Comparing Fanworks to a Fan's Child

Tropes and genres
Related tropes/genres	Authorial Intent, Feedback, Criticism
See also	Fanfiction as Training Wheels, Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox
Related articles on Fanlore.

Comparing Fanworks to a Fan's Child is a fairly common statement that fans make regarding their own works.

It comes up in introductions to their fanworks and in discussions about feedback and criticism.

It's a trope that that both explains to other fans that one's fanwork is very valuable and personally important to its creator. It is also a way of telling other fans to avoid what they might consider direct or critical comments about a fanwork.

Some fans also use the phrase to avoid choosing a favorite fanwork from their own.

Birth and Labor

Some fans compare the hard work of the creation of a fanwork to the physical labor of birthing a baby, and of sending one's fanworks out in to the word as innocent and helpless children:

My stories are my babies, and writing one follows a very similar path as childbirth. There's the conception of an idea, then the gestation as it develops. Then there's the labor or writing it, editing it, rewriting it, re-editing it, polishing, finalizing, proofing, etc, etc, etc. Repeat steps as often as necessary before the "baby" is ready to be born. Giving birth to the story -- posting it -- is almost as hard for me as sending my kids off to school for the first time. I want people to like my story. I want it to be a good reflection on me. I want it to have an impact on people, be it make them laugh, make them cry, or simply make them remember it. And when someone feels the need to just blatantly criticize, I am really hurt. I simply don't understand it. If someone is reading something that is not to his or her liking, then close it and delete it. Be adult enough to recognize that not every story will appeal to every reader and maybe this one just isn't your cuppa.

Not Just a Fannish Thing

From Mercedes Lackey in 2006:

I like fanfic. I like it in the way it lets people ask "what if" and "what then" questions. I like it that it gives people who may become pros a place to concentrate on *one* thing--plot--or maybe two--plot and character--without having to invent a universe of their own. The latter reason, by the way, is why I like to write urban/urban-historical fantasy, since everyone knows what "our world" looks like. I like that it gives people who want desperately to tell a story a built-in audience. OK so it follows Sturgeon's Law of "90% of everything is dreck" but what doesn't? And OK, the idea of some people taking rather...extreme...*ahem* liberties with my stuff does make me go a bit ewwwwwwwww (sometimes more than a bit ewwwwww) but as long as they lock it down into a place where theoretically only 18-and-over can go...

But I really, cross my heart, am not that curious about what they're writing. It's a bit like the reason why I don't read Amazon reader reviews of my books. I don't want to know. Sometimes it gives you a swelled head and sometimes it makes you want to reach through the screen and strangle someone and neither reaction is good for you.

I cannot, for the life of me, see how it can really hurt anyone. But then, I have a kind of complicated relationship with my books. They are my babies right up until the point where they leave my hands.

Then they become something else, and that something else is different to everyone who reads them. I can't control that. It's stupid to try. All I can really do is tell the best story I can, and what happens after that is out of my hands. The babies have grown up and become independant, and like a wise parent I do my best to let go.

And that includes all the "what ifs" and "what thens" other folks imagine.

From George R.R. Martin: Someone Is Angry On the Internet (2010):

Those are some of the reasons writers like me will not permit fanfic, but before I close, let me put aside the legal and financial aspects of all this for a moment, and talk about more personal ones. Here, I think, Diana Gabaldon absolutely hit the nail on the head in the latest of her blog posts on the subject. And here, she and I agree completely. Many years ago, I won a [Nebula]] for a story called "Portraits of His Children," which was all about a writer's relationship with the characters he creates. I don't have any actual children, myself (Diana does). My characters are my children, I have been heard to say. I don't want people making off with them, thank you. Even people who say they love my children. I'm sure that's true, I don't doubt the sincerity of the affection, but still...

I have sometimes allowed other writers to play with my children. In Wild Cards, for instance, which is a shared world. Lohengrin, Hoodoo Mama, Popinjay, the Turtle, and all my other WC creations have been written by other writers, and I have written their characters. But I submit, this is NOT at all the same thing. A shared world is a tightly controlled environment. In the case of Wild Cards, it's controlled by me. I decide who gets to borrow my creations, and I review their stories, and approve or disapproval what is done with them. "No, Popinjay would say it this way," I say, or "Sorry, the Turtle would never do that," or, more importantly (this has never come up in Wild Cards, but it did in some other shared worlds), "No, absolutely not, your character may not rape my character, I don't give a fuck how powerful you think it would be."

And that's Wild Cards. A world and characters created to be shared. It's not at all the same with Ice & Fire. No one gets to abuse the people of Westeros but me.

Wanting to Brag

1979

As always, if you have any questions about the Echoes universe or if you would just like to discuss it with me, I'd be more than glad to do so. Just send me a SASE along with your comments or questions and I'll get right back to you. The Echoes universe is my "baby" so like any proud mother, I'm always more than willing to talk about it!

