Five Pros and Cons of Archive/Continuity FanFiction (August, 1999)

I sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to fanfic. I'm an editor at six different groups (DCF, DC-M, DCFS, MFS, IFS, and YY), and a writer at five of them (I haven't done anything at YY yet). I also run one of the largest archives for Buffy: the Vampire Slayer on the Internet, www.slayerfanfic.com. Before I continue, much of the work at the SFA falls on my partner Anya's shoulders, as well as the posting staff. I'm more on the technical side of things, as well as developing a database for the site. Now, this gives me a two-sided opinion on the main variations of fan fiction today.

Archive fanfiction is about anything, which is why it is so huge. Any TV show, book, cartoon, movie, play, anything. It's all out there, somewhere, sitting on one of GeoCites many servers. In fact, people can now gauge the popularity of a given show by how much fanfic is posted around the Net about it. Gossamer is testament to The X-Files on that point. There are SO many different levels of quality out there, so many different types of stories or ideas. Best Of webrings populate thousands of webpages across the web, bringing someone's 4K story to hundreds of readers. Anyone can find a story they like, for one reason or another.

Continuity fanfiction is based mainly on comics, but that is depending on which group you write for/read from. Often the stories that people write in this model of fanfiction are better then the comics we just picked up the previous Friday. Editors catch errors and continuity glitches DC would have missed, giving the reader some of the best stories out there. The fanbase is a tight community, people following writers from site to site to see the different pieces of work. The creativity in this atmosphere is amazingly high.

So I ask you, who else should be able to give you the FIVE PROS AND CONS OF ARCHIVE/CONTINUITY FANFICTION? ;)

ARCHIVE FICTION
PRO	CON
1. Anyone with the urge to write can	1. Quality of work is less because anyone and everyone can write an archive fic
2. Not locked into a continuity, the writer as free reign over everything	2. Some of the most ridiculous ideas are posted on hundreds of archives, such as Mulder and Skinner heading up the Millennium Group after the Invasion for example
3. Variety of work	3. Writers tend to search for instant gratification once they've finished a story, which they often times don't get
4. Larger quantity of work	4. Readers have been known to flame authors for writing the characters they love in new and different circumstances, leaving the writer insulted for all their hard work
5. Wider audience base, because of all the different genre fic authors write about (comics, TV, movies, anime, and novels)	5. High turn over rate, for a variety of reasons, from lack of reader feedback, to RealLife(tm) draining their lives away.

CONTINUITY FICTION
PRO	CON
1. Characters grow and expand	1. Smaller fanbase, thus smaller writer base leading to a smaller Quantity of work
2. Plot lines can be fully developed over a large number of issues, rather then fitting it all in one story	2. More groups are appearing with a less stringent editing policy, posting some rather bizarre story ideas
3. Quality of fiction is greater because of the editing process many of the groups employ	3. Groups fold faster then a readership can be created, often leaving the ones who were interested wondering what they had planned for the characters
4. Old characters, or even fan favorite characters, twisted into a variety of new things	4. Over saturation of concepts seems to be a recent problem, with new groups popping up all over, leaving the reader a little confused about which Batman they're reading, or which Spider Man just took out the third incarnation of Venom
5. Risks taken that the big companies would never dream of story wise	5. High turn over rate, for a variety of reasons, from lack of reader feedback, to RealLife(tm) draining their lives away.

There are many more Pros/Cons then the five I've listed here; these are just the ones that popped into my mind. Each side as a following of readers, for a variety of reasons. One isn't more valued then the other and each can offer a reader a very interesting source of reading material. If you've only stuck to one side of the fence, venture over to the other side and take a gander, you may find something you like.