Fanfiction

For those who saw this coming, bravo! I had planned on writing a blog entry and stating my opinion about fanfiction for some time now, but first let's explain what fan fiction is:

  Fan Fiction is when someone takes either the story or characters (or both) of a certain, piece of work whether it be a novel, tv show, movie, etc., and create their own story based on it. Sometimes people will take characters from one movie and put them in another, which is called a cross-over. 

Wow! I think I might have been a fanfiction writer back in the day when fanfiction wasn’t even known. I was 14 when I wrote my first fanfic story on a spiral note book, it was a cross-over about Doctor Who and Star Trek. No, I am not joking, I did write a fanfic about two of my favorite shows. Unfortunately, I must have thrown the spiral note book away, I didn’t want anyone else to read it, I suppose. I can’t find it anywhere. It has been many decades since I wrote it. I wrote the story for my own entertainment and even if I wanted to share the story on my blog, I couldn’t because I don’t have copies, too bad though, it would have been interesting.

Copyright issues

 *fan fiction deals with legally protected works. By writing stories featuring someone else’s characters, fan fiction authors are treading on risky legal ground. This is doubly the case when they publish their work for others to enjoy. In the US and many other countries, authors have copyright over their creations. This is a detailed legal situation, however for fan fiction writers, the chief concern is with derivative works. Copyright gives the author the sole right to create derivative works, basically works which use protected elements of the source material. This is a pretty cut-and-dry situation, stating that you cannot legally use their characters or settings for fan fiction.There are three ways fan fiction writers may still be free to use copyrighted elements for derivative works. The first is through exceptions given to parody, the second through exceptions granted for ‘fair use’, and the third by general permission of the author.

Public domain

If written work or images are in the public domain then it can be used freely in any work. This includes characters such as Robin Hood, Hercules, Tarzan, Dorian Grey, and Dracula (which is why there’s an almost constant stream of movies, books, and video games starring these characters). There are several ways a story can enter the public domain (the author could, for instance, give up their rights to the work), but the most common is simply the passage of time.

There are many fanfiction stories online from various writers and not all of them should have their work published. Most fanfic writers rather stay on the websites pertaining to fanfiction and not risk copyright issues when trying to publish a book based on their story however, there are some who choose to take the risk and change their characters to a point that they can publish their book whether through mainstream publishing companies or self-publish.

Let’s talk about Fifty Shades of Grey

*As numerous reports have outlined, 50 SHADES OF GREY grew out of a multi-part series of fan fiction called MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, based on Stephanie Meyer’s TWILIGHT novels, that James (a pseudonym for London-based television executive Erika Leonard) published online between 2009 and 2011 in various venues, including fanfic.net and her own website. When she contracted with Writers Coffee Shop in early 2011 to publish the works, lightly rewritten to take out any references to Twilight characters and situations, E.L. James took the fan fiction versions offline.

I’ve never read that woman's work, however before I wrote this blog entry I had to read some of that book and to be honest, I am not into fanfiction, even though I did write one myself when I was a kid. I’ve never heard of about Masters of the Universe, but then again, I’m not a Twilight fan either, so I would not have ventured into a Twilight Fanfic website.

 Most recently, I took it upon myself to read a few chapters from the Fifty Shades of Grey book, I downloaded it and read 4 chapters. It is easy read. I later, watched the first Twilight movie. 

Yes! I do see the similarities between the characters. In fact, I feel the author should have done a better job in disguising and changing the characters even more.

The author’s writing will not be discussed here because even though I resent the whole 'Mommy Porn' thing that was thrown around when people talked about the books, I’m not going to put another author’s writing down. This isn't about James writing style.  

 She has her own style of writing, easy read, kind of okay. I want to focus on how similar her book series is to her fanfiction story. As people have stated, Masters of the Universe is no longer online and that was a smart move on her part to remove it. I have no idea how she got away with the copyright issues. Go figure, right? The only thing I can think of is that she made a deal with the Devil. I am jesting, of course. But am I? 

 

Below is a link to how similar her character is to the Twilight characters. Please visit and judge for yourself.

Master's of the Universe ( A Twilight fanfic)

So, despite of a few people who have published their fanfiction, I recommend that people try their hand out in fanfic but keep in mind that if you truly want to be a writer and a published author, make up your own characters. Don’t mold them after characters that have been used. You want to be real, genuine.

Creating Your Own Characters:

I would much rather create my own characters, brand new, and not mold them after a character from a show or movie. I suppose some authors take inspiration from movies & TV series but the majority create genuine characters from their own imagination.  

In all the books I've written, none of the characters are based on any character that have been used in movies or TV series. Just noting. If interested, download or purchase one of my books. 

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