ever doesn't, she may never discover.

Pauline: I've decided to join.
Clerk: We don't accept your decisions. You accept ours.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU. Man, I didn't even read that post all the way through and it was already making me furious. I just can't decide which I hate worse, feminism in general or the victim mentality that goes along with it. What I don't understand is why people make such a huge deal out of this stuff. Yes, women once weren't considered equal. Yes, sure, there are some inequalities today--but who cares? We can do all the really important things, and if there are things we want to do that "society" thinks we can't or shouldn't...well then, all the better, because we'll prove we can. Isn't that so much more of a victory than wasting time whining about it?

Besides, men and women are different. It's a biological fact. Get over it.

Yeah, I really hate feminism...

[girl-curve.livejournal.com]

Um... sounds more like you hate extreme feminism. Not needed feminism - equality and stuff. I hate whiny feminism as well - actually it's not feminism, it's just whining, and isn't that what chauvanists think women do anyway? Fuck 'em.

[delurker.livejournal.com]

We can do all the really important things, and if there are things we want to do that "society" thinks we can't or shouldn't...well then, all the better, because we'll prove we can.
Personally, I'd prefer not to have to constantly prove that I can do something "in spite of my gender". Maybe that's just me, but I'd like to not have to keep proving myself, over and over again, just because of my gender. I'd like to be able to just do something without having to fight for it.

Isn't that so much more of a victory than wasting time whining about it?
Well then, let's forget about fighting for equality so we can do anything we want - which, hey, who cares about little things like that? - and instead, um, prove that we can do anything we want... hey, wait.

Feminism is not whining.

[mawaridi.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Comments like the above make me sad. Extremist radical feminism =/= all feminism, and feminism =/= "men and women are exactly the same".

Yes, sure, there are some inequalities today--but who cares?

Me.

[emptyfuneral.livejournal.com]

Dear heavens, I must live in a cave because I didn't realize that woman writers were so oppressed! That essay (or the little I could get through without wanting to scream and/or die due to the inaneness of it all) reminds me of some of the utterly pointless critical theory that I've been discussing in one of my classes. And does anyone really take fanfiction THAT seriously? I certainly don't no matter how many I write. It's really just a hobby.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Cross Dracula over with Sherlock Holmes. frimfram has already more or less done that. :~)

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

*makes puppy eyes* I so need to read that. Linkage?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly correct it is Arthur Conan Doyle meets Josh Whedon's Aurelian vampires. Laura is one of the most skillful and imaginative writers around, and this was her first flurry into fanfic. Sadly she has decided that it will remain unfinished, for a variety of reasons, but the 14 chapters that do exist are perfect - set in London in 1880 - The Other Side of the Tracks.

Here from Metafandom

[fyrdrakken]

Oddly enough, so did Fred Saberhagen in an actual for-pay book: The Holmes-Dracula File, a sequel to his Dracula "pastiche." I liked it quite a bit, though not so much the sequel.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

This is very true, and needed saying.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I'm not a victim and I am a feminist. I am a woman writing erotica for other women and selling it through a female-run publishing house.

But instead of crying about how fanfiction is keeping you poor, write stuff you can actually sell.

Fanfiction wasn't keeping me poor. Working an underpaid pink collar job was doing that. But, someone I met through fanfiction got me into writing stuff I can sell.

As for most fanfic being crap, I invoke Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap.

There are people on my f'list who are better writers than anything commercial I've read recently. I'm a better writer than most of what I've read recently.

What's keeping us poor is that we don't believe this. We don't think we can make the grade as professionals. We aren't going to be Stephen King or J.K. Rowing, so why bother? We don't think we have that kind of talent. And we DO. We may have to pay our dues in e-books first, but we do have talent.

One thing I saw over and over in the comment thread was "No place wants short stories." Patently false. Phaze, Torquere and Ellora are all wanting short stories, 10,000-15,000 words.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Argh, I agree completely! I've read some published stuff just today that made me go "Bwuh? This is AWFUL. My flist would thwap the hell out of me if I wrote something with a premise this frelling flimsy."

As for "no one wanting short stories," that's SO not true, especially in the SF/F/H genres. Magazine after magazine pays good money for good writing, and there's plenty of others that pay not as much, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye. The submission process has gotten a little more complicated than it was in the past, with the advent of email and the fact that everyone wants a slightly different format, it seems, but no one ever said that this was going to be effortless.

The only ones keeping us down is us and our own self-doubts.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

*nods wholeheartedly*

And e-presses pay reasonably too.

I've sold 13 short stories and two novels in the last 2 1/2 years. I just finished a third novel and my editor is chomping the bit for me to get it cleaned up and sent to her.

That said, I still write fanfic, but much much less. Just yuletide and 3_ships. I spend a lot more time on stuff for http://www.angelsparrow.com than I do for http://www.geocities.com/lady_aethelynde