The Fanfiction Documentary

[Crystalmaster Mike]

DragoKnight: Heh, thank you! It's funny you should mention the obsession with perfection, because this isn't the complete version. I was quite upset to remove the background music, but sharing copyrighted files seemed a little dangerous considering my "legality" research.

Wait, what? Background music? Went for the multimedia all-round experience, eh? Too bad it wasn't FanArt, or you could have thrown in a 1-minute movie "how to draw a figure" or something.

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Anyway, I kept a list of things to quote as I read this in pieces the last few days. Nice documentary; it would make a fine reference wherever fanfic gets flamed - not that the opposing side wouldn't ignore every sensible argument in favor, though.

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What is


Really? Ada is a published writer? Man, I'm out of the loop.

I agree, there are a lot of writers writing stories set in world’s that aren’t their own: Star Wars, Star Trek and LOTR to name a few.

Fanficcers

Weird to see these known names commenting like it’s a real article in a news paper.

There are some fanficcers who just try to show off their own personal fantasies and cry when they meet lack of enthusiasm on the readers' side […] people who seem to want to post only to get into arguments with the readers

Heh, I can name at least one person like that…

'live fiction'

Nice synonym…

Fanfiction fosters different traits than many forms of conventional writing

Should have been “more different”, I think.

"I reckon there's a general perception that replying takes a long time and is difficult, which puts off a lot of people including myself at times," says Gavin Luper. "The reality is, it doesn't take long at all to make a few comments on someone else's work, and then that person has the benefit of feedback and the chance to learn and expand their writing abilities. At the same time, the person who replies begins to build on their critical and analytical skills, which are essential for reviewing."

The reader and the writer… they are in symbiosis like the Paras and the ‘Shroom.

The only solution, it seems, is for readers to respond more often of their own volition. Only by remembering how it felt to be a novice praying for just one devoted reader can fanfic veterans find the motivation to support their peers.

Rephrased: writers, remember your roots and do some reading yourself!

Many forums feature special activities in which members can get involved. A natural addition to a fanfiction community is a writing contest designed to test the creativity and skill of members and reward those with the best manuscripts, usually with badges of honor such as image "plaques." Other incentives for posting may include E-zines, or electronic magazines, dedicated to fanfiction; "chat" threads for casual communication between members; and periodic award ceremonies with prizes similar to those of writing contests.

Or chain fics…

Moderators are more than just the internet police; they serve to promote all aspects of their forum no matter what the method. Whether it's settling disputes, advertising big events or simply getting fanficcers to post, moderation is a full-time unpaid job.

Talking from experience, are we?

Legality

"Kingdom Hearts copyrighted by important people who also own Final Fantasy, enjoined with the people who own Disney things, but not the Nintendo people who own the Mario stuff. That’s a disclaimer, folks, I don’t own them." –Houndoom_Lover, Kingdom Hearts, Saga of memories

Best. Disclaimer. Ever. (Not just saying that because I already knew it before.)

"Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, or this story would be in the series as a story arc. All similarities between charachters and situations in this story, and other characters and situations real or fictional is purely coincidental. All in jokes, gags, and Gem lines are VERY intentional." –jkBAKURA, Yu- Gi- Oh, Lady of Dragons

Gem lines? I mistakenly read "Gremlins" at one time, lol.

I simply want to tell a little story.

The only real disclaimer needed.

Some fanficcers argue that their fanfics do not (or at least are not intended to) detract from the sales of the original work; therefore, they have no perceivable "market effect." This is a purely theoretical topic, and the question "What would have happened if...?" is always difficult to answer.

True, it’s a tough question to ask: is fan fiction a crime? Legally, yes, but to some extent, it’s the pure textual expression of someone’s imagination.
And if a fanfic becomes more popular than the “real” work of art, that might go to say something about the original, no?

Two books written expressly for a children's charity that had raised $A32.25 million had been entirely gutted for the Lexicon

Well, I didn’t hear that in the news – only the thing about her own encyclopaedia.

Fanfiction: The Legal Paradox

… *updates ‘To read’ list*

Many fanficcers, in fact, claim that their work is beneficial to their fandoms of choice. In Fanfiction: The Legal Paradox, "mr_pikachu" correlates fanfiction, presented free of charge, with Japanese doujinshi, manga similarly derived from copyrighted works but that sell for around $5 a copy.

