Discussion: Fan Fiction
I have been known to indulge in reading fanfiction on occasion. I totally get why people like it. When I’ve read a great book and I’m tempted to buy another copy, it’s not because I want to read the book again, but I want the experience of reading the book for the first time again. Fanfiction answers that want, the desire for something new, the need to expand on the characters/story you’ve already enjoyed. Or just play with the characters like they’re your personal love puppets.
That came out wrong.
Anyway, I was wondering, as published authors, what is your take on fanfiction? What would you think if an online community started a fanfiction site for your work? I can see myself being slightly annoyed, but at the same, sort of flattered that someone enjoyed my work enough that they wanted to make the story last longer. Maybe it would feel like a sign that I'd finally "arrived" as an author.
Of course, my opinion might be colored by the fic itself. I could understand, maybe even enjoy a fan’s consummation of the vaguely inappropriate banter between my heroine, Jane, and the vampire Dick Cheney. But at the same time, I would not like to read Hard M slash between my male lead and Jane’s best friend.
What say you, Leaguers?
That came out wrong.
Anyway, I was wondering, as published authors, what is your take on fanfiction? What would you think if an online community started a fanfiction site for your work? I can see myself being slightly annoyed, but at the same, sort of flattered that someone enjoyed my work enough that they wanted to make the story last longer. Maybe it would feel like a sign that I'd finally "arrived" as an author.
Of course, my opinion might be colored by the fic itself. I could understand, maybe even enjoy a fan’s consummation of the vaguely inappropriate banter between my heroine, Jane, and the vampire Dick Cheney. But at the same time, I would not like to read Hard M slash between my male lead and Jane’s best friend.
What say you, Leaguers?
Comments
For example, if you write a book and a fan picks up and runs with the characters you might be flattered, however if they were to write a story featuring your characters fighting a dragon and that later appeared within one of your tales. They then decide that they're going to sue you for copyright infringement demanding enough to float a small country. It would keep you locked up in legal battles for quite some time even though you could prove that you created the characters you'd have to launch a counter suit about thier infringement which in turn would cut heavily into your own writing time.
The only winner out of the whole thing is the lawyers and as we know where theres money theres blooksuckers.
If asked, I'll admit I came out of a fanfiction background. I was bound and determined to be a screenwriter, until I went to college and discovered the vast world of the Internet. And the Internet introduced me to this new concept called fanfiction. I didn't know what it was, but I was fascinated to discover people wrote stories about characters from a TV show I loved. I started reading and becoming very active in that fandom. A few months later, I struck upon an idea for a story with those characters and started writing.
The instant feedback I got from posting it online was amazing. And addictive. I wrote in that fandom for several years, and I thank it for drawing me back into prose writing. Around the same time I started with fanfic, I started writing an original novel. Then another. A zine editor "published" a novel-length fanfic, and even though my payment was three free copies, seeing my name on that pretty cover sealed it for me. I wanted to publish a real novel.
It's been almost eight years since that zine novel, but here I am. As far as potential fans liking my work enough to write fanfic, I wouldn't interfere. I wouldn't read it, for obvious reasons, but I'd let those fans do their thing (unless they pulled something moronic, like this latest "Russet Noon" debacle). I got so much from my time in fandom, I'd feel like a hypocrite for denouncing fic based on my work.
Although I have to admit, I get fanfic based on TV shows and movies (our motto used to be "when once a week isn't enough"), but not for books. Dunno why. But my brain is very strange at times. :)
But I still haven't fully finished my own work. Like I said: addictive.
I still occasionally read fanfiction, but will not allow myself to write it until I get my first novel published.
I do understand the legal issues though, and had always worried about it when I was writing. Even worry about it now: the stuff I am working on now I dreamed up during that period of reading/writing fanfic. I never used it there and don't recall ever reading anything - then or now - close to it, but who is to say that someone may say that I did and sue me?
Part of the reason I really drifted away from fandom (besides the focus on original stuff) was because of the growing lack of feedback at the end. I wanted to be recognized for my work, and it wasn't happening there anymore.
Gosh, I feel like I'm attending a meeting of Former Fanficcers Anonymous. "My name is Kelly, and I wrote fanfic..." *g*
I'm not sure what I'd think if I was lucky enough to be published and someone wrote fanfic based on my characters, because too often they change the charaters to match their own sensibilities (or kinky fantasies).
Honestly, I'd be flattered.
The main concern that I've seen about fan-fiction stems back to the Marion Zimmer Bradley case in the early 90s. She had been collecting and editing fan-fiction stories in her Darkover universe and publishing them for years. What happened: She read a fan author's Darkover novel that involved the same concepts as the legit novel she was working on. MZB liked a couple ideas that she used and asked if she could incorporate them, offering $500 and a dedication for use of the idea. The fan author wanted complete co-author credit, despite that she would be doing none of the writing. It went to court. MZB ended up settling, of which the exact details are not known because of a non-disclosure agreement. The novel she wrote never saw print, which (aside from her) pissed a lot of her readers off because it was a sequel to her most popular Darkover novel.
After that, authors have been terrified that if they were to read fan-fiction based on their work, someone could sue and wreck their career. Unless you're commenting on fanfiction, it's a lot harder to prove that an author read it on the Internet.
I wouldn't mind the matter at all, but the hard part for me would be not commenting.
So I'm so far away from the stage where I think in terms of people not only READING my book, but liking it enough to want to write in my world.
That's going to be a two-diaper day.
And I will need to hold off on the prune activia.
I like the idea of it, and perhaps I would write it at some point (although I think I'd have to be careful not to make it a metafiction), but the legal ramifications really are evil. As best I can tell, most of the fan writers in what I'm exposed to most do the disclaimer at the beginning of their fiction. Why not make that official?
Turtle power!
*flees*