Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Fan Fiction & Poetry

Fanfic in the News

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Marge_Innavera:

--- Quote from: littleguitar on September 16, 2006, 10:17:00 pm ---I'm one of those who keeps it secret. Part of me feels guilty for writing fan fiction. It takes time away from my own work and I'm using some one else's characters... but at the same time I think it is completely worth while because it keeps me in practice and keeps me writing. Either way, none of my friends outside of bettermost know. Neither does my family. Sometimes I wonder what they would say if they found out somehow, or somehow stumbled across my livejournal page (my screenname would be completely obvious to anyone who knows me), LOL that would be interesting...
--- End quote ---

I'm so glad to hear that somebody else has developed a secret fanfiction life.  ::)

My own project has been a deep-dark secret since I started it; there are people on BetterMost and on DC who know but absolutely no one in RL.

One of my reasons is that I've thought of fanfiction writing as a sort of teenagerish thing to do; okay when you're a teenager or even a 20-something but when you're 50-something you can get pretty self-conscious about it. But the other reason is that I want to accomplish some personal things relating to my creative life with this project and for that I need a certain amount of privacy. It doesn't seem to be a violation for people online, who don't have a connection to my offline life, to be reading and commenting on it, even people who might not like it but somehow seems different for people that I have an offline history with. If I should ever meet people from BetterMost or DC personally, I kind of doubt that would be a problem since they already know -- hope that makes sense.

There are a few RL people, particularly members of Minnesota historical societies, who might be wondering where all these questions are coming from but they haven't asked about it yet.

My name in the forums, some RL people might guess at that as they know I'm a fan of National Public Radio's "Car Talk" show. But Talks To Coyotes, I think only one person, who is now deceased, has ever known about that in 27 years.  However, despite the fact that I'm not gay, not male and don't live in Wyoming there will be enough autobiographical stuff in my story that if someone who's known me for awhile should stumble on it they'd eventually think, "OMG, I think I know who this is!"

twistedude:
My shrinki has read almowsteverything I've written, but only one other person, who insisted (he'd given me a lot of help)--he didn't l8ike it. My shrink does.

I canb't imagine trying to sell or publish anything I've written. I'd thijhk it was unfair.  I have tried writing another sketch--about me and my ex-old man. With mixed resuots. The trouble is, I'm not interested in writing, and until recenretly, reading aznything but fanfiction. have swallowed a fewe other booiks rerently, thoigh.

I recenltly wolfed down all of To Kill a Mockinghbird ( for the first time), and enjoyed it a lot.

Boo Radley is no Puggle!

belgianboy:
Interesting--my shrink wanted to read my stories too, because it was apparent how significant BBM had become for me. (I described it to him as "devastating," and the story and writing about it have since proved very eye-opening and cathartic indeed.) When I look at my work, it's obvious why--there is SO much autobiography there. But he doesn't watch movies, and I certainly don't expect him to read the story. So I've figured why bother. And even though he's a doctor, I don't usually discuss my issues in the visceral terms I use in my writing.

Yet part of me is intrigued by what his response might be. But I don't know--I would have to write a good synopsis of the story, explain why it moved me and everyone else in the universe, describe the fandom and how it works, then explain my motivations for writing what I write. I'd just as soon spend the time writing another story.

In any case, I have been able to let all the autobiography out because of the online anonymity. Yet there is that feedback, that bond of writer and reader responding to so many of the basic human issues in BBM. As far as RL? I let my sister and a close female friend read a somewhat sanitized version of a series I posted in FanFiction.net (hard R, not NC-17).

But I'm allowing myself to be dragged out of the closet little by little. It really IS like coming out of the closet, because anyone who knows me would be shocked by my fiction. It's kind of like my quiet, sexually repressed self steps into a phone booth, and voila ... out flies Belgianboy, jizz guns blazing! I'm revealing myself to the very few friends who are aware of the depth of my passion for BBM (and its stars, ahem) and/or who have writing interests of their own. They are amazed to learn about this online world, and they are tickled to know that I write erotic fiction. I sure know that my material is not for everyone, including many BBM devotees. And I haven't yet spoken to any friends who have had the time to pursue the links I've given them. But I can't wait.

And if a stranger at a party asks me what I do, from now on I definitely will mention that I write erotic fiction. A conversation starter? You bet! :o

MaineWriter:
Kelda  posted this over on my daughter's blog. I wanted to share it here with fanfic regulars...interesting!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6245333.stm

Potter fanfic writer launches first book

The debut novel from a Chilean writer who shot to fame after writing her own "fanfic" version of JK Rowling's Harry Potter stories has been released.
La Septima M - The Seventh M - is the first of three books that 23-year-old Chilean journalism student Francisca Solar was contracted to write by publishers Random House, following the online success of her unofficial sixth Harry Potter story, Harry Potter and the Decline of the High Elves.

Launched at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, La Septima M centres on a mysterious series of suicides amongst young people in the fictional community of Puerto Fake.

"All the things I know about literature, about writing, I learned in the fan fiction world," Solar told BBC World Service's The Word programme.

"I owe it everything."

Online smash

Solar began her writing career when she found she was so disappointed with JK Rowling's fifth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order ff the Phoenix, that she wanted to write her own sequel to it.

The Decline of the High Elves became a massive online smash, generating 80,000 views and positive reviews from Harry Potter fans around the world.


 All these people wrote to me about the fanfic and said they liked it more than the official sixth book

 

"When I read the fifth book, I was so disappointed - I'm a very critical reader, and I'm a huge fan, so the expectation of this fifth book was great," Solar said.
"I took the principle characters and I did a story that is more rich than Rowling's story, because you can have access to the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters.

"In the Harry Potter saga, you can only have access to Harry's feelings and thoughts. That is a partial view of the Potter universe."

She admitted she had never expected the global response to her work.

"Many people from all around the world have written to me, from the US, from the UK, from Asia," she said.

"All these people wrote to me about the fanfic and said they liked it more than the official sixth book [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]."

However, the editors at Random House insisted they did not want "another JK Rowling" and wanted something fresh - hence La Septima M, which will itself be followed up by two further books to complete a trilogy.

Fan fictions - fanfics - are one of the staples of internet sites dedicated to popular books, films and TV shows, although most do not generate a readership of more than a tiny handful of casual browsers.

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