Fanfic
The issue of Fanfic has come up twice for me now, both on the Tamson House mailing list and here on LJ, as kielle linked up to Robin Hobb's rant on the topic (Hobb herself calls it a rant). I'm not a big fan of Hobb, but I think she raises some interesting points.
Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how I feel about the subject. I'm unlikely to ever be fanfic'ed; for one thing I'd have to actually finish something for someone to fanfic it. And even if I had it finished, I don't think my major oeuvre is going to be serial enough to attract the kind of people who want to do fanfic (they seem to be drawn to big series, like Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings). But I think if I found that someone was having my characters do some of the things that people have the Harry Potter characters doing, I'd be really pissed. It certainly seems disrespectful.
So, I know that many of you read fanfic, and many of you write it (often the same people). I've asked about this on other fora and never gotten a decent answer. So what's the appeal? Why do you read it? And if you write it, why do you write it instead of creating your own characters and worlds?
Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how I feel about the subject. I'm unlikely to ever be fanfic'ed; for one thing I'd have to actually finish something for someone to fanfic it. And even if I had it finished, I don't think my major oeuvre is going to be serial enough to attract the kind of people who want to do fanfic (they seem to be drawn to big series, like Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings). But I think if I found that someone was having my characters do some of the things that people have the Harry Potter characters doing, I'd be really pissed. It certainly seems disrespectful.
So, I know that many of you read fanfic, and many of you write it (often the same people). I've asked about this on other fora and never gotten a decent answer. So what's the appeal? Why do you read it? And if you write it, why do you write it instead of creating your own characters and worlds?