Interest in Non-Pokémon Fanfiction?

[DANdotW]

Interest in Non-Pokémon Fanfiction?

We all know that there is a Non-Pokémon Fanfiction section on this Forum. To not know that would be...nothing but foolish to be honest. My worry and my question is, how much interest does it garner here?

I've posted a couple of fics in there since I've been here, and none have been popular. Looking at most fics in there have much less views than some of the worst Pokémon Fanfics.

Is there a lack of interest here, or just in general?

As the poll asks, do you have any interest in reading and/or writing non-Pokémon fanfiction?

Also, what do you think is the thing that makes it so un-popular here, if you think it is at all?

Iota

 

[Breezy]

As a pokemon based forum, most people usually do come to the fanfiction forum for, well, pokemon fanfiction. Likewise, if I were to post a pokemon fanfic in, let's say, a Harry Potter forum, I doubt it would gain a lot of attention. So you are right; some people just might not be interested in reading non-pokemon fanfiction here. If you want more readers or reviewers, you might want to post in a forum where they specialize in whatever you're writing about (i.e. post your story in a Naruto forum if it's for Naruto, and so on).

Not only do you have to find a specific fan base in a forum based on pokemon, but you also have to deal with the regular issues that some fanfic authors face. For example, some authors, whether in the main fanfiction forum or non-pokemon fanfiction forum, may not get reviews at all due to lack of establishment with the community. The less well-known you are as an author, the more likely you won't get reviewed (not unless you're ridiculously bad at writing).

Really though, if I were to read non-pokemon fanfiction, the forum here would probably be the last spot I'd look since the choice is pretty limited, and from that choice, it probably wouldn't be the best I could get anyway. =\ Granted, if a person finds a story interesting and enjoyable and they have a good knowledge on the subject, they're going to read it regardless.

 

[DANdotW]

One thing I'll disagree with you there is the "well-established author" part. I myself have been writing on here with Pokémon fanfiction for around four years now, and I haven't had much recognition at all. Saying I'm not that bad at writing would be biased, but the few that have reviewed me have applauded my style.

Not many people here seem to go for readers that either aren't popular members of the community or have other reviewers who are popular members of the community.

That said, the main question really is whether people in the Pokémon community here are interested in reading or writing non-Pokémon fanfiction, although your points on the interest in non-Pokémon fanfiction in general are interesting and informative.

Iota

 

[Breezy]

I myself have been writing on here with Pokémon fanfiction for around four years now, and I haven't had much recognition at all.

How much effort have you made by being active with the fanfic community here though? If you have a good set of friends here, they're probably going to review you, even if you're not that great a writer. Alternatively, if you review other stories, you're also more likely to get reviewed back.

Well-established might be the wrong word. Popularity is probably better.

To answer your "is anyone interested in reading non-pokemon fanfiction" though, of course people are interested in writing/reading non-pokemon fanfiction. >_> In terms of getting recognition for writing it here, the chances are you probably won't get much at all.

Not unless you mean in a non-general sense but in an individual sense. If that's the case then yeah, I read non-pokemon fanfiction quite often, probably more than pokemon.

 

[Negrek]

I have little interest in non-pokémon fanfiction posted here because there isn't a lot posted here that's in a fandom I'd be interested in reading from. Just glancing down what's on the first page right now at stuff where the fandom is apparent based on the title, I see Final Fantasy, Naruto, Spyro, etc., fandoms with which I'm not familiar and consequently don't feel like reading fanfiction for. Contrary to Breezy's statement, I would be fine with reading fanfiction about a fandom that I like on this board, even if it weren't pokémon, but I definitely wouldn't go looking for stuff from that fandom here, when there's a better chance I'd find something good at a board dedicated to that fandom by virtue of there being much more posted.

 

[DANdotW]

See, that is something as well. If you were into the Final Fantasy series and read my Final Fantasy fic, you may be left wanting. The only thing I've used from the games is Chocobo's, Magic and the Summons.

