Whenever I mention I (still) read fanfiction and unpublished original fiction, the usual response I get is “oh, it’s all crap”. I admit, a lot of it is pure fluff, is full of mistakes, and have weak, unorigininal plots.
But it’s when you find the rare, unpolished gem after sifting through hundreds of stories that you remember all authors start somewhere. Some of these fanfics are worthy of publication themselves and are what an author’s manuscript would look like before the brutal editing process.
And fanfics and some original fics fulfill a need. When I’ve got a ton of dry, detailed, painful readings to do, the last thing I want is a gritty, processing-power-draining novel, much as I normally enjoy them. One-shots, or short stories, are particularly easy to read because of the relative length.
Personally, the more important bit is that it is much, much easier to find non-mainstream stories. Publishers like novels which sell. Especially here, in Singapore, the small publishers which cater to niche audiences are almost impossible to find. Which means that even in PageOne or Kinokuniya, most of the books they stock cater to the mass market.
Tracking the evolution of my reading turned up a lot of little things I’ve noticed about my reading habits. Of course, I enjoy most the books which challenge my pre-set ideas, or strike a chord with my own experiences. And considering I dislike mainstream, stuff like chick-lit doesn’t sit well with me, even if I admit I sometimes like fluff and character-driven stories.
Which brings me back to my original point, the larger proportion of slash, femslash, alternative lifestyles (as some would call it), a general lack of censorship in terms of graphic sex and violence (which is sometimes gratuituous and off-putting, but that’s what ratings are for, to warn you off if you’re squeamish), different proportion of male to female characters, are all different reasons for and against fanfics.
The last, I have to admit, is one of my stronger reasons. When your adolescent reading (not very far out of it now, am I?) consists of mostly plot-heavy fantasy, strong female characters are rare. Especially strong female protagonists not a prop or prize for the hero.
I suppose the only real problem I have with fanfiction is that they rarely feature ethnic minorities, which is more an issue of social inequalities (darn, got lecture later sia) and language barriers more than anything else.
