Have You Caught the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Bug?

 Blackberry As someone who was into writing and reading fan fiction ages ago, TRUST ME when I say you are only skimming the surface of this ridiculousness. Many of these "Mary Sue Authors" (whose characters are little more than stand-ins for their idealized selfs) are hack writers that threw hissy fits at anyone who so much breathed a word of constructive criticism in their direction.

Also, they had a HUGE fan base following of sheep who fed their egos and instilled in them this concept that they could do or write no wrong.

This is why they see nothing wrong in plagiarizing other stories or scenarios or characters while conveniently changing the names of the fan fiction characters to something like Bob or Jane, as if no one with a functioning brain can go, "Wait...that looks familiar." Their low quality is enabled by sheep-minded fans and an industry that cares more about money these days than quality or ethics.

...Yes, I'm bitter. Funny thing is, I had the potential to go the way of these big names, and I'm fairly certain that if I'd made the effort (sold my soul and dumbed down my writing), I'd probably be a millionaire right now. But I was deterred by the lack of desire for anything substantial or original on the part of both BNFFW (Big Name Fan Fiction Writers) and the fans who ate their crap up. It was a soul killing experience and the "fandom wars" got to be too much for me and I jumped ship.

Seriously, the things I saw were so ridiculous, it made for much better reading than your current popular fiction of the moment. But, that's another story for another day. 

@Toni_M Fanfiction. I actually know a little bit about it becausei worked with a professor who was writing a book about Internet sub-cultures, communication and sex. There was a focus on Fanfiction. The research was very interesting. My distain for this book is not a commentary on Fanfiction nor those who participate in it. It is about 1) my disgust for all things twilight - which personal problem. Really five parts for a four part book series that really could have been edited waaaaay down. 2) book publishing. A person is a good writer regardless of the content of a particular piece of writing. JK Rowling has repeatedly state she enjoys reading Harry Potter Fanfiction. Women are more likely to read erotic literature than to watch pornography or buy an elicit magazine. I have the expectation that anything I read (from a comic book to a novel to a newspaper) be a writing of some quality. Book sales are down, but the need for money isn't. There was bidding war for the movie rights piece of trash! But the mini-explosion this book has caused, despite is poor quality, says something about our society...haven't sussed out what that is yet.

@Toni_M Some books/movies update old books or Shakespeare plays. The scary movie series was a spoof about tropes in horror films and teen movies. After JRR Tolkien died his son, Christoper Tolkien took over the Middle Earth writings and completed his father's book series. Fairy tales are updated....remember Hilary Duff's A Cinderella Story! Are these things legitmate? Are they Fanfiction? Does it matter that Ever After was a movie, rather then posted on internet by a person who likes to LARP in a princess costume? The relative merits of sub culture, and they way in which stories are told, repeated and consumed is something worth examining. But for now, I'd rather book publishers, stick to original works (vetted for quality) and revamped writings about books/plays in the public domain.

 Blackberry  Oh, I get you. It's just when I say plagiarized, I don't mean loosely based on other stuff...I mean RIPPED OFF VERBATIM. One popular fiction author had to change her name (which for her meant dropping a letter) over a serious scandal involving the fact that she had ripped off so much of her work from other sources in the past without crediting anyone. Denied any wrongdoing, played the roll of the victim-it got very ugly.

 Toni_M  Blackberry I think it depends on the fandom, but there are lots of fan fiction writers who write very well and do it for the sole purpose of using their imagination to extend the realm of their favorite authors. One very smart fan fiction writer I'm a fan of is Cassandra Clare. She wrote an epic AU trilogy if Harry Potter more based on Draco's point of view and was just short of genius. She even devised the her own defeat of Voldemort before The Deathly Hallows was even released. What she did was build a fan base through her HP fan fiction and then she began to get her original works published. And now her original books are best sellers and about to be made into movies. Though I know she's a very rare exception in how to market yourself through fan fiction correctly. A lot of fan fiction writers are not as good as she is. Most simply write out their most perverted fantasies and call it something good. It really does burn my bridges because as an aspiring author myself, and one of mystical/fantasy fiction I know I will have a hard time getting my works even published, let a long having them be best sellers and made into movies. But some rudimentary writer can ride in, not only ripping off someone else's work but some of the worst works you could rip off, try to pass it off as their own good fiction and get world reknown for it? Injustice at its finest. 

