Saving the Universe with Luke and Han
So you know that writer guy, what's his name? The one who wrote for Diagnosis Murder and other shows and hates fanfiction with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns? I think his blog is called something like "A Writer's Life" but every time I see it linked it seems like bitterwriter.com. Anyway, he's got another thread up where he went to
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There are a lot of things in the comments, though, that just get into hating fanficcers in general and mocking the impulse. I don't think any of these people have ever been in danger of having their work fanficced--ironic since you, a fanwriter, have been in that situation. I had a story I did once made into a play where the author got a lot of things wrong--and yeah, you're right, it's really frustrating. I can definitely understand the feeling that some people have at the idea that this character they created can just show up in a story doing things that they might find really offensive. Just think of the way certain characters are demonized, for instance. The author probably wouldn't like that!
People will analyse what you present to them, they will comment on it, and they'll take away from it what they'll take away from it. It's not always what the original creator had meant to imply, but isn't that the fun of it
Yes, it really seemed like throughout there was this real need for control that you just can't have. Like it was just funny the way people kept repeating the world STEAL meaning that their ideas and characters had been stolen, when of course when you publish something you're giving those characters to people. And it's not like fanfic writers are presenting them as their own, exactly, since they say where the characters are from. It's very weird when you think about it...
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I'm sorry to have to contradict you, but that's not quite right. He has indeed a fanbase - or at least the show he once has produced and is now writing tie-ins for, "Diagnosis Murder", has a fanbase. And it was a fanfic of this show that obviously was his very first experience with fanfic. Unfortunately it seems to have been a mpreg-fic. Now, given the fact that most men feel incredibly creeped out about m/m sex and go right into shock at the mere idea of mpreg, it is at least a little understandable that he did not react favourably at first.
I have been lucky enough to have been hand-fed hand picked pieces of fanfiction by a friend, so I could get used to the idea, and the quality of the fic was very high. Had my first encounter been some chan or rape-fic or even mpreg (which still creeps *me* out, too), I doubt that I would still be reading.
What I don't understand though is that he's still raging against fanfic, although there have been numerous attempts at acquainting him with more palatable specimens of fanfic and he even has meanwhile admitted to have read and enjoyed some "Gun Smoke" gen fic.
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Mpreg creeps out many people who enjoy fanfic after all, so I imagine starting with it has got to be a bad idea.
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Let's remember that this whole topic came up on Lee's blog to begin with because hard-core Diagnosis Murder fans (not necessarily fanficcers) were unhappy with the direction his novels took. It didn't fit in with their conception of Diagnosis Murder, and Lee quite rightly took umbrage at being told what he should and shouldn't write.
Interesting. I definitely think an author has to write his own story, but fans can also have valid criticism. Seems like the animosity goes way back--those writer vs. fans battles can get really ugly.
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