Fan(fic) Service on Sidechat | English teacher saying that reading fanfic isn’t good enough for us to improve our writing (with the “you can only get better at writing by reading” narrative). I blatantly disagree but she’s said this before :(

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Fan(fic) Service 3w

English teacher saying that reading fanfic isn’t good enough for us to improve our writing (with the “you can only get better at writing by reading” narrative). I blatantly disagree but she’s said this before :(

Anonymous 3w

You def get better by reading, but it is also just as important to practice writing

Anonymous 3w

I lowkey agree with her. Don’t get me wrong, fanfic is great. But it works with already defined characters and (usually) a set plot. Less work has to be done than creating a story from scratch.

Anonymous 3w

I halfway agree. In terms of plot, fanfic runs the whole gamut of quality, from utter dogshit to epic, but it does often revolve around tropes instead of complex plots, and is somewhat limited (and also sometimes elevated) but the sense of canon the reader already has. It also tends to have similar writing styles, because we write similarly to what we read, so in this sense published novels are useful for injecting some diversity into it. HOWEVER. there’s the underlying assumption that-

Anonymous

#2 3w

I agree for world building yeah. Idk. I more so consider the act of writing and how to get a good flow, but I do understand for the “starting from scratch” part.

Anonymous

#1 3w

I always feel bad because I can’t read physical books, I like podcasts and audiobooks bc that allows for adhd to keep hands busy in another way so I don’t really know if that would help with my writing :(

Anonymous

#3 3w

Like, fic is lesser?? Or just bland imitation? And fuck you for that prof?? Nothings changed my life like fic has

Anonymous

#3 3w

Also fic provides an excellent way to practice writing which can’t be ignored. I wouldn’t write at all if it weren’t for fic. It has my whole heart for that

Anonymous

#3 3w

She said she doesn’t hate fanfic (I think she said she had some of her own??) but was talking about how we all need to read more if we want to get better at writing and reading fanfic doesn’t help us improve because it doesn’t have the same work ethic or go through so may people to be published. She mentioned Wattpad specifically which has a completely different vibe of fanfic than most of what you see on ao3… ig it’s jus the idea that fanfic isn’t serious or professional enough to learn from