Book writing advice redux.
It was less than a year ago that I mentioned Joseph
Epstein's New York Times op-ed article in which he advised people who thought
they had a book in them NOT to try to write it. Back then I didn't succeed in
finding a copy of that article, but have since succeeded.
The article in its
entirety is copied on a post on a fan fic site (with many responses, almost
all negative). It was probably clear to Epstein, even before publication of his
article, that he'd probably anger more people than he might convince. The fan
fiction take on the article, however, is rather interesting - the people attracted
to fan fiction seem to be rather oblivious to the size of their readership, and
are instead content to write for the faithful.
Fan fiction itself is a fascinating phenomenon. Are there diehard writers of fan
fiction out there who expect, or hope, to reach a wide audience? My guess is that
if there are, they're few and far between. They seem to take it as a given that
theirs is an acquired taste and that a readership of a few hundred is pretty much
what can be hoped for. The site on which I found the Epstein article, The
Lois and Clark Fanfic Discussion List, has, as of this writing, 397 members,
and in the four years of its existence those members have posted a bit over 10,000
messages. So they've been keeping themselves busy - but only among themselves.
Do they also harbor secret hopes of breaking out of their fan site? Along with
a great deal of additional information, the
Wikipedia article on fan fiction tells us:
Most writers and producers do not read fan fiction, somewhat ironically, for fear that they might be accused of stealing a fan's ideas. But many encourage it: J. K. Rowling, for instance, says she loves fan fiction of all kinds, though she is troubled by the proliferation of adult-themed Harry Potter stories. Douglas Adams also reportedly appreciated fan fiction based on his works, to the extent that some would say that there are scenes in So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish that seem to be inspired by fan fiction.
So perhaps fan fiction enthusiasts have a chance of actually influencing the lives
of their (fictional) idols, and I can well understand how that might be seen as
quite an achievement. Perhaps as of an achievement as writing a book which, chances
are good, isn't going to be published, or read, anyway.
Go to: ... though not always kept, or
Go to: Not a new promise, or
Go to: How many prosumers can fit on the head of cyberspace?