It’s a little strange to see you quote yourself in your own paper, but what the teacher doesn’t know, won’t hurt you, right?

[Darien Shields]

Fwoof. This is a big read. I've only just managed to chew through "What is Fan Fiction". I took some notes on stuff I wanted to comment on... I apologise in advance if you cover any of my questions later in the documentary. I think I'll stick to reading a section at a time for now (attention span approximately equal to length of One Piece opening sequence).

First a note on style... Personally I find big chunky underlines blue links ugly, and the first thing to go out the window with a CSS file. I understand some practical aspects here- you want it to be clear what's a link and suchlike, but for me it really breaks with the overriding aesthetic of the documentary, with the fancy cursive title headers over the top. The big blue links just don't seem to match them. Otherwise it is very pretty, and broken up well into bitesize chunks.

Fanfiction is Good

The introduction to this comes off as pretty pretentious. Gavin's work is good, but "This isn't Dean Koontz or Stephen King!" just sounds... well it sounds pretentious to me. I think it's the direct comparison to accomplished authors. Something like "This isn't the latest gritty detective thriller to hit the shelves", or suchlike, I think, might have served the same purposes without putting on airs. Don't mean to sound harsh, and again, the writing is good, but you don't want to set the wrong tone at the start.

You go on to talk about how when a novel is published it's either found by critics or not. To me this seems to preclude the rise of the popular novel. Surely there are plenty of books out there that spread by word of mouth and not because they got a great writeup in a paper or something...? Just a thought.

Fanfiction is Practice

Not much specifically to complain about here, but your general questioning of "Why would they do it if they can't get money" seems to imply that non-fan-fiction writers are only in it for the money. I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of professional writers do it because they love it first, and for money second. Stephen King at least says as much. Unless he's a big liar.

"Lorrah, Crispin, and David are especially poignant examples"

I thought poignant meant sad?

Fanfic Types and Terms
(I didn't have anything much to object to in Fanfiction is Crap)

Wow, there are so many terms I was never aware of... useful. What I find especially strange is that there's no term for same setting-different character fics. Like most of the pokémon fiction on TPM where Ash, Misty and Brock are nowhere to be seen. To me this is a big distinction...

General Notes

There are a few general observations of my own that sprung to mind while reading. Again, you might have brought these up later in the documentary, and I apologise if you do. I think they'd have been interesting to cover.

The first thing to mention is that same setting/different character fics like the ones prevalent on TPM are, to my mind, often as original, if not more original, than a lot of generic fantasy stories. Let me qualify that. We borrow the pokémon setting, the idea that there is this world that is like Japan but not quite with all these amazing creatures that people catch and train. Often we do really amazing things with that- twist it in ways you'd never think of. Now compare to the bread and butter of fantasy fiction; ancient dragons, pretty elves and bearded dwarves. There is so much stuff that is just a barely modified Tolkien setting (or D&D setting). But because it's been accepted as some sort of baseline, people don't consider this to be fan fiction of any sort.

The other thing is what I like to call Big Fish-Small Pond Syndrome. I don't mean bullying or anything by this, I mean in a creative sense. When writing pokémon fiction in the past I've been very comfortable to say "This is an unoriginal idea, but wow, nobody's done it in Pokémon before." Whereas when contemplating something entirely original I suddenly feel like I'm staring at a vast ocean of possible ideas, but that each one has already been taken by someone else- the scope for originality is tiny. So I like to stay in my comfort zone- "this is original to this setting" or suchlike. I can't be the only one to feel this way, can I?

Anyway, I've blabbed on far too much. I hope my comments have at least been interesting. Sorry if I come off as offensive or anything. I genuinely do like the documentary. Often, though, I find I have much more to say about what I dislike than what I like. But anyway, good job, I will read the rest soon.

[mr_pikachu]

Gabi: Well, it would be the interviewees' decision about whether or not they wanted me to release the full text. I'm not going to pressure them into doing so, as some were concerned about their anonymity. However, if any of the interviewees are reading this and would like to let the forum see your full interviews, please let me know either in this thread or via PM.

(And yes, the interviews were very engaging. I showed them to my professor as a requirement for the first stage of this project. He was surprised at how fascinated he was with the raw, unedited material on a subject he didn't think would be very interesting.


