I was thinking more in terms of reader response than about the writing process. There's definitely a wide range of attitudes and emotions about the two types of writing. For me, writing slash is much easier than writing original fiction, but I know lots of people who find them equally easy (or difficult, depending on how you look at it) just as you do, and a few who find writing fanfiction harder than writing original fic.
Regardless of authorial intent or the relative difficulty of the writing process, though, I think that because fanfiction draws on already developed characters, it can be easier for the reader to find them sympathetic. In original fiction, the author has to not only describe a character and its actions, but to facilitate an emotional bond between the reader and the character. In fanfiction, by contrast, all an author has to do is suggest a certain character strongly enough to connect it with the image of that charecter that the reader already has.
For good writers, this distinction merely results in, as you said, differing writing techniques. For less competent writers, though, it means that lapses in characterization aren't as damning because the reader sees the character not as incomplete or contradictory, but rather as a variation of some uber-character in the reader's mind.
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Date: 2003-02-03 11:48 am (UTC)Regardless of authorial intent or the relative difficulty of the writing process, though, I think that because fanfiction draws on already developed characters, it can be easier for the reader to find them sympathetic. In original fiction, the author has to not only describe a character and its actions, but to facilitate an emotional bond between the reader and the character. In fanfiction, by contrast, all an author has to do is suggest a certain character strongly enough to connect it with the image of that charecter that the reader already has.
For good writers, this distinction merely results in, as you said, differing writing techniques. For less competent writers, though, it means that lapses in characterization aren't as damning because the reader sees the character not as incomplete or contradictory, but rather as a variation of some uber-character in the reader's mind.