(no subject)

[dreamflower]

 

I’ve thought for a while about organizing my opinions about fanfic into a post.  The recent storm of controversy roused by this post by Diana Gabaldon, as well as this response to it made me decide to finally go ahead and do it.

ETA Ms. Gabaldon has deleted her entries on the subject; however some people have managed to keep them. See this thread for links. Or find it here on Google cache for a limited time.

What Fanfic Is (and Isn't) to Me

 

Fanfic isn’t:

 

• Illegal.  There has been no court ruling to declare fan fiction, as such, to be illegal.  And there is a host of legal and scholarly opinion that fan fiction is, in fact, covered under the “Fair Use” provision of copyright law.   That may change at some point in time, but as this article points out, the courts may very well decide in fan fiction's favor!
   
• Plagiarism.  Plagiarism is when someone passes off someone else’s work as his or her own!  You cannot have plagiarism when you give proper credit to the creator(s) of the source material.  Fan fiction by its very definition gives that credit.
   
• Theft from those who created the source material.  Theft of what?  Fanfiction takes nothing from the authors or producers of canon.  Their books, shows or movies still exist and are still in their possession.  Fanfiction makes no money, and especially no money that would have otherwise gone to said authors or producers.  In fact, it could be argued that it actually makes money for them, as fanfiction writers are more inclined to shell out their own money for books, DVDs, and other fannish objects.
   
• Only pornography.  While I would be the first to admit that there are thousands of pornographic fanfics on the Internet, there are also millions of pornographic books in the world as well.  That does not mean every book is porn, anymore than every fanfic is porn.  The very existence of the “gen” category for fanfic, and the popularity of gen groups and archives, proves that.  While there are indeed those who are interested in writing or reading about explicit sex, that’s not exclusive to the fanfiction world. 
   
• Only written by those who are incapable of using their own imaginations.  First of all, it takes quite a bit of imagination to go beyond what the author of the source material came up with, sometimes with OCs or AUs that are wildly imaginative. Second, what makes people think that conventionally published authors are all that original themselves?  See the link to the response above!
   
• Just “practice” for those who want to become published authors themselves.  While it’s true that many fanfic authors harbor the ambition to become conventionally published in their own rights one day, there are a great many of us who have no interest in that at all.
   
• Only written by 12-year-olds; or bored housewives; or nerds who live in their parents’ basements.  There are as many types of fanfiction writers as there are fandoms, and while a few may fall into the aforementioned categories, the truth is that they are a minority.
   

 

Fanfic is:

 

• A tribute to the source material.  Why does fanfic exist?  “Because there is never enough canon.”  Those who write (and/or read) fanfiction want more, not just more of the same story  (although they want that as well) but more of certain characters, or more of a certain world, or more explanations of that unexplained gap or anomaly. 
   
• Transformative.  Fanfiction is derivative by its very nature, it needs to be derivative in order to connect the fans that read it.  But it also transforms the material from which it is derived into something more than it was.
   
• Creative.  You can pick up a book or turn on the TV, and you can sit there and consume what you have been given, and then close the book or turn off the TV and forget about it.  Or you can interact with the book or the show, by imagining new scenarios or new ways of looking at what you’ve been presented with.  And if you have ever tried to figure out what happened “when it was all over”, that’s fanfic.
   
• Literary analysis.  You can analyze a story by tracing the themes and motifs used by the creator, by finding out what influences were brought to bear, by picking apart the language.  All of those are story-external methods of engaging with the source material.  Or, you can try to figure out within the context of the story why a character did something, or how it was accomplished within the context of that world.  And that is story-internal literary analysis, and a legitimate way of exploring the text.
   
• Filled with variety.  In conventionally published fiction, there are novels.  There are some short story markets, such as anthologies, but far fewer than in years past.  Poetry exists only in a rarefied atmosphere.  And as for short-short forms of fiction, the market is nearly non-existent.  Contrast that to fanfiction, where one may find everything from lengthy multi-chaptered sagas, to vignettes, to fixed-length-ficlets such as drabbles, to poetry of every type.  One may find stories that seamlessly emulate the source material, and stories that turn it on its head.  Experimentation is welcomed, not shunned as “unprofitable”.
   