Mike: Yeah, I went all-out with this project. As for an interactive movie, I didn't do any of that stuff. However, I presented a documentary on anime to a different class, and it featured a few .gif files for effect.

What Is Fanfiction? - It's not like I went through writing journals to check for her name, but that's what I heard in the interview. Plagiarism is actually a very unusual topic among novelists. Everyone seems to have a different idea of where the boundary lies.

Fanficcers - I think we all have seen people like that. Those people generally don't last long; the ones who try to write quality material are much more suited to long-term fanfiction. Regarding "more different," I can see your justification for that but I think "different" also works. Although every genre of writing demands different techniques, I didn't want to emphasize that as it would have been a distraction from the point I was trying to make. It's something for me to consider, though, if I tweak this further.

I love the symbiosis comment! Like you said, writers have to remember the plight of the newbie. It's not easy sitting around with zero replies. Chain fics are a useful tool for activity boosting, like you said, but I figured the list was long enough already. And experience definitely gives you a better perspective.

Legality - I decline to compare disclaimers, although any non-Gremlins fic with that word in its disclaimer might need a little rethinking. Your comments on the popularity of fanfics vs. the original bring me back to my cited essay. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say that the relationship between original works and derivative media is viewed differently in some art forms.

While I quoted myself in the legality section, the professor did know about it. I told him beforehand and basically said there was no other resource that explained it in quite those terms. (I also mentioned that my article was published during the course, which helped significantly.)


Darien: Yeah, this was a big project. No need to apologize; I'm glad you find it worth your time despite the attention span!

I agree with you aesthetically, but that was a strategic choice on my part. A professor in another class had already commented that she wasn't used to seeing links without underlines, so she frequently missed them; I decided to change the style in that documentary as well as in this one.

Fanfiction is Good - Heh, valid point. I'm not sure I agree that it's pretentious - it's only pretentious if it isn't really accurate! However, I was unhappy with this opening for a similar reason; it was as though I made my point too early, before I could really begin to prove it. While the statement may have been accurate (and as soon as Gavin publishes a bestseller, we'll know it's true), it was probably too strong for that point in the article.

As for novels being spread by word-of-mouth, I'm not sure that has quite the effect that some of us would like. If you're going to really make it big, at some point you have to get the attention of the critics and the press. Unfortunately, adequate attention is never really guaranteed. Unless your book is absolutely fantastic, word-of-mouth communication will only extend so far. (In all my life I'm pretty sure I've only been able to convince one person to read one book. He didn't continue the communication chain.)

Fanfiction is Practice - Hmm, maybe I didn't explain my thoughts well enough. What I was trying to convey was simply that fanfiction doesn't pay the bills. While it may be fulfilling, it requires a lot of work as well as a second job. Why would someone write fanfiction for no pay when they could write original fiction and make their life vastly easier? That's what I meant to get across.

The word "poignant," by the way, has multiple meanings. I'll cite dictionary.com for this one:

2. keen or strong in mental appeal: a subject of poignant interest.

Fanfic Types and Terms - That actually surprised me as well, but I just couldn't find any information on it. The reason may be that few fandoms are conductive to such fics. Pokemon is a strong enough concept that the idea itself can carry a variety of characters, themes, and plotlines. Star Trek, on the other hand, is very character-driven. If you insert a random cast of characters into it, the show isn't Star Trek anymore. It's just another space exploration show, like Lost in Space or Galaxy Quest. When you think about it, how many TV shows focus on the concept?

General Notes - I agree with you about the same setting/different character fics. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good way to get into that analysis without really delving into precise niches and individual fandoms. Looking at the rest of the documentary, I was already in danger of leaning too much toward the Pokemon fandom, so I decided to forego that.

Regarding the Big Fish/Small Pond Syndrome, you're certainly not alone. Professional writers in all genres do that all the time. For an anime/manga example, think of Chobits. Yes, it's a romance story. Yes, it follows the old pattern of "society might not accept this" (Romeo and Juliet, anyone?). But wow! Nobody would think to do a romance with a robot girl! Pretty much every big idea has been taken; even professionals make small tweaks just to make it something new.

Don't worry about being too chatty, or about criticizing too much. We all have the same problem; I have to really work hard to cut down my critiques in most cases. In any event, the fact that you decided to say so much tells me that you feel it was worth your time. Writing something worthwhile is the goal of every writer, so I take that as a compliment. Thanks!