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Post by fluffernutter on Jul 11, 2013 16:43:26 GMT -5
I like the BSC. I enjoy fanfiction. I've read some alright BSC fanfics, and actually just posted one that I think isn't too bad. But does anyone else feel there's a lack of really good BSC fics? Here are a few things I have a problem with:
THE DRAMA. Yes, they do get away with a lot in the books, but the situations are usually fairly realistic, even if they leave you wondering, "What were the parents thinking?" a la Island Adventure. I even enjoy some of the Very Special books dealing with difficult topics. Even if they're not handled the best way, they do try to address real issues tweens and teens who still read the books might come across. But come on, how does this translate to drinking problems, teen pregnancies, life-threatening situations, etc? Aging the girls up doesn't really help either, but that's another subject.
Everything listed in the Cliches in BSC Fanfiction thread.
The inappropriate romance fics/slashfics featuring the BSC members and/or clients. No. Just...no. This is a children's series primarily about thirteen-and-under children - and children may want to read the fics out there. There are no repressed passions, no pressing need for them to have a significant other to monopolize their time and thoughts, nothing to suggest they are any more than friends. And considering the age differences/power inequalities between some of the pairings I've come across, I don't care who you are, you've just turned a nice, fairly responsible babysitter into a predator. Poor choice of fandom to make a social statement. Even the girls' focus on boyfriends and dating in the books could be a bit much at times. What could they really do, besides hang out, talk on the phone, and go to dances together? Can't they all just be friends?
To all the offended thirteen-year-olds out there, you may be very mature, but please, just grow up a little. Wait a few years. This is your time to find what you want to do with your life, make friends, find out what you really believe in. If you're really meant to be with someone, they won't go too far while you're both developing your own interests. If you're not, getting too close too soon will just lead to drama and heartbreak.
Now, the aged-up fics. A lot of these are just depressing. Maybe someone dies, or gets extremely depressed, or they've all just gone their separate ways, don't talk much anymore, and don't particularly care. So much for friends forever. The old dynamic, the innocence, the fun is just gone - kind of like California Diaries or Friends Forever. The BSC time warp seriously confused me when I was in fifth grade, but now I think it's part of the beauty of the series. Here is a world where you can do pretty much anything. Like the BSC? Become a sitter and travel the world, solving mysteries and saving the day. Think the sitters are actually a really mean clique? Start a cooler, older, rival club that puts them to shame. Want to see things though a minor character's eyes, get the details on a scene that was only mentioned in the books, or rewrite a scene/plotline altogether to make a character more or less sympathetic? Go for it. The possibilities are endless.
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Jul 12, 2013 21:41:32 GMT -5
I don't read a lot of fan fic. On the rare occasions that I DID try and get into a BSC one, it drove me crazy that one of them ALWAYS had to be hooked on drugs or alcohol, one of them ALWAYS had to be an unwed mother, and one (sometimes two) of them ALWAYS had to be a lesbian. It gets old!
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Jul 13, 2013 4:15:55 GMT -5
^ I think those peoole write those for their own enjoyment instead of catering to their readers?
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Post by helsieboo on Jul 13, 2013 5:21:41 GMT -5
I've been working on one for ages which still isn't finished and one of them has died, Logan is gay...yes which is kind of cliche, but I'm happy with how it turned out and the ending will tie into the friends forever theme  |
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valuemeal2
Sitter-In-Training
California Girl!
Posts: 295
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Post by valuemeal2 on Jul 13, 2013 23:21:05 GMT -5
I do agree that a lot of those come up often and are annoying... but some of them are interesting and well-written. From what I've noticed, a large part of fanfiction is people getting to play with their OTP couples that never happen in the actual stories... if that makes sense. There are a couple of FFs I've read with really interesting pairings that I sort of like. I do think that a lot of them die randomly or have problems, but that's pretty interesting for a lot of people. I started one (my pen name is Andrea P. Quintell if you're interested) that I'm intending to be a kid-friendly FF written just like a real BSC book. I kind of fell off the wagon a few years ago, but I haven't abandoned all hope... but yeah, I agree with you on a lot of points.
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celaeno
Sitting For The Papadakis's
I have to share a room with Vanessa
Posts: 1,514
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Post by celaeno on Jul 14, 2013 18:23:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree with most of what has been said: I don't care much for fan fiction and haven't read a lot of BSC stuff, and the cliches in the fan fiction are the main deterrent to me. Fan fiction writers seem to follow the pattern of "more angst = better writing", so the sitters have experienced a good deal of drug addictions, drinking problems, rape, abortions, family problems, abusive relationships, etc. But I'd say this is common to fanfic, not unique to BSC fanfic, so there are several tropes that specifically address this...like Darker and Edgier, or Maturity Is Serious Business, or True Art Is Angsty... |
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Post by Honeybee on Jul 15, 2013 18:03:06 GMT -5
I have read some BSC fan fiction. Some are good & others are bad. One time, I read about Karen. That Seth is bad step-father doing nasty things to Karen. Like sexual abuse. They made Seth a bad person. But, reading one of Karen's books. Seth is a nice step-father. Who ever wrote that fan fiction. I just couldn't believe it. It made me uncomfortable of reading it. Not sure, if it's still there or not. Then, I read other one, about Stacey making love to one of the fathers. I think, she was 13 at the time. I don't remember much. I read it, last year or year before.
