Fanfic, No Clear Picture of You

This photo is from a sculpture garden in the San Juan Islands in Washington state. In some regard, it feels like an apt metaphor for the subject of fanfic. Think of playing around in someone else's story as one of the mirrors mentioned above. While you're writing fanfic, you're getting a picture of yourself, true, but as you go from world to world (movie fanfic here, book fanfic there, game fanfic over yonder...) you see different pictures - ten different faces. You're piggybacking on someone else's magic and the mirror of that magic only reflects you as you're connected to someone else's ideas and characters.

Until you decouple - and I don't mean that in a dirty way unless, you know, that's the kind of fanfic you're writing - and polish your own stories with your own hands, you'll never know who and what you really are as a writer.

That said, I started in fanfic. This was pre-internet era. Therefore, you'll never see my fanfic. In fact, right after this post, I think I'll hie off to the storage unit and start me up a bonfire of all the tidbits I'd saved in (gasp) real paper files. Gods forbid I should die with that crap I wrote still in existence.

Except that it did serve a purpose. It kept me entertained. It taught me how to bring a story together while making it look like I was industriously taking notes during interminable classes throughout junior high and high shool. Fanfic kept me sane. Ish.

If I know those early stories are crap, why did I keep them? Because while they are useless as written, they contain the seeds of original ideas, characters and situations that could be culled for future stories NOT involving fanfic. Those stories were for me at a time in my life when I needed allies, even if they only existed on the pages of my school notebooks. I kept them to remind myself of where I came from. Those pages are a part of who I am, both as a person and as a writer. Given that, they aren't for public consumption - even if there's not a single sex scene among them.

And there's the difference, I think. Fanfic is fine as a personal, private process. I'm not keen on it being an end unto itself. And I am definitely not okay with taking it public. That's theft. It's not even subtle theft. I must have issue with it, or I might have posted some of my less horrificly written fanfic when the internet became an option, right? How hypocritical of me is it to not mind copying someone else's stuff to entertain myself, but then decide it's not okay to copy someone in order entertain anyone else?

Is fanfic good? Bad? No clue.

I'd just like to have written some characters and a world so compelling that someone wanted to write fanfic about it.

Fanfiction Breakdown

by Allison Pang

Okay, so here's the thing. I've got this sort of love/hate thing going on with fanfic. Always have. I've mentioned on my blog posts before that overall I'm not a huge fan of it from a professional writer perspective. (And I'm not going to go into the legalities or where the line should be drawn, though there's a nice run down of the various types of fanfic vs plagiarism here.)

But there's a few different sides to this, and there's nothing that gets people angrier faster than to be told that their work is not worth anything or is a waste of time - and that is a viewpoint that many published authors take. 

I think the main thing to separate from it is why YOU write fanfic. Is it for fun and fandom? (which is a very common reason) Is it to gain writing skills? Are you hoping to become professionally published? Just writing as a hobby? Trying to fill in gaps left by the original author? Spinning off an existing story?

So let's get into some of the pros/cons/grey points, shall we?  (And note, I do NOT agree with all of the points listed below, just that these are some of the more common arguments I've seen.)

One:  It gives new writers practice and confidence. They get to play in someone else's sandbox where the world building is set up and the characters are known entities. This allows writers to focus on the craft of writing without worrying about the harder details. 

While the above argument is true, at some point a writer has to throw off those training wheels. Because here's the thing, yes, writing in a pre-made world makes things easier, but it can also foster some bad habits and possibly limit the development of your own world-building. Also?  I do read fanfic sometimes and what gets me is that often heaps of praise are tossed upon a particular writer or a particular story and when I go to read the story...I'm sometimes disappointed. Grammar can be an issue, but often the plots are  sub-par or the characterizations feel wrong. 

