Fanfiction: The Invisible Writing On the Wall
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| Title: | Fanfiction: The Invisible Writing On the Wall |
| Creator: | Leva Cygnet |
| Date(s): | July 3, 2008 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Fanfiction: The Invisible Writing On the Wall |
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Fanfiction: The Invisible Writing On the Wall is a 2008 essay by Leva Cygnet.
It has the subtitle: "Unspoken Rules for Fanfic Writers."
Some Topics Discussed
- a list and description of "potential minefields" for fans as fanfiction is not legitimate, copyright violation, and hinky
- a link and brief description of “Fanfic”: force of nature, an April 2006 post by Nielsen-Haydens
- rules for manga and doujinshi are different
- breaking the fourth wall by showing fanworks to TPTB, "Do Not Ask, Do Not Tell. Seriously. If you're writing fanfic, don't tell any of The Powers That Be." - "If you don't say anything, The Powers That Be have plausible deniability."
- "Be aware of the feelings of the creators you're stealing from. Some don't care. I could come up with a fairly long list of writers, showrunners, editors, and assorted Powers That Be who've said they're okay with fanfic. Some even joke about the slash and the X-rated fic." - mentions of J.K. Rowling, Mercedes Lackey, Anne Rice, Joss Whedon, and J. Michael Straczynski
- "Steal from your betters, not from your peers. N00bs make this mistake on a fairly regular basis. If it's okay to write fanfic derivative of Harry Potter, it's okay to write fanfic derivative of other people's fanfic too, right? Same thing, right?" - comments about unauthorized sequels
- "Warn your audience of anything really icky." (such as Wincest) - comments about warnings, when they are needed, different expectations in different venues, the differences between warnings and spoilers, how to walk the fine line of pleasing all fans
- "Don't put other people's fanfic on your personal web page." -- "Please don't do this. It's not nearly as flattering as you think, and attributions and links to the source do not make it okay."
- "Recs are cool, until they're not." - The visibility is not always welcome.
- "Don't "out" the fanfic writers." - Don't talk about someone's fanfic to mundanes, don't connect a fan's pseuds without permission
From the Essay
Recently, there was a kerfluffle in a fandom for one of my favorite shows. The short version of it is that a fandom n00b thought it would be a brilliant idea to make an anthology of other people's fanfic and send it off to showrunners as a gift. This was supposed to be a compliment to them -- sort've a, "Look how much we love you!" gesture.
Some of you are probably going, "Sounds like a great way to honor the pros!"
The rest of you, those of you who've been in fandom for awhile, just issued a collective, horrified, "Nooooooooo!"
It was a bad idea. A really bad idea.
Fortunately, she created a community on Livejournal to discuss her plans, and fandom dogpiled on her with all the collective negative energy that a fannish mob can generate. It wasn't quite to the level of wank that Fanlib or Livejournal has managed to inspire, but it was pretty close. After the first ten pages of comments, I began to feel pretty sorry for the n00b. And I do believe she was convinced of the sheer badness of this idea, so disaster was averted.
My personal feelings on the matter are that fanfic writers should heed the wishes of the creators. It's simply a matter of being polite, even if the creator isn't inclined to actually pay their lawyers to stop you. I've actually written three Valdemar novellas for a fanzine. The fanzine promptly folded, and so the novellas sit on my hard drive and may never see the light of day. I like Misty an awful lot, both as a writer and as a generally neat person, so I'll respect her wishes. Simple as that. I won't put them online.
I will note that there are a few authors who are very, very anti-fanfic. There are certain books you just don't write fanfic about because the authors strongly, and in some cases, personally, object. With venom and lawyers. Certain authors are out and out irrational when it comes to fanfic, and you just don't want to go there.
