I just got back from a musical conference that I attended over the weekend, which was tiring but tremendously fun. I learned a lot--and at least one thing that I think applies to fanfiction. Click on down below the break to see what dots I've been connecting.
One of the biggest problems any chorus faces is membership: all but the rarest of top-tier choirs is constantly trying to build membership, and it's common to the point of seeming universality for choruses to have trouble attracting male singers. Here in the US, at least, there's a common perception that music is a feminine pursuit (that male singers, in both choral and solo (opera, pop, country... you name it) fields tend to outdraw and outearn their female counterparts is one of the great paradoxes of our time, if you ask me). I explain this to offer context for why I went to not one, but two symposiums about drawing and retaining membership during the conference.
The biggest thing that I took away from both of those presentations was this: that the best place to find people to join your group is in the audience at your performances (after all, they've got a pre-existing interest in, or at least tolerance of, your particular style of music), but that their having heard your performance often creates a catch-22 scenario: if your group doesn't perform "well enough," then they probably won't want to sing with you even if they're interested in performing in principal, while if you perform "too well," they'll be too intimidated to join.
Well, damned if that isn't exactly the problem with getting people to write, too!
One difference, of course, is that there aren't a bunch of choir-director-equivalents roaming the literary landscape, actively recruiting would-be authors. But the double-edged sword is the same: people convince themselves that they "can't write" because either their writing isn't up to the standards of their favorite authors, or they don't even bother to try because it seems like such an unattainable goal. Yet, these same people will all to often turn up their noses at fanfiction, (non-professional) writer's workshops, and other forms of low-barrier-to-entry writing. "I may not be able to write," they'll say (some of them will, anyway; I'm quoting, here) "but at least I know it."
There are more friendly, more insidious permutations of these attitudes as well. More than once, I've had someone leave a comment on one of my stories to the effect of "reading something this amazing just makes me want to give up trying, because I know I could never top that!" and I'm far from the only person to have this experience--it's a type of comment I see with depressing regularity in FiMFic comments sections. I try to take it as a compliment, and I always hope that the commenter was just fishing for the right superlatives.
But discouraging people from writing is the exact opposite of what I--what most fanfic authors, I believe--want to do. That's the conundrum we face: quality is intimidating, while the lack thereof is a turnoff. How do you deal with that? After all, would these people be any more motivated to write if the only things they read in this fandom were the true dregs of fanfiction?
I got a lot of good ideas from the symposiums, but most of them involve active recruitment strategies. In a self-motivating field like creative writing, a lot comes down to, well, self-motivation. Environment can help (and, for as much as I occasionally like to complain, I must say that the pony fandom has been much better at fostering a positive yet critical environment than many fandoms--not perfect by any stretch, but better), but in the end, it's the individual writers who have to find something that makes them say "Hey, that was amazing! ...I bet I could do that!"
"I may not be able to write... but at least I know it."
ReplyDeleteThat's totally me. I do believe that, with knowledge and perseverance, anyone can write. It's just that the amount of effort required for me to write something I can be happy with is far more than I'm willing too expend. There's just too many other things I want to do and I've never been that fond of writing. I'm more of a reader
The mechanics, though - grammar, story structure, etc. - I can't get enough of. I love to read and think about what makes a good story; just not put all of it into practice. Editing sounds like it could be pretty fun, though!*
I had a completely different suggestion in mind before I started writing this, but I just had a great idea - why not get newbies involved in editing? They could see what earlier drafts of more accomplished writers look like, get some experience with a vital aspect of the job and boost their confidence
Same here. I'm far better at tearing down than I am at building up, especially when it comes to my own work. I'm a good editor (or so I'm told), but I can't write.
