Let's talk about fanfic.

*applauds* To fanfic is human. Like Pratchett said, we are homo narrans. You are an amazing person.
Also, if all the authors in the world did Yuletide, I think their collective fandoms would explode with delight.

Does that make me not human because I do not want to make up new stories about existing characters? -_-

Have you ever read fanfic about your work? Say, Newsflesh fanfic? I'm just curious, because I heard authors/screenwriters weren't legally allowed to do that because they might open themselves up for lawsuits.

The legal issue, as far as I know, goes back to the MZB case in 1992. Which, because the fan author in question has now posted her version of the story on the internet, is a little murky. What most people have heard is that MZB was threatened with a lawsuit by a fan author because she read the fan author's story and wanted to use the fan author's ideas. This is at this point contested now that, basically, the internet exists and people who didn't have a voice before have weighed in.

Reference: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley_Fanfiction_Controversy for relatively unbiased coverage of the case with various viewpoints and quotes.

This has been twisted into several different versions over the years, and because this was really pre-internet as we know it today, communication was limited. Most people didn't hear anything other than MZB's side. Even today, if a well-respected author claimed that a fan threatened a lawsuit, and the fan said otherwise, even with proof of e-mails, who would most people believe?

Ever since, this has been the "why authors cannot read fanfiction" case for 20+ years, even though there has not been a precedent-setting case in court.

I think that in the Internet era, unless the author commented on the fic, it would be awfully hard to prove that said author read the fic in the first place. Even if the author did comment, ideas are not legally copyrightable. I have read at least one published author who outright admitted in her dedication that she was writing mash-up fiction of two authors/settings she loved. She published something like 5 or 6 books, and was never sued.

In the wake of 50 Shades, there have been further novels contracted (I don't know if they have been published yet) that are fanfiction of Twilight and other popular YA novels. I have an IP attorney friend who has said that in her professional opinion, the reason there have been no lawsuits by the original authors is that they would be incredibly difficult to win.

Now, something I see as more of a concern for authors would be reading a fic and absorbing the idea and the language. I've seen in my own crit circles someone come up with a particularly witty turn of phrase, and months later, another critiquer wrote almost the exact wording. It's not uncommon, and one line is not going to be enough to sue, but if it happened repeatedly (and I have seen authors accidentally do this), there might be enough for a case. However, this is just as much a concern when reading... anything, really; it just seems to me it might be slightly more likely when reading fanfic that is based on your work and world.

This is really, honestly, not to denigrate authors who have chosen not to read fanfic. Nobody wants to be the test case, because lawsuits are expensive and stressful and take time away from the writing the author could be doing. Again, I say this not to judge authors, but to provide more info on the legal issues and why this is commonly repeated and many authors (especially those who were around when the MZB case happened) have chosen not to risk it. I can't speak for Seanan, but that's the general background.

Thank you for this. As a writer of both fanfic and original fiction, I appreciate both worlds and enjoy writing both equally. I know it's looked down upon by many, but I think you are absolutely right: "Fanfic is fixing the things you see as broken, and patching the seams between what's written and what is not, and giving characters who got cheated out of their happy endings another chance."

it's also a great way to hone your craft, to experiment with different styles and tenses and moods, and to find your true writing voice. It is my absolute wish that, when/if my novel is published, it will be worthy of fanfiction, even, as you say, I'm unable to read it at the time. I wish you all the best success in the world.

I still remember the absolute delight that you radiated that one time when I mentioned that one of my fish was up to something that you couldn't read for a while.

I love your view on fan fiction...I think it's really a compliment....most of the worlds I've delved into to write fan fiction are worlds I can't just bare to leave. If they weren't amazing my patience would allow me to wait.

congrats on making the dream, making fanfic for the world. :)

Very well put! You make me want to write fan fiction ....

Nicely put! The lit professor in me just wants to throw a Norton anthology at people sometimes. Fanfic is fun! It has a long and storied tradition! People have been telling stories about familiar characters forever! One of the first forms of imaginative play children engage in is pretending to be characters from books and tv and comics! And did I mention it's fun?

Yay fanfic.

