Why Do You Use Famous People?

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

As a fledgling writer of real person fiction myself, I cannot help but notice that celebrity fiction doesn't seem to be all that popular around here. Judging by number of posts in the form and general lack of discussion, it feels like celeb stories are the poor relation in the fan fiction family. I even remember one of the mods here (it doesn't matter which one) mentioning he or she doesn't like dealing with celeb stories.

So, given that -- assuming it is true, and not just my fevered imagination -- why do you, gentle writer, continue to employ celebrities as characters in your stories? Surely it is easy enough to change your protagonist's name to something fictional. So why do it?

I'll kick off the answering with a couple of reasons of my own:

1. It's a tribute. I only write about celebrities I like/admire, so to me inserting her into a story is a kind of tribute. I never want anything unfortunate to happen to my faves in real life; this all just my imagination working overtime for people I really like. And I consider it a compliment, no matter what happens in the story.

2. The stars are well-known. When I write about, say, Vanessa Hudgens, everyone knows what she loiks like, so every reader is picturing her in the same way (within reason) in their minds while reading, so that, to me, suggest more of a communnity experience and shared bond and sense of community among readers. It's almost like we're seeing the story in our heads the same way. We all give the Vanessa in the story the same look (based on the story's description) and we hear her voice the same way. I think it helps, anyway.

So that's me -- but I'm sure everyone has reasons of his/her own, and I'm interested in hearing what you have to say!

[BronxWench]

::raises hand::

I would be that mod, and I'm not actually shy about admitting it. However, that doesn't mean I can't be impartial when sweeping that archive. I just occasionally feel the need for a long, hot shower and a stiff drink afterward.

In truth, I'm actually interested in hearing why people choose to write this particular form of fan fiction. It's always useful to see other people's points of view, and I would really appreciate seeing this from a new perspective. So I do hope some writers of celebrity fiction will chime in.

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

Nice to hear from you. For the record, I'm not worried about your impartiality as a mod. I am curious, however about your yearning for a shower after reading some celeb fic. If you read the exact same story starring an OC, would you still feel the need for a stiff drink afterward? In other words, is it the use of a real person as the protagonist that squicks you, as opposed to the events of the story?

And I am also very eager to hear from other writers of celeb fic!

[JayDee]

...and I'm probably the user you've seen being somewhat anti-real person fanfiction from a personal perspective. I used to write it. I think I had 12 or 13 stories at one point. Internet being the internet, they're still out there somewhere. I did a couple since then that my muse made me write and those you won't find. They're at the bottom of a well, guarded by a girl with long black hair.

Initially I stopped because of various lawsuits and criminal prosecutions against writers of real person stories in various worldwide jurisdictions that made me feel it was not worth the hassle, later I stayed stopped because of things like this, and this, and similarly, with Twitter and the rest of social media it is ridiculously easy for those fics now to be sent to the subject of the story in question by trolls. general nutjobs or anybody with access to Sony's email server.

Hell, Jimmy Kimmel has the subjects of rude tweets read them out, and you can go on youtube and see other hosts get the likes of Daniel Radcliffe to read slash. So that's another reason, I just don't like to think how celebrities would feel if they read something I'd written. Especially as many of my stories were at the, uh, less romantic end of the spectrum.

Still, other folks have fun writing and reading them and I don't have any problems with that so it's fair to say my opinion is fairly self centred.

For me, it's definitely the real person being involved that stops me. Take them out and I'm pretty fine with most content. I'll avoid things with characters below 16 in sexual situations but beyond that I'll try most things. I've even re-written one or two of my old celeb stories into non-celeb stories to re-use the better descriptive passages (that's relatively speaking, of course, better for me is still trash!).

Any fantasy that needs to be shared feels, to me, like it can be written with a fictional character, even an "OC" with strong similarities to a famous person. Apart from a RPF gaining additional readers from fans of a specific celebrity, which writing hobbyists always enjoy, there don't seem to be other benefits except, well, folks enjoy writing real person fiction. I did. And that's why, although for my own personal reasons I've stopped I don't hold anything against folks who do still write them or share them, or have them tattooed across their back so that Nathan Lane can read them in that long fantasised chance encounter in Broadway men's room.

