Robin McKinley's view on fan fic

[koalathebear]

Yesterday I was posting a list of my Yuletide Fic Recs and guiltily posted a nice Robin McKinley fic I enjoyed even though I did note that I am aware that Ms McKinley does not like fan fic and wishes that her fans would not write fan fic using her material.

Today I was reading her LJ at robinmckinley and saw that she said this:

It’s a little bit like

Comments

[ancarett]

I'm the other way around. I think a bit less of her because she's stuck in this mindset -- I've purged my bookshelves of everything written by Meredith Lackey because she's on the "only behind locked doors" approach to fanfic. And, honestly, I'd respect McKinley more if she stopped with the "my agent advises against it and I follow my agent's advise" and didn't go on with the whole tired crap about why people shouldn't waste their time on fanfic. And, in the end, she comes across as nicer but just as bigoted as someone like Lee Goldberg.

It's a pity. I've always adored "The Blue Sword" but my love for it shines a lot less brightly after reading all of that.

[crumpeteer]

I honestly don't see anything wrong with fanfic as long as no one is making money off of it. I can understand authors having an issue with it being their characters and all, but when you put things out there, I guess I'd just sort of assume people were going to bend it to what they want.

So I wouldn't feel bad for reading fanfic or writing it, just trying to gain something off of it.

[sekainozomi]

Furthermore I could get in trouble if something that appeared in some fanfic somewhere seemed to show up in something I subsequently wrote.This is a legitimate concern considering there are judges who will actually listen to the grievances of a fan fiction writer who claims a published author stole his/her material although said person was using 99% of the published author's resources. It's enough to make one's head spin

[sabaceanbabe]

As they say, everyone is entitled to an opinion and while I respect Ms. McKinley's, I disagree with the majority of it. I agree with her 100% in regard to her agent's advice and the potential for future problems if she writes something that smacks of something that has appeared in fan fic, and I have no problem with her lack of understanding as to why people write it and share it, but that's it. I have no qualms about writing it myself (obviously :P ) nor about sharing it with anyone and everyone on the internet. And if something of mine appears in someone else's work *snerk*, then I will be ecstatic and flattered and it'll just make me want to write more. :)