And then it becomes rather obvious that the only reason this story is so popular is because it involves a favorite pairing. Rabid fans will line up to gush over the fact that character x and character y are barebacking in  the stairwell, even though in actual canon, said characters are mortal enemies. But even beyond the character twisting, I think it can give a budding author a false sense of security. They get a taste of what it's like to have their work loved...by a fandom that already loves and knows those characters. And who love ANYTHING written about those characters. 

I've seen plenty of people on tumblr and elsewhere complaining about how hard it is to write fanfiction x and get hundreds of notes...and then they write something original and nobody cares. Or that they go to a con and whereas a fanARTIST might be in high demand, no one really cares about the fanfiction writers. 

The other thing is that if you are trying to get published - whether that's books or comics or whatever, an agent or an editor is going to want to see original work (the 50 Shades fluke notwithstanding).  I will NOT be able to hand in my Harry Potter fanfic to an agent and get representation, no matter how good the writing is. (And for a really good look at some thoughts on the comic book world, go check out Gail Simone's blog post on the subject.)

Two: But Classic Novel X was fanfic! Neil Gaiman writes Dr. Who fanfic! etc. etc.

While we've discussed a little bit this week about some of the grey area and legalities of fanfic - i.e. does rewriting a fairy tale count? for example, and I fully believe Neil Gaiman could write anything he damn well wants (And Neil was paid to write that ep of Dr. Who. He didn't just come up with a character called Dr. Blue who flies around in the RETARDIS, for the sake of comparison.), the fact of the matter is that yes, there ARE professional fanfic writers.  For Star Trek, or Star Wars or Dr. Who or whatever. But those are LICENSED by the IP owner or the publisher. It's not the same thing at all. If there's a Star Wars anthology coming out, there will be a call for submissions. There will be a contract, etc. It might be a great opportunity for a fanfic writer to get some publishing cred.  

The same is true for comics - although Marvel and DC are notorious for rebooting  comic stories and developing alternate universes, it's still canon. It's still licensed

Three: It fulfills a need within a fandom.

Clearly it does, or there wouldn't be so much of it. Obviously tastes vary, and fanfic can be a good way to encourage a fandom to exist long past it's expiration date. (Particularly in the case of TV shows or movies or games, etc.) I have read some amazing writers (some of whom I have reached out to encourage them to write original material because they've clearly got a gift). I've also read some excellent stories - but again, some would never stand on their own without the foundation within the fandom. If it weren't for the fact that the readers already know those characters or worlds, some of it wouldn't fly. And hell, sometimes that's okay. Ridiculous fanfics can be fun as well (also known as "Crackfics" sometimes. And then you've got slash pairings, or AUs (alternate universe fanfic), cross-over fanfic, etc. etc.) 

Entire communities spin off of fanfic  fandoms - whether that's at fanfiction.net or An Archive of Our Own...or even the myriad kink memes I've seen on Live Journal. (Like this one for Dragon Age - people request scenario prompts- sweet ones, kinky ones, completely messed up ones...and writers or artists can attempt to fill them. The beauty of it is that it's all done anonymously. I may or may not have filled a couple of them.)

On a personal note, yes. I have written fanfic. Not much and I'm rather picky about it. I've got some rather hypocritical notions about it - 1) I would never write or read fanfic based on the writings of another author. I don't care how well it's written. It does bug the shit out of me. Obviously not every author is bothered by it. Some encourage it. Some ignore it. Some indicate it's completely out of line and won't be tolerated. For me, the biggest peeve is that it's not canon. I can love a book or a series to death and want more from the characters or a storyline, but writing something with characters that aren't mine feels like wish fulfillment  It didn't actually happen and not trusting the author to tell their story as they see fit feels disrespectful. 

2) Hypocrisy city coming up....I don't have as much issue with fanfic about TV or games, but it really does depend on  the situation. Hell, you could technically call True Blood fanfic because it's so far removed from the Sookie books that they don't really bear much resemblance at this point, except for character names. It could be that I'm just not as tied into TV so I don't really care as much. 

