On Fanfiction and Fandom

[xaphania]

I saw this article linked on LJ and it made for an interesting read - all about fanfiction and fandom.

I've seen people say that they don't get or understand fanfic (though I think most of us understand the lure of fandom!) so perhaps this article will give a better understanding.

Right now fan fiction is still the cultural equivalent of dark matter: it's largely invisible to the mainstream, but at the same time, it's unbelievably massive. Fan fiction predates the Internet, but the Web has made it exponentially easier to talk and be heard, and it holds hundreds of millions of words of fan fiction. There's fan fiction based on books, movies, TV shows, video games, plays, musicals, rock bands and board games. There's fan fiction based on the Bible. In most cases, the quantity of fan fiction generated by a given work is volumetrically larger than the work itself; in some cases, the quality is higher than that of the original too. FanFiction.net, the largest archive on the Web (though only one of many), hosts over 2 million pieces of fan fiction, ranging in length from short-short stories to full-length novels. The Harry Potter section alone contained, at press time, 526,085 entries.

Full article: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2081784-1,00.html

Couple of things that really stood out for me:

Fan fiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.

Fan-fiction writers aren't plagiarists who can't come up with their own ideas, and they're not all amateurs. Naomi Novik, whose Temeraire novels are best sellers and have been optioned by Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings movies, writes fan fiction. "Fanfic writing isn't work, it's joyful play," she says. "The problem is that for most people, any kind of writing looks like work to them, so they get confused why anyone would want to write fanfic instead of original professional material, even though they don't have any problem understanding why someone would want to mess around on a guitar playing Simon and Garfunkel.

I love the way she says this. I've had people say that to me, ask why I want to spend time writing fanfiction when I could work on something original. That quote hits the nail on the head, I think.

 

[Kean]

The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.

I absolutely adore this line. So true.

 

[patriot1123]

I love the excerpts from this article and can't wait to read the whole article - thanks for posting it!

 

[Kean]

I've just finished it and I must say it was one of the most generous and open handlings of fandom/fanfic by the "mainstream" that I have ever seen. Very nice read. 🙂

In the latter half of the article they discuss the issue of the morality and legality of fanfiction. It got me wondering, so I thought I'd ask those of you who write fan fic, how would you feel if someone wrote fic of your characters? Or even fic of your fic? Is it all fair game?

 

[caritas08]

I don't read fan fiction but I think it is all fair game. I've been toying "writing" a book for a short while and if someone took my characters and wrote fan fiction about them I wouldn't mind at all even if they completely butchered my original concept. Fan fiction is just for fun.

 

[ticonderouga]

I think that fan fic is fair game and most of the authors that I have seen usually like it, because most of them find it kind of flattering, and many will at least get good story ideas from these stories. IIRC, I vaguely remember that Joss first got the idea of making Spike a romantic interest for Buffy from fanfic, and that he used Something Blue to see how it might work.

 

[prophecygrrl]

Thanks for posting! I'm not a fanfic writer, but as an avid consumer/supporter, I'm really excited to read this. I love the parts you quoted already!

 

[Spikefan31]

Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

I understand why authors might get upset about fan fiction, but the fanfic writers are doing it purely for fun. They get no financial profit out of it, so I don't think it should be illegal.

 

[xaphania]

I think I would be okay with people writing stories for my characters. I would be flattered. Putting it into a fandom perspective: if I take, say, my very first BtVS fic - I wrote in an original character called Ned McNabb, a demon who takes the form of an imaginary friend for Buffy. I would be thrilled if another fan-author said to me, "Hey, can I write a fic using Ned McNabb?" It'd be flattering.

(Not that this would ever happen, I'm not a prolific/good enough fic writer.)

Did anyone follow the kerfuffle Diana Gabaldon caused last year? She wrote up a blog post (now deleted) on the evils of fanfic writers etc. etc. and it caused a HUGE amount of wank. "I think it's immoral, I _know_ it's illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I've inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters."

Of course everything is documented at fandom wank: http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1246633.html

I've seen discussion on the "grey" issues involving charity ficathons and I seem to remember something from way back at the beginning of the HP fandom - there was some scandal involving a fanfic author receiving money from her fans to buy a new laptop (I think, I might be confusing fandoms).

Fandom history and the entire culture of fandom really interests me.

 

[FetalPig]

I write and record songs ( i think of them as demos for a band that didn't exist) and a lot of online music communities will give you the option of posting a recording with a Creative Commons licence. This gives people the chance to do their own version or to add to or mash up your version depending on the licence, and so long as they apply a similar licence to their 'product'. It makes it straightforward to work with other peoples material and collaborate.

I think feelings about this would change dramatically if someone started to make money out of something that could be considered your 'creation/invention'. The copyright of creative ideas is a murky pond.

Is that how fanfic works or is it more informal than that?