DeleteThat argument is why I don't do visual art. Is the world losing out? Maybe not. But I've always wished I could draw my stories instead of writing them. :(
DeleteYou can't? Huh, I'd just assumed you'd drawn your YouTube avatar
DeleteNope, that was a commission. As is this one. :B
DeleteFanfiction made me a hugely better writer. What happened is I read a few million words of poorly-edited stuff and got into the habit of noticing everything the author could have done better. Right now, I collect quotes where you can tell what the author meant, but literally say something very different (eg. "Without a doubt, people will die. In their thousands." or "He suddenly found one rope snapping out, its rough, knotted length rapping about his throat"). The result is that I've trained my brain to recognize and correct bad writing. I then just do that to whatever I type out as I'm typing it.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest reason I've had trouble getting in via the traditional community is that your advice to beginning writers is terrible. "Just write" is a problem, not a task. You have a number of fantastic writing guides, but no baby steps for a guy who comes along and says "this fanfiction thing is kind of cool, I want to write some, but I never learned how to in school because that was boring, where do I start?" When you first took vocal lessons, Chris, I'm assuming your teacher didn't tell you to "just sing." You took baby steps, building small skills in the right order.
So, how might we do this? Well, don't ask me, because when I tried to start writing stories, I found out I didn't have any stories I wanted to tell. I'm mundane, and right now only have interest in writing nonfiction. But, to get you started, if I were to have my own classroom to teach a group of students to write, here's how I'd do it.
I'd have my students duel. Here's how it might work.
1. Start duelist 1 with a piece of writing, maybe a sentence or a paragraph, that does [blah].
2. D1 sends whatever they come up with to D2, who improves it.
3. D2 sends it back to D1, who improves it.
4. Rinse, repeat, until one of two things happens. Either one of the duelists will be unable to make it do better, at which point the concede, or they both believe their improvement is better than the other's, at which point their judgement is judged by some of their peers, who give feedback on why they chose which thing they chose.
This is competitive. It creates nice feedback loops. It's adaptable. And, most importantly, it's taskish.
That is a cool idea, and if I ever teach writing, I'm going to have to remember it.
Delete>"Hey, that was amazing! ...I bet I could do that!"
ReplyDeleteMy impetus was "God, that was terrible. If it can be popular, I sure as hell can."
That's my relationship with the majority of fandom classics (as I'm sure people here well know).
DeleteI almost started writing for that very reason (MLD set the bar pretty low), but then I found Chris' blog and discovered there's actually good fanfiction out there. Who knew?
DeleteThis sounds familiar. I find that, if I allow myself any level of quality-control at all on my writing, it's going to inevitably find a problem with absolutely everything I do, to the point where I can never get more than about five paragraphs down before giving up. Ironically, the result of that is that all of my best material came from completely turning my brain off, because I've improved enough at writing in the last couple years to compensate for the lack of quality-control.
ReplyDeleteThe big downside, of course, is that I can never actually write the stuff I want to write. The two things I've written in the past two years were a chapter in an Atlanta Nights-inspired Homestuck fanfic and a trollfic about the great space marine Mister Tulip visiting the planet Disney World, and while both of them were fun to write and are still fun to reread, both were basically written as a stream of consciousness.
My problem whenever I want to write a relatively serious story is basically that, while I can turn my editing process off somewhat during the actual putting-down-words part, I can't during the coming-up-with-the-synopsis part. As a result, I never even reach the stage of putting down words.
So I suppose the basic point to this rambling is to ask: Does anyone know how to turn off editor-mode during synopsis-inventing to the point where I can actually get down to the writing?
Get down with the idea of Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts", one of the best pieces of writing advice I've ever seen. Granted, it's going about the next step in the process from where you're having the problem, but I have a feeling it's still applicable. What exactly do you end up editing during synopsis invention? (Or are you perhaps going beyond just a synopsis at the time?)
DeleteI constantly shift my ideas of the plot and characters around, basically; In most cases, my original ideas are less "This is the story I want to tell" and more "I want to tell a story with these elements", and I'm constantly deciding that a conflict is contrived, or that I'm not confident in my ability to write particular characters and should change the story around to support protagonists I'm more comfortable with. One of the most common things to make me give up on an idea is the realization that, while I have a lot of worldbuilding in mind, I can't think of any good plots through which to display that worldbuilding. And so on. I basically am unable to settle on a single thing, because I'll inevitability to find holes in it, but then my attempts to patch those holes create new ones, and so on.
DeleteAnd thanks for the tip on reading material. I haven't actually looked at it yet, but just based on the title, it certainly sounds like it could be helpful for me.
"Write drunk; edit sober."
