h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wonderful article, well done. I quite agree that it is impossible to link to fanfic due to the content of certain of them. The only point I would like to add is that: compared to 90% of the 'Official' fiction published by the PTB and in canon, fanfic is much better. For example: Babylon 5 books were slow, boring, and possessed no character development What So Ever. A common hazard when you have to stick rigidly to canon and cannot give anything away for the future of the show.

I love fanfic, I couldnt do without it, and I worry what I shall do if i ever get back in to Uni and have to put up with the constraints of their servers. Looks like I'll be spending even more time on h2g2

Thanks for the article

FABT

This is the best description of this I have seen anywhere, and it was quite enjoyable to read, even though it was long.

I really couldn't think of any way to make it shorter. Even at this length I kept coming across stuff I'd missed out.

As to fanfic being better than the official books, this may be the case, but it often is not saying very much. A huge amount of official spin-off fiction is very bad indeed, and in several cases is not considered a part of the canon. IIRC, Star Wars actually has _two_ canons; the film canon, and the expanded universe, which latter includes all published Star Wars material, however poor.

The Prophet.

I enjoyed the article too. I don't read a lot of fan fiction, but I write a lot, associated with comic books. I guess you'd classify it as Mary Sue Spinoff. I wouldn't say it'll ever set the world on fire, but it sure is fun to write. Which is really the point of fan fiction.

Most definitely good.

As an avid SG-1 (Stargate) fan who both writes and reads copious amounts of fanfic I enjoyed this article immensley. I will say - I personally do not indugle in Danny-Whumping though I know those who do. Poor kid...

Well done at any rate!

Essbee.

I understand some of the Danny-Whumping is turning nasty in the wake of Michael Shanks' decision to quit the show. If you were looking for conversations on the SG-1 subject, then there're a couple going on over at Sho's draft SG-1 entry. Try: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F79339?thread=152149 as a starter. On a more salacious - not to say disturbing - note, there's also Sho's drool thread, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F42604?thread=139168 The Prophet.

I don't really care about fanfic, but I've been looking for a clear and readable explanation of it anyways. This is it.

This is a very good article, and I think it sums up fan-fictions very well. It's true that a lot of fan-fictions contain some sort of sexual content or another, but even if they don't they are still very poorly written.

Oh but some are most excellent, really good writing if you know where to look for it.

Most of the badly written stuff I have (had the misfortune to) come accross has not been betad. And it is a cliché (but nonetheless true) to say that I never read a fic that has this type of thing in the Author's Notes: "this is for debs and shazz and lemony who got me through maths this afternoon where I was soo bored and down that I just had to write this ficlet" - Enter the Majorly Bad Mary Sue.

aarrrghhhhh

Thank you so much for the subtle pat on the back to all beta readers. One of my first questions to any author whose story premise is good, but whose writing 'sucks' is: Was the piece beta-d?

I put a lot of time and effort into my beta work. I have been blessed with writers who appreciate my efforts, for the most part, but there are the odd ones who believe that you are tearing their work apart mearly to be mean and nasty.

You made some valid points, thanks for the ariticle.
Your CMO, Lauretta

i have to say as a fanfic writter i tend to bend the character a wee bit to suit my own purposes but most of my stuff fits the romantic comedy thing with SJ pairing naturally, but one of my faves that fits the characters is one called einstien meets newton on Fanfiction.net.

i appologise for the plug but check it out if you fancy a wee read - it's not the best but hey i'm only 18 still got a lifetime to get good!

if your looking for good fics i'd say the best place to find them is trawling through the various stargate FF awards voted by the fans - these give a really good indication as to well written fics as the nominations generally have to have no mistakes and liked by several fans

any way - fab intro and if you ever wanta have a bleather about Sam and Jack or tony blair give me a shout

Mishy

I used to beta and it was a very easy job for me because "my" writer really checked his stuff first.

Now I don't read much fic at all, but if it's not been betad, or if it has comments from the writer like "I'll post part 2 if I get good feedback" or things like that, I won't read it.

these days, good fic seems to be thin on the ground, but then, I haven't really been looking for it.