Look! A RPF ref! Aren't I the most awful hypocrite!

Anyway, good luck with your celeb fics and I wish you all the best.

[BronxWench]

Nice to hear from you. For the record, I'm not worried about your impartiality as a mod. I am curious, however about your yearning for a shower after reading some celeb fic. If you read the exact same story starring an OC, would you still feel the need for a stiff drink afterward? In other words, is it the use of a real person as the protagonist that squicks you, as opposed to the events of the story?

And I am also very eager to hear from other writers of celeb fic!

There are a few things that would leave me equally squicked be it a celebrity or a fictional character, and that's just to be expected, I think. We all have our personal likes and dislikes, after all. But I will admit that my threshold is lower when I know that the subject of the story is an actual person, with actual family and friends out there who might read something less than wholesome.

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

Any fantasy that needs to be shared feels, to me, like it can be written with a fictional character, even an "OC" with strong similarities to a famous person. Apart from a RPF gaining additional readers from fans of a specific celebrity, which writing hobbyists always enjoy, there don't seem to be other benefits except, well, folks enjoy writing real person fiction. I did. And that's why, although for my own personal reasons I've stopped I don't hold anything against folks who do still write them or share them, or have them tattooed across their back so that Nathan Lane can read them in that long fantasised chance encounter in Broadway men's room.

Interesting points, JayDee. I particularly like hearing from a "reformed" RPF writer... I am especially struck by the idea of the star in question reading the fic. I never really stopped to consider that fully because I simply assumed it was just about impossible. But yeah, it suddenly seems less and less impossible and even somewhat more likely. As I said, I consider my stories to be positive things born out of affection, but it's not hard at all to picture Vanessa's feelings being hurt by taking one of my stories at face value.

Also, from my Writer's Pride perspective, you made me re-examine my idea that using celebrities is a shortcut to connecting with the audience. Mabe instead of a shortcut it's a crutch? And of the stars I'm writing about, Vanessa is the only one with any sizeable following, so it's not like those fans are going to inflate my readership numbers.

I need to think about all this.

Thank you for such a thoughtful response!

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

There are a few things that would leave me equally squicked be it a celebrity or a fictional character, and that's just to be expected, I think. We all have our personal likes and dislikes, after all. But I will admit that my threshold is lower when I know that the subject of the story is an actual person, with actual family and friends out there who might read something less than wholesome.

So, like JD above, BronxWench, you hit on something that I probably have been repressing in my thought processes: the idea of the real person or her actual family and friends reading the stories. I may not have taken that into serious enough consideration before. If you happen to have read my Vanessa story (and if you did, then my apologies for the squick) you can see it's pretty easy to be upset by it if you were her friend or family -- even though that was never the intention of the tale (quite the opposite, in fact).

Suddenly, I'm seeing real-person fiction in a whole new light. Which is sort of what I was hoping for when I started this topic -- but not like this. My immediate reaction is to swear off the stuff and change to original fiction or perhaps writing about film characters played by my favorite actresses.

Lots to think about before publishing my next story. Thanks!

Which doesn't mean I'm no longer interested in hearing from devoted celeb fic writers! In fact, more than ever I'd like to read something from a dedicated RPF writer, please! Tell me why you like to use real people in your stories.

[BronxWench]

I've seen a YouTube of two of the singers from Pentatonix, Scott and Mitch, reading aloud fan fiction about themselves. Both young men are openly gay, and went to school together. They're great friends, but not otherwise involved, unless you read the fan fictions, in which case they're definitely a couple. They were laughing and the fiction was actually rather sweet, but obviously, even minor celebrities are well aware of the potential of the Internet and fan interest.

For the shiggles, the video.

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

I've seen a YouTube of two of the singers from Pentatonix, Scott and Mitch, reading aloud fan fiction about themselves. Both young men are openly gay, and went to school together. They're great friends, but not otherwise involved, unless you read the fan fictions, in which case they're definitely a couple. They were laughing and the fiction was actually rather sweet, but obviously, even minor celebrities are well aware of the potential of the Internet and fan interest.

For the shiggles, the video.

