To Write Dominion "Derived Fiction" and not Fanfiction

[Squirrelloid]

Even given Caradryan's point, I think its more likely Sombre is suffering from sampling bias, and has chosen to avoid (whatever you want to call it) because the odds of finding something worth reading are vanishingly small.

Most people suck as writers. Fortunately, published writing requires the writer to get someone to read it and like it, makes the writer revise the manuscript based on comments from editors, and generally improves the quality of the work. Further, he needs to have some talent or he wouldn't even get in the door. Thus, most people simply can't get published, so published literature is selectively biased towards better writers. (Now, given most published writers are not especially good and oftentimes hacks, this means that even with that high barrier to entry there's still a lot of crap that *does* get published).

Then there's 'fanfiction', or 'derived fictin' or whatever you want to call it. Any moron with a modem can post his work on the internet. Suddenly, we're awash in crap from would-be writers no one would ever publish. Further, people with actual talent don't write fanfiction - they can actually make money writing instead. So in addition to no crap filter, there's selection against good writers entering the community. Thus, the odds of finding anything redeeming amongst the veritable sea of bad fanfiction is vanishingly small, simply because the sample has not been pre-biased for quality like published writing is. It may be Raven is actually good, but statistically speaking the odds are well and truly against it.

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Even given Caradryan's point, I think its more likely Sombre is suffering from sampling bias, and has chosen to avoid (whatever you want to call it) because the odds of finding something worth reading are vanishingly small.

Most people suck as writers. Fortunately, published writing requires the writer to get someone to read it and like it, makes the writer revise the manuscript based on comments from editors, and generally improves the quality of the work. Further, he needs to have some talent or he wouldn't even get in the door. Thus, most people simply can't get published, so published literature is selectively biased towards better writers. (Now, given most published writers are not especially good and oftentimes hacks, this means that even with that high barrier to entry there's still a lot of crap that *does* get published).

Then there's 'fanfiction', or 'derived fictin' or whatever you want to call it. Any moron with a modem can post his work on the internet. Suddenly, we're awash in crap from would-be writers no one would ever publish. Further, people with actual talent don't write fanfiction - they can actually make money writing instead. So in addition to no crap filter, there's selection against good writers entering the community. Thus, the odds of finding anything redeeming amongst the veritable sea of bad fanfiction is vanishingly small, simply because the sample has not been pre-biased for quality like published writing is. It may be Raven is actually good, but statistically speaking the odds are well and truly against it.

Oh that's fan fiction? I thought it was called "Forums".

[LDiCesare]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Further, people with actual talent don't write fanfiction - they can actually make money writing instead.

Although I generally agree with your points regarding statistics, I disagree with that particular bit. Getting published is a real pain, and a pretty long process. One has to really want to get published to do so. There are some writers who started by writing free stuff (PenOfChaos in France for instance). It was not fan fiction, though.