Monday Musing - On a Tuesday: Whether Fanfiction?
You guys get a two for one deal today. I just posted my author spotlight on the amazingly talented Rhonda Eudaly. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to run right over to that other post and check Rhonda's work out!
But I typically post a Monday 'thoughts of the day' type of musing. Which I forgot yesterday because my brains were mush. So Let's just pretend it's Monday for the duration of this post.
I've read quite a few writers blog their opinions on fan-fiction lately. (Because let's face it, we're as much sheep as the rest of the world, and if John Scalzi blogs about fanfic, and George R. R. Martin is blogging about fanfic, we're all blogging about fanfic.)
To start with, let's define fanfic. Fanfic is short for Fan Fiction. It's fan-created, derivative work. Essentially: The writer writes the work. The fan (hopefully) loves the work. The fan borrows the author's toys and plays with them. The author never knows. (Think of all the interpretations and homages of Sherlock Holmes or Alice in Wonderland. Those are essentially fan fiction made by professionals. profic, sorta.)
If you ask two different authors what they think of fanfiction, you'll get two different answers. Some authors look at it as free publicity and encourage it. Some authors look the other way. Some authors squash it like a bug.
From a creative standpoint, fanficiton is the way most of us start writing (whether we're the children playing "lets pretend" with our Barbies, or the adults playing let's pretend with the characters from the A-team.) It's an easy way of writing when you need to (or just want to) take babysteps. You don't have to spend a lot of time world building or character building, because everyone knows the rules of the universe. Everyone knows the characters. You can call your character Hannibal Lecter, and sooner or later, everyone knows that fava beans and a nice chianti are going to be on the menu.
In a way, fanficiton is how people act out their own story. The characters aren't just characters. They're archetypes that we borrow to make our own story. (The Illiad was an epic poem before Homer wrote it down. And I don't think every single bard told the story exactly the same).
So why do the authors (the creators) of the original story get up in arms about fanficiton? From an author's viewpoint, fanficiton is a little scary. We as authors pour a little of ourselves into the stories we create. Even when we don't mean to.
For example, the novel I'm writing right now involves a character that is nothing like me. She ran away from home, she drinks too much, her mother dumped her on her grandmother when she was an infant, and her father was only around to teach her to drink, play pool and fight. She uses sarcasm as a shield to hide behind. And yet, when my husband (who is editing the novel with me) read it. He said this about the character: She reminds me of you. She's quirky.
It can be a scary thing to feel like part of you is no longer in your control. These kinds of thoughts are why folklore cautioned mothers to destroy the afterbirth once their infants were born so that no one could control the baby or harm it through magic. This was why in some parts of the world, people kept their real names a secret so that they could not be controlled. This is why some people believe that voodoo dolls can have power over them.
Writing is already scary. You put part of yourself on paper. Then someone else reads it and judges it (and if you're not successful in divorcing yourself from the story, it can feel like you're the one being judged). I remember that when I was a teen ager, my dad read (and loved) one of my early stories. But when he tried to give me a complement, I was so mad at him. He read a story from a notebook without my permission. Never mind that he loved it. I wasn't ready for him to read it. It felt too personal. (Side Note: Don't worry, Dad. you can read anything I write any time you want.)
With fanfiction, someone you don't know has taken that little bit of you and changed it. Maybe they mixed a little bit of them with it in a way you never intended. Maybe they used it to say something that you don't agree with. It may not be that bad. But it may look dark, twisted. Mutilated.
And then there are the legal issues. You may hold the copywrite to your work because you created it, but there are laws that imply consent if someone makes a derivative work and you don't say something. What happens if you read it and then later you write something similar. Will there be an angry fan out there who wants compensation? What if you don't read it and they think you did anyway? what if someone tries to make money off of your work?
You can see how fanfiction can be scary to an author.
I really like Scalzi's basic rule toward fanficiton. Which can be summed up as: It's my work. You can play with it as long as you don't tell me about it, and don't try to make money off of it. If you tell me about it or try to make money off of it, understand that I have the right to take my work away from you in the interests of protecting it.
This seems like the best that anyone on any side of the story can hope for.
