For those of my readers list interested in fanfic issues

[pegkerr]

Through alg, pandarus's essay: "In Defence of Fanfic."

It is mostly a rebuttal to Robin Hobb's essay "The Fan Fiction Rant."

I didn't read in depth (didn't have time) but one thought occurred to me re: the discussion earlier about the United 93 movie: perhaps the disagreement is similar if you think of "United 93" as sort of fanfic of history.

Comments

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

::sits down in front to get a good view of the action::

[aerden.livejournal.com]

Peg--Thanks for posting those two essays. I enjoyed them both, though I only skimmed through Fay's because it is so long. I agree with a lot of what Hobb had to say, particularly when it came to using fan fiction as a way to practice writing.

I used Pern fan fiction for that purpose for many years, and Hobb is right--writing your own fiction in your own world is much harder and, I think, makes you a better writer. If people spent all the time on original fiction that they spend on writing fan fiction, those who want to become professional writers might become professional sooner.

Fay makes some good points that everything is borrowed from something, but as a person working at becoming a writer, I find myself going more with Hobb's view.

Chantal

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, there are a fair number of people who are doing fanfiction who have no intention of becoming professional writers. Should they stop?

FWIW, while I agree more with Fay's point of view overall, I disagree with how some of the more rabid and less reasoned fen have responded to Robin Hobb's opinion. Robin Hobb's opinion is not as knee-jerk as it first seems, and the whole derived-from-someone-else's-work is far more complicated than either side seems to want to acknowledge.

I virtually never write fanfiction, as I find it harder than creating my own world and characters! I don't like its restraints -- if I'm going to steal something, or riff off someone else's work, I actually prefer to do so with the serial numbers filed off (Okay, I do confess to a couple of fairy tale retellings whose serial numbers still show a bit.) I tried it once when I was 15 to fit in with a fan club, and I didn't like having to use someone else's setting or base concept. Since then, I wrote a handful of filks and a few "Letters home" related to an RPG, but then, while it was someone else's world, I'd had a significant part in creating the events, and I was playing with my own character.

Even so, I find it hard to be too critical of the impulse to riff off someone's work more directly, especially when done with respect for the original material. The execution, maybe...

[aerden.livejournal.com]

Oh no! If a person enjoys writing fan fiction, and that's their hobby, I think that's fine. From the example of J. K. Rowling, fan fiction doesn't hurt copyright. Some of the Potter fan stories, for example, are very bizarre and not at all, I don't think, what Rowling believes her characters to be like. But no one disputes that she owns the copyright. While she might find some of the Potter fan fiction personally offensive (or not), her ownership of the copyright is secure, and to me, that's all that matters in the case of fan fiction written by a person who wants to write as a hobby.

I think creating your own world is both easier and harder. It's easier because you have control over your story, and you don't have to conform to outside events peculiar to the history of someone else's world. It's harder because, in your own world, you have to make everything up, and you are responsible for it all being scientifically accurate and consistent. I like to work with unusual ecologies in my fiction sometimes, so attention to the science is important to me. I don't have to worry with that as much if I am writing a Pern story, for example; McCaffrey has already done all the work on that world.

*sigh* I had more to say, but I'm beginning to turn into a sleep zombie. I enjoyed taling with you. Good night!

Chantal

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I read both, and thank you for pointing this out. Fay's essay is worth the time to read.

I can think of many ways that writing fanfic helped me, but I'll just say one: It gave me the courage to write my own work and put it out there in the world.

Thanks again for linking this!

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

That's definitely eye-opening. A few months ago, I told a friend that I had an idea for Powerpuff Girls fanfiction. Now I think that I should have said that I had an idea for a short story whose acknowledgements would pay respect to Craig McCracken.