DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Jinx, v. 1, issue 2, whole no. 2, March 1942

Transcribe
Translate

Jinx, v. 1, issue 2, whole no. 2, March 1942

Back cover

JINX   page 14

What's Wrong with Fan Fiction?
by Joe J. Fortier

What is wrong with fan-fiction?
I believe that I can safely answer that question. During my career as a fan-editor, for over two years I have passed judgment on almost a hundred manuscripts, which were submitted, of course, by fan authors. And during that course of time about 80% of those manuscripts had to be rejected; half of those rejected were plainly terrible, but the other half were full of fine ideas and writing. There was one fault, as there is with two-thirds of the acceptable manuscripts.
     Scenes. Every single story is full of beautiful narrative, but the authors don’t understand the value of good scenes. Narrative writing — the very best of it — passed with the turn of twenties to thirties. The most superior of narrative writing is usually very dull, so all of the smart boys — the ones writing for publication — are writing the dramatic crises into the form of scenes with plenty of conversation.
     Here’s the way to work a scene, a skeleton scene, so to speak. Your characters meet, just as on a stage or in a movie, face-to-face, by telephone, or letter or in some other orthodox manner. But these self-same characters must have a purpose in
meeting, for every single scene must build the story. A scene is a complete unit in
itself; it is a very close approach to a short-short story.
   And your conversation. There has to be plenty of it; remember that conversation
has four functions. It can individualize the individual, and fragmentary conversation
adds a note of reality. It shows the emotional state of the speaker. It must build the story as previously stated; that is where conversation differs from real actual conversation often gets nowhere, whereas fictional conversation merely has an air of reality in that it does get someplace. Your conversation should be interesting in itself alone, because people love snappy conversation with sparkle. Masters tor study are Thorne Smith, Wodehouse, L. Sprague de Camp, and Theodore Sturgeon. In fact a scene can be simply stated as follows: you provide a stimulus which causes an inner reaction in the story, and you thusly get a response. Remember, any inner disturbance is evidenced outwardly by reaction. This delineates your character.
     The conclusive act in the scene is just that; it concludes the acting story by characters leaving the stage or the equivalent. The plot or fifth step tells the importance of what has taken place. It emphasizes the importance of what has taken place, frequently summarizes the plot in a painless review, gives important information for a better understanding by	highlighting the crisis; the	more functions each word and act in a story perform, the less words and less acts one	has.	Flashbacks are very important, for one must often go into the past for an understanding of the present. Short ones are more profuse, but they are easier; long ones require more craftmanship: witness “The Midget From the Island” and “Great Victor Herbert”. Your transition in	time must be told literally to	make the reader feel it pass, for it's what you cause the reader to do to himself that	counts. Transitions in place must be clear, and those	for emotion must be made at the very beginning of a paragraph. Otherwise your reader will be hating a	character he should pity, or loving one he should despise, or turnabout.
     All of this isn’t meant to be much help. I don't expect any fan author to read this and	then rush to the typewriter	to turn out a masterpiece, because he now knows how to do the scone — knows what	was lacking before. No.	But	I do expect this to bring to the fore the striking error which is so evident in the vast majority of the stories submitted by fan authors. There are so few fan authors who have mastered the scene that much of this uninteresting material must be accepted. Perhaps this is the
dividing line between fan and pro; master it and find out!
    At any rate, I hope to be able to look at a fanmag someday that I can wave in
some friend’s face, then say, in loud and peremptory tones, as a demand, "What's wrong with fan fiction?"
* *    *  * *„ * * * * *  *_ *
And so, we've reached the end of JINX #2. For those who liked us the first time, we hope we've improved; for those who didn't like our natal issue, we hope you like this one. Whatever you may think of it, We promise improvement in the 3rd issue. Sounds like the traditional bally-hoo, but we mean it! Tally-ho!

Saving...

JINX page 14 What's Wrong with Fan Fiction? by Joe J. Fortier What is wrong with fan-fiction? I believe that I can safely answer that question. During my career as a fan-editor, for over two years I have passed judgment on almost a hundred manuscripts, which were submitted, of course, by fan authors. And during that course of time about 80% of those manuscripts had to be rejected; half of those rejected were plainly terrible, but the other half were full of fine ideas and writing. There was one fault, as there is with two-thirds of the acceptable manuscripts. Scenes. Every single story is full of beautiful narrative, but the authors don’t understand the value of good scenes. Narrative writing — the very best of it — passed with the turn of twenties to thirties. The most superior of narrative writing is usually very dull, so all of the smart boys — the ones writing for publication — are writing the dramatic crises into the form of scenes with plenty of conversation. Here’s the way to work a scene, a skeleton scene, so to speak. Your characters meet, just as on a stage or in a movie, face-to-face, by telephone, or letter or in some other orthodox manner. But these self-same characters must have a purpose in meeting, for every single scene must build the story. A scene is a complete unit in itself; it is a very close approach to a short-short story. And your conversation. There has to be plenty of it; remember that conversation has four functions. It can individualize the individual, and fragmentary conversation adds a note of reality. It shows the emotional state of the speaker. It must build the story as previously stated; that is where conversation differs from real actual conversation often gets nowhere, whereas fictional conversation merely has an air of reality in that it does get someplace. Your conversation should be interesting in itself alone, because people love snappy conversation with sparkle. Masters tor study are Thorne Smith, Wodehouse, L. Sprague de Camp, and Theodore Sturgeon. In fact a scene can be simply stated as follows: you provide a stimulus which causes an inner reaction in the story, and you thusly get a response. Remember, any inner disturbance is evidenced outwardly by reaction. This delineates your character. The conclusive act in the scene is just that; it concludes the acting story by characters leaving the stage or the equivalent. The plot or fifth step tells the importance of what has taken place. It emphasizes the importance of what has taken place, frequently summarizes the plot in a painless review, gives important information for a better understanding by highlighting the crisis; the more functions each word and act in a story perform, the less words and less acts one has. Flashbacks are very important, for one must often go into the past for an understanding of the present. Short ones are more profuse, but they are easier; long ones require more craftmanship: witness “The Midget From the Island” and “Great Victor Herbert”. Your transition in time must be told literally to make the reader feel it pass, for it's what you cause the reader to do to himself that counts. Transitions in place must be clear, and those for emotion must be made at the very beginning of a paragraph. Otherwise your reader will be hating a character he should pity, or loving one he should despise, or turnabout. All of this isn’t meant to be much help. I don't expect any fan author to read this and then rush to the typewriter to turn out a masterpiece, because he now knows how to do the scone — knows what was lacking before. No. But I do expect this to bring to the fore the striking error which is so evident in the vast majority of the stories submitted by fan authors. There are so few fan authors who have mastered the scene that much of this uninteresting material must be accepted. Perhaps this is the dividing line between fan and pro; master it and find out! At any rate, I hope to be able to look at a fanmag someday that I can wave in some friend’s face, then say, in loud and peremptory tones, as a demand, "What's wrong with fan fiction?" * * * * *„ * * * * * *_ * And so, we've reached the end of JINX #2. For those who liked us the first time, we hope we've improved; for those who didn't like our natal issue, we hope you like this one. Whatever you may think of it, We promise improvement in the 3rd issue. Sounds like the traditional bally-hoo, but we mean it! Tally-ho!