What do you think of Fan Fiction?

This is not true. Sure, it might physically be Earth, but the viewpoint is everything. Hemingway sees Earth from a completely different viewpoint from Henry James. Samuel Beckett sees a different Earth from the one P.G. Wodehouse sees. Scarlett O'Hara walked the same planet at the same time (more or less) as Captain Ahab. Kim Jong Un and Lady Gaga breathe the same air (they're both fictional characters, right? RIGHT?).

In literature, context is everything. Viewpoint is everything. People can live on the same planet at the same time and still not exist in the same universe.

 

@shadowwalker Well, as far as I'm concerned, when a statement starts with 'as far as I'm concerned' it's acknowledging that what follows is a personal opinion, not an objective fact. I think teenage vampire fiction is cheesy and stupid, and I won't apologise for that.

 

I was just using Star Trek as a rather generic example. Sorry for that. Doesn't change my point, though.

 

Authors who don't want fanfic written about their stuff have many avenues open to stop it. The largest site for fanfic refuses to allow stories based on those authors' work. Ditto with authors who do not want slash fanfic about their characters but don't mind other types.

 

Then you shouldn't be surprised when others don't accept unapologetic rudeness quietly.

 

@shadowwalker I don't see any rudeness. But you have the right to be offended by whoever's opinions you want.

 

Why do people keep remarking that it is interesting how much passion fanfiction writers have for this subject?
Of cause people will debate and counter argue with people who dismiss something they enjoy as stupid, immature and uncreative. Yes, there is a lot of passion coming from that side but remember that it is only to counteract the passion of the people who seem to be very anti-fanfiction.
I'm starting to think that this should have originally been posted in the debate room as this is a writing forum and it must have been known that some people would have strong opinions of it.

 

Oh, you know, folks'll be folks.

 

Gods are jealous folk. We, as gods of our own universes as writers, may not want to share that universe. I don't think I would, or, at least I'd make clear where the characters are headed to keep everything canon and consistent. Despite what we want, even saying straight up that we don't want fanfiction, it happens. That may be violating for some, especially some that spent years forging their universe.

Here are five examples: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-shockingly-insane-game-thrones-fanfiction-sex-scenes/

Yes yes it's a comedy website but it's relevant. George R.R. Martin wanted no fan fiction for A Song of Ice and Fire, and there it is, Arya and Jon warging into their wolves, having sex.

 

@Ulramar
Awesome article!
I laughed so bad

As a fan, if Martin says no fanfiction, I wouldn't write it out of respect for what he has given us.

 

Not only did Marin say "No fanfiction please," look what we got. I mean, that's just horrid. It made me ashamed of writing, even my own stuff. Like, wow.

 

Rule 34, mate.
If it exists, there is porn of it.
It's not exclusive to pictures.

 

This is an internet thing, isn't it?

 

Sadly I think it is. Ask anyone what "Rule 34" is outside of the internet and they may stare at you awkwardly. But on the internet, EVERYONE knows.

 

Everyone but your friendly neighborhood wolf, but he at least knows it's a thing!

 

You're lucky for not knowing. Fan fiction is the living embodiment of Rule 34.

 

I'm a very egotistical god then. Praise me with horrible fanfiction! Write copious disturbing sex scenes with my characters! Pray to me via slash and baffling AUs!

 

To my knowledge, I've read this whole thread. I will admit, it wasn't the most diligent reading that I've done, but I read it. If I've missed something, though, do tell me.

My question: Why does anyone care what someone else does with "their" work?

If I theoretically got published, and someone shit all over my production, defaming it, taking it in every direction I didn't want it to go, and ruining everything the production had going for it, I'd be perfectly cool with that. As far as I'm concerned, they added to the dialogue in existence, and I can't ask for more than that, let alone stifle it. What is better: Owning your work and preventing anyone else form altering it, or having a free-form artistic dialogue? If you care about art, I'd say that you ought choose the latter.

What about sampling? Cover songs? The formation of jazz? All these are worthless?

 

I think fanfic can be a good way to practice, and very often what brings on the creative itch in the first place. There is a bit of a market for it, too, but I think a writer is cheating himself or herself out of much of the joy of the craft if he or she doesn't create the settings and characters from scratch. Using someone else's creation as a starting point is easier, but limiting.

 

But if certain people don't enjoy the creation of settings/characters, they're not missing any joy.

