Explanation - invariably I will read a fantastic book, beautifully written with a sweeping or moving story that is profoundly impactful…and some amateur reviewer will have written, “That book is so boring! Blah, blah, blah, nothing exciting ever happens!” 🙄
When I read these, I often pause to try to imagine what sort of book those reviewers WOULD like, lol. No doubt its probably an elitist, pompous exercise…but its fun imagining for a moment a book filled with non-stop, over the top action, gory or imaginative deaths by the dozens, torrid romantic liasons, CIA and KGB and SS agents around every corner, etc. Ive been tempted to write that book, tongue in cheek, just so those reviewers would have something to be happy about.
Then I thought…maybe someone has already done this? Intentionally written a book so egregiously over-the-top that even those action-aholics might be tempted to say, “too fast, and too much excitement…” in their reviews?
Sounds like you are describing fanfic.
I think we’ve been reading different fanfiction 😅
most of what I’ve read has been writers slowing down and filling in everything that the source material rushed past. 10k words on one quiet moment in between plot points. Or AUs where instead of all the drama and action, the characters just work at rival flower shops or whatever.
Fanfic is not always like that. And I hate this prevailing thought that all fanfic is trash.
Saying that the medium is a little reductive and repetitive is hardly calling it trash.
Have you read every single fanfic on the Internet to pass that judgement?
Fanfic is something I’ve never read, actually. I could see how it could grow into an exercise in excess - a fan who like a particular aspect of something writing a book or story filled with nothing but that thing they like.
Probably why I’ve avoided it, lol.
Fanfic typically overexplains everything. They’re definitely not as fast paced.
Modern pop culture is actually trending more towards that kind of writing than lean and brisk stories that go too fast. That’s how we get all these bloated movies and TV series, and books by big name authors that run about 300 pages too long.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality was kind of written to address all the complaints about the poor decisions made by Rowling’s characters. It’s actually pretty good.
But, to me that’s the point of fanfictions.
Total wish-fullfilment. It’s daydreaming about a media in writing.
Some are great, others are trash.
But seriously, why one would bother with unedited, amator writing if not to scratch that itch?