There isn't really a section here for Original, or Semi-Original fiction, which is a shame.

Iota

 

[Yonowaru in Chaos]

There isn't really a section here for Original, or Semi-Original fiction, which is a shame.

Admittedly though, it'd be a bit worthless, seeing as the Non Pokemon Fics section, being a miscellaneous section in general, already receives so little attention.

The problem's always been there...and there isn't really any solution to fix it. It's just the nature of things.

 

[Negrek]

There isn't really a section here for Original, or Semi-Original fiction, which is a shame.

I'd say that "Non-Pokémon" covers origfic just fine; there's not enough of it to justify giving it its own section.

 

[Kabutopzilla]

I would've been exactly the second poster here, right after OP, but the server stopped working and wouldn't load again, until now.

Dunno if this has been said or not, but most Pokemon fans who read/write Pokemon fanfiction will only read/write Pokemon fanfiction. Sometimes someone will write a Digimon fic, and it will get decent views. But if you take the time and effort to write something, for example, a Metroid fanfic, everyone will ignore it. Why? Everyone here doesn't know crap about Metroid. That's the usual excuse, not that it couldn't be true in some cases. The same will go for almost any other fandom.

This has happened to me, so you know. I have to ask people to review my fic, otherwise it gets completely and utterly ignored aside from the occasional semi-at-least-Metroid fan who just so happens to be passing through the fanfiction section.

Everyone here knows enough about Pokemon to get by, otherwise they wouldn't join. Everyone here also has at least one other fandom they are fluent enough with to get by in terms of fanfiction for that particular fandom, but often, everyone else doesn't know anything about it. And vice versa. But for those groups of people here who do share a like for a certain fandom, at least one of them either never logs on, is inactive, doesn't visit the fanfiction board, or doesn't write fanfiction about that fandom, if at all.

As for original fics, people read them more often than fics faithful to any other fandom sans Pokemon and Digimon, but often, people avoid them because they've got no source information to work with there before they read it.

But, some people do still write Non-Pokemon fanfics here, and they might want to post them. They probably don't care that it will get little to no views/replies, they still want to give it a shot. And without the Non-Pokemon Fanfiction board, where will they put their Non-Pokemon fic without getting infracted?

 

[Dragonfree]

Like Negrek, I don't think I've seen any fanfic for fandoms I like in the non-Pokémon forum here, and if I wanted to find some this would not be the place I would look. And when it comes to original fiction, I would generally feel more inclined to read some of the various supposedly good professionally published books that I have yet to find the time to read than to go looking for amateur fiction on a Pokémon forum that I would have to follow for months or years to see to the end even in the unlikely case the end is ever written at all. I might read an original fic by an author on here that I previously know and like for their Pokémon fiction, but otherwise I'd be unlikely to read them.

I've written an original one-shot myself that I posted in the non-Pokémon fic forum and got no replies, but I'm really not particularly surprised.

 

[Diddy]

I've posted two things in the non-pokemon section.

The first was something I wrote for my original writing coursework (I chose something else to use in my actual coursework) and it got no reviews.

The second was my sci-fi/fantasy one-shot contest entry (Which I put in the title of the thread) and it got quite a few reviews, mainly by the other contestants or judges, but reviewed none the less. Although I believe if I hadn't entered it into the contest and just posted it, I think it would have gotten nothing.

That really was all I needed to know about how used that section is.

As other people have said before, if you want to read Pokemon Fanfiction, then this place has a specialised area with decent standards for it. But if you want a certain other fandom, then you really aren't going to get anywhere because there's possibly one or two, maybe three separate fics of a fandom there at any one time. It isn't specialised enough and there's always a big chance that one of those fics is going to be badly written. Because at least with the Pokemon section you have countless fics to sift through to find good writing.

Everyone here also has at least one other fandom they are fluent enough with to get by in terms of fanfiction for that particular fandom

Not really. I know someone here that only plays pokemon and the sims. And you can't really write good sims fics. Believe me I've tried. Sims Machinima makes sense yes, but fiction, no.