Sunday, September 2, 2012

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.

15 comments:

  1. I completely agree with you. So well said. Most especially your comparison to artists and musicians. Cut your chops on it but don't sell it as yours.

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  2. I'm glad it makes sense, Dana - I was parsing my ideas as I went!

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  3. Some of my first longer works were fanfictions. I think it takes a lot of the pressure of world- and character-building off a budding young writer because everything's there already and you just get to play with plot and relationships and what-ifs.

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  4. I think it really depends on where the author is in writing in their own world. It's unethical in any instance to make money by using another author's work. And if the author is done creating, posting free fan fiction no doubt helps keep the interest going.

    Years ago, perhaps decades, Marion Zimmer Bradley opened up one of her worlds for fan fic. One of her fans wrote a storyline similar to a book she had planned and she was forced away from her own story. As a result, she closed the doors on allowing others to publish in her world.

    Obviously fan fiction is not designed to injure an author. It's more of a nod to how much a person loves the world, but there are hidden damages that can occur.

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    1. ooh - that's a good point. I remember hearing about that. Wouldn't it be awful if fanfic somehow messed up your plans for your characters/world? *shudders*

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  5. You guys are probably too plugged in to the industry to talk about a specific author like Gregory Maguire and, particularly, his Oz books this week. But I would be terribly interested to hear where the Word Whores think that fits in with fan fiction. Especially after Stephen Schwartz takes in another level after that.

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  6. Obviously there is a distinction to be made between using another author's intellectual property and putting a fresh take on an established work in the public domain, like a fairy tale or a folk song.

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    1. True, Kev, though the copyright laws already make that distinction, which seems fair enough. Even though it might lead to endless Jane Austen spin-offs...

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    2. I don't think the legal distinction is based on any difference in levels of creativity. What I'm wondering is, if I want to write "Snow White and the Seven Slayers," am I taking less of a creative shortcut than when I write my Professor McGonagall/Madam Hooch Forbidden Love story?

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    3. Eh. Maybe. But fairy tales have been changed so much over the years anyway - different cultures have already put so many different spins on them - certainly later versions of those stories have been sanitized. There's a difference, I think, in attempting to rework something that has already belonged to the public domain for so long that everyone knows it vs taking someone's IP and twisting it into something it was never intended to be?

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    4. I agree, Allison - fairy tales are more story archetypes than the specifics of something like Harry Potter. (Which itself is arguably drawn from fairy tale archetypes.)

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  7. I think fanfics are ok as long as the fanfic writer doesn't try to publish their fanfic to get money out if it. I myself never wrote fanfics, but I do read Mass Effect fanfics I will confess.

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  8. maybe if the fanfic author gives proper credit to the author they are using...I don't read fanfic, not that I have anything against it, it just doesn't appeal to me.

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    1. yeah - a lot of the discussion is theoretical to me, too...

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