If you can't find a single archive, Livejournal community, fanfiction.net category, or even a mailing list or newsgroup [for the fandom you are thinking of writing a story in]? Hmmm. Time to ask around a bit. If there's no indication on the creator's personal web site (possible for authors; unlikely for big media) and no evidence that the creators are clearly turning a blind eye to the fic because there's ten million stories out there and not on C&D; recorded, your next step is to find some fans who are active in that fandom and see what they know. It could be that the show or author is just so obscure that nobody's been inclined to write fanfic for it, or it could be that the author is so aggressively nasty about defending their trademarks that they will send you a C&D; because you borrowed a bar from their novel, stuck said drinking establishment in a crossover fanfic, and then didn't even mention any actual characters from their book.
(For. Real. That happened to a friend.)
Other fans will rather strongly object [if you write a story without permission in their 'verse]. And by 'really strongly' I mean they may come after you with fangs and claws out, and a thousand of their friends backing them up. You don't want to be dogpiled by half of a fandom because that fandom's pissed at you because their favorite Big Name Fan is pissed at you because you stole her baby.
It's not a pleasant thing.
This is not always logical or rational, but if you want to write a story in someone else's personal fanfic universe, using their Original Characters, this is a case where you do need to ask. Politely. Privately. And with humility. And if the other fan says no, that's the end of it. Go write something else -- create your own original characters in the same universe.
Don't be that obsessive, annoying stalker fan who doesn't have a clue that they're hurting someone's feelings. Don't scream how evil they are that they don't want to share, and for love of God don't write it anyway, just ... don't.
Odds are, if you're rude enough to push the point, after another fanwriter says, "No, you may not play in my universe!" You're the one who people will think is a clueless, gormless idiot. Fair warning.
If you've written a story about Sam, Dean, and their dangly bits, and posted it to the X-Rated Brotherly Love Supernatural Archive ... you probably don't need to warn about the Wincest. It's self-evident to the readers that their dangly bits will be mentioned in the story. Likely, if your readers are browsing the Brotherly Love Supernatural Archive, they probably want to read about the dangly bits doing what dangly bits do, so a warning would be rather silly.
If you have a Livejournal with a few dozen friends, it's perfectly okay to link to someone's story and go, "This is the coolest story EVAH. I heart it so much. It's so full of win. Go read!"
However.
If you're a big name fan who also has a very high-profile blog, or you're a professional journalist for a major magazine who thinks that mentioning the titles of some neat fanfic would be a cool thing to do, or if the subject of fanfic comes up on a major web site with tons of traffic and you're talking about fic you like in the comments of an article ... ask. And think twice, and three times, about recommending a specific story. You do not want to give too much publicity to a fanfic, particularly one that's not yours.
I'm surprised by the number of people who should know better and yet still point their spotlight at a fan without asking. If in question, ask the fanfic author if they're comfortable with mention of their story in that setting.
Fanfic writing is a bit hinky, at best, in mainstream circles.
[...]
The bottom line is: use common sense. Remember fanfic is not exactly a legitimate activity, and can potentially get the writers in trouble. The pros don't want to know about it. We exist as fanwriters by the grace of their mercy. And adult fanfic is great, but can also be scandalous if the wrong people in a writer's life found out about it.
Fan Comments
[Maia]:This advice also applies to pretty much every online forum everywhere. It should be taken for granted that one doesn't quote or link to another person's posts without getting permission, because the opinions expressed or the information shared therein may not be something the writer wants to share with the *entire world*. The rule could be boiled down to "Don't be stupid," but unfortunately, inexperienced people frequently don't recognize that what they're going to do is stupid.
[FurikoMaru]:*sigh*... How I wish I'd come across this page when I was a kid. Then I might have avoided that embarrassing business at age 12 when, completely unaware of any fanfiction etiquette at all, I proudly and enthusiastically sent the first chapter of a complete trainwreck of a Sailor Moon fic to a writing duo's fansite using the authors' OCs and saying it would be cool if they paid me for it. Head, meet Desk. Desk, this is Head. If my little sister ever starts writing fanfic, I'll be sure to direct her to this article.
[Shimi]: Gods, I should of read this ages ago...*Hides history of millions of Mary-Sues...*
[ender]:this is a fabulous post, may I ask you, if you have a LJ account, which I can put into my gReader? I would really like to know, if you are going to have more of this useful entries!