Is It Just Me . . .

[April]

. . . or are Roswell fanfic writers better than all the other fanfic writers out there?

Okay, I may be a little biased because I'm more interested in Rosfic than anything else, but seriously, I've ventured into other fandom's fics before, and while there are some good ones, they just don't compare to the quality I've gotten used to with Roswell fanfic.

What do you guys think? What is it about Roswell that makes the fiction so good? Is it the show itself? The characters? The authors? The readers?

[Heavenli24]

Over the last 10 years, I've read fanfic in the Buffy (5 years), Roswell (nearly 6 years) and Twilight (a few months) fandoms, and for me, the Roswell fic wins hands down in terms of quality of writing and imagination.

With the Buffy/Angel fic, I was content to just read fanfics that fixed or changed things that happened in the show, and that ultimately got Buffy and Angel back together again. Looking back now, quite a lot of the fanfic was short and wasn't all that well-written, containing spelling and grammar mistakes, but what I needed then was just to read 'fixing it' stories that I wished had really happened on the shows, but couldn't because of the Angel spin-off (episode rewrites, Angel turning human, Riley finding out about Angel, fixing Angel's curse etc.).

When I found Roswell fic, I think I was ready to move on from the short, 'fixing it' stories that I liked in Buffy... and I was blown away by the amazing, well thought-out stories in the Roswell fandom. I haven't found any writers in other fandoms that come close to the talent of some of the Roswell fic authors (Breathless is the first one that comes to mind, but there are many other amazing writers too). There are quite a few Roswell fanfics that I could see being published as novels because they are so good .

I'm not sure what makes the Roswell fiction so good - maybe it was that the writers of the show had this great set-up (season 1), but then kind of messed it up after that (seasons 2 and 3), therefore leaving the plots wide open for fanfic authors to write them better. Maybe it's that the fans of the show have great imaginations and something about the show allowed them to explore the alien mythology and create wonderful fics. What I've noticed is that the Roswell stories here are quite mature compared to fics in other Fandoms - they are well-written, the authors take their time to plan out their stories carefully and the writing is pretty realistic too... at least in terms of relationships, emotions, character traits etc.... the stories often tackle real issues as well and don't trivialise or gloss over them, like I have seen happen in other fandoms.

[Eva]

Though I only know one fandom, I see much thruths in Heavenli24's opinion.

1. It's true: plotwriters wrote an amasing first season and then they lost their way on one or two occasions (maybe a bit more but heck, who's counting? ) and that left a lot of space to fill in. Viewers wanted it to see it in another way (Alex still alive, no doubles, no break-up between Max-Liz and between Michael-Maria). When I look back, I can clearly see most of the oldest stories are canon or AU with aliens. Later on they kept dreaming of our favourites characters, set in another scenario.
Which leads me to number two:

2. Roswell played almost ten years ago. Most of us are in are twenties or thirties, which brings a lot of maturity in the stories. We all live in the real world and we all have our own (realistic) encounters with real life. Which makes the stories a hell of a lot more real and accurate than the stories written by fifteen-year olds. I won't say that counts for every fic (written by teens or older writers) but generally I think it's correct.

3. Most of us, certainly the ones with another native tongue, have a beta-reader. Which leads to better grammaticaly correct stories.

[Alien_Friend]

I totally agree. Roswell fanfic writers are the best out there. I have tried to read other things but the quality that you find here you just can't find any where else. I think it is the types of people that Roswell speaks to that makes the quality better than others. To really live up to passion we all feel for the show demands that certain standards be upheld.

[begonia9508]

I read only stories about Roswell, even if I follow some great shows, which certainly have their own written stories: Bones, NCIS, the mentalist,... but Roswell possibilities are immense, the main theme being aliens...
And what more can fascinate people than the hypothetical search and proof that they are other beings, living somewhere else, in other planets...
Even the egyptians drawn symbols, which were decoded as, maybe aliens...

Anyway, I just love it and its like a drug! EVE

[Heavenli24]

Since I posted my reply above (1.5 years ago!), I've completely stopped reading Twilight fanfic (and am not really reading much Roswell fic anymore), but have briefly flirted with reading Vampire Diaries fic and my latest obsession is with Supernatural fanfic (and I've written some as well now too) .

After getting fed up with crappy Twilight fics and not finding many good TVD fics around, I was pleasantly surprised by the Supernatural fandom. Some of the SPN fanfics are surprisingly well-written, although the best ones are shorter emotional character studies rather than long novels. Like with Roswell, there are so many possibilities for Supernatural story plots and there is a lot of background that hasn't been covered in the show which can be expanded upon in fanfic .

So, of the 5 fandoms I've been part of over the years, my ranking in terms of which has the best writers is as follows (from best to worst):

1. Roswell (great range of plots and possibilities, wonderful writers, well-written characters)
2. Supernatural (brilliant character studies and character background stories)
3. Vampire Diaries (not enough stories around to really judge it and I'm kind of over the fandom now)
4. Buffy (not brilliantly written as the fandom was relatively young back then, but I was only 16 then and I enjoyed reading the stories)
5. Twilight (for the number of fics out there, there is so much crap - it's really difficult to find anything well-written or worth reading)

[Michelle17]

Hi all,

I was in high school when the show first air and the show saved me. I have been reading Roswell fanfiction since the show stopped. I found that all the writers on the board have always planned out they're stories. I feel like when the show went off, we were left with a lot off ideas and openings in the show. I know show stopped right when the war with Kivar was supposed to happen. I feel like we got ripped for not being able to see that. I could never leave this fandom. I mean I do read others, like I love Jason and Sam from general hospital, also I love Olivia and Elliot SVU fics. I love Queer as Folk Brian and Justin fics. But my heart has always been Roswell. Max and Liz have giving something to believe in. I can believe in True Love because of them.

[dreamerfiend]

I've read other fandom fics too and Roswell is hands down the best. The way people write is amazing. The stories are well explored, well thought out and long. Other fics that I've read end in like 10 chapters if that. I've read svu fics before and I think they're good too but not as good as roswell. I read svu fics for Elliott and Olivia. For Roswell, I read for all the characters but I'm a dreamer so mainly for them. I like the maturity in these fics as well as the great writing that accompanies it. I just think the writers are good and that's what makes Roswell fanfic the best.

I read in someone's comment that a lot of the fics here could be turned into novels and I agree. The stories are that good!