Hi, all.
So, on Tuesdays, Jay and I will both blog on the same topic. Usually we will announce the topic no later than Monday morning and we encourage you to post your own take on the issue in the comments section or to post your thoughts on the topic on your own blog. Then, we’d be happy to link to your site or you can provide a link in the comments section. Whatever works for you.
Today’s topic is about fans using other authors’ characters in their own scenarios (fanfiction). Is this good? Is this bad? How does this infringe on intellectual property rights? Recently, J.K. Rowling has come down hard on writers who try to use the Harry Potter characters in their own fiction even if said writers are making no money from the fanfiction.
Jay, of course, being the brain that he is gave a very well thought out, reasoned response regarding fanfiction and intellectual property. Go Jay! (Check him out via the link in my sidebar.)
For a more rational and correct response from me, you can check back in three years when I’m done with law school.
For now, here’s my completely irrational, gut-reaction take on fanfiction
It’s awesome.
Yep. I think it’s fabulous. To have created characters and a world that readers refuse to leave behind, to me, would be the sincerest form of flattery. I LOVE Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is no longer writing Harry Potter. And, while I don’t write fanfic myself, I can certainly understand why others still might want to hang out at Hogwarts.
A few stipulations:
1. Authors shouldn’t make money from writing that involves another author’s characters.
Ok, I think that is it. Jay raised the point that Rowling and other authors don’t want to see their characters put in “compromising” scenarios. But, I think that’s a slippery slope and, really, I see no reason to limit that.
Not to mention, one of my favorite authors started writing Harry Potter fanfiction. I don’t want to name names, as she has since taken the fanfiction down from her blog, but it helped her to learn the basics of writing without worrying about characterization and world building. She played her own game in someone else’s sandbox. By having the freedom to do that, she developed her own voice and was able to move on to creating her own work.
But, the #1 thing to remember is…
…That an author who cracks down on fanfiction is an author who is forgetting where her paycheck comes from: Fans.
Have at it.
Status: Reading Wicked Lovely like my life depends on it. So far, it is really good! Perhaps a Saturday Book Review on it in the near future. Last night, I sort-of-kind-of started the first scene of the new WIP, which I will come up with a working title for soon so we don’t have to keep calling it that. It is being stubborn and not coming out in the first person! I’m going to try a few more times to make it cooperate, but if it doesn’t, then maybe it wasn’t meant to be in the first person. Then, I’ll go ahead and do a deep third POV. For today, I’ll play around with the first scene more, run some errands, yanno, real life stuff to get ready for my trip to Austin on Friday!!! (During which time the blog will still be updated daily.)
3 Comments
June 3, 2008 at 10:19 pm
As a writer of nonfiction, I’ve only thought about the basics of character development, plot and all of the other complications that go along with writing a work of fiction. When contemplating fan fiction I had never really thought about how important it could be to a writer’s development to be able to isolate certain elements of the process in order to practice others. I think that’s a really important point and one that successful authors, if they have any desire to see other people succeed, should bear in mind before they go tearing down fan fiction. Plus, heck yeah – the fans are the ones that are paying their bills.
June 4, 2008 at 3:18 am
I agree with you, as long as the fanfic author is not making money off of the work, then it’s all in good fun. I think it’s a lot of fun and when you’re talking about Harry Potter and such devoted as the fans are of the series (I’m one of them!), you’re going to have those who want the series to go on. And while I’ve never written any fanfic since I’m sticking to writing something I can pursue having published, if others want to more power to them!
June 4, 2008 at 4:24 am
I don’t really know where I stand on this issue. I love Harry Potter, and am sad to know that the series is over. So where is the harm in keeping it going as long as you don’t make money off another persons ideas? At the same time I can see the issue from the other side (one that both Chandler and Jay talked about). What happens when a fanfic author doesn’t stay true to the original characters?
This might just be me, but when I read a book like Harry Potter, I rarely think about a character’s actions and link them back to the author. Once I start reading, the story becomes real to me. If this is the case and I start reading fan fiction with the same Harry Potter characters, how will I separate J.K. Rowlings Ron, for example, from another author’s Ron? Will it change my views of the character? Will it bring new meaning to the Harry Potter series that J.K. Rowling didn’t intend?
When somebody sings another bands songs, it is easy to separate one performer from the original. It is my inability to do so when I read that brings the issue into question.
In conclusion, I am torn, and while I’m not sure about the ethics, I do still love to read fanfiction