 

[nightshade]

I read several articles like that before, and think that was a great one explaining how people feel about fan fiction. It showed both sides of it which a lot don't, how some authors are happy for other to write fanfiction about their stories and how others don't agree with it. I only think I didn't understand was Tetris fanfiction, but I don't have any problems if people want to write it.

 

[sosa lola]

In the latter half of the article they discuss the issue of the morality and legality of fanfiction. It got me wondering, so I thought I'd ask those of you who write fan fic, how would you feel if someone wrote fic of your characters? Or even fic of your fic? Is it all fair game?

I'd be so thrilled! I'd be so proud of myself that my fic and characters inspired someone to write. A friend of mine read one of my fics and wanted to write a sequel to it, I was so happy! My fic! She wanted to write a sequel to my fic?? That's so awesome and cool! It's such an amazing feeling that your fic moved someone this much to want to continue it or write a missing chapter to it or even take one of your characters and expand their story. Awesome!

 

[Moscow Watcher]

I've just finished it and I must say it was one of the most generous and open handlings of fandom/fanfic by the "mainstream" that I have ever seen. Very nice read. 🙂

In the latter half of the article they discuss the issue of the morality and legality of fanfiction. It got me wondering, so I thought I'd ask those of you who write fan fic, how would you feel if someone wrote fic of your characters? Or even fic of your fic? Is it all fair game?

I'd be flattered!

There is (was?) an LJ community, Remix/Redux, devoted to remixing fanfiction. I couldn't make out their rules, so I never participated - but some of my LJ friends did, and it was so cool.

Also, I remember reading Rahirah's In A Yellow Wood . There are several Buffies in her story, and one of them is borrowed from her friend's fanfiction. Funnily, Rahirah is a Spuffy and her friend is a Bangel.

 

[kittenpoker]

Great article!

I've just started reading fanfic (buffy's the only show I've read it for) and I love it!! I'm in awe of those who write it...at least the stories I've read so far, are amazing. And it's so cool because you can sense the authors are writing it for fun. I really love it.

 

[patriot1123]

I only recently started reading fanfic also, and have found some beautifully written fics for BtVS. (I only read Giles-centered fics.)

I had previously checked out some of the "24" fanfic, and found that a lot of it was wretchedly written. So I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of the BtVS fanfic.

Does anyone know how Joss feels about fanfic? I read or saw an interview with Anthony Head where he acknowledged having read some fanfic, but all he said about it was that he was shocked by the notion of Giles pairing up with Willow. (As am I.)

 

[nightshade]

.

Does anyone know how Joss feels about fanfic? I read or saw an interview with Anthony Head where he acknowledged having read some fanfic, but all he said about it was that he was shocked by the notion of Giles pairing up with Willow. (As am I.)

I remember being at a convention when someone asked Andy Hallett about fanfiction, he said he heard one about Lorne, Angel and a bar of soap in the shower. 😀

 

[kittenpoker]

I read or saw an interview with Anthony Head where he acknowledged having read some fanfic, but all he said about it was that he was shocked by the notion of Giles pairing up with Willow. (As am I.)

I haven't seen that, but I guess I could see it... In Where the Wild things are when they see him singing at the espresso pump she says something about - no wonder I had a crush on him...

 

[white avenger]

In the latter half of the article they discuss the issue of the morality and legality of fanfiction. It got me wondering, so I thought I'd ask those of you who write fan fic, how would you feel if someone wrote fic of your characters? Or even fic of your fic? Is it all fair game?

I don't see fan fiction as any sort of threat to the integrity of a professional writer's characters, and as long as the proper disclaimers are made, if I were the professional writer whose characters were being "fan fictionalized," I wouldn't have any problems with it, and I think that most professional writers feel the same way. I know that Anne Rice has threatened legal action against anyone who uses her characters, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc had a couple of Tarzan fan fiction sites shut down for copyright infringement, but those are the only cases that I know of where anything like that has happened.

I seem to recall Joss saying once after "Angel" was canceled that he encouraged the writing and reading of fan fiction about his characters, which only seems like good business sense to me, because it keeps interest in the shows alive by providing a continuing story for the fans.

 

[zobothehobo]

I want to be a showrunner. I'm pretty sure it would mean the WORLD to future me if I googled for fic for my show and I found it. Like that would mean my show was so good people wanted to to expand on it.

I don't read fanfic 'cause I always get it confused with canon.. and I HATE AU stuff 'cause I'm all like "*cries*I don't know what's going on *cries*" yeah... But I get it. I think it's a compliment to the creator of the characters and the writers of the stories... The characters and stories touch and interest people so much that they want to expand on them. That's awesome.

As for the legal and moral issues... As long as it's not for profit, I don't see an issue. I've never heard of a single fic that's as popular as the actual work and, therefore, I don't think it's a threat to the other in any way. Non-profit and less known..