I wrote my first fanfic (based on Disney comic-book characters) in grade school, back in the days time forgot, and I was eager to show it to someone else.
Mentioning Shakespeare in your post is entirely appropriate. So much of what he wrote was reworkings of earlier stories by other people. We think of the works of Homer as being set in stone. But the very nature of oral tradition is adaption to suit the story teller and the audience. Fanfic is pretty much in the blood of civilization
The problem is, of course, trying to make a living on writing. This isn't the 1600s. Publishing of a sort is just a click of a button away. If anybody has the right to rewrite your story to suit themselves and then spread it around far and wide for profit, then the value of your original work declines dramatically.
Back in the 1980s when I was trying to write sci-fi for sale, there were times I truly hated the Star Trek franchise for burning through stories at a horrendous clip. If one of their stories came close to what you were working on you might as well throw everything out you may have been working on for years and start over because no publisher would touch it. It would be horrifying to be working long and hard on a story with characters you've already published to have somebody toss out to the Net a similar story with your own characters and decent writing, which could get some broad circulation. You'd be afraid to publish what was rightfully yours for fear of getting sued!
As much as I think fanfic is useful and important, I think it is just as important for would-be writers to use their own characters, unless they specifically *do not* attempt to make any money off of it. Writing fanfic and sharing it for the pure joy of reveling in a fictional world is fine. If you'd enjoy the thought of the professional writers taking your story, reworking it into cannon, and claiming it as their own, then you probably have the right idea about fanfic.
You have the right to interpret any story any way you want. But don't use other people's characters to tell your story. Just because you don't think the story went the way it should have, or in the direction it should have, doesn't mean you have the right to make money on your interpretation of it. Having a ready made audience is not an excuse for trying to make money off it. Change the character names and the setting, and no one will know you *stole* the much of the idea and no one will care.
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branchandroot
The way I'm leaning, today.
Date: 2018-08-09 02:21 pm (UTC)Mentioning Shakespeare in your post is entirely appropriate. So much of what he wrote was reworkings of earlier stories by other people. We think of the works of Homer as being set in stone. But the very nature of oral tradition is adaption to suit the story teller and the audience. Fanfic is pretty much in the blood of civilization
The problem is, of course, trying to make a living on writing. This isn't the 1600s. Publishing of a sort is just a click of a button away. If anybody has the right to rewrite your story to suit themselves and then spread it around far and wide for profit, then the value of your original work declines dramatically.
Back in the 1980s when I was trying to write sci-fi for sale, there were times I truly hated the Star Trek franchise for burning through stories at a horrendous clip. If one of their stories came close to what you were working on you might as well throw everything out you may have been working on for years and start over because no publisher would touch it. It would be horrifying to be working long and hard on a story with characters you've already published to have somebody toss out to the Net a similar story with your own characters and decent writing, which could get some broad circulation. You'd be afraid to publish what was rightfully yours for fear of getting sued!
As much as I think fanfic is useful and important, I think it is just as important for would-be writers to use their own characters, unless they specifically *do not* attempt to make any money off of it. Writing fanfic and sharing it for the pure joy of reveling in a fictional world is fine. If you'd enjoy the thought of the professional writers taking your story, reworking it into cannon, and claiming it as their own, then you probably have the right idea about fanfic.
You have the right to interpret any story any way you want. But don't use other people's characters to tell your story. Just because you don't think the story went the way it should have, or in the direction it should have, doesn't mean you have the right to make money on your interpretation of it. Having a ready made audience is not an excuse for trying to make money off it. Change the character names and the setting, and no one will know you *stole* the much of the idea and no one will care.