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Post by fluffernutter on Jul 16, 2013 15:12:51 GMT -5
Fan fiction writers seem to follow the pattern of "more angst = better writing", so the sitters have experienced a good deal of drug addictions, drinking problems, rape, abortions, family problems, abusive relationships, etc. Yeah, this goes far beyond just using a few cliches and really gets to the heart of the problem. After all, most Pride and Prejudice fanfiction is essentially the same, but I have yet to read a review that says, "Darcy's an insensitive, misunderstood loner and Elizabeth is a poor judge of character? How cliche!" But then, maybe I haven't been looking hard enough. The real problem is fanfic writers assuming "Darker and Edgier" can substitute for good writing and coming across as lazy and occasionally disturbed. Too many Lifetime movies, maybe? The idea that "darker is better" is like the debate over Stacey's stated "maturity" or Mary Anne's "sensitivity." Sometimes it can backfire and reveal just the opposite. It really makes you wonder if some of these people have ever been fans of the BSC, or if they just thought, "There's just too much innocence and friendship here. Kids need a cold, hard dose of reality, so let's spice things up with some Law and Order: SVU/MTV-worthy drama." Please, know the characters, know the fandom, or just no. ETA: Just found this and thought it applied: www.springhole.net/writing/better-tragic-and-traumatic-backstories.htm |
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Post by Kylie90210 on Jul 16, 2013 20:29:12 GMT -5
I personally love writing the BSC characters as older. Even as a kid, I loved reading about teenage stuff, and I like it so much, that I'm now on to my third BSC high school RPG. I agree about the angst, however. I've read a lot of the good BSC fanfics out there, and worked with a lot of good BSC RPG writers, and while most of them tend to sprinkle the drama in there (I personally had a fairly happy, while sometimes dramatic HS experience) to keep things fun, I know a few who use it as an outlet for things that have happened to them. So much so that I've had to put rules in place where drug, pregnancy, coming out, bullying, etc storylines must be run by me, in case too many are happening and it gets too depressing. But to be fair, some of the best fanfics I've read have something major in them, and while I love the everyday stuff, and the character dynamics, it's the drama that makes me remember a good fic. Maybe that's just me  |
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Post by ashley868 on Jan 3, 2014 14:43:44 GMT -5
One thing I hate, and this goes for all fanfictions really is when the author screws over a character they hate. I read one where Dawn kept getting the bad end of the stick, and the author even admitted in her authors notes she was doing it because she hates Dawn. They also change the personality of the character as well, and eventually everyone ends up hating them. I love Harry Potter, so I've noticed that with Harry Potter fanfiction as well. People who hate Ron normally pair Hermione and Harry together and then do whatever they can to make Ron look like an idiot. These people are usually ones who don't like the Ginny/Harry pairing as well so they screw over Ginny too. It's really annoying to read when people do that, and it's what turns me off from a story. Even if the writing is good, and the plot seems good I can't read it when someone is doing that to a character. I've got characters I hate as well, and when I wrote fanfiction (haven't really had a creative side lately, so I haven't in years) I still kept them in character anyway.
Also like people mentioned, Kristy being a lesbian or Stacey being a sl*t that annoys me too. I wrote a fanfiction for the BSC which isn't finished and I am going to rewrite it and take in a different direction whenever the creativity bug bites me again. I have it that people think Stacey is slutty, but she really isn't. She's never had a true boyfriend but she hasn't had sex either. She isn't waiting for marriage, but she is looking for a better guy and so far she hasn't found one at Stoneybrook High that she actually likes enough to even be in a relationship with. But spiteful girls around the school say she does sleep around, so people think it. This is basically a Graduation from High School story and then the summer after. It's about all the four main girls: Kristy, Mary-Anne, Claudia and Stacey. I am reading all the books right now though because I need to get to know their characters again. I started that way back in 2008 and I've only just started getting into BSC again. I lost interest for a while.
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Post by Honeybee on Jan 10, 2014 18:47:08 GMT -5
Ashley, I know what you mean. I was reading a fan fic about one of the story of Karen Brewer, this person, made Seth Engle, a pedophile. It tic me off. I was like, he's not like that. Well, can't wait to read your fan fic.
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Post by Crocodile on Jan 21, 2014 22:51:14 GMT -5
Well said! I dislike the preditor idea, the lesbians, the repressed feelings etc.
Most of the lesbianism is creepy when I read it in stories and I feel so anti-gay-fan fic these days because I am so sick of it being shoved down my throat from open ended 'maybe they are gay' induendos in my anime/manga to people swearing there is a "gay" tendancy between this guy and that guy and fans who take two straight men or women and turn them gay.
Not that I'm anti-gay for REAL PEOPLE. Real People can do what they wish! But leave the fictional people out of it! (unless maybe you are writing about two already canon-ized gay people....Like the two gay Sailor Scouts Neptune/Uranus since I have no knowledge of other truly gay characters besides those two lol)
About Angst:
I'm kind of going to write an angsty story myself...but I feel like this one kind of sticks out a bit...and it will have a very good ending, I promise!
But I do agree there is TOO MUCH angst in books/fan fics these days.
Or way too much Harry Potterish stuff being spawned lol
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Post by mistrali on Jan 29, 2014 8:15:22 GMT -5
I adore older!BSC fic, but I do tend to prefer it when they're in high school or college, where they're truer to their canonical selves, as opposed to a "ten years later" kind of deal. That said, I've seen some fantastic reunion fics - bookplayer's Jackie/Claudia (both aged up, and there's no actual romance) fic captures adult Claud perfectly.
I've read a few good fics about Kristy coming out, but I don't go out of my way to find them. I'm more of a gen person as regards the sitters, anyway.
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cnj
Sitting For The Papadakis's
Posts: 1,708
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Post by cnj on Aug 17, 2018 1:21:31 GMT -5
Ashley, I know what you mean. I was reading a fan fic about one of the story of Karen Brewer, this person, made Seth Engle, a pedophile. It tic me off. I was like, he's not like that. Well, can't wait to read your fan fic. Yuuuck...I hate that also when fanfiction writers twist good parents mean, abusive parents. Some fanfics do that with Watson, Richard and Sharon. |
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