The Quick and Dirty Guide to Avoid Plagiarism in Fan Fiction
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| Title: | The Quick and Dirty Guide to Avoid Plagiarism in Fan Fiction |
| Creator: | bleh |
| Date(s): | between 2000-2002 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | multi |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | online here; WebCite |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Quick and Dirty Guide to Avoid Plagiarism in Fan Fiction is an essay by bleh.
It was posted to Writers University and includes the helpful suggestion: "If you like the book that much, find the author’s address. Many authors have e-mail addresses and are more than happy to answer your questions and receive any feedback you may have. Those that don’t can often be reached care of their publishers. While you’re e-mailing them, you can ask about potentially using a section or paragraph of their story for your own. If you ask nicely, they may say yes."
Excerpts
So you’re writing the next epic tale in fan fiction and you want to "pay homage" to one of your favorite authors, television shows or movies. You’re planning to do this by incorporating several lines to several pages of dialogue or story you love that has inspired you, the story or movie or television show that inspired you to write period. This scene taken verbatim, on top of being absolutely loved by you would blend wonderfully with your own story, adding another dimensions to it. On top of that, it would give your audience something to look for and create inside jokes.
Fan fiction is not plagiarism for a couple of reasons. The first is that fan fiction credits sources. This credit is done with the use of disclaimers. That is, it is done every time a fan fiction writer says "The characters in this story do not belong to me. They belong to Viacom, Star Trek and other people."The second reason fan fiction is not plagiarism is fan fiction is original. Yes, fan fiction borrows characters but the story lines and the actual word for word material is, or rather should be, the author’s own work.
The third reason fan fiction is not plagiarism [is] that fan fiction being plagiarism assumes that all fan fiction is a copyright violation. This is decidedly untrue. There are several loop holes that fan fiction can slide through to not be considered infringement. The first is that some fan fiction can be labeled parody. Cases of derivative works being labeled parody and being won in court actually exist. The most famous, recent and relevant case is "The Wind Done Gone." The second is that fan fiction can be written with consent, either tacit, inferred or official. There are several authors who give permission to fans to write fan fiction based on their work. One of the most famous of such authors is Tamora Pierce. There are other authors, who by their actions and speech, give tacit approval.