Maybe It's Just the Iced Tea Talking...
but I think I've had an epiphany. With the understanding I've used that word without actually looking it up, here it comes.
There's a link to an article on the LJ home page on what some popular authors think about fan fiction. I happen to like fanfic, but then I'm not trying to make my living as a writer. I can see both sides - the fierce desire to protect and preserve one's creative works, and the unbridled fun you can have with an existing world and its inhabitants.
At first I was a little defensive that George RR Martin hated fan fiction. I happen to love his Song of Ice and Fire series, and I appreciate the work he's done. How can he be SO strongly opposed to stories inspired by the rich and wonderful and amazing world he created.
One of the criticisms he and his fellow anti-fanfic authors have is that writers should be creating their own stories with their own characters and their own worlds, not trespassing on copyrighted territory. I have also read how other popular authors started out by copying and imitating those writers they admired.
Then it occurred to me that I could take any of Martin's characters, lift them wholesale, trait-for-trait, rename the character, and it wouldn't necessarily be fanfic. As I was writing that very thought in my journal I took Jon Snow from the Song of Ice and Fire series as an example. I lifted the character, intact. I didn't change his appearance, his history, or his circumstances. I did change his name. And only his first name. He was now Henry Snow. To my amazement Henry was no longer Jon. And to my surprise and delight Henry didn't want to be Jon. The two were the same in all other respects, but even identical twins are not identical in every way. Henry had a life of his own. He was his own person. Suddenly, I became more interested in Henry than I was in Jon.
Henry started a whole new train of thought with his own story lines. I realized I could do this again and again with any character from any story by any author. The same goes for any locale on any planet in any galaxy throughout the universe. Just change the name and it will become something different. Perhaps a little. Maybe a lot. But different.
It doesn't mean I'll turn my nose up at fan fiction or stop writing it.
There's a link to an article on the LJ home page on what some popular authors think about fan fiction. I happen to like fanfic, but then I'm not trying to make my living as a writer. I can see both sides - the fierce desire to protect and preserve one's creative works, and the unbridled fun you can have with an existing world and its inhabitants.
At first I was a little defensive that George RR Martin hated fan fiction. I happen to love his Song of Ice and Fire series, and I appreciate the work he's done. How can he be SO strongly opposed to stories inspired by the rich and wonderful and amazing world he created.
One of the criticisms he and his fellow anti-fanfic authors have is that writers should be creating their own stories with their own characters and their own worlds, not trespassing on copyrighted territory. I have also read how other popular authors started out by copying and imitating those writers they admired.
Then it occurred to me that I could take any of Martin's characters, lift them wholesale, trait-for-trait, rename the character, and it wouldn't necessarily be fanfic. As I was writing that very thought in my journal I took Jon Snow from the Song of Ice and Fire series as an example. I lifted the character, intact. I didn't change his appearance, his history, or his circumstances. I did change his name. And only his first name. He was now Henry Snow. To my amazement Henry was no longer Jon. And to my surprise and delight Henry didn't want to be Jon. The two were the same in all other respects, but even identical twins are not identical in every way. Henry had a life of his own. He was his own person. Suddenly, I became more interested in Henry than I was in Jon.
Henry started a whole new train of thought with his own story lines. I realized I could do this again and again with any character from any story by any author. The same goes for any locale on any planet in any galaxy throughout the universe. Just change the name and it will become something different. Perhaps a little. Maybe a lot. But different.
It doesn't mean I'll turn my nose up at fan fiction or stop writing it.