3) Which leaves me into game fanfiction. I write it. I read it. (Mostly shorts because I don't have much time.) So why the double-standard? I don't know. I think with some of the RPGs in particular, you're playing a character and in some ways it becomes a choose-your-own-adventure. Depending on the choices you make, the outcome of the game can be affected. So right there, everyone's play-through is a little different. People will write ficlets that fill in the gaps (for example Dragon Age 2 is told in 3 acts...but they jump ahead 2 or 3 years between each act and the game writers/developers don't really tell you what happens during that time. So it makes sense to me that people might want to attempt to fill in some of that, simply to make their play-throughs that much more involved. On the other hand? I've also seen stories that were upward of 200k words. Which boggles my mind - a) the effort involved is crazy amazing, but b) I think many published authors look at that and say if you can write that much, you should be writing your own novels...because at the end of the story you have something that you can't sell and can only be enjoyed within that particular fandom. When that fandom dies, what's left? 

(Which is where people tend to jump in and say they only write for fun so it doesn't matter. Which is fine. Speaking as a professional with very little time left in my day, I can't remotely see "wasting" my time on something I can't sell or that doesn't enhance my career. It doesn't mean fanfic is right or wrong, just that the lenses some of us look through can change the view. There's a massive difference between writing for fun and writing for a deadline.)

So there we go. That being said, I also have less issue with fanfic based on tv or games or movies because no-one is going to confuse these stories as actually being part of the canon universe. A short story in a book universe? Maybe not so much. 

In either case, the last point I want to bring up is respect. As noted above, many fanfic writers don't feel like they get any legitimate respect for their time and effort. And part of that may be because not everyone understands it or is interested in it or they feel it's illegal or whatever. That's one of the caveats of writing it.

But at the end of the day if it makes you happy, then that's all that really matters. 

(All the picture quotes used in this post came from wtffanfiction.tumblr.com - these are quotes taken from actual fanfics posted around the web - clearly from the more pornographic/crackfic sorts.)

FanFic vs Modernizing Classics: Why Aren't They Equally Abhorred

Fan-Written Fiction (Fanfic) = slang. fiction written by fans of a TV series, movie, etc., using existing characters and situations to develop new plots.


Intellectual Property = law. property that results from original creative thought, as patents, copyright material, and trademarks.

Definitions provided by Dictionary.com 

What the dictionary doesn't do is cite when fanfic violates Intellectual Property (IP). At what point is a law broken? Technically, the moment that fanfic goes on public record. Yep, the moment fanfic leaves the tear-stained notebook and gets posted on the Internet. And it's been happening long before the days of USENET. When does it become an issue for actual litigation? Depends on the IP holder. Some authors and estates thereof are quick to quash that shit...which suffices only to send the fanfic community of that world further underground and make cult fans grumpy.  It doesn't actually stop fanfic from happening. Oh, and, of course, the lawyers get paid and no one else does.

Other authors see fanfic as a thing to be embraced as a means of building an audience. Still other authors just ignore it as they would the craycray who named all of her kids after every villain the author had created. As long as no fan is getting paid for the IP infraction, the authors and/or their publishers will not be paying lawyers to police it.

Significant Difference = All The Difference

Now, what about those tales like 50 Shades? Does Stephanie Meyer have grounds to sue E.L. James? There's a lot of money at stake. IP rights have jumped from page to silver screen. There are a lot of people waiting to make a lot of money from what EL James freely admitted "started as" Twilight fanfic. But. The key legaleeze here is significant difference. Yes, the term is vague and allows for interpretation. Yes, it is a bit grey (no pun intended, okay, maybe a little). When James changed the names, ages, and the locations, did she significantly change the content of her story so that it is no longer an infringement on Meyer's Intellectual Property? Erm. Maybe. What about changing all the virginal angst into full blown BDSM? If we combine that with the name and setting changes? Probably so. How about the style of writing not remotely resembling Meyer's? How about there not being any references to vampires or werewolves? Yeah. Yeah, James significantly changed the world and the characters into a wholly different story.*

