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Getting over the shame of writing Fanfiction

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Teamworks Piking

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I'm not entirely sure just where to put this, for I couldn't find a Writer's Discussion forum, so I'll put it here.

I recently joined thanks to the Aspear Tree Fan Fiction writing contest, for I thought it would be fun to do. When I put pen to paper, however, I couldn't get myself to be motivated, due to the overwhelming sense of shame and embarrassment.

As a writer, I believe it is important to put all your own important ideas into your own original work. If you put a great idea into a fanfiction, then publish it to the net, not only is the idea tainted, but essentially you don't own it, for it is owned by the copyrighter. So in that essence, writing fan fiction is absolutely useless.

On the flipside, fan fiction is a great way of learning your inner voice, learning how characters can interact, and just motivating you to write. Plus, fanfiction readers are usually very kind and helpful, so it can really help improve your craft.

So I'm stuck. There's major pros, and major cons.

What have you guys done to get over any feelings of shame or embarrassment when you are writing fanfiction?
 
Storytelling is all about surprises and interesting twist and turns, fascinating revelations.

Imagine if you read a fanfiction done by a famous author, and it had a really great ending, with a gripping build up. Imagine that he released a novel with the same exact build up, and the same great ending, only of his own accord, instead of using an IP universe as a vehicle. It would be tainted.
 
Teamworks Piking said:
Storytelling is all about surprises and interesting twist and turns, fascinating revelations.

Imagine if you read a fanfiction done by a famous author, and it had a really great ending, with a gripping build up. Imagine that he released a novel with the same exact build up, and the same great ending, only of his own accord, instead of using an IP universe as a vehicle. It would be tainted.
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a skilled writer shouldn't have to recycle old plots. there are plenty of ways to carry over elements from an old story while still making it new.

i'm not gonna lie, though. for me at least, fanfiction is dirty business. i always feel like i'm doing something wrong when i write it :s and so i rarely share my work with other people.

but it's different for everybody. some people really enjoy it and don't want to write an original story, others seldom write fanfiction and think it's embarrassing, etc. if you think you might be humiliated by your work, don't write fanfiction. if you don't care how it turns out, go ahead and write.
 
What about that girl who took her Harry Potter fanfiction and reused the original story and then sold it as a novel series? Or something like that, though I understand she's a bit of a troll and not someone you'd want to consider yourself among.

Either way, you shouldn't be ashamed to write fanfiction. You're writing, and you're enjoying it. That's what matters.
 
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If the idea is original to you, what's the problem? The movie The Godfather is considered to have one of the greatest scores of all time, and the composer nearly got sued for it because he reused music that he'd written for a previous movie. None of that affects the impact the score has in the latter film.

(he had signed a contract saying that it was all his original music. Later he said something like "it was all my music. It never said it had to be written entirely for this film.")
 
There is no such thing as an original idea. Just read around TV Tropes for a while. I'm coming up with story ideas for a game with a friend, and everything we say has already been documented on that site.

And I'm fine with that. Because there's no such thing as an original idea.

There is nothing dirty about reusing a setting or a character, or sometimes even a plot. The dirty business is using them in the same way they're always used. The mark of a good author is having a unique voice, not necessarily a unique 'verse. Take Neil Gaiman. He reused a bunch of characters from the DC Universe, reused themes presented in common mythology and philosophy, twisted them around, and gave the story his own voice. Lo and behold, The Sandman came out, and it's one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time.

The stigma against fanfiction is a stereotype against budding writers who, like you said, are still looking for their voice. They use premade plots, characters, and settings as a crutch. Yeah, I don't really like this, but I can still accept that it happens.
 
Teamworks Piking said:
As a writer, I believe it is important to put all your own important ideas into your own original work. If you put a great idea into a fanfiction, then publish it to the net, not only is the idea tainted, but essentially you don't own it, for it is owned by the copyrighter. So in that essence, writing fan fiction is absolutely useless.
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That depends on how much you wrote that isn't Ash or some already copyrighted places in Pokemon. Ideas can not be copyrighted but the way they are expressed can be, like in a story. So if I make a character that is "original" then that character is mine. If I create a region, then that's mine too. So the percent Nintendo owns would be based off of what's already in their Pokemon series and that can be low to high%.

Of course you can't make (much, if any) money off of it, if you did, you would have to pay royalities since you're having some sort of Pokemon element to it. So have fun.
 
