by Julie Bloss Kelsey
So, you want to start writing fiction but you aren’t sure where to start. You’d like to hone your skills and test your work on an audience before sending anything to an editor. What should you do? Write some fan-fiction.
I know what you’re thinking. Fan-fiction? That’s just for obsessed lunatics with too much time on their hands. What a colossal waste of effort. If you’re not careful, you could even get sued! And writing for no pay? It’s not for me.
Now, hold on. If you treat fan-fiction as a writing exercise, it offers unique opportunities to improve your writing that you simply won’t get anywhere else. The caveat? You can’t simply slap a piece up on the web and pat yourself on the back. You have to find a beta-reader.
What’s a beta-reader? Simply put, a good beta-reader is someone who not only will correct your grammar, but will tell you when your heroine (or, indeed, your entire universe) is veering wildly out of character. This will assist you in a number of ways:
/You have to keep your back-story straight./ Your beta-reader loves your characters as much as you do. A good reviewer will remember that your character can’t have a conversation with his father because the man died in episode 44 (or was it 45?).
/You learn to write convincing dialogue. /One of the things that sets characters apart is their use of language. Does your character use proper grammar? Does he have a stutter? An accent? Your readers will sense if a character is “on” in part by whether they sound like themselves. If you want to engage your readers, you must have a careful eye for wording.
/You learn to keep yourself out of the story. /No one wants to read a thinly-veiled description of how wonderful you are in a piece of fan-fiction. If your story has a dreaded “Mary Sue” or “Gary Stu” character, you can bet that your readers will universally pan it. Recognizing the importance of staying with the main character(s) is a useful skill.
/You have a built-in fan base. /Loyal fandoms have ravenous readers just waiting to read your work. However, as with any readers, they can be finicky and critical. Posting your work to a fan board is a good way to get instant feedback and develop a thick skin without subjecting an editor to your learning curve.
/You meet people, like yourself, who love to write. /Of the many benefits I’ve gained from having my work critiqued by beta-readers, the most beneficial has been the opportunity to meet wonderful people along the way. The writing world is a small one. These same friends routinely show up in other places: blogs, MySpace, NaNoWriMo. The writer’s world can be a lonely one. Taking up with people who share your passions is a worthwhile diversion.
Julie Bloss Kelsey is thankful for her beta-readers at the Gatchaman Fanfic Archive. Her non-fiction pieces have appeared in Washington Parent, Absolute Write, Write From Home, and Toddler Travel Guide, among others. Drop her a line at Mama Joules, her family-friendly science blog.
Links (in order):
http://www.gatchfanfic.com/
http://www.washingtonparent.com
http://www.absolutewrite.com/
http://write-from-home.com/
http://www.toddlertravelguide.com/
http://www.mamajoules.blogspot.com
That’s a great post. I’ve always stayed away from Fan Fiction, but you make a good case. Thanks for the links, too!
Wow, I didn’t even know that existed.
What do you have to watch out for to avoid being sued?
Julie,
Thanks for the education on an area of writing that many of us are probably unfamiliar with.
It’s been really great the past couple of days reading everyone’s posts.
I’ve never heard of this either! Thanks for the info.
I love reading fanfic, but I’ve never tried my hand at writing it. Thanks for the tips!
@Adam: Fanfic can get hairy legally because fans don’t own the rights to the characters or the universe in which they live. For example, if you’re writing a Harry Potter fanfic, you need to be careful because Harry/Ron/Hermione/Voldemort/etc. are characters created and owned by J.K. Rowling.
I’m sure someone else can give a more detailed explanation, but I believe that’s the gist.
Are there any cases of good intentioned fanfic writers being tossed in jail and fed moldy bread because they used someone else’s characters?
I am not fond of moldy bread.
There’s a huge lawsuit going on right now with Rowling. CNN covered it a couple of weeks ago. Someone who owns a site has been working on a book (from Voldemort’s perspective), and now there’s a lawsuit over the characters. I suppose the issue is making money on the book, but I’d guess he was already making money from the website.
Interesting piece. Until I read this, I also thought fanfic was definitely the domain of obsessed geeks!
Julie,
Sorry to be a big repeat here, but all the variants of fiction are just a whole world away from what I write. I like reading fiction, but it’s usually been just a few classic books. And geez, do I have time to read much these days? I should, but no.
So when you have to “be careful”, could JK Rowling just have someone hired to scan in the internet every day to look for Harry Potter stories that aren’t hers and take people to court every day? How can you use them, even carefully, if they aren’t yours to begin with?
