Something that occured to me this afternoon
You know what we could really use? A website similar to fanfiction.net, but actually designed for writers just starting out. It could be called beginnersfanfic.net or whatever sounds good. There, people would be able to write Mary-Sue fic or OOC fic as much as they wanted (flames would be discouraged) and then, when they’d matured as writers, they could just move on fanfiction.net.
Maybe beginnersfanfic.net could sort of encourage Mary-Sue fics and the like, and have it arranged, somehow, that you couldn’t have a bf.net account and a ff.net account at the same time. So when you wanted to move on to ff.net, you could just delete the old stuff…
Eh. It probably wouldn’t work. But never mind.
September 19, 2004 @ 1:50 pm
Actually, that would be kind of a cool idea…except it would be all too easy to get a second e-mail address for the two sites…and some people would think they’re too good for bf.net and go straight to ff.net, which wouldn’t be all that good. But I like the idea…or maybe get, like, a Beta-reading service for ff.net? That would be really gear…
September 19, 2004 @ 2:12 pm
Or you could do the opposite- let ff.net be for the “plebes” and the Mary Sue writers and the types who are really just starting out and aren’t very good but don’t deserve to be insulted, either, and have a similar but more… how shall I put it?… demanding site for the fics that are not OOC or Mary Sue. *sigh* In a perfect world. ^^
September 20, 2004 @ 5:15 am
Fanfics.org has a higher percentage of what have to be beginning writers than fanfiction.net. Believe me, I know. I’m an official reviewer there. For every well written fanfic I read and review there are three that could use a betareader and more. I thin that the C2 community idea at fanfiction.net was developed to highlight the good writing, to set a standard and showcase the best of the best. At least that’s what I’m striving for at the community I’ve started there. A betareading service would be a cool idea, but there’s one drawback. There’s only so much poorly written fanfiction that any one person can take. And does the betareader merely go through and edit, or do they point out what needs to be done, and why, and let the author do the editing? When I beta, that’s what I try to do. Otherwise, the author continues to make the same mistakes over and over and doesn’t learn anything. I’d like to see a glossary of terms at fanfiction.net. I had never, ever heard of a Mary Sue until I put up my first fic there. And there are anime terms that I still don’t understand and have no definition for. There’s a lot that could be done for the education of the beginning writer, but as was already said, beginning writers often don’t consider themselves as “beginners” and slap their stuff up on the Web, thinking they’ll get acclaim and end up with flames instead. JMHO.