McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Fanfiction - Good or Evil?
Sil76:
Yep, long as one remembers it's all in good fun -- it's good practice and mental exercise ;D
Courser:
I'll raise my hand and confess to both reading and writing fanfic.
There is a LOT of really horrible fanfic out there, no doubt, and I've gotten extremely selective about what I'll read in the last few years.
Not all of us are raving nutjobs, either. I actually belong to a small, tiny really, writing group that's aimed towards moving into original work as well. We all view writing fanfic as a way to improving our writing in general. I'm amazed sometimes at just how far my writing has come in the few years I've known these people.
For the record, I've never touched anything from a book universe. Generally those worlds are pretty complete for me and I don't feel that there's anything I could add. So no, I have no urge or intention to ever write any Dresden-verse fanfic. And maybe I also feel it's a bit disrespectful towards the authors.
Personally, I would be horrified if anyone associated with with the source material were to see my stories. I have no illusions that way. No, I don't write slash, but still. That's not why I write it.
Why don't I put forth more effort into original work? Quite frankly, I've got an extremely demanding job and I work a lot of overtime. I simply don't have the bandwidth right now to create my own universe. Yet I have the drive and desire to write something. I do it for relaxation and my own edification. If a few of my friends enjoy it, more's the better. Not a lot of people see my stuff and that's fine with me. But bottom line, I feel it's better to keep my hand in, keep practicing, even if it's with other people's characters, than to do nothing.
RMatthewWare:
I wrote my first novel at work. Each day I would have several hours where I was alone and had nothing else to do. My work was caught up and I could either surf the web (which gets boring fast and is looked down on at work), read a book (also looked down on), or write my novel. Writing was the one thing they couldn't trace. I stuck my flash drive in the computer, wrote all I could for that day, then took it back out and took it home. No problems. Before that I simply e-mailed sections of the story to myself. I thought it was kind of funny, actually, because I was technically getting paid to write my book. Now I just need to finish editing it and get it sold. Then I'll make the big bucks. Or maybe just get it sold and not make anything. There's something to be said about having a copy of a book you wrote sitting on your bookshelf.
Matt
ColdWinterWind:
Don't usually read fanfic anymore, most of the stuff I've read tended to focus on the fanfic author's favorite traits of a particular character, rather than exhibiting the depth that the originating author would instill. Having said that, however, I do recall a series of fantasy novels that were set in a particular city. I forget (gasp!) the original author, or the names of any of the novels, the characters, or even the city. Something quite similar to Terry Pratchett's Discworld characters, but waaaay before him (yeah, I've got some years on me.).
Anyway, after the originator of the series (so it appeared) started to run out of stories to tell, somebody came up with the idea of the shared universe, in which different authors would borrow some of the original characters and use them in a supporting role to their own (newly-minted) protagonist; again, set within the same city. This was done with the original author's consent and, sometimes, complicity - as in co-writer. As I recall the main ground rules were that the borrowing author could not kill off an original character, nor have the original character exhibit behavior which was grossly "out of character".
Quite ofter the non-originating writers would say in the author's notes that they were raving (sic) fans of the original works, and were so very, very honored to be allowed to play in that universe.
So, on the whole 'fanfic-angel or demon' question, I'm with the pitchforks and torches crowd, except when...
Guardian 452:
--- Quote from: Torvaldr on April 07, 2007, 07:06:14 AM ---I am not sure I like the attitude that some authors/writers have about fanfic. I am a singer/songwriter/storyteller as well and have 4 CDs out, and I LOVE to hear someone singing my songs or telling my stories. In fact just recently I met someone who told me that after hearing my stories that they were inspired by me to take up storytelling.
--- End quote ---
I think this was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I'll mention it again. Please keep in mind that the attitude of some authors/writers isn't so much about people "playing in their backyard" as it is a legal issue.
There are others here who can talk about this in more depth, but as I understand it it was Anne McCaffrey who found herself being sued by someone who'd written fanfic in the Pern universe. Something in one of her novels was similar to something in one of these fanfics, and the writer decided McCaffrey had "stolen" the idea! I'm sure someone else can give more info...I'm quoting memories of stuff I heard second and third-hand. Obviously (assuming all this did happen) Ms. McCaffrey wasn't sued successfully, but my guess is if you're on the wrong end of a lawsuit once, you don't want to go through that again.
One I do remember involved Harry Potter. In a news story there was a stink because a woman was writing HP fanfics (for example, a retelling of the first book from Hermione's POV). Warner Brothers took an interest (somewhat negative) as she was putting this stuff out online and at the beginning of each story put in that all ideas/characters, etc were a copyright of hers!
I agree with people here that fanfics can be great learning tools. Sadly the actions of a few individuals have meant that many authors have needed to take a negative view of them.
Keith
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