Last week, my mother and sister arrived for their annual spring visit. I no sooner picked them up from the airport than my mother began to talk about a book she'd seen on Good Morning America - Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Apparently mommies all over are devouring this book, some even forgetting to pick up their kiddies from school or daycare! And a certain passage, the beginning of chapter fourteen to be exact, made GMA's weather anchor, Sam Champion, blush.
Okay, sign me up!
Not too far into it...something seemed eerily familiar.
I knew nothing about this book before my family's arrival but after Googling it found that a)it's a trilogy b) it's erotica (now I'm blushing) c) it was born out of Twilight fan fiction.
Um, about that last bit...
If you don't know the story, here's an informative AP article, but the elevator pitch is this: E.L. James wrote a racy, fan fiction novel Master of the Universe based on the characters in Twilight, and now has a seven figure deal with Vintage Books. The characters are older, and the situations extremely adult, but there are similar themes. The first book, Fifty Shades of Grey is currently number one on the NYT Combined Print and E-book Fiction Bestseller List. The second book in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker, is number two.
I'm not sure how I feel about this.
I'm not trying to discredit E.L. James because writing, in and of itself, is damn hard work. Putting one sentence after the other to create and shape a story takes hours...months...years. She found an audience, a niche for herself. These books had a built in following on a fan fiction site before they were published. So, Brava!
On the other hand, as I struggle - and I know I'm not alone - to create fresh characters, interesting premises and wrap it all up in a marketable package, I feel a bit disheartened. I want to believe that all my hard work will pay off someday soon, but news like this makes the saying "it's all just a crap shoot" that much more real.
Thoughts? Does E.L. James' success give you hope for all of us? Or does it make you just scratch your head and think WTF?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Fifty Shades of Fan Fiction
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I find this whole thing SO discouraging - another example of crap (and copycat crap at that) making millions while well crafted "mid list" titles either don't get published, or if they are, go OP quickly and get remaindered to Shop Rite and Target.
ReplyDeleteI find this whole thing SO discouraging - another example of crap (and copycat crap at that) making millions while well crafted "mid list" titles either don't get published, or if they are, go OP quickly and get remaindered to Shop Rite and Target.
ReplyDeleteI don't get it? Twilight to Fifty Shades? Nope. But if you want to look at plagerism....compare Fifty Shades with Gabriel's Inferno...that one yeah.
ReplyDeleteGale - I hear you. :(
ReplyDeletenvr2old - I'm not familiar with Gabriel's Inferno but apparently 50 Shades did come from Twilight fan fiction and once I found that out, it was almost impossible not to compare. And while the finished product is quite different, there are similarities - young, gorgeous, copper haired, emotionally unavailable dangerous man falls in love with dark haired, clumsy, starry eyed ingenue ready to throw away all that she's known to be with him. Although, one could argue that there are many, many books with similar themes of a powerful, gorgeous, rich man falling for an average Jane, who turns out to be not so average. Whatever the formula, she's completely captured readers' imaginations with her novels.
I'm about 60% of the way through this book, and I'm on the fence about it. It definitely reads like fan fiction (throwaway characters, iffy plot arc, etc), but there's something really compelling about the growth of the two main characters in the story. I think that, more than the erotic aspect, is what's really speaking to women. You've got this emotionally damaged guy and this naive girl, and while he's strong, controlling man, he also has gentle moments of humor and self-deprecation, too. I'm not going to lie -- I'm enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteBrigid - I'm only about 40% through, but I agree that the interaction between the characters is definitely compelling. And, yes, I'm enjoying it but with a cynical writer's eye. I remember reacting the same way through Twilight when over and over Edward was described as this chiseled Adonis, so much so that I said out loud "Enough, I get it, he's gorgeous!" lol Since I'm going through my own manuscript at the moment for "overwriting" I think I'm particularly sensitive to this - so hard to read for just reading's sake sometimes!
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