I just had a really compelling conversation on twitter about fanfic. It all started when I found this tumblr post by the lovely Cecilia Ryan.
For some reason, this part of the post enraged me:
I do NOT like fanfic. Leave the story writing to the professionals on the shows. As someone who writes for a living, I find it insulting that fans think they are better at what I do than I am. There’s a reason I’m paid and you… are not.
It pissed me off in about a hundred different ways. I won’t enumerate all of them, but here’s a few:
- How did those professionals GET to be professionals. Were they born that way?
- Does she even know that those ‘professionals’ on television shows base their episodes on a ‘story bible’ that they didn’t write. In effect, most episodic tv writers ARE writing fanfic.
- She’s insulted that her fans want to write? That her writing inspires them to write? That her characters or her storyworld fires their imaginations? Wow. I guess people can get offended at anything these days.
- What an arrogant and unpleasant bitch.
As far as I know, this sort of authorial-privilege shit went out with Roland Barthes in the late 60s. We’ve been telling the same 25 stories for the last ten thousand years. We’ve been writing the same archetypal characters for just as long.
I’m not saying there is no originality. I’m saying that no one pulls their stories or characters out of thin air. We are all cultural inheritors. The myths, the folktales, the oral stories… every rags to riches romance you ever read has its feet firmly rooted in Cinderella. Every star-crossed-lovers story owes a debt of gratitude to Shakespeare.
And was Shakespeare’s King Lear devalued because Akira Kurosawa made ‘Ran‘?
And did Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai‘ lose anything when John Sturges made ‘The Magnificent Seven‘?
Did Buffy the Vampire Slayer become a less valuable product once someone wrote a piece of smutty fanfic about her doing Angel, or better yet, a bondage scene with Spike? Frankly, if you hadn’t imagined that in your own head, already, you weren’t enough of a fan. Do you really think Joss Whedon lost a penny of advertising or video sales because of the fanfic that’s been written about his creation?
Will we forever think of ‘Harry Potter’ as a deviant slut because someone wrote fanfic about him getting it from behind courtesy of Severus Snape?
Is anyone going to hesitate to buy another ‘Twilight‘ novel because E.L. James changed her name and stuck her in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’?
If you really think that ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies‘ wouldn’t have put a huge smile on Jane Austen’s face, then you aren’t a very big fan of Austen. That woman had a wicked sense of humour. She would have loved it.
I just don’t get writers who hate fanfic. Why are they so ungracious? So ungenerous? Why do they think they can release their work into the pubic sphere and continue to control the meaning of it in the minds of the readers?
At best, fanfic immortalizes their work. People who read and love fanfic will ALWAYS go back to the source. Fanfic is, for the most part, an act of genuine love by fans who paid enough attention and cherished the original enough to be able to produce the fanfic.
At worst, fanfic may dilute and erode the original version of the stories or characters. And if it does, so what? Personally, I think any author who feels that fanfic has made them feel they’ve lost control of their characters had very little understanding of how the reader appropriates and internalizes text to begin with.
Beyond that, if you’re that brilliant an author, stop whoring your own literary product over and over again. Move on and write something new.
I’d like to leave you with a brilliant piece by Cory Doctorow on the subject. He addresses a lot of the issues much better than I have.
And, for my part, the moment someone writes fanfic based on one of my works is the moment I know I’ve arrived as a writer. So please, go ahead.
Well written as always. The judicious use of the word bitch was both timely and classic. =P
I often wonder what is lacking in people who can write that sort of stuff, read it, and not attempt. It’s as if she had no sense of how others perceive her words at all. And that then goes on to make me wonder how good a ‘writer’ Ms. ladylovesgrimm actually is.
I’ve only gotten two pieces of fan fiction on my stuff (and a bit of fan art). And I was honored by them, because they loved it so much, they wanted to create someone. I think fan fiction (and getting your stuff pirated) is a sign of success, not an insult.
Likewise, I’ve written fan fictions for friends because I liked the author’s work. Fan fictions have a lot of things in them. It helps a beginning write because the world development heavy lifting is already done (see story bible). It gives you a common framework and an idea of *how* to write. But, in general, it is still a homage for someone’s art. Imitation is a sincere form of flattery.
And if someone did more fan (art, fiction), I would still thank them from the bottom of my heart. And then probably post it on my fridge.
(I don’t normally write fan fiction anymore, mainly because I like creating myself. When I do, it’s usually on a lark or purely because a friend asked. Though, I was not expecting someone to proclaim in an IRC channel one day that I was “infamous” for one of my Harry Potter slashes. Which was a fan of a fan fiction and just delightfully recursive.)
No, I agree, I’ve never felt compelled to write any fanfic per se, but I’ve come pretty close.
Bravo! I’ve been inspired to write (but resisting the urge) some Supernatural slash fic by a YouTube video I can’t seem to get enough of. (http://youtu.be/n0ZE9Fubg9M if you’re interested) After reading your blog, I do believe I’m going to indulge the impulse. You are absolutely right – penning fanfic is just about the highest compliment a reader can pay an author. I would be *over the moon* if my writing inspired someone else to take my characters and run with them. I honestly don’t understand what this woman’s issue is but I would love to tell her that she, in some part, has inspired me to write some fanfic of my own. Cheers!