On the other hand, what about those stories that clearly rehash well known fairy tales? What about all those authors making money off of kinky re-tellings of Cinderella? Red Riding Hood? Beauty & the Beast? Often times they're using the the same world. Same characters. Similar plot. Aren't they guilty of fanfic transgressions? Or does the fact that fairy tales are legally in the public-domain make these authors less villainous than fanfic-ers of copyrighted works? In the eyes of the law, fairy tales aren't protected works. They've been around longer than the magical 75 years of protection and/or 50 years after the death of the original author. Hell, the vast majority of fairy tales can't be attributed back to their original authors so there is no one to bring an IP suit. It's legally acceptable to profit from it, but how does it differ from fanfic?

By a publisher giving its blessing?

Lest anyone say fanfic is purely a story being twisted by a heavy dose of porn -- it's not just fetishists toying with the classics. Anyone recall the rash of Austen Zombies, anyone? Those stories were widely embraced in the Best Seller fashion for months. Those authors were slapped on the back and given a "well-done, laddy" by peers and industry for their version of fanfic. Yes, I'm aware Jane Austen died in 1817.

Is fanfic that breaks IP law the only type that should be reviled?

What makes fanfic artistically different from "Modern Re-Tellings"? It's not quality. There's some heinous fanfic and there's some staggeringly great fanfic. There are also notable re-tellings of classics sharing retail-shelf-space with some shittastic hackwork. Is the all of the objection to fanfic rooted in living authors being "hurt" (financially and possibly emotionally) by fanfic, yet Homer is so dead that he can't possibly suffer from a good "re-visioning"? Is the vitriol spewed towards fanfic rooted in a latent fear of the IP-owning author that someone will write their worlds and their characters better than they did?

Any established author with a mote of civility will tell a fanfic writer to man-up and write their own world and establish their own characters -- to become a real author. That advice is totally based on the assumption that fanfic writers aspire to become recognized authors. That advice ignores the fact that fanfic is a social advent -- one fan communicating with other fans via the commonly established preferred medium.

That preferred medium and that shared story is exactly why modern retellings of unprotected classics are cash ponies for publishers.

It's one thing to be influenced by other works. Any author worth reading has been influenced. But where is the line between "acceptable tributes" and "abhorred bastardization"? If you piss on one type, shouldn't you piss on both?

*Nope, I'm not a lawyer. I once tried to learn Communications Law by osmosis.

WHY ARE YOU WRITING FANFIC?

I apologize for this blog being a bit late on the day. I have been at Dragoncon all weekend and am lucky to be awake, much less coherent enough to type.

Speaking of:

That was my first panel I was on. That's me, Faith Hunter, Kalayna Price, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Jeanne C. Stein. The panel rocked face and the house was packed. Hell yeah.

Now, to the topic at hand.

Look, if you want to be a professional writer, if you want to be published, if you want your book on the shelves of a store then knock it off with the fanfic.

I'm not hating on fanfic, but if you have the drive to write and the creativity to develop alternative plots and storylines then quit mucking about in someone else's world and start writing your own.

You can't sell your fanfic. You can't publish your fanfic. You can't truly call your fanfic your own.

What you can do with your fanfic is get sued for copyright infringement. (and before you get pissy at the "greedy" authors you need to understand that if an author does NOT defend (ie: sue you) their copyright then that copyright, by law, can be considered abandoned and fair game to published by anyone WITHOUT THE AUTHOR BEING PAID A DIME.)*

So, seriously, just write your own stuff. Don't be afraid. You can do it. And you will be happier for it.

And who knows, it might just become your first published book.

*this is a vastly oversimplified explanation of the complexities of copyright law. I am not an attorney, nor do I play on on television.

Fan Fiction - Inspiration or Theft?

I took this photo last week at Coors Field in Denver. On a gorgeous summer evening, we got to take in an excellent baseball game - and watch the Rockies defeat the Dodgers. An unusual event for this season, I understand, and a victory that comes far too late to make any difference. But it was very fun and they played well.