ETA: I'd like to add that I've written fanficiton myself in a couple of television fandoms. I'm sort of exploring this topic from both viewpoints.
But I typically post a Monday 'thoughts of the day' type of musing. Which I forgot yesterday because my brains were mush. So Let's just pretend it's Monday for the duration of this post.
I've read quite a few writers blog their opinions on fan-fiction lately. (Because let's face it, we're as much sheep as the rest of the world, and if John Scalzi blogs about fanfic, and George R. R. Martin is blogging about fanfic, we're all blogging about fanfic.)
To start with, let's define fanfic. Fanfic is short for Fan Fiction. It's fan-created, derivative work. Essentially: The writer writes the work. The fan (hopefully) loves the work. The fan borrows the author's toys and plays with them. The author never knows. (Think of all the interpretations and homages of Sherlock Holmes or Alice in Wonderland. Those are essentially fan fiction made by professionals. profic, sorta.)
If you ask two different authors what they think of fanfiction, you'll get two different answers. Some authors look at it as free publicity and encourage it. Some authors look the other way. Some authors squash it like a bug.
From a creative standpoint, fanficiton is the way most of us start writing (whether we're the children playing "lets pretend" with our Barbies, or the adults playing let's pretend with the characters from the A-team.) It's an easy way of writing when you need to (or just want to) take babysteps. You don't have to spend a lot of time world building or character building, because everyone knows the rules of the universe. Everyone knows the characters. You can call your character Hannibal Lecter, and sooner or later, everyone knows that fava beans and a nice chianti are going to be on the menu.
In a way, fanficiton is how people act out their own story. The characters aren't just characters. They're archetypes that we borrow to make our own story. (The Illiad was an epic poem before Homer wrote it down. And I don't think every single bard told the story exactly the same).
So why do the authors (the creators) of the original story get up in arms about fanficiton? From an author's viewpoint, fanficiton is a little scary. We as authors pour a little of ourselves into the stories we create. Even when we don't mean to.
For example, the novel I'm writing right now involves a character that is nothing like me. She ran away from home, she drinks too much, her mother dumped her on her grandmother when she was an infant, and her father was only around to teach her to drink, play pool and fight. She uses sarcasm as a shield to hide behind. And yet, when my husband (who is editing the novel with me) read it. He said this about the character: She reminds me of you. She's quirky.
It can be a scary thing to feel like part of you is no longer in your control. These kinds of thoughts are why folklore cautioned mothers to destroy the afterbirth once their infants were born so that no one could control the baby or harm it through magic. This was why in some parts of the world, people kept their real names a secret so that they could not be controlled. This is why some people believe that voodoo dolls can have power over them.
Writing is already scary. You put part of yourself on paper. Then someone else reads it and judges it (and if you're not successful in divorcing yourself from the story, it can feel like you're the one being judged). I remember that when I was a teen ager, my dad read (and loved) one of my early stories. But when he tried to give me a complement, I was so mad at him. He read a story from a notebook without my permission. Never mind that he loved it. I wasn't ready for him to read it. It felt too personal. (Side Note: Don't worry, Dad. you can read anything I write any time you want.)
With fanfiction, someone you don't know has taken that little bit of you and changed it. Maybe they mixed a little bit of them with it in a way you never intended. Maybe they used it to say something that you don't agree with. It may not be that bad. But it may look dark, twisted. Mutilated.
And then there are the legal issues. You may hold the copywrite to your work because you created it, but there are laws that imply consent if someone makes a derivative work and you don't say something. What happens if you read it and then later you write something similar. Will there be an angry fan out there who wants compensation? What if you don't read it and they think you did anyway? what if someone tries to make money off of your work?
You can see how fanfiction can be scary to an author.
I really like Scalzi's basic rule toward fanficiton. Which can be summed up as: It's my work. You can play with it as long as you don't tell me about it, and don't try to make money off of it. If you tell me about it or try to make money off of it, understand that I have the right to take my work away from you in the interests of protecting it.
This seems like the best that anyone on any side of the story can hope for.
ETA: I'd like to add that I've written fanficiton myself in a couple of television fandoms. I'm sort of exploring this topic from both viewpoints.