(no subject)

[nny]

The reason, I think, that Anne Rice is so uncharitable towards fanficcers (apart from her Jesus complex, which just... let's not go there, shall we?) is that she fears - with good reason, in my opinion - that they could do it better.

The woman thinks she doesn't need an editor, and if sources are correct has managed to mess up ages, dates and even heights throughout her books. I have to go by sources, here, because her attitude to fanfic made me never want to read one of her books... and then I started reading one of her books, and the original reason was replaced with one far more sensible. I don't like the way she writes.

Neil Gaiman on the other hand is very polite about fanfic. He refuses to read it, which is understandable, but he's more than willing to let it go on. I think he has enough confidence in his ideas, not to mention the fact that even if he doesn't do it best, there is always another area at which he can better you. You write fanfic better than him? Well he has graphic novels, screenplays, biographies under his belt, too. There is space enough in the world for more than one Neil Gaiman, because he spreads himself so thin.

There's the added fact that he's written fanfic himself, of course.

It makes me wonder how I'd be, were I ever to write anything. I'd be sure, you see, to use phrases like 'confirmed batchelor' and 'particular friend' in order that everyone might know the characters were shagging like minks even if I were too polite to say it. Considering how nervous it makes me when people write my RP characters better than I do, I don't know if I'd be content enough to let it be; I'd be reading it, either way, because I'm an incredibly shy egotistical attention seeker who lacks in self confidence.

It's fun.

Comments

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

*grins* I think I would be toleratn if someone wrote on my characters and would, like Neil Gaiman, not want to read it, really. I have started a novel thing and am very protective of my characters, but I think fanfic makes a fandom and so I think it should be encouraged.

[chains-of-irony.livejournal.com]

Anne Rice's writing style? Hell yes, it's bad. I fell in love with the characters when I was too young to know any better. *sob*

I think GNeil also has a pretty liberal attitude to fanfiction because he has doen a lot of work in comics; there the characters are more constant than the authors who write them, when a new writer starts working for a long-lasting title such as Spiderman, it's basically fanfiction. And also, GNeil loves his myths and his 'old gods,' and when classical authors wrote about characters from the heroic myths, or when he himself writes about Anansi or Loki characters are being lifted from a pre-existing canon. Copyright has basically ruined this aspect of writing for us.

Hee. Yes, I would love to do a study on this. Can you tell?

[ashen_key]

Anne Rice's writing style? Hell yes, it's bad. I fell in love with the characters when I was too young to know any better. *sob*

Ditto, so very much ditto.

...which explains why I RP Bianca, though normally I wouldn't touch her two canon books with a ten-foot-pole. *looks shifty*

[ashen_key]

The woman thinks she doesn't need an editor, and if sources are correct has managed to mess up ages, dates and even heights throughout her books.

And looks, and personalities, and believe me it's an utter bitch to RP one of her characters.

In one book, Bianca is a grey-eyed, senseous, spoiled ditz.

In the other, she's a blue-eyed, sweet, patient, charming lady.

abotticellilady is my attempt to get somewhere between the two. *makes a face*

The reason, I think, that Anne Rice is so uncharitable towards fanficcers (apart from her Jesus complex, which just... let's not go there, shall we?) is that she fears - with good reason, in my opinion - that they could do it better.

Pretty much. Admittedly, some fanfiction isn't good, some is the level of her writing, but some is just...they take the characters, and they write them, and you believe and go 'yes, these are the characters I see in my head.'

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I feel like, if I ever get published, I will only truly know that I am a Real Author when people fanfic me. :D I think I'd totally sneak around and read it while my publisher wasn't looking, because it would be so interesting to see what people think of my characters.

And you were born a century too late, my dear Beans. You should have been a young Victorian woman who wrote under a male pen name like Geoffrey Villain-Thames and shocked society with her tales of two adventuresome Confirmed Bachelors. *grins*

[halfwest.livejournal.com]

I have given rather a lot of thought to this.

Mostly because people HAVE written fanfic for my writing.

My general reaction is: WOOT!

I think it is BEYOND awesome when people think my stuff is good enough to incorporate into their own art or writing. I've had people write sequels to my stories or poetry inspired by a couple of my more epic poems, which blows my mind. I have two sereal works, now abandoned, which MANY people contributed to when I first "published" them. My Darkwing Duck series got a few kids sending illustrations for it, and my Hazel Dialogues project had significantly more input including two illustrations by a professional artist which she just did because she liked the idea.

This is the coolest thing EVER to me.

Perhaps this is why I am so casual about writing stuff that could pass as fanfic about other people's characters. Including yours, actually. You may recall those very early OOM-things I did for Gorlim when I first joined Milliways, in which he obsesses about your angel. ^^

Fiction is interactive. All stories are a group effort. The more you allow for audience participation, the more real they become. In my own experience, I've found that when people write or illustrate my writing, it gives me a lot of insight into how they interpret it, which helps me know how well I've expressed whatever idea I'd originally intended. I've had a few people suggest it's comparable to trying to steal the original author's thunder, but I honestly have a very hard time understanding that point of view. If it's obvious you're just offering your take on someone else's creative process, where's the thievery? Even bad fanfic adds a little to the overall life of stories.

I have not read Anne Rice's fiction, in part because it seems to me as if she is killing her own stories. Perhaps this is understandable, as she writes about the undead. But regardless of a reason, why would I want to read something so stagnent?

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Oh so, SO well put.

I've had the experience of being fanficced too, by friends when I was in college--I was working on this epic novel that was never finished and friends were reading it serial-style, and a few wrote their own stories about the characters, and oh man, I loved it so much! The fresh angles they took, the what-ifs they asked, just the sheer pleasure of being able to read about my own special Invisible Friends without having to do the work myself! I can't recommend the experience enough!

I also had a dear friend as a teenager who is a fairly well-known writer now...she and I used to fanfic each other's stuff all the damn time, and I even "gave" her a couple of characters of mine because, well, she did write them better than I did. I didn't feel "possessive" at all...and here's where I might go over into crazy talk, but let's just say I do believe they have independent life if they're any good as characters, and claiming exclusive possession of a thoughtform, a spirit of a sort, is...deeply tacky.

[rimestock.livejournal.com]

*eyes journal name*

*clears throat*

Ahem.

Anyway.

I am pleased that you would be more likely to take Mr. Gaiman's attitude than Ms. Rice's. Of course, you seem preternaturally more disposed to be polite than she does; perhaps it's that British thing, which covers both you and Mr. Gaiman.

I'm also not actually awake, and haven't yet eaten, so I'll stop here before I get ahead of myself.

[vivien]

Nny, I think you hit the nail on the head. Anne has probably read fic and said, "WOE! NO MORE!"

It's sad, really. I would be flattered beyond imagining if someone ficced something I wrote. I don't think stories should be limited to one person's view. There is so much in the worlds of stories that one person would be hard pressed to write it al down.

[vimeslady.livejournal.com]

Terry Pratchett says he doesn't mind people writing fanfic as long as it's not someplace where he is likely to see it. He says he's afraid that someday something that he writes will look too much like a piece of fanfic online and that he will be sued for plagerism.

Preston and Child haven't said anything specific to the best of my knowledge, but their official web site links to the bulletin boards, where there is a special section for fanfic.