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[Where do you draw the line?]

5 hours ago, pittwitch said:

After a rather disturbing moment in archive cleaning, I can most honest say that I will not be telling anyone how to get to Sesame Street.    

Somehow, I’m intrigued to the details… maybe I’ve got a dirty mind, but it could be like one toxic review/spam-advert I received on FF.net that was… NUKE, NUKE, NUKE, not only the review, but also wiped out the notification email too.  (And normally I let the notification emails linger.)

[Where do you draw the line?]

7 hours ago, Deadman said:

Yeah, mine is that the character is watching the actor speak about their appearance in Playboy (which is a real thing that happened with the actor), and my fictional character suggests that they were hot and how they sorta looked like their fictional character.

Suppose the soft line here is a) real person is already a public figure, on a “stage”, consistent to their public behavior, and it’s incidental to your story, vs b) main-character back at the hotel room, vs c) somebody you knew back in high school.  For B/C, even if I base it on a real person, the name’s being changed, with enough details tweaked to avoid doxxing.  For groups, I’ll typically do a rename too.

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14 minutes ago, Deadman said:

You’re right, never say never but I can’t imagine a scenario in which I would.

The closest that I’ve come is mentioning real people in my fics. For instance, in one of my fics, I had a character watching TV and they were watching a celebrity interview with an actor who was actually an actor in the show. It’s more of a throw away line. I’ve also done things like named OC characters after the actors that I like, whether they’re part of the fandom I’m writing about.

I could imagine a historical rally/speech, or a fictional character getting an autograph at a convention.  I do have a generic… “the Queen’s motorcade drove past my characters near Buckingham Palace” in my potter fanfic.  So, this is why I can’t say never, never.  Within my originals, it’s near future, not today, so I can make up new shows & celebrities

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1 hour ago, WarrenTheConey said:

However, with the rise of characters that are fictitious representations of real people, both directly and indirectly, there are even some shows, that I would rather avoid writing about, just because they toe, a palpably, unpopular grey line.

Well, flip the tables around and imagine it’s a fanfic with YOU as the central character.  It’d be a fictional narrative putting events/actions into your own personal history/future, yeah, that’d be disturbing.   (And if it’s derogatory/slanderous, the author opens themselves up to a lawsuit too.)

Normally I bend over backwards to NOT associate my stories with real people/buildings/etc.  So, I’ll make up town names, or at least scramble the road/street name the homes are on to avoid the Goonies House effect.  It’s a fine line, but as a viewer, I know I was irritated when a show like Dead Like Me films in Vancouver BC and tries to pass it off as Seattle… it broke the immersion because I knew it was off.

[Where do you draw the line?]

I’ve learned to never say never when it comes to writing, usually because saying “never would” becomes an inducement to do just that.  That said, involving a real person based fanfic would have a certain level of ick to it, likely invite lawsuits depending on what you’re depicting, so probably best avoided. 

REFERENCING a real person, can be alright though.  JKR famously put Rupert’s first name into HBP (when Slughorn was trying to remember Harry’s friend’s name…).  I’ve had Harry visit Graceland, so the name of Elvis comes up.  Also when I wrote about my Harry getting a flood of hate mail, I put some addressed to the actor’s name with “Who’s …?”  I’ve also loosely based some characters on real people before (won’t give names).

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[Where do you draw the line?]

2 hours ago, BronxWench said:

I write for a very few fandoms myself, based on what interests me, but I do read outside those fandoms. There are just those few that I will not ever seek out when I have time to read for pleasure.

I’ve gotten unsolicited requests that try to push me into writing for fandoms that I know nothing about.  Guess that’s my hard stop for writing, along with the desire to finish what I’ve already started.  And TBH, if I had fallen into the potter universe today, it’s unlikely that I’d even delve into fanfiction.

[Where do you draw the line?]

2 hours ago, BronxWench said:

Of course, I also avoid certain tags, but that’s not the question here.

Knowing this website, the question will morph with the conversation, and the answer will always remain the same (42). 

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[Where do you draw the line?]

For me, it’s more on the practical side of where I want to be spending my time, and I prefer spending it on writing my own creations—it’s fun!  So, unless I get really motivated, I don’t expect to venture into new fandoms for writing.