I have read some really good fanfics over the years, top quality stories that if they had been created as originals could be have sold millions all around the world. I have read stories that have made me laugh, made me shed a tear, kept me on the end of my seat in suspense and plenty which one could say resulted in terrible grades during my high school years. Those fanfics are great memories, but lately it seems new additions to those great memories are few and far in between.

I think it might just be me, and in all likely it is, but I can't seem to find many fanfics worth reading anymore these days. So few stories, so few ideas, appeal to me these days like they would have several years back. I have read so many fanfics and been exposed to so many different ideas that I can't seem to find anything that is original or captivating enough to draw me into it. For the most part, I read the summary of a story, and for the most part I say to myself "Oh, Harry is blahblahblah and is doing blahblahblah... next." Its like, most fanfiction are knockoffs of another fanfiction, and that fanfiction is a knockoff of another, and another, and another, and before long most fanfics seems exactly the same.

Its rare these days for me to come across something that is remotely original and captivating.

I spent most of today searching over twenty different HPFF websites for something to read, and not once did I find anything good to read that I have not already read several times before. After a full day of searching, I have come to the conclusion that the FF community has become stagnant and dry. The years of the masterpiece fanfictions has long since past and will not, IMO, be returning to exact its revenge from the untalented.

...

I lost the point where I was going to drive this too, but I think most of you understand where I was going with this and know what I am talking about. Fanfiction is dieing, least ways HPFF is.

 

Well, It's been going downhillfor years--it's always hard to tell when you're first introduced to fanfiction, but I know that I was far more captivated by nearly everything I read when I first started, and have since been spoiled by the truly good ones. I was before able to read those that had minor spelling errors or whose plot I didn't quite get into right away, but now, if it's not perfect I don't really even bother. Once again, yet another problem.

And I'm not even gonna go into the percentage of slash fanfiction present, which, if you read any of the anime groups is almost dominating straight ff 2 to 1.

To touch on your problem with originality, well, it's fairly difficult to develop original plotlines nowadays--and, when one IS developed, the author often suffers from 'lack of inspiration'--which is just a nice way to put that he/she doesn't know where to take the story because no one else has tackled the subject and taken theirs somewhere. The truth about the problem of lack of originality is that the majority of authors get inspiration from reading a fanfiction and saying, 'wow, i wonder what it would be like if this happened instead', and then going from there.

Look, yeah, it's hard. I'm almost done with fanfiction myself--that is, I'm twenty years old, and I have more mature tastes (i.e., professional writing). Aside from one or two of my favorites that are well written and that I've known the authors of, I'm pretty much done with it all.

 

Slash... the anti-fanfiction.

 

It's sad but true, FF is circling the drain. I go to the HP category, and set my filter to default (no filter) and here's what I get:

The declining quality, and intelligence, of the FF community is alarming. I believe one of the posters here said it best (can't remember who) when they said, "DLP is the last bastion of truly great fanfiction."

 

Yeah, there are simply too many fanfiction out there. 3-4 years ago you could write a Heir of Gryffindor canon-humper fanfiction and get all the praise in the world. These days, you really have to strain your brain and creativity if you don't want to call your work unoriginal and cliched. And few authors are capable of doing that.

The winding down of canon is a problem too. GOF and OOTP has had almost cliffhanger-like endings, spurring tons of fanfiction that explored possibilities left by these books. HBP, on the other hand, had closed down more potential plot-lines than it had opened. Thus, we are seeing fewer and fewer of 'canon-continuation' fics, as opposed to more and more AU's. And everyone knows that continuation of canon is the main reason why people get into fanfiction in the first place (I believe most of us started reading it because of that).

So without interesting cliffhanger to end the latest book (HBP), there's no enough canon-continuation fanfiction; And even those that do get written are usually bad, because it's hard to make Harry powerful or attach plot to the ending of HBP (unless you write EXACTLY what JKR wanted). And without good 'canon-continuation' fanfiction, there's no large inflow of new fanfic readers. And without fresh fanfic readers, there are no fresh ideas, nor new authors to write more fanfiction (and those who DO try, get overwhelmed because they can't read 10000+ stories so they'd know what ideas had been used).

So in a way, it's an interconnected circle of decline, that will last until this summer. We all know that publishing of the 7th book will either (re)make or break HP fanfiction.