It says just how far I am out of the mainstream that I don’t even know what that video cut up pertains to. *sigh* Maybe that’s why I don’t write fanfic! I need a satellite dish.
LOL It’s a television show called Supernatural. The characters here are Dean Winchester (a hunter of demons, vamps, ghosts, and all sorts of oogie-boogies) and Castiel (an angel who isn’t afraid to make demons go ker-splat with a touch of his hand). They have a bromance relationship, Castiel did pull Dean out of hell after all, that often flips them against each other, sometimes enough to inspire violence. They never kissed each other on the show, which speaks to the brilliance of the editress that created this little gem. Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s the equivalent of video fanfic, or slashfic if you prefer. Anyhow, now you know. 🙂
If someone wrote fanfics based on my stories, I’d be very flattered that they liked the characters/story enough to want to continue from where I left off or write their version. I’ve read some really bad fanfics but I’ve also read some really good that I’ve enjoyed very much.
I’ve never written any myself, but if/when I do, I’d definitely consider doing one based on your stories RG, because there are quite a few I’d love to see continued 😉
RG,
I’m curious if a Hollywood studio offered her a million bucks to adapt
one of her stories into a movie on the basis that they needed to change a few things,
as is more often the case than not. Would she get off her high horse and take the money,
prestige, and fame?
A hot lady wielding Japanese steel, love it!
~TFP
I can’t help thinking of the TV Tropes page about Running the Asylum here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RunningTheAsylum. The money quote:
“A sufficiently established franchise is indistinguishable from fanfiction.”
It discusses how some writers graduate from writing fanfic to actually writing for the universe that inspired them. So how is fanfic a problem again?
Of course, I’m biased. Several of my stories are technically fanfic in another writer’s universe, though it’s with his permission and collaboration. We both believe it adds a richness to his main storyline because I can deal with continuity issues and ‘behind the scenes’ stuff that his first person POV narrator can’t know.
I think there’s nothing wrong with fanfic at all.
I’ve written fanfics in the past and never felt that my efforts in any way diluted the original creations. It is fascinating to think behind what is there on the screen and put your own interpretation on the little nuances you pick up. It’s hard to see how people can become so ‘precious’ about a fictional creation and become bitchy and nasty simply because their creation was crafted skilfully enough that others want to write for them. Surely it is a compliment on well-rounded character development?
My only problem (a minor one) is that I wrote a fanfic based on a TV series many years ago, and by chance the actor concerned has now become a good friend. I’m hoping he never finds any of my stuff out there on the internet, not because I’m ashamed of my fanfics, but it could be a little embarrassing :O
No, at worst (for an insecure hack author), the fanfic will be better than the original.
It’s not unheard of. Some great literature is explicitly copied off of other works (Goethe’s Faust is based off a puppet show), and although good books usually suffer when they get adapted into movies, mediocre ones are often improved (a point I think I first saw at slactivist’s critique of the left behind books).
Yeah, I wonder if Cecilia Ryan hates Gregory Maguire? He was an established author before writing Wicked. Does he get a fanfic pass?
Oh, Cecilia Ryan is a big supporter of fan fic. It’s the person she was quoting who isn’t
Oops. Well, I wonder if ladylovesgrimm gives Maguire a pass.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is “mash up,” not fan fic, isn’t it? If he had just changed the names, he’d still be plagiarizing words and sentences. It’s public domain, so it’s allowed, but it’s not really fan fic. It’s like if E. L. James had just *added* a leather family to the copy and pasted text of Twilight.
And and and! although I am not a big fan of fanfic, one of my favourite things in the world is reading a book, or listening to music, or watching a film, or looking at a piece of art and being able to pick out the artist’s influences. We are all an amalgamation of our experiences and art so often simply displays the beauty of our self knowing and our adoration of the source material. This is why I loved Angela Carter’s ‘Wise Children’; because it is THICK with reference and influence and drawn together so beautifully. This is why I love hearing the Yes and the Simon and Garfunkle influences in music by Fleet Foxes. Furthermore, when I was just starting to write, it was so incredibly comforting to see that I wasn’t the only one reusing adored ideas.
By the way, this may be one of the most perfect typos ever: “Why do they think they can release their work into the PUBIC sphere and continue to control the meaning of it in the minds of the readers?”
ALSO… did you know I wrote a piece based on ‘Pleasure’s Apprentice’ about 18 months ago? Just saying… your fanfic exists.
You did? Linkie!
Haha, on your own head be it. The Host
Actually I quite like this piece… or I did last time I looked at it; it’s been a while. Hope you enjoy.
WHoah… Damn, girl. That was hot. Very hot.
Yowzah! That was super steamy!
And now I’m craving tomato soup. 🙂
I missed this originally going up but I’m with you. Anyone who doesn’t get that fanfiction is adoration, through and through, is really just…well, clueless.
And I have definitely considered writing RG fanfiction. In fact….if I rummaged through my WIP folder long enough I best there’s something in there!