Pern FanFic

[iszy]

Hopefully this is the right forum to be posting this in

I wanted to ask the people in the know, about the current situation of Pern FanFic. I was re-reading DF just the other day and knew that I'd love the chance to further explore the characters/relationships I enjoy i.e. read a good fanfic. So I went hunting, extensively, around the internet and apart from the very few on fanfic.net (the majority of which is with non-canon characters) I could find no site that has any substantial collection of Pern fanfic. This absolutely shocked me as I have been and am heavily involved in many other fandoms, I admit mostly 'young' ones but one of these has been 'dead' for over a decade and their fanfic (which is still being continuously produced) is astounding in both quality and quantity. On further investigation into the Pern fandom it seems that a fandom who existed pre-internet and the author's fanfic ban has left a legacy of only RPGs and a non-existent fanfic community. I have to admit when I came to that realisation I was very saddened about what is literally generations worth of Pern fanfic that has never been made and how sparse it currently is. So I was just wondering is the situation actually this bad, or am I missing something obvious? I would love the chance to be able to read some quality fanfic about the world and characters I love!

[Almaron]

Wow, you're right. I'm shocked; I thought FF.net used to have more than that!

Best bet from there might be trying DeviantArt - where you might even get good pictures to go with it - and checking the fangroups (Perncraft springs to mind; http://perncraft.deviantart.com/ ) or the fanfic sections of this or other Pern message boards. I've written two myself (to shamelessly plug my writings) that can be read here (http://amcalmaron.deviantart.com/gal...et=24#/d3lkxdw http://amcalmaron.deviantart.com/art...F13729591&qo=3) if you're interested, and there's plenty more by the other artists on this forum; Dragonsong: An Alternate Tune (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3331750/...Alternate-Tune) is an interesting one that springs to mind, and the Dragonchoice series (http://www.dragonchoice.com/) is a great read (although it doesn't involve any canon characters)!.

It does seem like there's more OC fics out there than ones involving characters from the books; I guess the lure of imagining an entirely new dragon character is too great - plus, exploring a world is fun too, and there's plenty of periods in Pern's history to explore without having to remain constrained by the limits of certain periods of time. Although the lack could also be a leftover from the point in time where there were very strict rules regarding Pern fanfics...the exact details regrettably escape me at the moment, but I'm sure another member could fill you in.

[Kath]

You've asked the right people!

This is a collection of some of the older canon-compliant fics on FF.net, which I've not updated in donkeys' years.

DragonDays is my major piece of canon fanfic. I also have a collection of 100 100-word drabbles, most of which involve canon characters. If you want just the canon drabbles, the 9th pass ones are posted separately over at AO3 here, but you'll miss the early pass ones.

I've got a lot of fic up at AO3 now, not all of which involves canon characters. There's an original first-pass colonist involved in the production of the dragons, a short missing scene for Emily Boll, a sketchy alternate-universe ficlet branching off from Dragonflight, several fics about Mirrim... and if you want to try reading a story which does feature original characters, why not try Those the Dragons Heed which people seem to enjoy. And then read the rest of 'em, if you want.

There are a lot of fics by other people on AO3 in the DRoP section, and the ratio of canon:original characters is more in favour of canon than it is at FF.net... but you will have to wade past all the crossovers while you're there.

Also, you need to read Faye Upton's Dragonchoice and its sequel. It's not canon

It's better.

[Almaron]

Goodness, I hadn't realised you were the person who wrote Weyr Life! I loved those drabbles!

Cool, now I've got lots more stuff to read...

[Kath]

Yeah, that was me! Glad to know you liked reading them.

I should probably warn any new readers that a lot of the drabbles are rather dark. They were written while I was grieving, and I made full use of any catharsis I could find at the time.

[iszy]

Thanks very much for the links! I will spend some enjoyable hours reading them all.

Kath on my search for Pern fanfic I have already come across your DragonDays fic and really enjoyed reading it (are you still actively writing?) But your post only further reinforces my point that apart from your enjoyable fics, plus a scattered few that is all that amounts for the Pern fanfic community. I don't know if you belong to any other fandoms, but the Pern fanfic volume is literally a drop in the ocean compared to most other fandoms.

[Kath]

Yeah, I know, but it's still slowly ticking over. For a niche lit fandom, it's not so far behind, say, the vorkosiverse. We just need more writers....

(Am I still active? The last handful of fics all come from the last couple of months!)

[Brenda]

I've written three "behind the scenes" stories with canon characters:
Mirrim's Vigil
News From the Weyr
Missing Link

Oh, and one drabble...