If JKR does what she indicated (publish an epilogue with everyone's life stories), then HP fandom will slide down to the level of other fandoms of completed works, like LOTR or Star Wars - and probably even lower, if we consider the current size and number of HP fanfiction stories. If, by some chance, Deadly Hollows leaves us an open door or two, then we might see a new influx of post-canon stories.

We'll just have to wait and see.

 

To be honest, I don't see the decline. There was a point when I felt the same way, but I think it had more to do with my personal tastes and hitting a saturation point where I just got tired of the same old story lines. You can only be disappointed so many times before you start to expect it. And when you're expecting it, it becomes that much harder for a fic to impress you.

That's when my interests bridged out more into other fandoms just to find something enjoyable to read. Whether it was tv shows I liked, or even comic books, cartoons/anime, etc...

Because at least for me, when I looked at say the front page of the HP section, a couple years ago a number of those titles and summaries that now make me cringe, would have interested me. And I would have read them and enjoyed them, ignoring the glaring spelling errors and grammar errors. Primarily because when you first stumble across fan fiction, our own preconceptions fill in all the blanks. We can picture the characters saying and acting the rudimentary dialogue in those fics. But there comes a point where you've read enough that you appreciate the effort some of the more spectacular writers put in. And those enjoyable (but comparatively laughably bad fics) just aren't satisfying as you've seen most of their elements done before and often better. DLP I think also curtails us a bit to the point where we expect failure from a new fic, unless someone whose opinion we highly regard recommended it.

As for HP? I don't think we're going to see a massive decline, nor do I think it's circling the drain. And until something better comes along, I expect HP to continue to be the largest fandom around. I glanced at at ff.net and saw HP has over 288K fics. I think Naruto was the next largest at roughly 68K. Lord of the Rings has about 39K, Buffy another 30K. Crossovers or other located fics add some, but even still, none of these have even a fourth as many as Harry Potter.

I just can't see that large a fanbase dying out, circling the drain, or giving up on HP. Even half of it leaves and it's still twice the size of everything else. It's bound to be less interesting once JKR ties up all the loose ends she's going to, but it's far from the death knells of the HP fanfic scene.

 

I have also noticed a disturbing lack of interest on my part in what used to be my favorite pastime. I think this 'decline' of fanfiction is due to several things. First of all, I'm simply getting bored with reading the same things over and over again with slightly different twists. Also, like ip82 said, HBP didn't leave us much to deal with, aside from the Horcrux hunt, which I personally think is just tedious to write about. Loose ends make fanfiction, but these Horcruxes are just so completely radical that nobody knows what to do with them.

The way I see it, the release of the seventh installment will bring about a change in HP fanfiction. Once people know how the story ends, they will be less motivated to fill in the blanks themselves by writing canon-based fanfiction. Post-OotP stories will probably still thrive, because that book was a turning point in canon, while I think Post-HBP will pretty much dissipate. I also see a huge increase in alternate-universe fanfiction, which I can't say I'm thrilled with. On the bright side, I think the closing of canon promises to be truly epic. JKR is most likely going to introduce some new stuff, which will give us, the fanfiction authors, some new material to work with.

In the mean time, we'll just have to deal with a dwindle in creativity, originality, and motivation.

 

man with all this talk of leaving fanfiction and closure from book 7..... I say all us lazy ass would be authors and real authors get our shit together and get some wicked fics out before the end. Go out with a bang.

I got notecards all over my room, some 4 years old with ideas lol. Time to brainstorm for real.

 

I have tried my hand at writing, more times then I care to remember, but I suffer from something that has hit everything would-be author and author: rabid plot bunnies. I come up with one great idea for a fic that has either rarely been done or never before, then just as quickly I come up with another idea and that blows away the previous one, least ways in my mind.

I tried my hand at cannon-based fics, AUs, crossovers. You name, and I've attempted it. Currently I am working on a crossover with Command and Conquer, but I honestly don't see myself going far with it. Not that I don't want to (God knows I do), but I let other things get in the way or plot bunnies, and I lose interest. Presently that other thing would be me heading off to Basic Training for the Navy. Who knows, perhaps one day I will break into the fandom as an author, but I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

 

I think it's happening to everyone that's started reading fanfiction, first anything and everything was great, but now almost anything I find is just like a crappy remake of something I've read before. I even tried rereading fanfics that I had really enjoyed and I find that I can't stand them now. But because of the lack of any good fanfiction I've started reading more books and going into other fandoms, I just started the Wheel of Time.

