[authorme] PUBLISHING EMERGING WRITERS, JANUARY, 2011

From: Bruce Cook <cookcomm@xxxxxxxxx>
To: authorme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:12:41 -0800 (PST)
PUBLISHING EMERGING WRITERS, JANUARY, 2011

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============================================================
In this issue...

Fan Fiction: Social Media for Readers
Writing Fan Fiction, by Adam Smith

 
===========================================================

Fan Fiction: Social Media for Readers
by Bruce L. Cook

Book publishing is undergoing a variety of changes. Those of us who watch 
paperbacks and hardbacks would do well to tune in.
One development is increased popularity of “fan fiction.” 

A few months ago, upon  publication of a second fan fiction novel by Editorial 
Director Adam Smith on Author-me, I started researching this new development. 
Adam’s books, The Legend of Taarna and Once Bitten, were serious works. They 
both were outgrowths of other works that Adam liked very much. (See his article 
in this newsletter.) 


Next I stopped at my neighborhood Borders bookstore and typed “fan fiction” 
into 
the search engine. It came back  with a fiction book about a fan!
Undaunted, I searched further and found a fascinating book by Rebecca W. Black 
entitled “Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction” (NY: Peter Land, 2008). She 
defines it: “Fan fiction, simply defined, is fiction written by fans about 
preexisting characters and/or settings from their favorite media.” (Black, 
2008:10) Including books, movies, video games, and TV shows.

Black offers a helpful account of the fan phenomenon in fiction. For example, 
FanFiction.net, and especially  the large number of websites and stories in 
which an admiring reader “fills in the blanks” in popular stories like the Star 
Wars movies.

The phenomenon has broad implications. First, it legitimizes reader 
participation in popular stories, opening the interesting possibility that 
future media will include (or even require?) readers or viewers to make choices 
which  drastically alter the plot lines. Second, and equally important, it 
moves 
published works into the burgeoning life of social media. Now, via a Facebook 
page or other electronic forum, fiction readers can interact with each other in 
relation to the media they love.

Still more important, fan fiction offers the potential to motivate new readers, 
especially adolescents, who already face the possibility that they can 
communicate well via electronic media without ever learning to read in the 
traditional sense. Rebecca Black summarizes research in this area and presents 
her own  observational research on the topic, underlining the importance of fan 
fiction in literacy education.

Thus, beginning with what might seem a whimsical and imitative fiction 
exercise, 
fan fiction can energize educational efforts for youth, one of the toughest 
challenges for educators today. 


Bruce Cook
cookcomm.net


==============

Writing Fan Fiction
by Adam Smith
Why does anyone write anything that we are not otherwise compelled to 
write? Because something moves us to write; touches us in a way that motivates 
us to use the creative side of our brain and express  ourselves. I read a story 
and fall in love with its character. The love that I feel demands 
expression. How may I express it? I write, and I put all my effort into that 
writing, to honor that character and so that others may also be touched by what 
I saw.


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    Publishing Emerging Writers
    January, 2011 (No. 1201)
    Publisher: Cookcomm - Bruce L. Cook, 6086 Dunes Drive ,
    Sanford, NC 27332 USA .
 
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16:34:51.129073

    
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[authorme] PUBLISHING EMERGING WRITERS, JANUARY, 2011

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