As you can tell, I don't really follow baseball. Or any sport, for that matter. Sometimes I think I'm lacking the gene for it. I've never particularly cared about identifying myself with particular colors or sports heroes. The closest I ever get to being a true fangirl is for authors.

But it never occurred to me to write fan fiction.

Of course, I grew up in B.C. - Before Computers - and there was a much greater distance between me and the printed page. (By this I mean, before easy public access to computers. For me, the first ones were the Apple computers in my high school computer lab, where I learned DOS.) The authors who wrote the books I loved were mysterious and nigh-mythical beings who lived in my mental Mount Olympus - immortal, remote and all-powerful. I really didn't even write letters, as I knew some people did. I think that's because, very early on, I wrote Marguerite Henry a gushing, enthusiastic 8-year old letter about how I wanted my own colt to break and she responded in this very stern way about how a girl in the suburbs couldn't possibly take care of a horse, much less take on such a monumental task of molding a young one.

(Looking back, I think it must have been a standard letter she sent to all the bright-eyed, gushing young girls inspired by her horse books to think they could do that, too. But, knowing what I know now, I'm surprised she took my youthful dreams so seriously that she felt the need to correct them. Ah well.)

So, even though I composed countless letters to Anne McCaffrey, I never wrote them down or sent them. And, though I spun a thousand tales in my head based on her world and characters, I never made them into stories of my own.

A phenom known today as fan fiction.

I'm sure 95% of you reading this know far more about fanfic than I do. I can pinpoint exactly when I became aware of it. It was in 1998, when the Barenaked Ladies released their album, Stunt, and I asked my old high school boyfriend, Kev, with whom I bonded over those very same DOS computers, what the lyric in One Week about "Sailor Moon" referred to.

(Kev has long been my go-to guy for popular cultural references. And he doesn't make fun of me either. Much.)

He explained Sailor Moon, but this was before Wikipedia (launched in 2001), so there wasn't much way for him to let me see for myself. So, yes, he sent me to the fan fiction forums.

And Oh. My. God.

This was an eye-opening experience for me. The sheer volume of the stories posted. The wild variation in theme. You all know that I'm far from a prudish reader (or writer), but some of the kinkier tales shocked the hell out of me.

Mostly, the whole discovery shifted my view of the world. No longer were characters and worlds these inviolate, sacred beings and places created by those author gods I worshipped and could never touch. Instead, all these people - and I discovered there was fanfic for nearly everything - had taken those stories and ran with them. Sometimes spraying blood, kink and gore in all directions.

I confess that, yes, part of me was bothered by it.

I did see it as a violation then. The practice went against what I viewed as essential rules about the integrity of copyright. I believed for a very long time that a story belongs to the person who created it. That there's something fundamentally wrong about taking a piece of it and changing it to suit yourself.

But I've come to understand over time, how many authors got their starts by writing fanfic. Just as painters copy the great creations of the masters, or bands get going playing covers of the hits, many writers develop their chops by working in someone else's world. Not unlike Prometheus stealing that fire from Mount Olympus, those writers may have snatched a bit of that divine glory and used it to create something of their own.

I know writers vary wildly on the topic of readers writing fanfic from their work. Everyone now knows that the outrageously successful Fifty Shades of Grey started life as Master of the Universe, a BDSM fanfic version of Twilight. Ironically, the author, E.L. James, has tried to distance herself from her fanfic roots and reportedly tried to discourage Fifty Shades fanfic.

Where do I fall out these days? First of all, I don't think any author can stop fanfic - as some have tried to do. I also think there's nothing wrong with it, as a way to learn. I do believe a fanfic author shouldn't try to sell their work. While a cover band is selling the entertainment of their muscianship, a writer is selling the story. For me, a story is hugely about characters and world, less so what they actually do.

Steal a bit of that divine fire, sure. But then go build your own barbeque pit with it. That is the true joy of creating.