Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 4375141" data-attributes="member: 59082">I fell behind due to Real Life busy-ness, so I might not be able to catch up entirely, but I wanted to at least respond to this:First off, let me clarify by saying that I may have been a bit harsh on fanfic in that it certainly could be very imaginative. The main issue for me is that the writer isn't creating their own world but writing within an already established universe. That is, they aren't &quot;giving birth&quot; to something new in terms of a setting or context, even so than the typical D&amp;D campaign world. A D&amp;D campaign world uses certain already-established tropes and may (or may not) play with them, tweak them, customize them. But fanfic takes it a step further by using an already-created world. This is not to say that fanfic cannot be good fiction, it can. I am not talking about quality of writing, characterization, plot, etc. I am talking about the act of imagination.You could say that there are (at least) three basic levels, in this context, of the degree of derivation, also equating with how much the creator/writer has to actually create: 1) fanfic; 2) D&amp;D-style (or any pre-determined style) of campaign setting (or novel); and 3) what could be described as an &quot;independent&quot; creation. And of course it is really a greyscale, especially between the latter two levels, because even the most &quot;independent&quot; worlds will have elements of other worlds, and everything has its influences (nothing exists in a vacuum).Examples of the three would be, respectively, writing fanfic or running a game in a pre-made setting (e.g. The Forgotten Realms); creating a campaign setting in a basic mold (e.g. homebrew D&amp;D worlds, traditional epic fantasy or sword and sorcery novels, etc); and creating a world and/or story with relatively unique elements (e.g. Talislanta).But of course derivation is only one cross-section of imagination, because truly weird stuff--while being less derivative--could less imaginatve or &quot;creatively juicy&quot; than other more traditional works (I often find that extremely weird fantasy creations are less substantial, even imaginative, in that they try too hard to be unique). It really depends. But my point being, the act of imagining can be more or less active, more or less from oneself, more or less &quot;one's own.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercurius, post: 4375141, member: 59082"] I fell behind due to Real Life busy-ness, so I might not be able to catch up entirely, but I wanted to at least respond to this: First off, let me clarify by saying that I may have been a bit harsh on fanfic in that it certainly could be very imaginative. The main issue for me is that the writer isn't creating their own world but writing within an already established universe. That is, they aren't "giving birth" to something new in terms of a setting or context, even so than the typical D&D campaign world. A D&D campaign world uses certain already-established tropes and may (or may not) play with them, tweak them, customize them. But fanfic takes it a step further by using an already-created world. This is not to say that fanfic cannot be good fiction, it can. I am not talking about quality of writing, characterization, plot, etc. I am talking about the act of imagination. You could say that there are (at least) three basic levels, in this context, of the degree of derivation, also equating with how much the creator/writer has to actually create: 1) fanfic; 2) D&D-style (or any pre-determined style) of campaign setting (or novel); and 3) what could be described as an "independent" creation. And of course it is really a greyscale, especially between the latter two levels, because even the most "independent" worlds will have elements of other worlds, and everything has its influences (nothing exists in a vacuum). Examples of the three would be, respectively, writing fanfic or running a game in a pre-made setting (e.g. The Forgotten Realms); creating a campaign setting in a basic mold (e.g. homebrew D&D worlds, traditional epic fantasy or sword and sorcery novels, etc); and creating a world and/or story with relatively unique elements (e.g. Talislanta). But of course derivation is only one cross-section of imagination, because truly weird stuff--while being less derivative--could less imaginatve or "creatively juicy" than other more traditional works (I often find that extremely weird fantasy creations are less substantial, even imaginative, in that they try too hard to be unique). It really depends. But my point being, the act of imagining can be more or less active, more or less from oneself, more or less "one's own." [/QUOTE]

Verification