i don't like the idea implied in that quote that fanfiction is somehow less original than fiction where you create the characters and world.
example: writers for tv series usually didn't create the characters and world. star trek is the best example of this. there is a whole line of star trek novels which are technically 'fanfiction' but which the authors get a lot of money for writing.
even beyond that, most classical fiction does take characters and world from previous fiction. the illiad and the odyessey of homer had a fanfiction -- the aenied of virgil being the most famous. (forgive my spellings here). shakespeare wrote fanfiction, based on actual events of kings and such. and think about how much fanfiction malory's death of king arthur gets. and how many retellings are there for a lot of classic mythological tales? all of them are fanfiction. all of disney's movies are fanfiction. the bible gets a lot of fanfiction as well (anything that uses characters from it, including the angels and the devil).
i think it's safe to say that there is more that can be classified as fanfiction than can be classified as original fiction, if we go by the definition 'the author created the world and characters totally'. and there's nothing wrong with that, it in no way makes the story unoriginal. i'd rather read originally written fanfiction than a story with original characters and world but written unoriginally.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2002-11-16 10:20 pm (UTC)example: writers for tv series usually didn't create the characters and world. star trek is the best example of this. there is a whole line of star trek novels which are technically 'fanfiction' but which the authors get a lot of money for writing.
even beyond that, most classical fiction does take characters and world from previous fiction. the illiad and the odyessey of homer had a fanfiction -- the aenied of virgil being the most famous. (forgive my spellings here). shakespeare wrote fanfiction, based on actual events of kings and such. and think about how much fanfiction malory's death of king arthur gets. and how many retellings are there for a lot of classic mythological tales? all of them are fanfiction. all of disney's movies are fanfiction. the bible gets a lot of fanfiction as well (anything that uses characters from it, including the angels and the devil).
i think it's safe to say that there is more that can be classified as fanfiction than can be classified as original fiction, if we go by the definition 'the author created the world and characters totally'. and there's nothing wrong with that, it in no way makes the story unoriginal. i'd rather read originally written fanfiction than a story with original characters and world but written unoriginally.