I like to tell my students that pretty much the entire canon of western literature iwas basically fanfic until yesterday (or say the 19th century, which is basically yesterday).

It's not 100% true, but I tell my students many beautiful untruths, so why not this one.

Awww, I love that you have a passion for fanfiction!

I love fanfiction. I don't write it all that often (although I have this plotbunny for Diablo 3 fanfiction based on history of the world that is referenced but not fleshed out... seriously brain?) but I do love to read it. I like to read more about characters I love, or stories in the world setting that explore areas the author has not, or in some cases fic that addresses what if something had happened differently. That's not to mention AUs that put the characters in a different universe, which can be fun.

I have been very annoyed that for so many years, fanfiction has been derided by authors. I understand the legal concerns, especially with the limited information that was available until relatively recently (and really, most people are not going to doubt the author), but I really have been bothered by some of the negative attitudes. The first writer's group I was part of called it a waste of time and that anybody who wrote it obviously didn't care about their career, because they were spending time on writing something that could never be sold. To them, if it wasn't publishable, it wasn't worthy of being written. Granted, it wasn't just fanfiction; there were people that felt the same way about poetry, because poetry didn't sell. But fanfiction got the most derision, nasty comments, and in some cases passive aggressive personal attacks.

Which always struck me as WTF because why not write something for fun? Why does it all have to be work? Why is something less worthy if it can only be shared with others for free? Hell, what's wrong with sharing your work for free? I mean, hell, posting a book for free as a loss leader is a valid business tactic for self-publishers. I've read fanfic that has made me think, made me cry, made me smile, made me laugh. I've read fanfic that was every bit as good as original fiction. I've read some brilliant fanfics that captured the voice and tone of the author, and explored a different avenue very deeply, addressing the sociopolitical consequences of the characters' actions in the fic. Stuff that just blew me away because it was so good.

But to this day, I feel guilty when I decide to take a break and write fanfiction, like I'm doing something wrong. It didn't help that wasn't the only group that had that attitude, although it was the most extreme. I find it sad that it's something I've internalized, even though I deeply disagree with it.

And, also, some of us don't have aspirations for fiction publication. I mean, I write some publishable fiction, but I haven't made 'edit and sell this' high on my priority list (I might change later). So, in that sense, all of my fiction will end up either left on my computer or free on the Internet, so why not fanfiction if the ideas strike me? I cook for myself (when living alone), and sometimes bring food to potlucks, but don't have aspirations to make it a career, so is that a waste of time since I'm not making my food widely available for cash?

Now, maybe a writing group wants to say 'we want to focus on workshopping writing for publication' which excludes a lot of (but not all) fanfiction, and folks who do want to make money on writing have to write things they can sell*, but hobbies are never a waste of time if you are getting non-monetary things for them.

* But again, they are not robots. Sometimes you just need to take a break. Few can sustain a profession for every waking hour.

I started writing fanfic more than 30 years ago. I've never stopped. If you take too hard a look at my published stories you'll find Han Solo and Bagoas and Lionel Luthor and Brian Kenny and Charlie Eppes and a host of others. Slightly altered, slightly out of their universes, slightly queered but still there.

I always found it interesting that most of the Apocrypha fell into the same sorts of stories as fanfic: backstory, altered PoV and other things.

Honestly, the Universe is trying to do my head in. Yesterday I wrote a post about this post of Seanan's, carefully and respectfully going "Oh yes I agree, and furthermore...", and HOW DARE MY FAVOURITE URBAN FANTASY ZOMBIE MERMAID AUTHOR WRITE SUCH A VILE THING? UNSUBSCRIBED!!!!* And then I noticed after posting it, that the post was two, three years old. Way to go, necro-thread boy. And then up pops this one.

So 's OK. Seanan does it, too... So ICYMI... It's on the Redridge Chronicles. (No speculation inside, safe for Seanan).

Management Summary: Yes, Fanfic is great for training your writing skills. Fanfic gives you the freedom to write whatever you want and never care whether anyone likes it. Whether you write for money, pleasure or art influences your writing. Fanfic is an expression of love for the source material. And we have copyright trolls to thank for the fact that no sane author reads fanfic.

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* One of these, or this footnote, is a lie.