• A legitimate hobby.  There are many creative things one can do as a hobby: one can paint, or knit, or make pottery, or embroider, or sew, or cook, or one of any dozens of other avenues for expression.  And there are professional painters, needleworkers, sculptors, seamstresses and chefs.  Yet do you hear any of them complaining when someone makes a hobby of their livelihood?  Writing fanfiction for fun is just as valid a way of spending time as knitting a scarf. 
   
• Open to everyone.  Anyone with a computer, who is in any way literate, can post a fanfiction and find some readers.  Now some may think this is not a good thing, but I think that anything that encourages people to read and to write is good.
   
• A way to foster a sense of community.  There are more ways to get “paid” for one’s efforts than money—the appreciation of a review is a fanfic writer’s usual currency, but there is also the give and take of the fandom—the writing of gift fics and exchanges are another.  Friendships begun in a fandom, and bonded over shared stories, can then transcend the fandom into real life.
   
• Essentially different in nature than “original fiction”.  In fanfiction, context is everything.  With most fanfic stories, if one is unfamiliar with the fandom, the story will not make a lot of sense—or even if it does, most of the subtext is lost.  Because the writers and the readers share common knowledge of the source material, the writer can make use of that knowledge to give her story more impact, and more depth, in fewer words than can the writer of “original fiction” who must spend at least some time setting up her characters and her world.
   

 

I am quite sure that there are many other things that “Fanfiction isn’t” or that “Fanfiction is”.  These are the ones that jump out at me.

 

My own fandom experience is neither as wide nor as deep as that of some people.  I mostly write in only one fandom.  I write gen, and fairly traditional gen at that.  I do read in other fandoms from time to time if I am familiar with the canon, and I enjoy it.

 

I know there are those fanfic writers who have multiple fandoms, and those who have serial fandoms, and those whose fandoms are rare and obscure.

 

But none of that really matters, because all of them share one common experience:  they love what inspires them, and they are passionate about that love.  And so they write about it, and more power to them!

 

The fanfic writer is an amateur.  Nowadays that has somehow come to have a bad connotation.  But the real meaning of the word “amateur” is “someone who does something for the love of it, instead of for money”.  At one time that was thought to be a Good Thing.  

 

I may be hopelessly old-fashioned, but I still think it is a Good Thing.

Comments

[shirebound]

*applauds loud and long*

[dreamflower]

*blushes and bows*

Thank you!

[febobe.livejournal.com]

*joins Shirebound*

Dreamflower, this is exquisite.

Thank you.

[dreamflower]

Thank *you*, dear!

[addie71.livejournal.com]

*thumbs up*

[dreamflower]

*grin*

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

” is “someone who does something for the love of it, instead of for money”.

Excellent way to finish this off!
*applauds with shirebound and febobe*

[dreamflower]

I am so very, very tired of the modern mindset that the only way to measure the value of something is how much money it is worth!

Thank you, dear!

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

*standing ovation*

[dreamflower]

*blushes again*
*grins*

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

THIS.

♥

[dreamflower]

Thank you. I've been wanting to say this for a while.

[meneleth.livejournal.com]

Well put! I agree with you on all points.

I'd like to emphasize that you do not need a computer to *write* fanfic; you just need a computer to put it online. I (along with thousands of others, I'm sure) wrote fanfic by hand (gasp!) in lined paper notebooks long before the internet was a gleam in anyone's eye. In fact, I still handwrite ideas and scenes when they come to me.

[dreamflower]

This is true, although one is unlikely to find readers without putting it online. But I've written quite a few of my fics at least partially, if not wholly, by hand.

[ramblin_rosie]

The fanfic writer is an amateur. Nowadays that has somehow come to have a bad connotation. But the real meaning of the word “amateur” is “someone who does something for the love of it, instead of for money”. At one time that was thought to be a Good Thing.
I may be hopelessly old-fashioned, but I still think it is a Good Thing.
AMEN!


Would you mind terribly if I cite this post, and maybe your other one about story-internal/-external engagement in LOTR fic, in my paper for SWCCL? I'm planning to look specifically at a different fandom, but you've highlighted some key dynamics that I want to explore. (I have no idea how I'm going to keep that paper down to ten pages....)

[dreamflower]

Oh my! I would be honored if you wished to do so! And I'd love a peek at it when it's all done!

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

*Applauds vigorously!*

Beautifully articulated, Dreamflower!