Writing fanfiction does feel a little weird, I guess. I've been writing it for awhile now, and you never really get over that odd feeling of writing characters from another person's work.

The way I see it is that I write fanfiction purely for my own enjoyment, other's enjoyment and because it has helped me greatly improve my writing over the years. I'm never going to do anything with it, it isn't like I'll ever reuse those plots and characters - but fanfiction taught me character development, plot development and just general writing. Because of that I don't mind writing fanfiction as much as I used to. Don't focus on writing with another person's work, because that stops plots in their tracks. Just.... write, I guess, is my advice.

Plus the good thing about fanfiction is that you can get rid of a lot of plot bunnies that you wouldn't otherwise have the chance to write about :)
 
I can honestly say that I've never felt shame about writing fan-fiction, though I will admit that I hate using the canon characters. I feel like doing so would stifle my creativity. What I like about writing fan-fics is that the universe has already been created for me. Is that cheating? Maybe, but the setting isn't really important in the end. A story shouldn't need an interesting and unique setting to be good. It's all in the way it's told, not where it's told.

Nekusagi said:
Either way, you shouldn't be ashamed to write fanfiction. You're writing, and you're enjoying it. That's what matters.
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I couldn't agree more.
 
You know, there are lots of authors out there that make a living on writing fanfiction. Don't believe me? Just take a glance at all of the Halo, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. novels that are not only published en masse, but are wildly popular. At their core, they're really no different from fanfiction, just given a glossier coat of paint. I doubt that the majority of these authors are losing sleep over how "shameful" their profession is.

Honestly, fanfiction does have its place in the world, whether you do it for a hobby or on some larger scale. As *ahem* a fanfiction writer myself, that is simply how I view the matter.
 
I've been thinking the same thing, but now that you (Soundspeed) have mentioned it, I think I will.

I haven't been able to take off any of my stories without the help of some other created world.
 
Soundspeed said:
You know, there are lots of authors out there that make a living on writing fanfiction. Don't believe me? Just take a glance at all of the Halo, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. novels that are not only published en masse, but are wildly popular. At their core, they're really no different from fanfiction, just given a glossier coat of paint. I doubt that the majority of these authors are losing sleep over how "shameful" their profession is.

Honestly, fanfiction does have its place in the world, whether you do it for a hobby or on some larger scale. As *ahem* a fanfiction writer myself, that is simply how I view the matter.
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You forgot Twilight.
 
In the authors' defense, I'd like to point out that the majority of them don't actually write for a single author or series. They're usually freelancers who are hired and write what they're told to write.
 
Opti said:
You forgot Twilight.
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Twilight isn't fanfiction to anything. Vampires are a general enough topic that writing about them isn't fanfic. I wish people would stop saying it is as a means of calling it shoddy writing, because that says that fanfics are shoddy writing, and really that varies considerably.
 
I think I can clear this up a bit more. Just because you use the characters, the idea of the story is yours. I mean, just look at my entries in the contests. I used characters that don't belong to me (save for a couple), but I bet that no other Pokémon manga chapter, anime episode, video game, or any other Pokémon media has the same exact story. And I'm proud of it because I created the pieces, and you should be too!

And to add a little more, I have two more ideas for my so-called FireFeather Saga. And even so, I have yet to see either idea to be used by them. What I'm saying, is embrace your Idea rather than pity them.
 
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Blackjack Palazzo said:
I wish people would stop saying it [referring to Twilight as fanfiction] is as a means of calling it shoddy writing, because that says that fanfics are shoddy writing, and really that varies considerably.
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This is one of my pet peeves: fanfiction =/= shit writing. Seriously, who ever says that way is mistaken or willfully ignorant.

I have read simply stunning fanfiction and utterly horrid published fiction.

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As for shame in writing fan fic; what shame is there? You are writing your story for your enjoyment. Yes, you are using other characters but the story is what counts.

On a side note, I actually heard one of my friends refer to Vergil's epic The Aeneid as fan fiction... I actually think he is right.
 
Well personally I don't think it matters because, as just about everyone on this thread has said, you can be original and creative while basing it on a universe created by someone else. In my opinion, there's absolutely no shame in that.

Also, if you're writing a fanfiction, to me it doesn't matter if you "essentially don't own it", that seems like nitpicking to me. I write a fanfic here (as you can see in my sig) and I know it's mine. I'm not trying to get it officially published so there's no problem.

I think you're getting fanfiction somewhat confused with outright plagiarism.
 
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