crystalswolf wrote:Okay, after thinking about it, I felt the need to add this in. It almost feels as though there is the idea that if someone does not guard their stories fiercely, they were never really serious about it in the first place.
As one of these people, just because I would allow (meaning my explicit permission must be obtained) someone to finish one of my fanfic stories under the right circumstances does not necessarily mean that I value my stories less than people that are more guarded with their stories. Nor does it mean that I do not take what I write seriously or that I view writing as anything other than an art form.
I see each fanfic story I write the way I see my daughter. Each is a part of me and therefore a part of my soul, but never fully belonged to me. And I must always judge carefully which circumstances are the right circumstances to let go and how much. And this also does not mean I would give permission to every lunatic that came a callin' either. Believe me, there are people that I would never let near the mentioning of my characters much less a full story.
But we all have our views on this subject and obviously some more different than others.
I hope this was coherent. I'm up way past my bedtime.
CW--No one is saying that if you don't guard your stories, you're not serious about what you do.
What *I'm* saying is that there seems to be more of a
tendency to "guard stories fiercely" among the more serious authors--and understandably so...so one contemplating injecting him- or herself into another author's world shouldn't be surprised to be met with "who do you think you are?", and know that oftentimes that may be the thought behind even the most politely-phrased "no, thank you." If someone who's serious about their craft is more open to sharing, more power to them.
It may interest some of the folks here to know this exact question came up at a Han/Leia board several years ago. That fandom seems to have more "old guard" writers in it--those who were writing fanfic when zines were the only way to share your work, and back before the internet, it was a big deal to be zine published. To give you an idea of why this was so meaningful, you have to pay for a zine--ethical editors (and most are) only charge what they need to in order to cover the costs of production, so no profit is being made (most zines lose money, rarely they break even), but since money is exchanging hands, the quality of what you find inside was of utmost importance. Yes, you had (and still have) editors who have some pretty funny ideas about their fandoms, and others who just do it on a lark because "it would be cool to do a zine" but have no real idea what they're doing, but those instances are rare and when they do happen, word of mouth usually makes sure it doesn't happen for a second issue--nobody buys it. Because the editors of most zines were very strict about the quality of what they'd print, it meant that the authors wanted to be published had to work really hard to "bring it." Zine editors were often in the teaching profession, or this is what they did for fun while trying to become professional writers. So more often than not they were people who knew what the hell they were doing, and even the most experienced fan writer would get their pieces sent back with edits before the piece was acceptable for publication. To give you an idea, the submission guidelines here at TriS are nothing compared to what a zine editor would ask of you, and even we on rare occasion send things back to an author if there are issues. So if a zine editor says he or she wants your story, it's a real feather in your cap.
Why is this relevant to this thread? So you can understand the historical context of what's being asked here, and what happened when the question was posed at Han Solo and the Princess (now defunct). The fandom pretty much polarized. There were few moderates. On one side you had this "old guard" which consisted of those who began with zine fandom and were therefore usually chronologically older than those on the other side of the issue, the mildest of which said something to the tune of "if you must, ask first, but...really...you shouldn't," all the way up to a whole bunch of things I shouldn't repeat publicly.
On the other end, you had "younger" fans--and by this I mean those who were relatively new to organized fandom and had only experienced it electronically, and by the very nature of being new, yes, chronological age did tend to be younger, but this also includes older people who hadn't participated in the fanfic thing for very long. While fandom is pretty much internet-based now and most of the old guard have adapted, there still seemed to be this sentiment that the instant-gratification nature of the web was making people feel entitled to things that they weren't really entitled to, and that there was a certain etiquette that should be followed and often wasn't. For the old guard, it was felt this issue wouldn't even have come up "back in the day"--only a close friend would even suggest such a thing, but a distant acquaintance or total stranger wouldn't have dared because the culture was such that everybody understood just what went into bringing you a story. Furthermore, they were still a little perturbed that self-service archives like ff.net eliminated the editorial process, that there was no longer an assurance of quality in what you read, and that the slippery slope of copyright infringement had gotten even more slick because now more people were doing it, and a web presence makes you easier to find. (Lucasfilm had its own version of the Inquisition in the 90s and the cease-and-desist orders went out to fan writers and fan sites like crazy--all web-based, the zine editors were pretty much left alone.)
The "younger" fans who had only experienced fandom through the web didn't understand what the big deal was, agreed that it would be good manners to at least ask first, but didn't feel compelled to be stopped by a "no", citing the fact that we were already infringing on copyright, so they were entitled to take whatever they wanted from another author, including adding on to an unfinished story or writing their own sequel to someone else's. The old guard fired back by pointing out that the entity upon which we're "infringing" has made (and continues to make) copious amounts of money off of *us*, whereas in the land of fanfic, we're not making money off of *each other*, so courtesy and etiquette should be king and not what you legally/technically can get away with out of some sense of "public ownership" because it's out there to read at the click of a mouse and based on TV/movie characters. Furthermore, the old guard said that if someone was going to start finishing other people's stories, they'd go back underground and resume strictly zine-publishing, or if they stayed on the web, they'd form private communities and archives where existing members would have to "sponsor in" new ones, in an effort to "keep out the riff-raff." The division in the community was a big one, and it was a long time before some of the members would talk to each other again. The issue had become a "forum grenade."
The point of my explaining all of this is to show you how divisive the issue can be in a community, and to maybe explain where some people are coming from, and to show
why some people may feel more protective than others. And before anybody throws "well internet fandom isn't the same as zine fandom" back at me--I know, I already said so, but that doesn't change the fact that zine fandom is the foundation upon which electronic fandom is built, whether its owners and members realize it or not, and it's a little sad that some of the ideals behind it have gone by the wayside.
For what it's worth, my advice is, unless the person you're asking is a really good friend, don't. And because I feel it's worth repeating, an inability to reach an author is not tacit permission.
.
) I also understand when someone posts a fic that has a premise similar to something I've done before, it doesn't necessarily mean that they were intentially plaigerizing.