[dreamflower]

Thank you! It's been in my head for a while-- Ms. Gabaldon's rant was the impetus I needed to actually write it out and post it.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Well said!

And I have to chuckle (at myself), because I could conceivably be said to fall into the category of "bored housewife", although I don't consider myself married to a house, nor am I bored! :)

[dreamflower]

So could I. Though I do work part-time, I suppose by conventional definitions I'd fall into that category.

But I'm too easily bored to be bored, if you know what I mean. I keep lots of irons on the fire, so I don't have time to get bored.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Lovely! And true! *applauds*

[dreamflower]

Thank you!

I just thought it needed to be said.

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

I agree with you 100%.

[dreamflower]

*nods* I'd be surprised if most of my flist did not agree, LOL! I suppose I'm preaching to the choir! Still, maybe some doubters will be pointed in this direction and think twice about their scorn for fanfic.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Very well said!

[dreamflower]

Thank you!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

This is what Miss Gabaldon should read, and her followers as well.

Beautifully worded, it feels like a badge of honour to me. *hugs*

[dreamflower]

Thank you very much. I hope perhaps it might explain some of what I think and feel about our shared hobby.

[the-arc5.livejournal.com]

Beautifully spoken, well-organized, and very true, I think.

(I linked you in my own rant on this subject. This is okay, yes?)

[dreamflower]

Very much OK, dear! Link away, the more the merrier!

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

What a lovely essay. You make some great points. The one about variety made me stop and think a minute since I'd not thought of fic that way before, but I think it's very true.

[dreamflower]

Really, the commercial markets for anything except full-length novels has shrunk and shrunk in recent decades.

But in fanfic, there are so many experimental forms! I don't believe that "drabbles" as we define them exist in the commercial fiction world, and there are no longer places for short-short stories or vignettes. Poetry seems confined to literary anthologies or greeting cards.

It is amazing to me how creative fanfic writers are in finding new forms of expression!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Well-stated and covers the essential points. That you for sharing it.

[dreamflower]

Thank *you* for reading it! As I said above, I think I'm preaching to the choir here, but it's good to find that so many are in agreement with how I've said it.

[illyria-novia.livejournal.com]

*applauds most heartily*

[dreamflower]

Thank you!

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear! :) Very much agreeing with you here. :)

*hugs again*

[dreamflower]

Well, I know I am preaching to the choir here, but it feels good to know that I've expressed what a lot of people think!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

*joins the rest of the crowd for applauding*
Very well put (and delightfully un-rant-y, which I'd never have managed to pull off), thank you for writing. May I link to this, should the need arise?

[dreamflower]

Truth be told, it's something I've had in my head for a long time, so it wasn't really a rant against that particular-- as one person has called her-- "Author-of-the-Week", as it was that she was an impetus to go ahead and actually post these thoughts.

Also, I think, un-ranty can be a lot more convincing. And less likely to annoy others or draw flames. *grin*

Please, do feel free to link at any time! And thanks for stopping by!

[slightlytookish]

Very well said! *applauds you*

I know there are those fanfic writers who have multiple fandoms, and those who have serial fandoms, and those whose fandoms are rare and obscure.

But none of that really matters, because all of them share one common experience: they love what inspires them, and they are passionate about that love. And so they write about it, and more power to them!

♥!

[dreamflower]

(((((hugs))))))

♥ back!

[independence1776]

Awesome! Very well said.

[dreamflower]

Thank you!

[elandulin.livejournal.com]

Well said! And thank you, for those of us who have been collectively smeared by this and other published authors' campaigns.

I agree on all points. I do however think it's worth noting that when we appropriate and radically re-imagine the work of living authors, we do run the risk of incurring their wrath with regard to Author's Intent. We are ourselves Authors, and we get just as proprietary about our own viewpoints as many of our Source Authors were and are about theirs. I understand the idea of 'public domain' but there is an 'author's domain' that exists in the mind of anyone who creates a work of words, and if we are going to trespass without respect for that, we have to expect the blow-back.

I remember when I first saw "March" in a bookstore--in Boston, actually, when I went to see the LOTR exhibition there. I was floored! It was so obviously fan-fiction! And being very well received. Heaven knows, of course, what Louisa May Alcott would have thought, but I thought: Huh! There's a precedent for you! And then it won the Pulitzer!??

