What do you think of Fan Fiction?

Don't publish.

If you think of your work as an extension of yourself, and you think that someone being critical of your work (or, wait, someone LIKING your work but doing something you don't like with it?) is the equivalent of someone walking into your house and punching your daughter in the face?

Don't publish. It would be too painful for you.

I mean, really, if this is how you're looking at your work, you'll probably have to self-publish. (I can just imagine an editor sending you suggestions and you replying with a diatribe about the editor saying your daughter needs plastic surgery, or whatever you'd come up with). And if you self-publish, probably very few people will read your work (there are exceptions to this, but not that many). So I guess it's all probably a moot point. No-one will read it, so no-one will care enough about it to fanfic it, so... you'll be safe. Your daughter will be safe.

I wonder if that will be a satisfying feeling for you as a writer...

 

You should never ever ever ever read reviews, or discussions about your book. Never. Pray you get a blind agent, and an editor who doesn't edit, and God forbid a college professor should put it on their class reading list. Because your daughter is going to be black and blue.

 

Not sure I understand this. I'm proud of my daughter. I let her model; I let her walk down the catwalk. How is that inviting someone to punch her in the face? Sure she's out there, but that doesn't mean I want her violated in any way, and it doesn't mean she wants to be violated. [BTW, I don't really have a daughter. I'm speaking metaphorically.]

Putting a piece of work out there into the world does not mean you're inviting someone to violate it. Critics can criticize it; that's their job. They can look at it and evaluate it and attempt to determine its relevance in today's society, etc., but they can't pervert it. They can't attempt to repurpose it.

 

A good way to learn how bands write songs is to do covers. "Serious" bands play covers all the time.

Does art really come in amounts, or are things either an art or not?

 

My two cents, again:

I understand this "extension of myself," idea in a work; when I sit down to make something, I'm doing so from the point of expression, and that expression is usually related to some part of me. What I don't understand is this next clause, wherein one then says, "Since this is me or of me, no other may touch it." I think it's great when someone feels connected to their work on a deep level, because that is what it can all be about sometimes, but who cares if someone breaks into your sandbox and ruins your castles that are but sand for an impending wave anyhow? I mean, what are we saying? That since I have made this thing and put it in a public sphere, no one else can draw from it, sample it, interact with it, or modify it? It is like giving a gift to the world, but regulating how it ought be used. If you are giving it, then do give it; do not dole with fine print. It isn't as if someone is literally altering a physical piece of your belonging. It is not as though you have only a single chair, and someone has up-decided it ought not have four legs. You have a picture of a chair in your mind, or a drawing of a chair in words on an easily malleable and reproduce-able page, and someone down the street making more creation out of your creation's flesh does not make the original disappear: this is only an addition and a building -- and the wonder of art if I might be dull. If one demands such ownership of their work, their painting, their castles, their daughter, then I think one ought lock these things in a hole and never let them understand what sun and air is.

Why can it not be repurposed, made a whore of, illegitimatized, tainted, or slaughtered, not burnt to ashes, blended inside out, and be made a spectacle of perversion?

 

Too many people here care about what others think. The OP asked for opinions, and that's all they are. If you like fanfic, go ahead and like it. Indulge in it and care about it. If you don't like it, you're free to express that dislike.

If you choose to write, read, and enjoy fanfiction, you need to come to terms with the fact, not the belief, but the fact, that not everyone will take it or you very seriously. You either accept that or go off and cry in a corner. Because it will not change. Not anytime soon, anyway.

 

None of you seem to be getting it. Not you, not @AlannaHart, not anyone.

The original writer is not objecting to your fanfiction. He is merely wondering why you want to write your fanfiction. He is not trying to prevent you from writing fanfiction. He is not the ogre screaming "Get off my lawn!" And he already knows that you're a fan and love his world. etc. All that is understood. The isn't about him. It's about you. It's understandable that you want to write fanfiction. But where's the thing in your personality that says, "No, wait. This is another writer's world. I should make my own. Who gave me the right to muck around in this other writer's world? Don't I have anything of my own to contribute?"

There are hip-hop stars who have made millions out of sampling. They think, "Oh, look! Here's something lying around! I'll just take it and make myself a million dollars!" What they don't understand is that it's NOT just lying around. It's somebody's life's work. They take it, repurpose it, and release it. They release it without even the original creator's knowledge. Is this good?

 

It can, but I'm not going to respect you for it.

 

@Ulramar, that is an excellent explanation of how an author might feel about a work of fiction and why. It almost seems like you would feel the same way about a real person fanfic about yourself as you would feel about a fanfic of the work you refer to.