 

And again, we seem to be ignoring the main reason a great many people write fanfic - because they enjoy the book/show/movie/etc - not because they love writing. The writing is merely a way of expressing their participation in the fandom. They write fanfic first and foremost because of being a fan, not because they want to be writers. Some of us do - many do not. So of course, many stories are not going to meet writers' expectations - why should they? But there are other stories which meet and/or exceed those expectations, which is why painting all fanfic with one broad, biased brush just does not work - and creates a great deal of animosity by the victims of that bias.

 

I have to refrain from joining this argument/discussion -as much as I want to- as I am incredibly opinionated about it.

 

To clarify what follows: @minstrel, I understand that this is not necessarily your point of view, so "you" refers not to you personally but to the type of author who would have that point of view.

You said only someone who has never created an original character would ask why someone would feel violated by fanfiction. Apparently, instead of "someone who has never created an original character", you meant "someone who has a grip on reality". Someone who can distinguish between raising a child and imagining a child.

And what does that say about you if you write about a drug-addicted underage prostitute? Does that make you a father who pimps his daughter and gets her hooked on drugs?

I seriously do not get where this "my characters are my children" mentality comes from. When in history did fictional characters stop being tools for conveying a message and start being a piece of someone's soul? When did authors become deluded into viewing themselves as "gods" of their own little worlds?

See below, but the short answer is: "I am not writing 1 fanfic instead of 1 original story. I am writing n original stories + 1 fanfic instead of just n original stories."

Who are you to judge how I may string words together? You have constructed the idea of ownership in your own mind. I cannot do your work for you to support that idea.

I might be the most ardent defender of fanfiction here. The reason is not that I think fanfiction is inherently the greatest thing in the world, but that several works of fiction that mean a lot to me, including my favorite work, happen to be fanfiction. A blanket criticism of fanfiction is a criticism of those works. But I do not get upset when someone calls fanfiction stupid for the same reason I did not get upset when my four year old brother did not like the music I listened to and he called it stupid. I simply like to dispel ignorance when it relates to something I care about.

This is the most rational and mature statement of the caveats of fanfiction so far. And there is truth to it: strictly sticking to canon is limiting; it can withhold an author from exploring a story in directions that are potentially better. If someone has an idea for a fanfic, then I would encourage him to try to formulate it as a non-fanfic, just to explore the possibilities and see if there are better options out there. The thing is, authors limit themselves all the time. It involves tradeoffs. For example, if you write a story that takes place in a real city, then you refrain from writing about something that could not possibly take place in that city, even if that thing would make the story a better story. But that constraint has many benefits, most importantly, a sense of immediacy and realism that the reader might appreciate.

More general thoughts, expanding on @shadowwalker's statement that fanfiction is often more of a way to participate as a fan than to be a writer:

One point that seems to be ignored by naysayers is that fanfiction is generally a reaction to another work. If people search for material to recycle out of laziness, then that is the exception to the rule. The thought process that goes into fanfiction is not necessarily:

"I want to be a writer. To be a writer, I must write something. But then I would have to go through all the work of coming up with characters. Ugh, what a chore. How can I avoid that? I know. I will just steal this other author's character development work, represent it as my own, and build my own story off of that."

Instead:

"That character has an interesting personality. I have enjoyed seeing how she reacts to certain situations. I wonder how she would react to _____ situation. Crap, now that idea is stuck in my head. Now it keeps me awake at night because I cannot stop imagining the possibilities. If I put it in words, then maybe I can get it out of my head. Hopefully it can give other fans like me something interesting to read and to think about."

Or even:

"That story affected me in a way that I cannot describe. Seriously, how can I even begin to describe it... actually, _____ is an analogy that works pretty well. Now that I put it that way, that is pretty deep. Actually, that analogy could be the plot premise of a great short story. Now I want to write that story to express how I feel. It just so happens that the story would work best if the characters are the same characters from the original work itself."

That is the opposite of laziness. Fanfiction is not necessarily an alternative to writing original fiction; it is an alternative to doing nothing. The lazy thing to do in response to a work of fiction is to think "well, that was a good story" and move on. The not-lazy thing is to interact with the ideas and with other fans.

 

@daemon Personally, I get very emotional about my characters. They aren't real, I understand that. But I created them from start to finish. They would not exist without me, and they are my brain child. I'd hate to have someone mutilate and contort my child in a way that I didn't intend. Because I know them better than the person mutilating them and that's not their job. As I said, if a writer says, "Hey guys fan fiction is cool go ahead and write it with my characters!" go ahead. But even after writers like George R.R. Martin have said "Please don't use my characters for fan fiction!", it's still there.

And I use the word god loosely. We are the omnipotent creators of the universe in which our characters live. We built that universe and it would not exist without us. Our characters don't worship us but we are, more or less, gods.