I love this post. I draw giant pink sparkly hearts around it!

(I wrote a post about how fandom is a perpetual-motion joy machine a while back. )

♥

If I didn't know that you loved fanfic, it was obvious from the Velveteen stories.

Edit: in a positive way, that is.

This post made me so happy. Thank you for it.

I love fanfic, and finding Star Wars fanzines and other fans back in the early 80s was a huge thing for me, and made me feel a lot less alone. After I started selling my original work, I still read and occasionally write fanfic.

Yes, and I loved it before I knew your other ID. Joy indeed.

I've been writing for ages-- and fanfic came in there when I was young, too-- but hell if I knew that's what it was until I hit the internet. People, like you've said, have been writing fanfic for centuries. It wasn't called that, then-- but now look at all the "re-tellings' of fairy tales that are on the shelves. These re-telings are re-tellings. Hell, Disney writes fanfic with their movies.

Writing, in any form-- is an amazing thing and how you choose to express yourself shouldn't be limited to your own world and ideas. My (yet-unpublished) novel is well-received by peers, but y'know what-- it was inspired by a fanfic challenge.

Fanfic is a form of flattery, I think-- you have created a world that is so amazing that people want to play in it and add their own love to it as well.

I don't dislike a well-written fancfic but there are times when authors take a long time to update chaptered fanfics that I just gave up on them. So I prefer to read finished ones.

To be fair, published authors sometimes take a really long time between installations. First examples that come to mind are Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, 23 years for 8 (wonderful!) books and the series isn't done yet. Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora series had a 6 year wait between books 2 and 3. Taking a long time in between chapters or books isn't a fanfiction problem, it's just a general one.

I don't blame you at all for not wanting to read something that's unfinished. I know more than one person who won't pick up Game of Thrones because they don't trust that it'll get finished before Martin passes away.

I like fan fiction, but I find that most of it is just romance stories using the canon characters, usually in relationships that the original creator(s) never wanted or intended. I don't believe it is right to play with someone else's characters that way, even though it is fun to. :)

And the fact that the stories are almost always romances does frustrate me because, for instance, when I'm reading a Criminal Minds fan fiction story, I don't want a romance,, especially if it's between two characters who don't love each other on the show. I want a new 'episode.' But most fans don't know how to write such a thing because it requires very specialized knowledge.

So, even though I might enjoy something about Reid and Hotchner in a romance as part of the story, I'm at the same time rolling my eyes at it and am not feeling very satisfied because 1. I don't believe it, and 2. It's not giving me what I really want.

Same here; I love fan-fiction, I write fan-fiction myself, but... if I were a published author, I really wouldn't want fans drooling around over my characters and pushing them into romances they never asked for or wanted. And I'd be more than a little miffed if the only part of my original work that my readers appeared to be interested in was the potential for sexual escapades!

I don't think it's selfish for authors to feel possessive about their characters - especially given that the process of writing involves putting facets of yourself into even the most disagreeable people. Seeing them made into the puppets of some over-enthusiastic reader can't be fun.

When I got the contract for the first Quantum Leap novel, I scared the hell out of my officemates at the day job by dancing around and yodeling, "They're going to pay me for writing fanfic!

Alas, nobody in that office understood. But that was okay. I was very, very happy (and very, very lucky; Bellisario didn't even know books had been licensed, so there was absolutely NO interference from the suits. Or from my editor, either. Of course, the contracts sucked, but that was my own fault.

I once had a discussion with a well-published author an a con who 100% disagreed with fanfic and didn't want any fanfic written about their characters or anyone else's because, in their words "you won't get the story right". Personally, I feel authors should have the right to say "no, you can't write about my characters" but as far as I'm concerned there is no "right" story for a character. We create alternative worlds and alternative storylines - that doesn't make the original storyline "wrong", it's an alternative.

I know authors who say "the story is yours. The one you create in your head when you read my books isn't going to be the one I imagined when I wrote it and won't be the one someone else will create when they read it" so I find the idea of an author saying "you'll get the story wrong" a bit...pompous? For want of a better word.

Yay!

I really have nothing more coherent to say. :D Other than love this post.