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50 Shades of Grey - kinda curious on everyone's thoughts

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Pengi:
So I just read an article about this 50 Shades of Grey by EL James. First up, I'll be the first to admit I'm reading it. I started reading it based on a rave from an employee at our local Books a Million, and I'm most definitely not usually into the whole romantic-erotica genre, but my interest was peaked because I'd heard somewhere that it had started off as fan fiction. Yeah, it's based on Twilight, but still. It got me to thinking. Do you guys think that maybe the incredible popularity of 50 Shades will give more or less credibility to us as fan fiction writers, and even more do you think we have any EL James (not necessary erotica) among our ranks, in our story library?

Pengi:
I just want to specify also: I personally think that the book is really iffy on the author's actual writing ability. I feel like there are WAY, WAY, WAAAYYY better writers on this site with more original storylines than this story has. Even before I realized it was Twilight fan fiction for certain, I was thinking that she ripped the story right out of Twilight and kept waiting for Christian to reveal his vampiresque ways. I seriously think we've got some great talent here on AC. I'm just wondering more or less what you guys think about A) the idea of publishing an altered fan-fiction in it's relatively original state... B) ...if it makes fan fic writers look more credible... C) ...or more pathetic... D) ....and why?

simple sue:
I know of an romance/erotica writer that started out in the fanfic field.   Granted,she didn't continue using the same stories but we all have to start somewhere and sometimes it's just a fluke when something blows up like this. I, myself, discovered it through the world of Twitter. I'm just waiting for my books to arrive :)

julilly:
So funny you started this thread because last night I was thinking about starting one lol

I only learned the other day that 50 Shades started out as fanfic. I then decided I needed to read it. You are right Hannah in that the author isn't the greatest author alive, but if you look at the romance/erotica genre it doesn't have an incredibly high standard for literary genius. There are things she kept doing that really bugged me like the really high-brow dialogue with words no one would ever use, the fact that she points out the time of year all the time (i.e. It was a warm Sunday in May) and the first couple of chapters end really abruptly. Her writing does get better though and I have to admit she's a better writer than Stephanie Meier!

The book wasn't as smutty as I had expected since the media was calling it "mommy porn". It took almost 80 pages before there was any nudity, so to speak.

What really bugged me, and maybe it's only because I knew going into it, was that it was so OBVIOUSLY Twilight fanfic. Yes, there are no vampires and it was AU fanfic to start but there keep being these moments that are clearly ripped out of Twilight. It's much worse in the first book than the second.

Although it brings to light that there is publishable fanfic out there will it not also bring to light that this woman essentially stole someone else's characters and is now profiting off them? Or, because it's alternate universe, is the distance enough?

mare:
I certainly hope not because I'm not sure if want people thinking all fanfic is patterned after smut or Twilight. I really can't say much about the book because I haven't read it and don't ever plan to but I saw the author on an interview where she basically said her writing wasn't important to her, she was just living out her fantasy. Uh, no thanks lol

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