A Meditation on Fanfic

I came across a very interesting discussion this morning, on the livejournal of George R.R. Martin - author of the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire (for which he is best known - I hasten to add that he has been writing and editing both fantasy and sci-fi for many years and very certainly knows what he is about).

He makes some very interesting points, and cites a recent blog entry by author Diana Gabaldon on the same topic, which attracted great deal of attention.

I have always been fascinated by authors' perspectives on fanfiction - Robin Hobb's Fan Fiction Rant being among the most famous.

I completely appreciate where all of these authors are coming from and understand their individual perspectives - in fact, I think George R.R. Martin's children analogy does the best job of quantifying exactly how authors feel about their creations.

I also know that many authors - such as J.K Rowling - are happy for others to wander freely through their creative universes and experiment and play with their characters. Again, I see the appeal in having created a universe that people *want* to explore further, and enjoying the knowledge that fans are keeping a world alive long after the books/movies/shows have ended.

However, I think the key point here is one that the authors have cited themselves - and that is permission. Not copyright permission (which I will get to in a moment), but creative permission. A great deal of authors have openly stated that they do not mind fanfiction being written using their worlds and/or characters. Other authors have expressly requested that no such thing be done with their creations. I have very conflicting feelings here. One the one hand, as fans - the very moniker ascribed to fan fiction - that should be respected, and for the most part I think that it is. Fandom is, in fact, very effective at policing itself because it is, on the whole, comprised of people who love and respect the work and the creator(s) of the work. On the other, a small part of me has always felt, in a way, that authors were little children stamping their feet and shouting "Don't play with my toys!". Being that the "toys" are characters that they have laboured for years to create and do legally own, it is their right to do so. Yet, and this is only me, I would adopt an attitude of 'see no evil' and merely ignore fanfic being written about my work if I didn't like it; but then I am Irish, and therefore insanely laid back. I also have the perspective of having been in fandom for many years.

The other major argument to be considered here is copyright - and I think it ties directly to the above. The fundamental truth here is that you can't stop the Internet. As a writer, you have put your published work out there for global consumption, as is completely your right, and there is simply not enough time in the world for you or any employees you may have to track down and put a stop to anyone misusing (as you perceive it) elements of that work.

While copyright law is copyright law - writers own the work and have the right to enact their wrath upon those who don't - unless those persons actively attempt to get their derivative work published or make some sort of monetary gain, it is impossible to track every single instance. Which is, again, where it comes down to respect on the part of the fans. I have enjoyed reading and writing fanfic for many years, but I would probably feel very uncomfortable reading anything written for a fandom in which the author had distinctly expressed their disapproval of fanfic. Sadly, I don't think that there are - or can be - any hard and fast rules here. If you respect an author's wishes, and don't write about their world - then kudos. If you disregard their wishes and write about it anyway; then you may have created something good and wonderful that some people enjoy - but the author will hate you. You may have created something awful - and the author will still hate you. I can't quite quantify how I feel about this... Oddly enough, of all the writers who have spoken out against fanfic; those that I have read are never worlds that I would have sought out fanfic for. I felt that they were complete.

The other side of the copyright coin of course is the wonderful creation of the Creative Commons License. In a sense, those authors who approve of fanfic have a slightly easier ride - CC License your work and let the fans write away... This does involve a level of trust but, as stated before - and numerous instances have been cited in the comments of the above blog posts - fandom is incredibly effective at policing itself. If you, as an author, have no problem with people having their wicked (or occasionally virtuous) way with your work; as long as you don't read it (Marion Zimmer Bradley is often referred to here) and no one tries to sell/publish any of it, you can pretty much sleep easy at night.

Onwards to my experience of the merits of fanfiction... I have written (not very much) and read (a great deal) mostly within the X-Files fandom, which is a wonderful community of people. I think that writing fanfic for a tv show is a very different ballgame, as (to the best of my knowledge) there seems to be less of a creative protectiveness with tv writers. They have, doubtless, put in an incredible amount of work, but are generally less attached to the characters and what happens to them - I have never seen an objection from a show writer regarding fanfic but please feel free to point me in that direction if you are aware of one.