 VintageNarcissa 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but Cassandra Clare (once Claire) was one person who I was indirectly referring to.

http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/8985.html#cutid1

and also see

http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/1074.html

(Fandom BS involving Cassandra Clare is touched on briefly, but it's still worth reading if only because it's so bizarre to the point of being entertaining)

The thing about Cassandra is that I really do think she has/had the potential to be a great writer. But her thievery and lack of willingness to own the fact that much of her writing was someone else's work turned me off from anything associated with her. Once a thief and liar, always a thief and liar in my book.

 VintageNarcissa *Actually, definitely read the second link, "The Miss Scribe Story", because it apparently was written before/during this series of post about Cassandra's plagiarism, and is referenced in the first link.

 Toni_M Wow! Right in the Childhood! I had no idea! I was never full emerged in the fandom communities to know all of this was going on. I just read the stories, and I thought it was cleaver how she marketed herself through Fan fiction. That's really disappointing though :( There's no heros left in the world apparently. 

 VintageNarcissa Sure there are. :) 

*hug*

 VintageNarcissa Even though I roll my eyes at everything that happened, like I said, reading through it in retrospect it was all bizarrely entertaining.

 temple  I've read three novels from Pepper Pace: Juicy, Crash, and a couple of stories from the first volume of Love Intertwined.  I also really enjoyed Juicy and Crash.  I love how she brings people together, who seem like complete opposites, but really aren't.

 ImaniScully  Agreed!!!

 ImaniScully Nah dude, she's ike 40. I'm so serious! 

@VintageNarcissa @ImaniScully What! Is she 40 and sexually repressed?!

 Blackberry  VintageNarcissa  ImaniScully LoL, yep. She's almost 50 actually. 

 eugeniaberg  LOL! The romance scenes in Twilight were bad enough! Let along an entire movie of it! :X 

 sMoriarty FALLING. DOWN. LAUGHING. OUT. LOUD. at.those.photos!

 ASwirlGirl  sMoriarty  omg. LOL!

 sMoriarty Baaaaaaaaahahahahhaahaha!

 dani-BBW 

I don't watch trendy films, either. 

Your  not the only one! I don't either.

 VintageNarcissa thanks for the rec.

 VintageNarcissa Wow!  The Night Circus is $13.99 on Kindle.

 temple No problem! It's not erotic fiction, but it's a really good, well written book. 

Wow, $13.99 on kindle is a steal! I payed almost 30 bucks for the hardcover! 

here is a quick review

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleeping_Beauty_Trilogy

 forgetting4u  I read those! some rough stuff. lolz

 Elfe I'm not into BDSM so I concentrated on the romance of the books and developing relationships. I had to, it is a good read, though a little too much at times.

 forgetting4u I loved Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty" trilogy.  In fact, those were the first books I read in that genre.  They were very well-written.  That's what I'm talking about.  There are writers out there who are way better.

 forgetting4u love, love  Anne Rice.  A few years ago someone at my work loaned me "A Cry to Heaven."  I rarely repeat read, but I've reread that book several times.  It reminds me of Toni Morrison's melodic writing style.  I went from there to her Vampire Chronicles & the Witches chronicles (not sure of the name).

 Brenda55 Agreed. I only pay money for books I know I'm going to read to pieces and enjoy. 

I am not interested in "burning books" because I hate them; the writer already got your money, it's a moot point.

@Toni_M @Brenda55 Wait, wait! Are you seriously telling me that the Fanfiction version of this is still available online?!

 Blackberry  Toni_M  Brenda55 Apparently so, though I've no interest in looking as I despise the fandom. XD I'd tell you one key difference I'm aware of but it's gross and I don't care to think about it.

 Toni_M  Blackberry  Brenda55 "... I'd tell you one key difference I'm aware of but it's gross and I don't care to think about it."

aww, come on! lolz at least tell me what to Google for.

 Elfe  Blackberry  Brenda55 I don't where the story is but I'll say that the difference involves a used tampon on the floor vs the toilet, in both cases after casually pulling it out of Ana-Bella.

 Elfe  Blackberry  Brenda55 It may be that badly written period sex involving Twilight characters is not my thing. Or just badly written sex period. :|

 Toni_M  Blackberry  Brenda55 "It may be that badly written period sex involving Twilight characters is not my thing." 

LOL! Ok now I'm scared to read MOTU. haha!

@Toni_M @Elfe @Brenda55 I literally gagged when I read this. I am so horrified that I now know this. And even more horrified that this woman got a movie deal. Like seriously I gagged and had to spit out my sandwich when I read that.