Those are all in line with official canon. I also wrote a story with canon characters, changing the direction of a major event in the 9th Pass...
Dragonsong: An Alternate Tune



You might also check the Writers' Forum at The New Kitchen Table. A lot of the members there have stories here as well, but not everyone has cross-posted.

[D. M. Domini]

The two main fanfic haunts are fanfiction.net and AO3. Deviantart can do fic, but it's a huge PITA to get it on there...it's MUCH friendlier to fan art.

I agree there's a HUGE lack of canon-character fanfic, and very few people filling in the holes. My theory is that the prime years of Pern fandom had rules against it, and it wasn't until the 2000s that Anne McCaffrey changed her rules. But by then, those who would have written such fic had moved onto more welcome (fic-wise) fandoms. Also, Pern fandom predates a lot of the fanfic sites. I have no doubt in closets and attics around the world are fanzines and stories that we'll never see.

I have my fanfic up at http://www.fanfiction.net/u/97624/, and at http://archiveofourown.org/users/dmdomini. I tend to focus on the canon Harpers, rather than the Dragonriders.

My most popular fic is Slosh, which is a "let's have revenge on Half-Circle Sea Hold! Yay!" fic.

My second most popular fic is the Pern/Talent crossover The Day Benden Went to War.

And I have some other various stuffs up.

[Kath]

Originally Posted by Brenda

I've written three "behind the scenes" stories with canon characters:
Mirrim's Vigil
News From the Weyr
Missing Link

Oh, and one drabble...


Those are all in line with official canon. I also wrote a story with canon characters, changing the direction of a major event in the 9th Pass...
Dragonsong: An Alternate Tune



You might also check the Writers' Forum at The New Kitchen Table. A lot of the members there have stories here as well, but not everyone has cross-posted.

Also, you'll need to be a logged in member of the KT to see that part of the forum, I think.

[P'ter]

There are quite a few fan-fics on here in the Exhibition Hall

[Anareth]

Somewhere on here I have "One Sunlit Day" (also on AOOO and fanfiction.net). It's Capiam/Desdra from Moreta.

And really, if you think Pern has a small fanfic section, try something like "Girl Genius." Honestly, compared to the things with BIG fandoms and the ones with very small ones, Pern has a reasonable amount and it's picking up (you have to remember besides being a relatively small fandom the core age skews older, and most who are interested enough that they'd be fanfic writers come out of the time when there was the 'no fanfic, RPGs can ONLY have non-canon characters'.)

[Brenda]

Originally Posted by Kath

Also, you'll need to be a logged in member of the KT to see that part of the forum, I think.

Ah, I'd forgotten that! But it's no big deal to sign up there.

[Brenda]

D.M. Domini, do you plan to write any more on "Slosh"? I read it just now and it is *very* unresolved!

[Lily]

Oh me too! I do hope to see more, real soon!!!!!

[Kugai]

Well. I see my short Pern ficlet is still there on FF.Net (and I think I Posted it on the other two sites as well), but yeah, the list over there on FF.net has shrunk a bit in the last few years.

[D. M. Domini]

Brenda - it's not so much that I plan/do not plan as it is having inspiration strike. But, Slosh is not shelved like Skyboom is. So there's hope.

That said...I told myself 2013 was the year of the novel. The original novel, that is. So if all goes properly I'll be writing a lot of that...and less fanfic. (Says the person who has published several fanfic updates since the start of the year.)

[Kath]

Originally Posted by D. M. Domini

Brenda - it's not so much that I plan/do not plan as it is having inspiration strike. But, Slosh is not shelved like Skyboom is. So there's hope.

That said...I told myself 2013 was the year of the novel. The original novel, that is. So if all goes properly I'll be writing a lot of that...and less fanfic. (Says the person who has published several fanfic updates since the start of the year.)

Can we inspire/nag each other? Despite planning on finishing the 200k mega-fic-of-doom, I also hope to make 2013 the year of selling original fic.

[mawra]

This is a story I wrote for something we were doing on a differ site.

http://forums.srellim.org/showthread.php?t=8682

[Brenda]

I'm going to give this thread a bump, just so I remember to look some of these up!

[Kath]

Just so you know - there'll be two stories following on from the Dragondays timeline at some point this year.

[P'ter]

and I hope to have one or two more Byrt who-dun-its over the summer.

[GinnyStar]

I've got a few more then what in my siggy

[scendera]

Originally Posted by Kath

Just so you know - there'll be two stories following on from the Dragondays timeline at some point this year.

Anxiously awaiting!

[Kath]

And they tell of gold... was one of them.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/155...apters/3295040