Protecting One's Babies from Criticism

1981

I must say something about this censorship charge which some fans are making against Lucasfilm Ltd. — It's a general statement, not to be considered a condemnation of "Slow Boat to Bespin" 1 & 2, neither of which I consider "X-rated." I know I'm on very shaky legal ground here (and, unfortunately, "legal" does not equal "ethical" in our system) but I feel that an author has the moral right to say what should or should not be done with his/her characters. As a writer, I know how I'd feel if someone took my characters and used them in stories without regard to my wishes. It would be like attacks on my children. (If I had children.)

1986

There is a line between interpretation and distortion. It is not rigid; it may not even stay in the same place. But so long as the creator is alive, I believe she should fight for the integrity of her/his creation. If I create a character who believes in one, personal, omnipotent god and someone changes that character into an atheist, and if the audience comes to accept the second presentation as real, I have lost one of my children. Again, this is not to damn interpretation. This is to ask that a creator's intention, the spirit of the piece, be respected; that people honor the labor, love, sweat, and hope for communication that go into the creation of a story, a piece of art, of music; and that people recognize that art is part of the human creator's soul, part of her perception of truth, however mundane, homey or innocent.

1995

As Shelley pointed out last month when speaking of her art going up for bid at the Shore Leave Art Auction, her art is a validation of herself, At least equally so are the stories we write. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we bare our thoughts, our feelings about life and love, with every K/S storywe write, we let others have a peek into our minds and hearts, we say things in our writing that we would never be able to express in any other way.

Someone once told me the following a long time ago, and I try to remember it with ever LoC I write: "When you write a negative LoC you are saying,"Boy, is your baby ugly!"

I write LOCs for a number of reasons, one is that I have always believed authors want to get feedback on their work. When I've seen reviews and comments on my work, critical or positive, I have always appreciated it. I've learned from it. That doesn't mean that I don't feel emotionally connected to what I write! I'm very emotionally connected! My stories are as much my babies as anyone's! But if I let critical comments stop me, then I wouldn't be doing anything in life, let alone writing K/S! Hell, we're not talking the New York Times Book Review, here!

1997

I admire anyone who can put their words, ego and heart on the line and post here or anywhere else. My poems and stories are my children, as I'm sure most other authors feel, and letting them go is difficult. Imagine sending your child off to school on the first day and finding out upon their return that a bully beat em up and stole their lunch money.

2000

[kira-neyrs]: I'd be pretty upset if someone told me something the found about my stories that I didn't mean to be there. Can't think of anything specific, but I know that my stories are my *kids* and god help the one who treats my kids badly <G>

[SAMK]: Yeah, but you know what? The whole point of raising kids is to get them to where you can send them off to fend for themselves. Any reader brings something to the story, and if they haven't brought something to add to what I put there, I just don't think I've done my job right. What really disappoints me is when people can't take enough out of what I've written to see the possibilities.

I've heard the comment "my stories are my babies" many times, in fandom, from people who had never been edited and had never been given much feedback before. [...] The writers I've known who have said their stories were their babies tended to get their feelings hurt when anyone challenged an aspect of their stories.

I can't count the number of times I've seen someone say that people shouldn't say anything even remotely negative about a story (right down to "spell-checking this would have been a good idea"), because every story is its author's "baby", the author's precious child. Authors send these infants out into the world and say, "Here's my baby. You are now responsible for taking care of it, for making sure that it's warm and fed and clothed, whether I provided lunch money and a blankie or not." We may not point out that it has no clothing because that's rude to do to a child (and, somehow, hurtful to the parent, who didn't know the child was unclothed and rather than being grateful at being told her kid really does need a new pair of shoes, instead says "how dare you notice that, and imply that I didn't put clothes on that naked little baby!").

2007

I have such mixed feelings about [how popular Courts of Honor is]. I love to hear it. I’m as proud of COH as if it were a child instead of a novel. It still gives me such a high to get an e-mail from a total stranger saying they stayed up two nights running, ruined their eyesight and wept in all the right places. I should be really proud, right? Instead, I feel as if I only escaped by the skin of my teeth. The best of me is in the book, but I live with the rest of me. My life was a mess while I was writing this.

2015

# I USED TO THINK MY STORIES ARE MY CHILDREN # BUT I'VE WRITTEN SO MUCH I LITERALLY CAN'T REMEMBER WHERE THEY ALL ARE # I MIGHT HAVE MORE ACCOUNTS ON THOSE SITES OR ON OTHER SITES # I CAN'T RECALL # I SHOULD PROBABLY STOP THINKING OF MY STORIES AS MY CHILDREN BECAUSE THE WAY I TREAT THEM IS NOT A GOOD SIGN FOR MY FUTURE PROGENY

Don't Make Me Choose a Favorite Child

1999

[My favorite fic of my own?] That's kind of like trying to pick a favorite child. I guess it depends on my mood. Right now I'm not thinking about much of anything other than "Above Rubies", so I guess that's my favorite right now.

2015

I can’t really pick a favourite from my work, because there are only six at the time of writing this, all completed within a couple of months, and they are all my babies. But if I were pushed, I would have to choose my first story ‘The Nature of the Beast’, simply because it has put me in touch with so many very kind strangers who I hope will turn into friends.