In defense of fan fiction

I adore fanfic and think it's a great way to stretch your writing muscles. I don't think most people get into fanfic to sell it (and they shouldn't) - I just think they're genuinely so excited about something that they want to keep playing in that world, and I totally get that and totally understand it. I used to write fanfic all the time.

Legally, I can't read anything done in my world, but I would consider it the highest form of flattery if someone did fanfic in my universe. That would just rock.

This is the topic that never dies. Like vampires. What are your thoughts on those?

Irysangel said:

I adore fanfic and think it's a great way to stretch your writing muscles. I don't think most people get into fanfic to sell it (and they shouldn't) - I just think they're genuinely so excited about something that they want to keep playing in that world, and I totally get that and totally understand it. I used to write fanfic all the time.

Legally, I can't read anything done in my world, but I would consider it the highest form of flattery if someone did fanfic in my universe. That would just rock.

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Ditto all of the above.

Cyia said:

This is the topic that never dies. Like vampires. What are your thoughts on those?

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There. Twilight snark and lolcatz in one package.

I think "Fanfic" is sort of like "television" inasmuch as you can't really paint the entire field with one brush stroke.

Can fanfic be good for the writer? Sure. You have the opportunity to play in a world you already know, with characters you're already familiar with. In effect, the world-building's been done for you. Moreover, you have a built-in audience of fellow fans who will read your work and give you feedback. It's a great starting place, like training wheels while you learn to ride a bike. Of course, if you intend to start using your bike to commute, eventually you take off the training wheels.

Can it be flattering for the writer? Absolutely, just look in the thread above. What better compliment is there than "I love your world so much I want to tell stories in it," for a writer? (Though, of course, some fanfic authors cross a line and start saying 'the author really messed up the characters there,' usually when a relationship they were fond of doesn't turn out the way they hoped.)

Can it be trouble for the writer? Yes. A local writer I know someone send her (via snail mail, no less, as this was some years ago!) a long story they'd written involving two of her characters. In this story, her protagonist proceeded to bind, restrain, torture and rape his love interest in an extremely uncharacteristic manner. The author was horrified, and not surprisingly formed a pretty negative view of fanfic as a result. And of course, there's the infamous lawsuit involving Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, which touched off a lot of anti-fanwork sentiment as well.

And like many fan communities, there's always going to be instances of drama you can point to in the fanfic world. A personal favorite for me is someone who wrote Harry Potter fanfic and came up with their own original character they stuck into the stories. Someone else liked that character and decided to use it in /their/ fanfic. This being a tale of Drama and Woe, the first fanfic author went absolutely ballistic about their 'creative property being misappropriated,' completely ignoring the fact that they'd been 'misappropriating' J.K. Rowling's world and characters in the same way to begin with.



Point being, 'fanfic' encompasses a wide variety of things. And then there's a wider 'fan-works' community overall; sometimes the same authors who really dislike fanfic are really thrilled to receive fanart of their characters or settings, or to receive someone's "radio-play" style audio adaptation of their books.

There's really never going to be a single answer that even a majority of people can agree on with regards to fan-works, any more than you can say that 'all television programs are great' or 'all television programs suck.' There's just too much variety to easily label the entire field.

BenPanced said:

There. Twilight snark and lolcatz in one package.

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This is why you're my favorite.

Because we have so many (and they are linked above,) I'm going to lock this thread. Feel free to reanimate one of the other threads.

ETA: Upon further consideration, I just merged the new thread into the most recent Fanfic thread and unlocked. Enjoy.

I don't write fanfiction based on other people's works, but I am planning to write a novel incorporating both a fictitious series of novels, and fanfiction based on those fictitious novels.

I adore/obsess/love vampires.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydt2SmRPq5o

If you tell me something has vampires, I will read it, and determine to get through it, no matter how bad it may suck. I've read Twilight. I am trying very, very hard to read the Historian. My current obsession is LJ Smith's Vampire Diaries, because Damon is such a wonderfully snarky character it just makes me happy. Like Spike in beginning Buffy all over again :[

I love fan fic. It's a great way to expiriment with your writing style and to try different ways to write before applying it to an original story. Also, fan fiction is free. All ya gotta do is search for what you want to read.