My point has been to ask where that thing in your personality comes from. I cannot answer why I do not have a certain inhibition if I do not know why I would have it in the first place.

However, at this point, I might finally have an answer. There is a very similar inhibition that prevents me from writing fanfiction: "No, wait. This is a fictional world that only a certain group of people have the context to appreciate. I should make my own. Why limit myself? There are so many additional things I could contribute if I invented my own world."

The difference between your thinking and mine is that you look at it from the perspective of the author; I look at it from the perspective of the reader. As I said before, the questions "Is this worth writing?" and "Will this be worth reading?" are exactly the same. "Will this be worth reading?" has nothing to do with whether someone's life's work is being repurposed (as a reader of fiction, I do not care who wrote it, unless I am studying literary history), but it has a lot to do with whether the reader can enjoy the process of discovering a new imaginary world.

Reading some of the objections to fanfiction is a cautionary tale that warns me not to take my own acts of imagination too seriously. I have always thought of each component of a work of fiction (especially a character) merely as a tool to stimulate the reader's imagination, rather than an extension of myself. Now I will take even more care to keep it that way, lest I wander too far down the path where I end up feeling personally violated by people who write fanfiction of my work.

And I really do wonder when in history did people start to wander down that path -- when in history did acts of imagination become sacred fragments of the author's soul, no longer simply tools to stimulate someone's imagination, or artefacts of cultural tradition?

 

A lot of sampling is cleared. Sampling is just as creative a process as other methods of making music.

Fanfiction is not being used to make money by definition. Your argument is against copyright infringement.

 

It's fun to read what others like about tv and films. It's nice to hear that others are so passionate about it. I wouldn't write any fan fiction but that's only because I have nobody in mind that will be interested in it, as I like films nobody related to me will enjoy reading about (saw series, Neil blomkamp films).

 

For those with the metaphorical daughters, I would put forth this scenario:

You write a story about your fictional daughter and her friendship with the elderly widower next door, a grandfather figure whose own children live far away. A literary critic publishes a scathing commentary about condoning inappropriate relationships between adults and children. Are you going to respond with fatherly rage and tell reviewers they have no right to state what they saw in your story? That they can only publish reviews that reflect your vision of your story?

In the end, it doesn't matter one whit whether you folks understand the motivations of fanfic writers. If your book is popular enough to generate fanfic and you don't want to allow your fans their participation, say so and it won't happen. But again - just because you don't understand it doesn't make it bad or worthless. And it certainly doesn't mean you can diss the people who write it with impunity.

 

Absolutely. And it doesn't matter one whit whether you folks understand the motivations of those that look down on fanfic with either contempt or outright dismissal. That way, we can all wallow in our own interests and opinions without getting so high and mighty about it, on either side. Ah, bliss. But it is good to hear either side to get a better understanding. And that goes for both sides, fanfic fanatics.

PS, fanfic is 'wanna be' writing. Now go brew some tea!

 

For those talking about metaphorical daughters, since having some of my junk published I've seen it in a slightly different light. I see myself as more like a father bird really, I have birth to this little chick, I nourished it, and I showed it how to make it's own way in the world, but in a way, it's got to fly and live by itself or it'll die.

And by dying I mean leaving it in a folder of my computer, never to be read by anyone ever again.

 

At the end of my long winded 'get off my lawn' metaphor, I clarified that I wasn't actually referring to you, or the average writer, I was referring to people who DO have a problem with it, which is their problem. I don't think you seem to be getting the parts of my comments that do address your questions, by the way.

Sampling is a completely different issue involving massive profit on the sampler's behalf. I can understand artists getting a little more than miffed about that.

I don't even write fanfiction, I'm just a whole-hearted supporter of it. Not everyone is interested in making their own world and not everyone believes that fanfiction IS mucking around in someone's world. Your opinion is not a natural part of everyone's personality. It's not always about contributing. When you don't make money out of something and it's not going to be considered original, why do you think people do it? I don't think you've attempted to put yourself in the shoes of fanfiction writers.

 

Wait. Who is this 'original writer'? Are you back to pretending to speak for someone else?

Maybe the 'original writer' is one of the many on the list I provided a few pages ago of major, popular authors who love the fanfic of their work. Maybe he's Jim Hines, who says, "I can’t think of a single way fanfic hurts me as an author. And I can think of ways in which it helps." Maybe she's Stephenie Meyer, who provides a link to fanfic sites from her official site. Maybe he's Gene Rodenberry, saying, "Best of all, all of it was plainly done with love.... That is the highest compliment and the greatest repayment that they could give us." Or good ol' JK Rowling, who says, "I find it very flattering that people love the characters that much." Maybe your 'original writer' is Joss Whedon, with, "That’s why I made these shows. I didn’t make them so that people would enjoy them and forget them; I made them so they would never be able to shake them. It’s the way I am as a fan. I create the shows that would make me do that."
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Professional_Author_Fanfic_Policies

So instead of trying to speak for the mythic "original writer", maybe you should just go back to speaking for yourself. If you don't like fanfiction, fine. No big thing. Other authors obviously have different attitudes toward it, and that's fine too.

