Writer's Block: Sheldon and Penny 4ever!

[vovat]

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While I'm never opposed to it, I tend to think some fandoms really support it more than others do. I've written Oz fanfiction myself, although most of that was prior to ever having heard the term "fanfiction." I think the common term back in the pre-Internet days was "pastiche," although I feel that this is really only appropriate when you're purposely trying to ape the original writer's style. I think the fact that the publishers found other writers to continue the series after L. Frank Baum's death means it always kind of came across as a collaborative effort to me. Even Baum wrote in his introductions about using ideas from readers. Since many of the books are now in the public domain, that means there have been some professionally published fan-written Oz books. On the other hand, I know there's Discworld fanfic, and I can't bring myself to read any of that. It just seems to me that Terry Pratchett's own style is integral to those stories, and stuff written about the same universe by someone else just wouldn't be the same. Then again, maybe that's how I would have felt about Oz books by anyone other than Baum if I'd lived in the early part of the twentieth century. I guess a lot of it is precedent.

As far as TV-based fanfic goes, I really don't read it, but since TV shows are usually collaborative efforts anyway, I don't think I'd have the "not the original writer" objection to it. I'm just not really interested, even if it's based on shows I like. Overall, though, if you like the characters and want them to have other adventures, I don't see any problem with writing them yourself. I'm not entirely sure why it's so popular among fanfic writers to make unlikely characters have sex, but even then I think the important thing is making sure they remain in character. If you're going to make the established characters act like they wouldn't really act in anything other than a parody, why even use those characters?

Comments

[loz]

I was initally going to say "no! Leonard and Penny!" before I realised that title wasn't actually yours.

Word to your opinion, btw.

[odontv.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how I feel too. It's just like a standard part of fandom and people use it for different reasons, like honing their writing skills by experimenting with styles using established characters and stuff like that, which has gone on since like the beginning of time... or for shameless fantasy and porn.

But then there comes the controversial issue of RPF and all the potential creepiness that fanficition involving real people involves. What about when there is no original author of any kind?

I obviously don't have a problem with it as long as it's not getting shoved in the actor's/whatevers' faces, but within fandoms where RPF is big it can get a little strange when this warped sense of fanon starts to interfere with how celebrities are treated or thought about.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks. And I've never even watched The Big Bang Theory, so I can't tell you whether or not I agree with the subject line. I usually don't change them when I answer the Writer's Block questions, though.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think real people fiction can be a bit disturbing. While the subjects probably won't ever read it, it still seems a little wrong to make a real person do what you want them to.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Keeping in mind that my knowledge is based almost entirely on your posts on the subject... I always got the feeling that Oz is pretty much fanfiction on top of fanfiction and a lot of it just happens to be Official Published fanfiction. It's fanfiction that has turned into something respectable or something. Really, where does the line between Official and Fan get drawn in the Oz world? There are so many authors doing their own take on everything. And what about the difference between people writing stuff based on the original books and people writing stuff based on the movie instead? It's dizzying.

So, real people fiction disturbing... what's your take on real people as MINOR characters? You know, like, if a famous and incidentally dead rock star happens to have a superhero for a nephew or something weird like that. ;)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The Oz thing is kind of complicated, but not unique. Basically, after Baum died, the publishers found another author to write more books. When she decided to quit, they chose others. As it is, there are forty books that are typically considered official. What's complicated is that the authors of these forty wrote other Oz books that weren't published until considerably later, and while these don't count as party of the forty, it seems like they should be official due to the writers. Since then, there have been Oz books published in different ways, ranging from commercial publishing houses to self-publishing. I suppose all of this would count as fanfiction, but some of it is professional fanfiction.

As for the movie, I'm sure there's plenty of fanfic based on that, but it's really outside my area of expertise. As the authors make no attempt to be consistent with Baum's work, it could never be official in my mind. Besides, the movie is still under copyright.

So, real people fiction disturbing... what's your take on real people as MINOR characters? You know, like, if a famous and incidentally dead rock star happens to have a superhero for a nephew or something weird like that.

I don't know if it's completely consistent, but I think having real people appear in minor roles is fine. It would pretty much kill historical fiction to do otherwise, wouldn't it?

[odontv.livejournal.com]

It kind of walks the line between totally normal and super creepy. Plenty of characters in fiction are based off of real people anyway, so for me it's not that people write it or enjoy it so much as how it has influence over the fandom as a whole by turning the celebrities into play things. It's one thing to debate about a fictional character's motives and all that, but I've seen so many heated and kind of hilariously stupid arguments about how the way people live their life doesn't match up to what people in fandom had plotted out for them.

I'm pretty involved in American Idol fandom for example and it's extra crazy because not only does all this stuff happen, but the subjects have no training in how to handle any of it because they're essentially random losers off the street. LOL.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I once had living people -- the members of the music band My Chemical Romance -- appear in a BtVS fanfic I wrote. You do have to wonder what real people would think about something like that, although at least in my case they acted heroically -- and other aspects of the story made it less likely they'd have complained.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I actually had this fantasy (before he died) that George Harrison would somehow stumble upon my work with his fictional nephew in it and find it really amusing and end up sending ME fan mail, which would be the most twistedly awesome thing imaginable. But that was a) before he died and b) before I decided that any actual published works I make with this character in them are not even going to go into that aspect of his family tree, as it is both far too complicated legally AND ends up dating the work too much, age-of-characters-relative-to-history-wise. Still, his influence on said character's life, remaining firmly in the backstory I hold dear in my brain whatever happens in the final product, is not only funny but also both positive and consistent with everything I know about him in real life, which is quite a geeky lot, so I still imagine he would have been more amused than offended.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

A lot of backstory never ends up on the page, so it's all good! Also, I suspect many fanfic writers hold a secret fantasy of the creators and/or actors someday discovering their work and, of course, being impressed enough to say something. :-)