[dreamflower]

The response post I linked above gives so many examples of books and other works, that like March, are accepted fanfiction.

Because the fandom you and I share was created by someone we deeply respect, not only as the creator of the world we play in, but as an admirable person, we choose to consider our stories a tribute to him as well as to his world, and make the effort to be consistent with what we think his intent would be. We might be surprised to find that we've misinterpreted him, but we make that effort out of love.

To you and to me (and to many others as well), in LotR, Authorial Intent is a part of the lines we delineate for ourselves-- a border we create, and determine to honor. It increases the challenge of writing in Arda, and so to me at least, increases the pleasure of doing so. I like to delude myself that JRRT might possibly *not* be displeased with at least some of my speculations on his world and characters.

OTOH, many fandoms are for works that are *already* collaborative, such as movies, TV shows, comic books and so forth-- their canon is already created by a committee, and authorial intent would be difficult, if not impossible, to pin down.

As for recently published books, I do think, though, that contemporary authors (as opposed to those who are long gone from us, but who honored us with their invitation to play in their world) should be less strident in expressing their discontent. Fanfiction is here to stay, and I think they need to relax and enjoy the ride-- or if they cannot overcome their distaste, learn to feign indifference.

I've seen many links since this most recent controversy errupted to various defenses of fanfiction.

This one made me think!
http://swiftywriting.blogspot.com/2005/11/in-defense-of-fanfiction-guestblogger.html

I'm not sure I agree with all of his assertions, but they certainly make a point about an author trying to control the readers!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Very well said! I must admit, as I only discovered fan fic even existed as I approached my half century and I can still count the number of fics I've read in the low hundreds, I did have huge reservations about it at first. I still believe we have a definite duty to be respectful to both the original material and the intent of the author but at least I now know the world of fan fic isn't entirely the preserve of twelve year olds!

[dreamflower]

I cam late to fanfic as well-- in fact I had already passed my half-century before I found it!

I have to say, in my own writing I take care to try and be respectful, but I also have to say that I only write in one fandom, and the author of that one deserves as much respect as I can give him. I consider all my stories to be an homage to him, and hope that he might find at least some of it does not disgrace him.

Some contemporary authors, however, seem to me by their attitudes to have already forfeited any claims to respect. But then I no longer read very much contemporary conventionally published fiction.

And as I pointed out to elandulin, for those who write in fandoms such as movies, TV shows and comic books (which are already produced as the collaborative efforts of many people) how would *they* guage authorial intent?

Here from Metafandom

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful! A beautiful list that rings exactly true to me. The point about the variety of fanworks particularly caught my eye, because I was recently talking to a writer friend who is working on a story, and he's very concerned about the length -- it's settling into novella-length, too long to sell as a short story, not long enough to sell as a novel. And then it hit me: I never have to worry about that. My stories can be as long or as short as they need to be, without any issue of whether I can find a market for it. I think it's one of the best benefits of the lack of gatekeepers in fandom.

Thank you for writing this and sharing it. :) (Another here, btw, who was a relative latecomer to the fanfic world; not past the half century mark yet, but I am well into my second quarter!)

Re: Here from Metafandom

[dreamflower]

You know, fanfic is filled with amazing innovations! Those wonderful 100 word drabbles are a fanfic invention, as are the variations on it, double drabbles, tribbles, fixed-length-ficlets of a specific number (I remember a challenge a few years back for 111 word ficlets to celebrate a momentous birthday!) "Dribbles" are another-- a form of poetry beginning with a 10 word line, and "dribbling" down to a single word. I've read brilliant drabble series-- wonderful stories told in segments of exactly 100 words each.

There are the sorts of things that conventional contemporary publishers turn up their noses at: vignettes, character studies, mood pieces-- things without plots, meant to evoke the feeling of the source material.

There are sagas that are endless: meant to go on and on with no particular end in sight.

And even in multichaptered fics, the author can have her chapters as long-- or as short-- as she wishes!

And there are ways in which fans can write together: round robins, remixes, fic exchanges.

I read not long ago in a writing magazine that many publishers of genre fiction will no longer even look at a stand-alone story. If a writer doesn't have a series in her, she's out of luck.

It's sad really. But it just shows how creatively free we still are with fanfic!