So... It's not about the imaginary authors, and it's not about the ridiculous words you try to put in the mouths of people who write fanfiction.

You apparently enjoy fiction passively and on your own. That's fine. Others enjoy it more actively, and in groups. They aren't too worked up about the way you're doing things - why are you worried about them?

 

What am I to do with this? What?

 

You are supposed to love JK Rowling's characters and flatter her.

 

Hi, I'm Lemex, I don't believe we've met.

 

I wonder if there's a difference between writing Fan Fic for something that is essentially a filmed story (a TV series or a movie) and writing Fan Fic based on another fiction writer's books.

I know writers produce scripts for TV and movies, but these are meant only to be seen by the people who produce the filmed product. So a writer isn't likely to be copying or stealing another writer's work, if they just riff off a film or TV programme? They would be working with ideas and characters generated by the series or movie, but wouldn't be copying another writer's style.

Whereas somebody who fanfics from another writer? Is that different?

Just wondering what other people think. Is one 'better' than another? Would a scriptwriter be incredibly annoyed by somebody using his original characters to write another episode? Characters that might actually have been thought up by somebody else who commissioned him to write the script in the first place? More than a novelist might be annoyed, if another writer decided to write a novel that copied his characters AND writing style, and simply created new adventures for them?

It's interesting that some authors welcome fanfic and some hate it. There obviously isn't a one-size-fits-all opinion on this.

 

For the same reason why we want to write original fiction: we were thinking about characters we love, we came up with a possible challenge that they could face, and we felt the urge to explore how the characters would respond to that challenge.

And if fan fiction were about page-for-page copying a work wholesale and trying to profit from claiming it as ones own, then there would be a problem. Fanfiction is about adding ideas to the original without trying to claim any profit or ownership.

 

There is a lot said in this thread about what fanfiction is - and no one seems to agree. Is it an artfom or isn't it? If it is an artform it is open to criticism, if it isn't, and is merely a pointless diversion, it isn't as worth people's time as real art. Which is it?

 

When I speak, I'd stress that I don't speak of fan fiction. Or, at least, it isn't the focus. I talking more generally about alteration and lack of ownership in works.

 

Well, I don't write fan fiction, but I'd guess I'd probably put my guess with some of @shadowwalker and some of @daemon .

On this "No, wait. This is another writer's...":

I'd say that altering someone else's work is a contribution. To say that the only contributions that exist are entirely from-scratch ones is not encompassing, I'd say, and an undue limitation. Mucking in this other writer's world can add to expression. If the writer's world is hinged upon themes or events that another can morph to better express a different point, what's wrong with that? Why is that any less creative? It's communication -- a dialogue. Manipulation, exchange, these things can be creative and wonderful. Again, I'm speaking only of fan fiction, but this discussion of fan fiction has brought up an idea that I think needs to disappear in art: ownership. To limit the ability of others to interact with a work is to limit the potential for creative expression.

If one makes a piece of music that is entirely of sampled material, that is still making something. With your hip-hop star, I would put his artistic character low simply by his seeming nature, banking millions of disinterested crap.

Why does it matter that it's another writer's world? This is what I don't understand. These are ideas, fictional places, and yes toiled over, but still in the abstract, regardless if it's on paper, for it isn't going anywhere.

 

[It'sOTE="Lemex, post: 1279833, member: 2124"]There is a lot said in this thread about what fanfiction is - and no one seems to agree. Is it an artfom or isn't it? If it is an artform it is open to criticism, if it isn't, and is merely a pointless diversion, it isn't as worth people's time as real art. Which is it?[/QUOTE]

It's an Artform. It's Drawing A BearD On The Mona Lisa. Maybe DA Vinci Is Okay With It. Maybe Not. Maybe It's An Artsy BearD That Keeps The Style. Or Maybe It's Ruining The Piece.
Fanfic Doesn't Ruin The Initial Piece But It's An Addition, Like The Beard. It's Probably Not An Enhancement, But Sometimes It Is.

Also, Gawk At My Daughter (Criticize) All You Like. But Do Not Punch Her. And Do Not Enter My House Invited.

This Is All Caps Because My Phone Is Acting Up Today. Sorry For The Eye Sores.