Leila --
And as for slash...the actual pro-equivalent of pro novels available don't even come close because most gay fiction really doesn't read as slash -- women aren't its target. And there are very few pro published books that have that vibe. I can think of two or three but no more.
As a fellow slash fan, I have to agree -- but I do find more and more that slash-as-subtext seems to be thicker on the ground than it once was, and in some cases, quite consciously done. I suspect that as the visibility of slash grows, and more pro writers find themselves reading it and thinking about it, this phenomenon will grow with it.
You noted:
When I'm in the midst of a fan fic reading frenzy, I probably read the equivalent of about 3-5 novels a week, in addition to the 5 or so pro novels I'm reading or re-reading at any given time. Fan fic tends to come in smaller bites, suitable for reading at lunch or over coffee...
The smaller doses are part of what gets me reading fan fiction after a long day, instead of a sliver of a long pro novel. But I don't think that's all there is to it. A couple of years ago I found myself in a conversation with three very sharp members of the SF/fantasy community -- all editors as well as writers -- and I mentioned how much less fiction reading I was doing.
A couple of them recommended books, and as we analyzed the matter I realized that I was not facing a shortage of novels that I think of as "difficult to get into, but rewarding of the effort." I had a number of those on my shelf, and I could still enjoy them. What I was facing a dearth of was the kind of book I loved as a child, when I'd carry five SF or fantasy novels home from the library every Friday and consume them, nonstop, over the weekend -- books that I'd describe as the sort that "pick you up and take you away whether you want to go or not."
It hit me then that fan fiction was supplying the lack in my life. And I began to wonder if, as fan fiction became more popular and visible, the sort of writers who'd be creating the books I missed were now comfortably ensconsed in fan fiction, where they could bask in the love and admiration of readers without having to brave the chilly waters of professional publishing.
Ishmael not only "feels" like fan fiction, but I've heard that it was written as fan fiction -- i.e., written for personal pleasure before it was sold. I can't vouch for that, but I can say that I also heard from a reliable source that it was hell getting permission from the long-defunct "Here Come The Brides" -- such hell that if there had been another way to go, they would have gone that way. (Which would seem to support the idea that there was a book already in existence that people were trying to find a way to publish.)
In any case, whether true or not, it provides an interesting spin on definition. The same work is fan fiction for, say, six months, then suddenly a wand is waved over it and it becomes something else.
There are obviously two -- well, at least two -- different schools of definition here. One's looking at the feel of genre; i.e., "Fan fiction and slash tend to satisfy these needs in an audience, tend to contain elements X and Y, etc." It's easy for people who know the genre to then talk about certain works of pro fiction that have, say, "slashy elements."
The other definition is not genre-related; it's simply, "One is bought and sold and the copyright issues are all clear. The other isn't."
By the second definition, Ishmael jumped ship and went from one box to another. By the first definition, it didn't.
People, of course, will use any definition that pleases them; I doubt any absolute hard and fast rules will be found that work in every case, any more than they'll be found for the ancient debate over what really separates science fiction from fantasy. I can say, however, that I personally am far more interested in the question of genre, of what it is that fan fiction and its subset of slash offer that appeal to an audience, and whether those elements are indeed creeping out into the mainstream.
Although I've dipped into Making Light from time to time with great enjoyment, this is the first time I've posted. I hope I'm not violating the customs of the country in any way, but the discussion was too interesting to resist.
For what it's worth, I'm a professional writer who for a long time never saw the point of fan fiction. But somewhere after writing my fourth book, I dipped a toe in the water, and found it personally fulfilling. Yes, I've written slash, and I've found it a creative joy -- it was pure fun facing problems I'd never faced before, trying to integrate a sexual relationship with a story plot so that both were advanced simulataneously. I could say more about this, but honestly, I wouldn't know where to stop -- I could write essays on the subject, and god knows I haven't the time.
More pertinently, in terms of this discussion, I'm a television scriptwriter, and as TV writers go I'm highly ranked (co-executive producer of a prime time show) with a respectable amount of experience in the industry on a wide variety of one-hour dramas. Here's what I've learned: First, all producers know about fan fiction, and know about slash. Producers and writers who haven't read much of it -- who've only picked up what you may find by chance at, say, fanfiction.net, assume it's all crap. (Though generally they have no moral or ethical issue with it.) Other TV writers -- just like a number of other novelists I know -- love it, and have nothing but respect for that talented top one or two percent of fanwriters. In fact, they may be fans of the fans.
Like Yonmei, I have to respect the confidences of others, but yes, fan fiction writers have occasionally been asked if they would like to go pro. Indeed, there are some I'd ask myself, but I don't have my own show and can't make the offer.
Although that isn't why one writes fan fiction. If you think of it purely as a training ground, you're missing the point of the genre. You write fan fiction to follow up interesting characters and premises, and to do things creatively that you can't do very well in the pro world. Again, I'd have to write at too great a length to really explain what I mean, so I'll simply point out that it's much easier to write a deeper, more intense, and more realistic story in fan fiction than it is on a TV show, where the characters all have to be put back in the box exactly the same at the end. The joint mythmaking aspects of fan fiction as a whole is one of the things I get a big personal jolt out of.
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