I think that writing new scenarios for tv characters (in the form of fanfiction) has a different feel to writing for characters in a book. For me, personally, I find it much easier to handle. Books for me are what they are - I can very rarely imagine alternate scenarios. Perhaps that's just how I'm programmed. With television, you already have a diverse group of writers and directors creating new (and in the case of the X-Files, varyingly insane) scenarios every week. There is a sense that almost anything could happen anyway, and fanfic slips very neatly into that mindset.

With all due respect to Chris Carter, and everyone creatively involved in the X-Files, there were often glaring gaps in continuity and storytelling. Fanfiction has, over the years, done much to account for these inconsistencies - and often done so very skillfully. To me, fanfiction complements whatever fandom I am reading it for. If anything, it fuels my love and appreciation for that world - I am no less likely to buy, watch or read anything produced by the official copyright holders because I have read/written a derivative work. If anything, I am more so...

The two main issues I can see that authors have with their characters being used are thus; firstly, that the fanfiction written is vastly inferior and substandard and secondly, the frequently sexual nature of fanfiction and the use of their characters therein.

I would like to strongly dispute the first. Yes, there is a world - probably several worlds worth if it were all to be produced in hard copy - of some of the worst writing ever penned (typed?) using some of the most interesting and well recognised characters from pre-existing literature/film. I would estimate that there is as much bad fanfiction as there is bad original writing - and it is rendered more offensive by the (mis)use of characters lovingly crafted by their original authors. BUT - I have also read X-Files fanfiction that is better written, better thought out, better characterised than many published novels. The beauty, and the joy, of reading and writing fanfiction consistently within the same fandom is that you *know* the characters - you know them from the show. You know who they are and what they would do. I would argue that fanfiction is a fantastic training ground for young writers - it teaches you the importance of characterisation, of sticking to what your character would or wouldn't do or say, when you may not necessarily have reached the stage where you can form such characters yourself. Although indeed, I have read many novel-length fanfics which feature additional original characters which have more depth and meaning than many of the additional characters on the show.

What we are now entering is an incredibly exciting era - fanfic authors are starting to get published. Not for fic, but for their own work. Cassandra Clare (whose Wikipedia article is so dire I refuse to link to it - someone please rewrite it, for the love of all that is holy) is, to my mind, the most prominent example. Having written for the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter fandoms for many years, she now has her own trilogy - The Mortal Instruments - which has been critically acclaimed and reached bestseller lists both in America and the UK. Sarah Rees Brennan is a similar example.

I think that the overall point I seek to make here, is that a good writer will be a good writer... if they choose to play in fanfic first, then that's a lucky fandom. Dismissing fanfiction unilaterally because there are badly written fics would be like banning poetry because there are Vogons... Well written fanfiction deserves a modicum of respect, I feel.

Sex and sexually explicit scenes in fanfiction make for an entirely more prickly debate.

I completely understand authors not wishing to see their characters used (?abused) in ways that were not written in the books or shown on the show... particularly in the case of rape fics or fics that deal with non-canon relationships.

However, I think that fanfiction is one of the most important places in the world for dealing with gender, sex and sexuality. That alone has enough material for an entirely different post, but I will say this much; fanfiction has created an incredible forum for the exploration of gender identity, of sexual meaning and relationships and particularly on the brutality and aftermath of rape. I have read fics that deal with this much more effectively than the likes of an episode of Law and Order: SVU. Fanfiction is free, accessible (not only in the sense that it is available on the internet, but in that it features characters we already know and love) and, in my opinion, a fantastic way of exploring a wide variety of social issues.

You know what, yes, for every well researched, well written fanfiction, there are 1,000 instances of soft (and not so soft) porn written with varying degrees of skill. Again, my answer would be, as long as it is being read by consenting adults, what harm? People pay for trash like Stephenie Meyer - why not just get your bad writing for free?

Fanfiction needs to be recognised in its own right - not as a way of potentially exploiting existing characters or universes, not as a retreat for those who 'cannot write their own material', not as a vessel for various sexual predilections, but as a valuable tool - both for upcoming writers, for those who do not have the access to books that they should have and for valuable discussion and dissection of some of the issues and identities that define us as human.

Fanfiction authors are not (all) indiscriminating na'er-do-wells who are out to ravage and destroy pre-existing works of fiction... but thoughtful, intelligent, well educated people committed to discussing not only plot, character and motive, but the grander issues underpinning the heart of any well told story - whether it be told with newly created characters or a friendly and familiar face in an FBI basement.

All and any thoughts welcome.