Tcr

(Oh crap, how'd that one get in there?)

Thanks guys! It was nice of Pride to throw the parade on my birthday so I spent the day in the big city! And I’m totally getting mcdonalds because junk food magically becomes healthy on birthdays. It’s a law of nature. 

@CloverReef The happiest of birthdays to you!   

Thanks, all of you.  And you know I can't wait for yours, @CloverReef.

Thanks, all of you.  And you know I can't wait for yours, @CloverReef.

Happy Birthday TCR!

Happy birthday, @Tcr! I hope the day was wonderful, and the year to come will bring only good things!

I’m with @Desiderius Price on this. Most of the writing tips offered via Twitter, or blog, or random Tumblr page are rehashed from a few less than researched sources. The only purpose they serve is to discourage and disillusion writers, and to frustrate us, especially when the advice contradicts itself, usually within the same freaking paragraph.
So, here’s my advice: Find your voice, and write in it. The technical shit can be found by consulting the Chicago Manual of Style, or another serious guide used by editors who actually get paid to do just that. No editor worth their salt edits via blog, and a good editor finds your voice and works like the hells to preserve that. Imagine my delight when my current editor preemptively rejected a change by the proofreader because my MC “didn’t speak like that.” I adore how she got into my voice so well, and it’s made working with her a complete treat for me.

As always, , good luck, and always here to talk if you need.  .

As always, , good luck, and always here to talk if you need.  .

I used to looove Marion Zimmer Bradley. Now I gotta google it. 

Man, that’s the part I have trouble with. Finding the ‘right’ idea in a sea of good ideas that don’t feel right. Especially when there’s the slightest bit of stress going around. Have you been able to find it yet?

You had better! Or else! 

(Did that sound badass and threatening, but still supportive? Because that’s what I was going for.)

The issue has been finding the right idea for the episode (and ark survival).

I think more authors are becoming open to fan fiction. However, there is still a huge stigma dating back to the Marion Zimmer Bradley legal issue (which remains unclear to this day, IMO). Many authors won’t read any fan fiction of their work because they are afraid if anything they write resembles that fan fiction, they will be sued. It’s tainted the relationship between fan fiction writers and authors for some time.

Now, this is a humble opinion of a delusional madman here...  But if I was published and I saw some fanfic of it on here (he'll, if someone contacted me and was like "I want to write in the universe of Blood Prize" I'd be feeling pretty complimented and flattered by it.  Admittedly, I'm kind of weird that way, so…
But I do understand the approach and thoughts behind it of staying away, too.  Nowadays, it seems like people will sue over every little thing (Not to say it does happen, but with news and stuff, it has that stigma)...  And no author (I hope) wants to be accused of plagiarizing, even without that knowledge.  It does wonders for a career if that happens, I hear.

Exactly, and we also inspire. Some authors, like Lois McMaster Bujold, put fan fiction on the websites. They understand that people can fall so deeply in love with their worlds that they need to fill in the blanks, cover things the author might not have addressed, or merely hinted at. Neil Gaiman writes fan fiction. Orson Scott Card has written fan fiction for an Issac Asimov fan fiction anthology. Andy Weir wrote a fan fiction that the original author, Ernest Cline, liked enough to publish.
So for those of us who write fan fiction, celebrate! We are creative people with lively imaginations who ask “What if...”

Oh for Pete’s Sake!!  Unfortunately the authors I’m aware of are not as famous as the ones already mentioned in a few of the previous comments; regardless, as I read through articles written by these published authors, so many of them comment on how they got their start by writing fanfiction.
 

I actually read something about Gaiman openly admitting that even his head canon isn't really canon and that fans are open to interpreting however they want.  I'mpretty sure he was in favour of fan fiction.  Lol.

I actually read something about Gaiman openly admitting that even his head canon isn't really canon and that fans are open to interpreting however they want.  I'mpretty sure he was in favour of fan fiction.  Lol.

