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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Fanfic - where have all the guys gone? Or how we discuss things in Fan Fic...

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by geo3, Jun 19, 2007.

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  1. furrylittlebantha

    furrylittlebantha Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2005
    Speaking from my experience, it doesn't make a difference at all. I don't know why, and it's kind of embarrassing, but for the longest time I thought oqidaun was a guy. I was half way through Burn!Burn!Burn! before I realized my mistake. There was an "oh" moment, but the way I read the fic itself was no different.
     
  2. GunraysLawyer

    GunraysLawyer Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 23, 2003
    IMHO...

    It's not, and No.


    I honestly think that the age and/or general emotional/intellectual maturity level of the author is a far more important thing to know...
     
  3. geo3

    geo3 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2002

    I tend to think that shows all by itself...:p

    I'm still eagerly waiting for your thoughts on the ways in which male and female readers have differnt understandings of a story...
     
  4. correllian_ale

    correllian_ale Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 20, 2005
    This guy's time is sporadic because he spends most of his time taking care of the kids, doing the shopping, cooking & cleaning & laundry....



    [face_blush] Me too!
     
  5. ardavenport

    ardavenport Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2004
    Speaking from my days in print zines in the '80's, fanfic back then was about 99% female. So, I'm always impressed by how many males I see on the internet.

     
  6. The_Face

    The_Face Ex-Manager star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 22, 2003
    The game was on, but we're back now. Did you need something?

    :p

    I dunno. It's the nature of fanfic I guess. Fiction writing itself seems to have a higher female percentage, with a few genres the exceptions (such as sci-fi, interestingly). Looking at the people I read here, it's about half and half. And of those, there's currently one female and one male posting regularly, so the ratio seems to be staying true. [face_laugh]

    My readership, meanwhile is approx. 2:1 favoring the ladies. And that's including people catching up on my series. I like to think I write stories that apply to both genders equally. I don't really target the droid audience. ;) Anyway, I'm a bit alone in that I tend to write mysteries. Action-comedy-drama mysteries. Luton_Plunder (another guy) is the only other I know of really.

    I hesitate to put boundaries on What Men Like vs. What Women Like. It's not just explosions. Though they help. :p oqidaun is writing horror, with what one might see as masculine elements like action (Lambarde is a man among men :cool:). But (spoiler alert) she's not a man; in fact she is one of the modesses. She seems to have a good mix - with, yes, a female majority. *shrug* I tend toward the position that what really matters is whether it's a good story. If you're writing those explosions with stellar prose, you'll likely have girls on board. If you're writing the angst with well-drawn, relatable characters, there's a good chance you'll have guys reading. If you write it, they will come.?

    And yeah, there do seem to be higher percentages of fellas in The Seedy Side and OC circles (incidentally, my two major Resource haunts). Hard to say why that is exactly. OC Writers Anonymous is run by the aforementioned oqi, and though I run it now, TSS was founded by a member of the fairer sex.

    In summary: Women, huh? Sheesh!

    ;)

    EDIT: A lot of people posted since I started writing this. Please forgive all the redundancy. [face_blush]
     
  7. brodiew

    brodiew Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 11, 2005
    What's a clone trooper? :p
     
  8. Drabba_the_Hutt

    Drabba_the_Hutt Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2005
    I think it's less that male and female writers don't overlap genres -- they do, quite a bit -- and more that there are some genres that men and boys are a whole lot less likely to go near, the biggest being that one, not allowed here, named after a punctuation mark.*

    EDIT: I don't believe that an author's gender doesn't affect how I look at a story; most of the time, I don't even think about it as I'm reading.





    *Yes, for some reason, guys steer clear of semicolon fics. :p
     
    Lazy K likes this.
  9. furrylittlebantha

    furrylittlebantha Jedi Master star 3

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    Dec 2, 2005
    I agree. I've read excellently written, intellectually stimulating fics by youngish teenagers, and I've read really sorry stuff by forty year olds. One of my favorite angst authors, a genre typically female-oriented, is a guy. One of my favorite humor/parody authors is a gal. There are trends, but I don't think they're by any means all-inclusive. Or even important.
     
  10. RebelGrrl

    RebelGrrl Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 13, 2006
    Okay, this is something I learned as a child exploring the world of pro-fic sci-fi.

    Men were still writing lasers-n-ships, hard-science, aliens-bad, women-are-trophies shoot'em ups, for the most part. These, I found booooring. And you can easily see how SW differs from that.

    Women were writing books that had lasers, ships, aliens, science, shooting... and women as heros in their own right, and exploration of relationships. Between species, between characters, what have you. These things were missing in the works by their male compatriots.