Believe me this is not a critique – I am just totally ignorant and trying to “get it”
You clearly know what you are talking about and I don’t, so pleasse share more about how this fine line works.
Really? How is that working? I mean, really it’s Rowling’s story, and if he doesn’t have permission to write it…
Anybody know more about this?
Actually, Rowling has been extremely tolerant of fan fiction. She’s even admitted to reading some before. The lawsuit is for a fan site which intended to publish its online Harry Potter encyclopedia. Jo used to be in good terms with the fan site–she even has it linked from her official web site. You guys can find more info about it in mugglenet.com.
@ Erika K: Actually, she wouldn’t have to hire anyone to search the internet. There are plenty of little programs out there called “spiders” that automatically search the internet for specified words and provide a list of what they find for their owner.
And you don’t have to do the search over and over again each day to catch new stuff. The program will automatically check periodically.
Google uses them to create their huge database you search every time you go to their site.
Sounds creepier than it is. Maybe we should call them “bunnies” instead of spiders. Then more people would like them.
Hi, my name is Andrea, and I’ve written fan fiction. Admitting that you have written fan fiction has always been like whispering a dirty little secret because the “obsessed fan” reaction is almost always what you get. My fiction (or fic as many writers call it) was written under an internet nickname that I have used for years.
In my experience, there are several areas of fan fiction that are very tolerant of it. The material that I wrote was based on two television characters. The one or two times that I have used an excerpt of it as a clip for professional reasons, I have clearly indicated that it is fan fiction based on TV. It hasn’t led to anything positive, but it also hasn’t been a negative for me either. I wrote it for my enjoyment and for the benefit of my fellow fans, not because I intended it to be a stepping stone to any sort of career in fiction. I learned lots of things about how to craft a good story that pleased people, and I gained personal satisfaction in my accomplishment as well.
Thanks Julie!
Well if there are certain areas of fiction that are OK with it, then I suppose it really could be a win-win situation.
The fan-fic author gets the benefits described above plus the built-in audience, and the original author can get some continuous free publicity for their original works. Too bad that one thing is going sour.
Now that it’s been mentioned here, I do recall hearing about it in the news a while ago, but I didn’t realize there was a whole “base” of fan-fic kind of stuff. I thought someone was just trying to rip her off “out of the blue.”
Very very interesting indeed. Totally learned something new here – thanks!
Oh, and I agree with the “bunnies” statement. I dont’ have a phobia of spiders or anything, but “internet bunnies” sounds far more friendly and less threatening!
@Adam = thanks for the explanation above. I use and learn about the internet for what I need to do. I’m not a techie except where I’ve figured out how to do a few useful things. Again, learned a ton here on this post.
Unless you’re scared of bunnies, like the character of Anya in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Hmmm.
*runs off to write a Buffy-verse fanfic*
Wow! Thanks for all of the feedback.
You guys made my day.
As per copyright issues, many fanfic authors post a disclaimer at the top of their stories, stating that they do not own the characters and citing the proper owner/author. This is often coupled with a statement that the fanfic author is not making a profit and is just writing for fun.
The disclaimers serve two purposes: 1) you let the original author know that you recognize that you do not own the copyright to their stories / characters and 2) you are not making any money — nor do you expect to — in the process.
I probably should have stated that I wouldn’t recommend taking up writing fanfic unless you have a passion for it. It can be frustrating to write a great story and know that you will never see a dime or gain any glory from it. But if you are already in love with a book or TV series and the stories are in your head anyway, why not put them to paper?
And yes, it is a calculated risk to write fanfic, in that someday you could possibly get sued. But I doubt that most authors would bother chasing everyone down. As Mariella mentioned, some authors are very tolerant of fanfic. Personally, I wouldn’t write fanfic where an author has stated a preference against it. However, in my fandom, the TV series that I write about aired in the US in 1978. Not only are there no plans to bring the show back, we can’t even get the full series in Region 1 on DVD! So, it seems like a pretty low risk.
Thanks again for reading!
@Angela
Or the bloodthirsty white rabbit in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
I forgot to add: Yahoo groups has a number of forums devoted to fans of movies, books, and television series. There are even specialty forums covering topics like medical accuracy in fan-fiction. Some websites, like FanLibTM (http://www.fanlib.com/) and FanFiction.Net (http://www.fanfiction.net/), are devoted entirely stories written by fans.
