Floating around the in the huge exsistance of cyber space lies the extreme and sometimes competitive world of....Fan fiction! What is fan fiction? According to Taylor Hanson, it's when "They [meaning the fans] write these fantasies about how they met us, how they did this with us, or that with us--these complete elaborations--like it really happened!"
I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me that Taylor doesn't really understand fan fiction, and neither do a lot of fans or Anti-Hanson. For one, most stories are not written about the authors themselves, but a made up character. And for another thing, I don't really give a care what Taylor says, I like fan fiction! I think it's a really cool way to let creativity be noticed.
Some of these authors are really, really good. I am completly floored at the way some people can write sentences that just leave me speechless. If these authors just wrote a story about the ordinary John Doe, their creativity and talent would never be noticed. But write a story about Hanson, set it up in cyber space, in within days, you have tons of people e mailing you, telling you how wonderful your story is, verses maybe, your dog telling you it liked it if you wrote about the average ordinary person. These authors need to share, and they are able to do it by using Hanson as a tool, much like spellcheck, which I am so fond of --anyways-- Fan fiction is not some perverted way of living out a fantasy, it's a way of showing creativity. For most anyway. There are always exceptions to the rule....which I will gladly point out in this review.
For a story to interest me, it's got to have at least one or two of these things:
1. A plot. This is always important to me, without a plot, there is no story!
2. Correct dialog. This REALLY bugs me. Not because it's incorrect grammericly, but because it's hard to understand! Example:
Good:
"Hi, how are you?" Joe asked.
"I'm fine, and you?" Gary replied.
"Just great, thanks." Joe answered.
Bad: "hi how are you? joe asked"just fine, and you?""just great thanks. Joe answered.
Now, which is eaiser to understand? A story isn't really ruined by bad dialog, it is just confusing and diffucult to read.
3. Originalty. How many stories have you read that the main plot was: Some girl's parents die, or divorce, or for some reason, she moves to Tulsa. Suprise! She now lives next door to Hanson. Imeadiatly, she falls in love with Taylor who immeadiatly falls in love with her. Her and Taylor fight. Her and Taylor make up. Taylor shows his love by singing "I Will Come To You" to her in some way. I mean, come on! How many of these stories do I have to read before I find and original one?
4. Style. I love, absolutly love to read a sentence that is so beautiful or so well put, that it just makes me want to sing! I know of at least one writer out there who really has a gift for that and just leaves me wide eyed after reading a chapter in her story. I'm not leaving names though because I don't make anyone's head too big. ^_-
5. Realness. Obviously fan fiction is FICTION and therefore is not real, but a story should seem real when I'm reading it. In other words, it could really happen....unless of course it's like sci-fi or something which in way can seem real if the author presents in an efficiant way. There's nothing more that I hate than a fake sounding story.
6. Humor. I like to laugh. Who doesn't? Humor in a story is always good. It brings life to a story and takes the reader out of that zoned in/eyes glazed kind of reading.