    Always exceptions there are to the rules, of course. I enjoyed Frank Herbert, for example. But I learned that if I pulled a book off the shelf with a female author's name, I was more likely to enjoy it. It was more likely to be the sort of thing that I like to read.

    So what I'm saying is that, yes, there is a gender difference. It's not an absolute, off/on thing. It's along a spectrum.

    I think that many more men find that they get adequate exploration of the SW universe through video games and telling a story in that manner, while more women find better satisfaction in fan fiction. Again, it's a spectrum, not an absolute. There will be people at both ends and in the middle. But it does mean that population is going to be skewed one direction or the other.
     
  11. geo3

    geo3 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2002

    ROTFL!
     
  12. Flowerlady

    Flowerlady Jedi Master star 4

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    Dec 14, 2005
    When I first started writing, my stories were read by all women. But recently, I've noticed the incline on the male readers that I have. In fact, my epic LotF drama has about as many male readers as female. I'm not really sure what I've changed to attract more males. I still tend to write angsty romance and high drama. But the increase isn't just here either. On the other site that I post my fanfiction on, I've also noticed the increase of male readers being attacted to my stories. Sometimes even to my earlier stuff.

    I personally think of it as a complement. I think the males are here, lurking. But they only come out and comment when they really like something.


    Oh, and Rebel_cheese...All I will say is damn straight...:p If we don't like something we will take charge an change it. Or at least, write it how we want it to be. That's the reason I got started in FanFic.

    Women also tend to bring in the one element that seems to be totally missing in Profic---ROMANCE.


    FL @};-
     
  13. ZebulaNebula

    ZebulaNebula Jedi Master star 5

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    Feb 10, 2005
    True ... most guys won't touch ... that ... with a ten foot pole. A good all-around or crossover attracts both genders in equal proportion though ...

    Edit: while the lasses may be more inclined to romance, there are several good male writers who do romance hereabouts ...
     
  14. RebelGrrl

    RebelGrrl Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 13, 2006
    I'm sure they'd gravitate towards it if it involved only Mara Jade, Leia, and a vat of space-jello. :D
     
  15. The_Face

    The_Face Ex-Manager star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 22, 2003
    The beginning of Return of the Jedi? Because that vat's name is Jabba, alright? And he is a Hutt.
     
  16. brodiew

    brodiew Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Oct 11, 2005
    Maybe they're just really sensitive men, FL. ;)
     
  17. ZebulaNebula

    ZebulaNebula Jedi Master star 5

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    Feb 10, 2005
    True ... in numbers enough to overtax fanfiction.net
     
  18. brodiew

    brodiew Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Oct 11, 2005
    I write all over the board as far as themes and genres. I'm not ashamed of writing romance. I've written action, humor, romance, angst, drama. I guess it just depends on my mood.
     
  19. RebelGrrl

    RebelGrrl Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 13, 2006
    I have a dim, horrified memory of some Hutt smut as well. I think that might count as slash, since Hutts are hermaphrodites...
     
  20. ZebulaNebula

    ZebulaNebula Jedi Master star 5

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    Feb 10, 2005
    I write all of those too ... frequently all in the same tale.
     
  21. The_Face

    The_Face Ex-Manager star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 22, 2003
    Wait, we're talking about smut?

    This thread came to that quicker than usual. ;)
     
  22. ZebulaNebula

    ZebulaNebula Jedi Master star 5

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    Feb 10, 2005
    Just some of us ...
     
  23. Art_Of_War

    Art_Of_War Jedi Youngling star 2

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    Dec 9, 2005
    As it has been mentioned previously, fanfiction is most generally the domain of women ( as previous studies have shown that men are more often than not outnumbered in regards to amateur writing and especially in that genre of fiction known as fanfiction) and it is no surprise that the male reader/writer is a hard thing to come by. Just glancing at the actual literature market out there, one can see that women are the majority (just looking at the number of mass produced romance novels out there should be proof enough of this right?:p)in reading. So to say that the guys have left reading/writing is somewhat of a misnomer.

    Most of them never even existed at all.:p
     
  24. ZebulaNebula

    ZebulaNebula Jedi Master star 5

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    Feb 10, 2005
    Well, we did sorta ... the ratio tends to ebb and flow a bit ...
     
  25. The_Face

    The_Face Ex-Manager star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 22, 2003
    Personally, I tend to read fics with the promise of action that I'll be able to care about. I'm a sucker for OCs, and the richness and development of said characters. I'd prefer that they shoot at each other, but more than that I better have emotional stock in who lands their shot. Mindless violence does little for me in written form, though I have to admit the new Die Hard looks like low-IQ fun. I can't explain the double standard.
     
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