I write fan fiction too, by the bye. Well, I haven’t written since I started freelancing full-time last year because I’ve been terribly busy. It’s really helped me polish my fiction writing style.
@Julie>> Do you write mainly for the Gatchaman fandom? Wow. I remember watching that when I was like 5 years old back in 1989. We’re still having reruns of Gatchaman here in Asia.
I learned how to write by writing fan fiction. It’s a fabulous way to hone your craft. My published romance novel started out as fanfic that was tweaked over time into an original piece. And even though I write for a living, I still write fanfic for the joy.
I even work for a fan fic company, FanLib.com is a site that is working toward getting those license holders to appreciate the fan writer. Face it, fan fiction is like one big advertisement for their show or movie.
Right now we’re running a contest with Warner Brothers for Speed Racer fan fic and the winner gets a trip to Hollywood.
I also run a fanfic critique group at the forum over there, so we’d be happy to have you join us.
Sorry, one additional note. The Harry Potter lawsuit is over an encyclopedia of Harry Potter that a guy wants to publish for his own profit.
Rowling says she was going to do the same thing, thus the book infringes on her copyright, but even still she could lose the case because it’s not illegal to write a book ABOUT a series of books, as in the case of scholarly works and other references.
Here’s a great description of the whole case
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2264094,00.html
Either way, it has nothing to do with fanfiction.
@Everyone who writes fanfiction – There’s a movement to ease copyright restrictions to create immunity for fanfiction lawsuits:
http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/hilden/20080121.html
I’m glad to read this post. The benefits of writing fanfic are numerous and beyond the five listed here.
Role-playing games offer incredible benefits, too, and being involved in a creative writing role-playing game can definitely improve your skills as a writer.
Which is why we’ll be launching an rpg in a week or two. Stay tuned!
A Welsh poet I love, Sheenagh Pugh, has written a book about fan fiction and its writers called The Democratic Genre. She’s all in favor of it. I haven’t read the book, but you can read more about it on her website: http://sheenagh.googlepages.com/thedemocraticgenre
I’ve read some fan fiction, but I’ve never tried to write it. You make a strong argument for it. I might just have to it a shot.
@ Mariella — Yep. But I write about Battle of the Planets, the first Americanized version of the original (less violence, more plot holes to fill). Drop by the Gatchaman archive sometime!
And keep your eyes out for a Gatchaman movie. I think the planned release date just got pushed back to 2010.
Another benefit is instant (or nearly instant) feedback for your writing. Trying to get an original piece of fiction published is like trying to find the holy grail for most. You begin to wonder if anyone other than close friends and family will ever read your stuff. With fanfiction and the built-in fan base, you can immediately start sharing and feel like what you’re writing is reaching people instead of just taking rides in expensive dark envelopes.
@Julie> I will! I write fan fiction mainly for various anime fandoms, myself.
Wow…I didn’t know there’s a Gatchaman movie in the works.
BTW (OT ahead), have you watched other similar animation series? I was a fan of Voltes V, Daimos, and Macross. I think they’re all from the same era with Gatchaman.
(waves to julie and cynthia)
I think the people worrying about being sued maybe haven’t realised the sheer scale of fanfic writing. There are several hundred thousand (that’s five zeroes after the leading digit) Harry Potter fanfics on fanfiction.net alone. Nobody’s going to sue you for writing another one, as long as you are respectful of JKR and don’t try to make money from it. I think the key there is respect – some authors ask that you steer clear of certain themes, some ask that you avoid certain periods in their timeline or don’t use certain characters. And some ask that you don’t write fanfic at all (and in general the fanfic sites won’t take stories by such authors). AFAIK there’s never been a lawsuit about not-for-profit fanfic – the worst that’s even remotely likely to happen is that you get a letter asking you to take it down.
Great article! I’m glad to see so many writers who enjoy writing and reading fan fic. I haven’t written any in a long time, but in the past when I’ve had a creative dry spell over my own projects, diving into writing some fan fic about favorite tv show characters gets the juices flowing again.
Also, if you’re ever planning to go into writing for TV, the skills involved in writing Fan Fiction (sticking to characters, staying in line with plots) are good to be able to present.
I think I’m going to have a go at some of this. Thanks very much for pointing it out.
@ Mariella: I was a Speed Racer fan, too, but otherwise, no. But I think most folks in the Gatch fandom like other anime. Come on over & visit gatchfanfic.com or drop me a line at my blog.