687,000 pieces of 'Harry Potter' fan-fiction are online right now on fanfiction.net, the world's largest fan-fiction website. If that isn't the most loving thing a fan of your work can do for you, then I don't know what is. Fan-fiction is buzzing these days, all one has to do is go on Tumblr and check out the fandoms of all the winning TV shows these days and you'll find a wealth of stories people have written. Not to mention all the GIFs they've made as well. Fan-fiction is a wonderful way for a fan to give something back to the creator and to show the world that 'yes, I am a fan of 'Prison Break' as well. Read my bromance love story between Michael and Sucre, love it!' It's an enormous community that's still growing and I am all for it dominating the world. Not everybody thinks so, though.
Oh, just FYI, 'Prison Break' ended in 2009 and has 2,000 stories on fanfiction.net. Shame.
Oh, just FYI, 'Prison Break' ended in 2009 and has 2,000 stories on fanfiction.net. Shame.
What's Mine is Yours and Yours is Mine
Now, obviously a big beef a lot of people have about fan-fiction (especially authors) is that fans are basically ripping their characters off, messing around with them and ruining what makes them great. Then again, one might ask, 'why the hell shouldn't Mario team up with the Master Chief and Jack Bauer to stop the evil Darleks and Doctor Eggman from taking over Westeros?' That is up for debate, but fan-fiction allows fans to go wild, let their favourite characters follow the paths they wish they took. I mean, how many characters did you love and got untimely deaths? 'The Walking Dead' and 'Game of Thrones' are great examples and who are we to say that nobody deserves to see those characters live again under different circumstances. But, some authors disagree. Understandable when you think about it, they put a lot of hard work creating a convincing and imaginative world and the characters that inhabit them are known best by the author, so surely the author knows best. Yes, but there's no harm in alternate narratives. You could say 'Wolfenstein' is fan-fiction on the Second World War if you wanted to. Nobody would stop you. Except that it isn't true, because the Second World War wasn't made up. 'Wolfenstein' is.
I used to write a lot of fan-fiction about the video game, 'Borderlands'. I loved the world so much and thought that some of the characters deserved more time on stage so I took them, threw in some of my own made up ones and took a shot at telling a story. 'Borderlands' has plenty of characters who don't have much time on screen, but the world of Pandora creates so many story opportunities. And isn't that what a great world should do as well? If you love a certain fictional universe, then you want more of it or better still, you create more of it yourself. I wrote several 'Borderlands' stories and loved them all. I don't write fan-fiction anymore though, I've done my bit for the fandom and I haven't finished any fan-fiction work since. I guess I'm confident in my own writing now so I don't need the guidance of a preexisting universe. And that brings up another good point, fan-fiction is an excellent gateway for aspiring writers to try out their writing skills and see what's what. We all say 'write what you love', writing fan-fiction then is a no-brainer. Find a universe you love and show fanfiction.net what you've got. The community are a nice bunch.
I used to write a lot of fan-fiction about the video game, 'Borderlands'. I loved the world so much and thought that some of the characters deserved more time on stage so I took them, threw in some of my own made up ones and took a shot at telling a story. 'Borderlands' has plenty of characters who don't have much time on screen, but the world of Pandora creates so many story opportunities. And isn't that what a great world should do as well? If you love a certain fictional universe, then you want more of it or better still, you create more of it yourself. I wrote several 'Borderlands' stories and loved them all. I don't write fan-fiction anymore though, I've done my bit for the fandom and I haven't finished any fan-fiction work since. I guess I'm confident in my own writing now so I don't need the guidance of a preexisting universe. And that brings up another good point, fan-fiction is an excellent gateway for aspiring writers to try out their writing skills and see what's what. We all say 'write what you love', writing fan-fiction then is a no-brainer. Find a universe you love and show fanfiction.net what you've got. The community are a nice bunch.
A Legal Problem
However, where I draw the line on fan-fiction is whether or the fan-fiction is making money. If a fan-fiction writer claims its their own work or in anyway makes profit from it, then I say nuts to that. If anything, the money should probably go to the published author who built that universe for you to write about. I'd hate it if somebody made money from something I made. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for fan-fiction, if somebody out there wrote their own story based on a world I made, I'd be flattered that they actually loved it that much to put their own spin on things. It's a huge compliment. J.K Rowling is all game for fan-fiction, just look at the stuff on fanfiction.net! Gobs of stories. George. R.R Martin doesn't condone it at all, which is sad considering how popular the 'Game of Thrones' TV show has gotten. That being said, from what I can work out from what I've read, the legality of fan-fiction remains sketchy, I don't think there's one whole rule that says fan-fiction is illegal. If there was one, wouldn't fanfiction.net be removed from the wide world of web? I'm not keyed up on legal matters or how the internet handles it, but people will still make fan-fiction even if its not on the page. You've got your toys like LEGO for the kids like 'Star Wars' and 'Lord of the Rings'. Kids may not realise they may be making fan-fiction, but they are. Even video games, I used to always make up stories playing 'Grand Theft Auto IV'. That pretty much shows my mental age, but dammit I liked it! Fantasy games and books offer limitless story ideas. And it's a wonderful thing.
Fan-fiction is awesome, there are some great stories out there made by fans, but I can understand why some may be against it. It makes perfect sense, but what I think you have to remember is as long as they don't make money off of it, fan-fiction is a perfectly harmless and wonderful way to write.
Songs of the Week:
Fan-fiction is awesome, there are some great stories out there made by fans, but I can understand why some may be against it. It makes perfect sense, but what I think you have to remember is as long as they don't make money off of it, fan-fiction is a perfectly harmless and wonderful way to write.
Songs of the Week:
- 'Night Time' by The XX
- 'Sunset' by The XX
- 'Infinity' by The XX
- 'Heart Skipped A Beat' by The XX
- 'Intro' by The XX
- 'One For My Baby' by Hugh Laurie
- 'Gangsta, Gangsta' by NWA
- 'Today Was A Good Day' by Ice Cube