AlexPiper said:

And like many fan communities, there's always going to be instances of drama you can point to in the fanfic world. A personal favorite for me is someone who wrote Harry Potter fanfic and came up with their own original character they stuck into the stories. Someone else liked that character and decided to use it in /their/ fanfic. This being a tale of Drama and Woe, the first fanfic author went absolutely ballistic about their 'creative property being misappropriated,' completely ignoring the fact that they'd been 'misappropriating' J.K. Rowling's world and characters in the same way to begin with.

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I actually came close to using a fellow-fan's original character but I decided against it in the end. Personally, I would find it a great honor if someone decided to write fanfic based on anything I created. I just hope they make the effort to do it justice...

I think forum roleplay is a better pastime, because it encourages writing AND the exploration of character. I'm not a fanfic fan because it lures people into a false sense of confidence; that their writing is good because they're writing about Zelda, not because they've established good characters and balanced it with good world-building. All that work has just kind of been done for them. I also take issue with characters that aren't themselves. If someone looks like Draco Malfoy, is named Draco Malfoy, but acts completely out of character for Draco Malfoy: that's not Draco Malfoy.
Fandoms can also be very volatile things, especially online. I mean, Cassandra Clare had a built in hatedom and fan wank before she even got published professionally. Her bad fanfic is still following her around.
When fanfic is used to stretch creative wings, it's great. But when it becomes Srius Bznezz and status jousting, it becomes a massive waste of time that distracts from the fact that the point of fanfic is TO WRITE.

Stijn Hommes said:

I actually came close to using a fellow-fan's original character but I decided against it in the end.

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A couple of other fanfic writers have asked if they could borrow or allude to an original character of mine in their work. I agreed happily each time - though that was partly because I knew them and had an idea what kind of fics they would write. But either way it was flattering.

I've written fanfic (under a pseudonym) that I'm still quite proud of. One was of the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" variety, weaving a new story into the background of a favourite anime series, the other was a short LotR story inspired by the movies but based on a re-reading of the appendices of the book. And then there was the utterly mad Blackadder/Merlin crossover that I wrote in a moment of crazed inspiration

The more serious the originating work, the more serious my fanfic tends to be. I would never have someone act totally out of character - for me, the whole fun is to extend the world in new and interesting ways, not to use someone else's characters as sock-puppets for my own neuroses.

Stijn Hommes said:

I actually came close to using a fellow-fan's original character

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I've had this happen with a character of mine. He appeared in multiple things I wrote and was declared "fanon" by a particular group of people in the fandom who then added him to their own stories. Very few asked permission (which is pretty much the way fanfic works, anyway)

It's WEIRD to see something you created in someone else's hands, especially if they screw up the character's personality - and most people do.

One character is nowhere near the level of an entire series being used, but when you see a character you built, who is nearly mute and speaks maybe 10-20 words in a 60K story, and suddenly he's spouting chunks of dialogue that are paragraphs in length, you want to throttle the person who wrote it and scream horrible things at them. (At least I do. )

Strangely enough, while I don't know a single fanficcer who would think of leaving off an attribution to the original creator of a series, very few think to mention the creators of original characters they've co-opted. It's odd.

I must say, I use fanfiction as my little personal playing field. If there is an idea rolling around in my head and I am not quite sure of how it will work out, I write a fanfiction with it.

I got my standard set of characters, know how they work and where to post what to get an good feedback. Sad to say, but in some fandoms, as long as you use a certain paring, people will read it, no matter what. If I get positive response, I can use that idea in my "offical" work. Also sometimes I try out some plots with fandom characters because in that way, even if the plot doesn't go as planned and it won't go with the story, I still have a little fanfiction one shot piece I can share. And nobody will ever know ;P

I enjoy writing fanfic. It gives me a break when my current WIP is getting on my nerves. I also enjoy reading how people have interesting takes on a well known characters or settings. It's a breeding ground for creativity although not all the time for spelling and grammer.

lol, sometimes I write fanfics for my WIP and see where it takes me. Great worldbuilding process.

I read it and sometimes write it.

It's just fun.