30 in 30: Day 15 - A Fanfic

[fivecats]

Orange & White Sunset
January 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
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Day 15→A fanfic

Yeah... see, I don't read "fanfic". I don't follow "fanfic". I don't have anything to do with "fanfic" of any kind, really.

See, my way of looking at things is that I'd rather read the original author's vision of the characters and ideas for stories and leave it at that. As a writer, I'd much rather spend my time with my own characters and my own story ideas. I just don't get spending all of that time and creative energy with other people's characters/stories.

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Comments

[amlaped.livejournal.com]

Nonsense! What about "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", or "Wicked"? Or "The Seven Percent Solution", or "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"? Or what about any scripted TV series that ever ran more than a few episodes?

Of course we're talking professional writers versus amateurs, but that's just a matter of an interesting story versus a boring story. I'm talking about taking on somebody else's characters.

An "original author's vision of the characters" is carried forward by other writers all the time in television production. David Chase wrote only a third of the episodes of The Sopranos, Aaron Sorkin wrote only half the episodes of The West Wing, Matthew Weiner wrote only half the episodes of Mad Men. And they're the ones who are famous for keeping an unusual amount of script control.

You can make a good living being a professional writer of what could (admittedly loosely) be described as fan fiction. There are literally hundreds of money-making novels and graphic novels published in the Star Wars (TM) universe. I imagine most long-running comic book series extend beyond their original creators. Any parent of a small child knows that not just movies but toys nowadays come with their own storybook series (yes, there are Lego novels for kids). The USA Network has been publishing original novels tied in to their successful TV series like Psych and Burn Notice. Their series "Monk" has been cancelled, but the detective lives on in Lee Goldberg's novels. And why not? Why shouldn't original novels based on a story-centered TV series be any less interesting than new TV episodes themselves, if the stories are strong enough? I think what AMC is doing is pretty neat. There are lots of ways to make money writing about someone else's characters, and I don't hold it against publishers for trying to satisfy the public's craving for stories, in whatever media they can get away with. I think it's pretty neat that a good writer can create something not that different from fan fiction -- that is, be given a starting setup and produce something entertaining from it. And I celebrate any amateur's attempt to do the same. (Although I'm glad I'm not required to read any of it. They're generally pretty boring.)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

yesterday was rushed, as was this entry. so let me flesh it out a bit.

while writing the entry i thought, specifically, of The Seven-Percent Solution as a counter-argument, but found, that for me, "fanfic" means Amateur Written, Unpublished and Due to the Quality of Writing, Likely to Remain As Such.

"fanfic" also takes the pre-existing characters and simply continues the already existing story line. P&P&Zombies doesn't fit this, nor does Wicked. (a book i couldn't finish, btw)

i also limit it to the written word in book form, not to television/film scripts for an ongoing series. television & film are truly collaborative efforts, despite the French and their Auteur Theory of film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autuer), one i always had a hard time believing in. and the snob in me finds it oh so easy to look down my nose upon those 'franchise' books based on television/film characters written, IMHO, simply to capitalize on the public's desire to hand over money to the copyright holders.

i almost decided to simply link to richard's collection of sarah connor chronicles fanfic scripts. he's written 20 or so of them and one of his readers is now trying to put together a cast to do audio presentations of them.

then i thought about the time i've spent with my Steampunkish stories, with their characters conjured up by me, their adventures following logically/illogically from my own interactions with them as i got to know them, as we got to know each other, finding out what felt right, what didn't and settling into a somewhat still flexible understanding of one another. i see that as a different level of creativity, one that strikes out in entirely new directions (while, admittedly, doffing a respectful tip o' the hat to the/my past) and is something i can claim, without hesitation, as mine.

and that's what i prefer.

(and, yes, i know there are likely large holes in this logic. still, it works for me)

boredom is, indeed a big factor. i'd like to request your indulgence as to whether or not i've committed the same sin with my Steampunkish works in the coming months, if i may.

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[amlaped.livejournal.com]

Your definition of fanfic is, of course, the generally accepted one. Mine was quite a stretch, but I thought it was an interesting extrapolation.

I think it's neat that Richard's fanfic may get produced into amateur radio plays. Somewhere on the Web, there is Star Trek fanfic that got produced into amateur Web videos. I think that's cool. Someday I might watch one.

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

I love the image.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

thanks, g. i do, too, and was (secretly) hoping someone else would, as well.

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Defined and Redefined

[sakkijarvi.livejournal.com]

OK, must confess that when I first read the original entry my response was "'Fanfic'? What is fanfic?" . . . then, reading Amlaped's comment and your response, I have some idea of what the term means . . . but it does seem that definition is a key, as I find myself agreeing with you both and I think the reason why is that I read the two entries with different definitions of fanfic in my mind . . . I think of Homer (in either single author mode or composite author mode) and The Iliad . . . Homer's characters and Homer's story both pre-existed the written form that is The Iliad . . . but it seems that a definition of fanfic broad enough to encompass The Iliad would be very broad indeed . . . OK, how about Lucan's Pharsalia? . . . Lucan's epic is of the conflict between Caesar and Pompeii (sp?) and the unnaturalness of civil war . . . it's a verse form of historical novel . . . to what extent are Lucan's Caesar and Lucan's Pompeii constitute Lucan's creation? . . . certainly all historical novels are not fanfic . . . but what if someone completed The Pharsalia (Lucan committed suicide as a result of his involvement in a failed political coup; this story is wonderfully told in John Hersey's novel The Conspiracy) . . . would any author who picked up Lucan's story where it leaves off (in perhaps the world's first cliff-hanger ending: Caesar and his new love Cleopatra are trapped a pier with their small handful of body guards numerically overwhelmed by an on-coming hostile force) be creating fanfic?

But if fanfic is defined more narrowly: the writer must be a fan and the story must take existing characters and tell their further adventures BUT within the existing fictive universe . . . would Miller's Dark Knight, then, be fanfic? Moore's Swamp Thing? . . . Or is the extent of the re-invention involved in these stories such that they move outside of the earlier incarnation of the characters' universe . . . or do graphic novels fall outside of the discussion because of the collaborative nature of their creation?

Would love to hear Richard's ideas here, since some of his writing clearly is fanfic, regardless of the parameters of the definition . . . well, provided he could step back at least one step from himself to make those comments.

OK, have been thinking out loud here, because the topic, as revealed by y'all's two comments, has set my curiosity on fire.