 

Guys, it's not like the fanfiction here is a HECK of a lot better than that which's in the general community. How many of the ones here are truly GREAT? A few, if we're lucky. There are a few more at ff.net, but that comes with the greater quantity. How many of the members here write? How many write well? Honestly, have you seen some of crap that's getting 4 stars here? 'Oh, well, it's a little rocky to start, but here's to hoping it gets better! 4/5!' Please.

 

I got to agree with you DarkSov. But its more of the community here that makes up for the lack of great fanfiction, least ways in my most humble opinion.

But now I feel as if I have contradicted myself with the entire bulletin as I have, surprisingly, found a good fic worth reading, and this summed up after only one chapter. I might post it here after I get a few more chapters into it. For reference to anyone interested and suffering from my same malady, the story is called "Great Scots, Potter, This Is War" at fanficauthors.net.

 

I've been reading fanfiction for over 10 years and my problem has gotten to be that most authors can't be bothered to just _think_ and actually consider the characters, such as what makes them, them. Or just what they want to happen is something that 'realistically' (as much as anything can be considered realistic in fanfiction) could happen or if they should alter it somewhat. A example beingt that I can think easily think up serveral different plots for the clich'e of Harry being a heir to the founders or Merlin reborn that could happily say would be different then over 95% most Hpfics and go from there.

The other part is that most authors can't be bothered to check things out when they start to write or do a bit of research in order to make their story work. Such as all of those fics where Harry ends up back during the time of the founders, people don't seem to consider not only just how different the culture is, what we consider english wasn't the english of that period, and all that.

 

*tips hat*

Do you have any idea how many fics I've read that involved inheritance from some godly wizard (founders, Merlin, etc.)? Not only that, but Harry always finds out about it either through Gringotts or in a dream world that conveniently comes with a time dilation/accelerated learning/super-power training package

 

I third this motion.

Hell, even in some of the well fleshed out stories, in most respects, Harry always seem to learn in said quoted manner. Its come to the point in my tenor as a fanfic fan that red lights go off in my head once I read something like that. I almost immediately give up the story (being at least two more chapters to give it a chance).

Then there is the problem of ships and the constant changing in preference based on one good fic or the continuous reading of the same ship. Example 1) H/Hr done really good in, oh lets call it Story A. Based on Story A's work with the ship, meaning in terms of it being of high quality and realism, you want all other fics of said pairing to match Story A's work. However, most stories ever rise up to meet that expectation, and it comes to the point where you lose interest in that shipping until you come across another of high quality. Not finding one leads into Example 2.

Example 2) Recovering from one high quality ship into ship for either the reason of not being able to find another Story A or simply being tired of reading that ship. You go out and search all the libraries for a ship that will "quench your thirst", and process that could take a very long time unless you know what you are looking for. For me, though I am loathe to say it here on this distinguished forum, I am looking for H/G fics. Lets not go into explanations as to why. I have been looking for something good, something... somewhat original and minor in the cliches, and have spent damn near two weeks looking for one. Just when I thought I had one, BAM, it turns out to be heavy dialogue and no story. So the search continues to no avail, and is a search that many, MANY, countless readers have stumbled upon. Example 2.

 

Those red lights you are talking about, for me it's the goblins.

It's seems like over 90% of the fanfictions I read start with Harry getting a letter from Gringotts. When he goes there he sees Griphook, say hi to him, Griphook is impressed and somehow just by that, Harry is a hero to the goblins.

If they don't have the above mentioned, 9% usually have these other two things I don't like:

1. Harry turns into Hermione!Harry and sets out to free house-elfs. I still don't get it where people think Harry agrees with 'Mione about the house-elfs.

2. Authors make Magical world out to be so much worse then muggle world.

3. A pairing I don't like.

That leaves 1% good fictions out there. So for me it isn't that interest is lost, it's just harder to sort through all the trash fics and find the good ones.

 

And we tend to do more sorting then actual reading.

 

The sad reality of this, is that fanfiction has always been this bad (or this good, depending on whether the glass is half-empty or half-full) and we have simply developed a higher expectation of what's available. Let's face it - we've read everything. Anything unique is far and few between and is not always appealing to us. Look at Vashy's work. That shit is pretty damn unique (and a damn good read), but 99.9% of fanfiction readers don't like it.