DeleteHasn't worked for me yet, but in theory, it helps alleviate crippling self-criticism.
Ahh. I wasn't quite sure what your hangup was because I generally either have a plot in mind when I start out or only have one element that needs incorporation. Different approaches.
DeleteAlso WD;ES totally works for me, save that I use time instead. After 9 PM, I'm pretty bad at editing and pretty good at convincing myself that my ideas are good.
I won't say it happens regularly, but even now I come across stories that make me want to stop writing.
ReplyDeleteAnd then I don't.
The end.
(The lesson being, if people are looking for a reason not to write, it's likely they would be better off pursuing another artform.)
I suppose that it's an upside to being hyper-critical and knowing what I like, but I've never come across a story that made me feel that way, but I've certainly read plenty that I wish I'd had the idea for.
DeleteTo extend that, I honestly don't think I've come across anything (published or otherwise) that had me marvelling at the writing itself. I can think of numerous bits of artwork that do that—where the subject matter is utterly irrelevant next to the awe-inspiring skill used to create it—but not one bit of writing in anything I have ever read. The best writing can do is be inoffensive enough to stay the hell out of the way while I enjoy a story. I make no pretence to the two being disconnected; I'm merely stating that this is my experience of it.
I suppose this is why I never react well to world-building either. A world is merely a space for the actors to play in. Time spent filling in the world without referencing characters is usually time wasted in my mind. That's when it just feels like an author waxing lyrical about some idea that he has rather than writing a story. This is the one area I could at least appreciate in The Archer And The Smith , even if it forgot to do anything else along the way.
-M
I have been working on a method for motivating people to write. It involves lasers.
ReplyDeleteMy preferred method involves whips and scourges, personally, but I'm a traditionalist like that.
Delete>in principal
ReplyDeleteChris, please.
Your point on how to encourage rather than intimidate is a good one. I hope I help people by also being an active reviewer. It's essentially saying, "If you like my writing, I'll help you get there." But in the circles and methods I use for reviewing, most writers I try to help probably aren't aware of my writing. It really does take people helping each other, but that's also something on the decline. To wit, /fic/'s Training Grounds, which thrived on authors helping others while waiting for critiques on their own stories, has dwindled due to people now just seeing it as a drop-box.
As to being motivated by good writing... I can't speak for everyone, but for me, it's directly a result of having a competitive nature. I'm very competitive, but not outspoken, so when I first came to this community and enjoyed a couple pieces of fanfiction, my immediate reaction was: "I bet I could do that." An outspoken person would shout that, but I just sat back and did it. That's the same thing that got me into music, which has been a hobby for 28 years now. So, I think good writing as discouragement can be as much a result of personality type than something that could affect absolutely anyone.
I've certainly had specific instances of good writing getting me down, but if I could do exactly what I admired in that person's writing, I wouldn't have my own voice anymore. You can certainly learn lessons from others' writing, but you're naturally not going to see the uniqueness in your own. Part of the battle is learning to accept that.
It's a pretty big time investment, but if you can find an author who was relatively inexperienced when entering the fandom, but has developed into a good author, read their stories in the order written. Note the gradual improvement, even if the early efforts were already good. Put in the time, and the same will happen with anyone.
One of the great things about fanfiction is that it's easy to see an author's progression over time, especially if they didn't have experience beforehand. I've been amazed at how different some writers in the fandom are from when they started, and in at least one case how quickly the change progressed.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've considered doing in the past but haven't (for a variety of reasons, time investment not being the least) was to do writeups of a given fanfic author's oeuvre from oldest to most recent. Seeing how much some writers grow in such a short amount of time is always refreshing.
Delete>would these people be any more motivated to write if the only things they read in this fandom were the true dregs of fanfiction?
ReplyDeleteThere might be something in that. Obviously it doesn't apply to everyone, but I have known quite a few people who got into writing fanfiction because they read something truly awful and said to themselves, "I can do better than this shit." I'll even confess that my writing career started the same way, though how successful I was in my endeavour is up for debate.
Sometimes you see a great idea wasted on a terrible story, and you just wish that someone else had done it instead and done it better. Sometimes people actually follow through on that thought and try to make a better take on an idea. I'm not sure if it's common, but it happens.