@DemonGoddess that's hilarious you mention that, because she was one of the ones mentioned in there.
@BronxWench Dubious content?  Here?  No...  I've never seen that here...  Say it ain't so…
And going back a little ways to tie into what you said, it is good to build fan bases.  Fan bases on one usually have several others.  To me, it's a compliment, but it's also free publicity in there too.  And not just for one distinct one, either.  A reader might connect something on one to something different (while not fan fiction, I wouldn't have known about Schadenfreude if you and Pippy hadn't mentioned it).  Writers talk.  

In my earlier years, I believed my mother’s lines about how I hated writing.  It took me wanting to finish an abandoned Harry Potter fanfic to realize that I liked creative non-directed writing (it’s the book reports/other, the format of a typical english/literature class that I didn’t like) – I’ve yet to tell her about my writing habit, maybe I should.  So, to me, fanfiction was the “gateway drug” to writing in general.  And to me, in order to write my fanfiction well, I had to read and reread Harry Potter, I had to understand in order to expand on it, to carry the story in the way I had wanted to see it written (and even then, I was struggling to keep it “safely-rated” for the other site, where it’s still published). 
@DemonGoddess IIRC, Transformative is one of the tests for fair use.  Leonard French (a copyright attorney) on YouTube does have videos covering the tenents of fair use.
@CloverReef It’s not plagerism, but it’s also, technically, infringing the intellectual property of the original author,.  In the US, you do have fair use which protects some aspects of fanfiction, but alas…
@BronxWench  Only one C&D?  Guess the other authors haven’t gone digging too deeply.  While I think some of the stories here fall under fair use, waging a court fight wouldn’t be good for the archive, so it’s easier to not sort it out and make it a blanket ban. 
The fight against fanfic by some authors is a shame, because the fanfic writer is typically a really dedicated fan who loves the original work and is expressing that love.  I am thankful that JKR has been very permissive of fanfiction, realizes it to be the flattery that it is, because it allowed me to discover a passion within me, to dabble while holding the hand of canon until I was confident enough to write on my own material.

Many authors like JK Rowling understand the role of fan fiction in building their fan base. Despite the often dubious content we see here, people do love her world. And fan fiction is a brilliant way to hone your writing skills because you have the world already there for you, with characters, and settings, and a canon you can use. 

@Desiderius Price  The ONE C&D was from Anne Rice.  She is notorious for that, and for stalking individual authors who write in her worlds.

CR: Definitely, I get the thoughts of some who just don’t want to see people ‘butchering’ their works.  There are some who just love their worlds that much that seeing anything ‘wrong’ (using this leniently) is hard to do.  Personally, like you, I would love if someone was like ‘I love those characters that I want to add to the story’.  Hell, if I saw some fanfic works, I’d be like ‘Sweet Christmas!  I’m reading this!’…  lol.
DG: That’s my understanding of the difference as well.  Albeit I’m not up to date on it all.
BW: Well, the one I read listed three specifically, one that was kind of surprising, and two that weren’t really all that shocking…  Admittedly, it’s probably a very good reason for why there hasn’t been that many involved here.  Disclaimers are just good ideas no matter what (despite the fact that there are people out there that don’t seem to understand why).  And, admittedly, I’m not a vast dabbler in the realm of fanfic like a lot of people (I like my originals…  lol), but being able to play around in a universe you love (whether it be something as vast and expansive as LOTR, ST, SW, The Expanse) or something that seems to be rather contained (ie something like Equilibrium, Frequency, et cetera (am I showing just how eclectic my tastes are?), that’s just showing that love…
To have someone be like ‘Screw that shit, you can’t play in that sandbox or I’ll sic my lawyers on you like wolves who haven’t been fed enough’, that really doesn’t work too well to A.) show the love of that universe (both in author and fanfic writer) and B.) allow one to enjoy that universe.  (Making sense?  Probably not…  Not much sense to be made today, I guess...)