Fanfiction. The Amazing, the Weird, and the Nausea-Inducing.

I like fanfiction. There, I've said it. If I were just discovering it, I probably would be derisive, condescending, perhaps even mocking of fanfiction. However, I have a long and complicated history with fanfiction, filled with sleepless nights, dried-out contacts, and, more recently, cast-off homework, and so am already entrenched in its grasp. Fanfiction is what I read when I just want something light and nonsensical to read, something that I don't have to think much about. I already know the worlds of fanfiction, so I have no introductions to wade through as with a new fiction book.

However, it is very difficult to find good fanfiction. I have come to the conclusion that there are three classes of fanfiction: the Amazing, the Weird, and the Nausea-Inducing. Most fanfiction falls into the last of these categories, Nausea-Inducing. Most fanfiction is poorly written, unimaginative crap in which the characters defy their natural personalities in favor of the ones the writer wishes them to have. It is imbalanced, depending on whether the writer prefers to write action or dialogue (or--shudder--description). The plot is so messy and uncreative that the poor reader can't tell what has happened or what is happening, but can tell precisely what will happen. Still others in the Nausea-Inducing category have no plot whatsoever and are simply unorganized bits of random action and dialogue that point to no purpose at all.

The Weird category is small, but sufficiently popular to merit mention. The Weird category mainly consists of badly written humor or alternate universes. The humor is not necessarily written poorly, in the prose itself; it's simply not funny. The writer obviously has such a quirky sense of humor or such a bad case of insomnia that whatever they label "funny" is simply not funny at all, and merely Weird. The alternate universes are even Weirder. They may make sense, but the events that occur in these alternate universes are so strange that the reader shakes his head in befuddlement and moves on to the next piece in hopes that this one will finally be in the last category, Amazing.

The Amazing category is the smallest of these three categories. The snippets referred to in the fanfiction community as "oneshots" make up the bulk of this type. These are short pieces of prose. Many are small happy or humorous moments in the characters' lives, or small unhappy moments that are nonetheless touching. Others expand on unexplained moments in the character's canon lives.

And then, once in a while, you stumble across a fanfiction that is not a oneshot that still falls in the Amazing category. These are the best kinds of fanfiction. They are long, often novel-length. They are well-written and, most important, connect you to the character on an even deeper emotional level than the original work did. Although the characters stay within their natural personalities, the reader gets a glimpse of a side of them that he hadn't seen before.

What, you ask, has possessed me to write this exposition on the three types of fanfiction? Well, for one, nobody is going to read this blog, so it doesn't really matter if I reveal my love of fanfiction to the internet. My primary reason for choosing this subject is, however, that I am in the middle of one of those fanfictions that fall into the category of Amazing. It's actually the first in a series of three fanfictions, and I hope that the second two are as good as the first. Combined, they are over 250,000 words, so I have quite a bit to read. The writer's style is unusal, but suited to the main character's personality. That is something I find particularly attractive, as his personality is difficult to write. (I would know. I've tried.) I am writing this blog, and not reading, because I decided it would be a good idea to get away from it for a few minutes. I've read the bigger part of the first in the trilogy today, and think it it would be wise to set it aside for a while, to make it last longer. That's the problem with fanfiction--I speed through all the Amazing ones I can find and then have to spend at least that much time again searching for another Amazing one. So, I'm trying to make this one last.

That's all for now. I'm off to play a game with my family. Much love.
ZB