Wow, that was... er, uncomfortable. And eye-opening. I don't write lemons (or even limes, like your example), so suddenly I want to pull down my two celeb fics here, as the ladies involved probably would not read them and laugh about it! I'm going for a walk to do some thinking...

[BronxWench]

I wasn't actually posting that to deter you, or anyone. It was more or less to illustrate that fan fiction does sometimes reach places we might not expect, or think it would. The guys were good sports about it, really, and as I said, it was an innocuous little story.

[JayDee]

I too didn't post to try and dissuade you or anybody! I just figured since you'd seen it as being less popular, I ought to explain why since I knew I'd made some less than positive posts about my old RPF (like those linked above).

I guess a lot of the younger stars have grown up in an internet world and so, while more likely to find and read fanfiction (and possibly write and share it themselves) they might well be less likely to be as shocked or offended by nasty fanfic, because they'd know that the internet is full of assholes like me or every single commenter on youtube. Still don't like the idea of 'em seeing my old stuff though.

I guess that's a fair part of the problem for me though, because while not all of my RPF was for unpleasant themes, a lot sure was and it's probably a lot worse for someone to find/be sent/be asked to read on the Tonight Show/something about them, say, being screwed by an animal (except, you know, country music stars) to take an example from one of my old stories, than about a mary sue-ish romantic handholding story. Those are probably just mildly creepy. Unless the writer knows something that they could only know from being in the stars house.

"The fanfiction is coming from inside your house! Get out now!"

"Oh gawd, no!"

Anyway, yeah, I just went and was more negative again. Sorry. I'll stop posting in the thread unless I can think of something positive... uh... creativity! personal expression! Free written porn! Not agreeing with what people fap to, but defending to the climax their right to fap! There ya go. God bless the ACLU's secularism drive!

Stand up comedian sings and talks about erotic Harry Potter fanfic from about 2.33! That's funny and positive! But, obviously, there's someone on TV who would find fanfic about herself!

Edited May 5, 2015 by JayDee

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

Don't worry, JayDee and BronxWench, you did not discourage me -- at least, not in the sense you may fear; you didn't discourage me in a bad way. I'd say it's more a case of opening my eyes to potential unintended consequences. I wouldn't want my fave stars to be collateral damage to a silly story. (Not that someone would be allowed to read on TV an excerpt from a story of her being screwed by an animal, to take an example from one of my current stories, LOL) It's not worth the embarrassment and hurt feelings.

So I have decided (on my own) to pull down both of my stories (which are only posted here and on one other site), recast them with original characters, and then re-upload them as Original Fiction. I'm also going to pull apart the stories I have in progress and either make them Originals or repurpose plot elements for true fan fiction about fictional characters.

[JayDee]

...well, now I feel terrible. I totally didn't mean for you to take stuff offline. I feel like a censor and I didn't even get to use a big black pen. Is not what I meant... ah well, as long as you keep writing and creating in some way is all good. Now I will flee before your fans devour me!

Edited May 5, 2015 by JayDee

[BronxWench]

Actually, I also feel bad that you're pulling stuff, but I am delighted to hear that you're going to rework it as original fiction. Censorship isn't what AFF is about - far from it - but I have this terrible little voice that follows me around whispering about consequences. It's curiously mute when I write original works, though.

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

I can appreciate the feelings you both have, but I assure you both that I did not feel pressured or censored -- if you actually knew me in real life you'd know that I am a staunch champion of free expression, almost to a fault, and would never even consider bowing to censorship. So you are hereby absolved of guilt in this matter. Only I am to blame for the stuff I do. And I decided the stories aren't worth the potential hurt feelings.

As I indicated, I am reworking both stories, and they are almost finished. I actually decided to meld them and make the former-Hailee story a future new chapter in the former-Vanessa story, which now has an OC main character. After thinking about it I realized that changing the stories to Original Fiction would allow them to go in some different directions, which is creatively freeing.

On balance, I think this whole affair is a step forward. Thanks for your input, BronxWench and JayDee!

PS: In the (highly) unlikely event that I actually do have (heretofor silent) fans, please do not devour JayDee, who only meant well.

[NecroNOMNOMicon]

The deed done. I have recast the story and rewrote every chapter to really polish it before uploading the renewed piece to Original Fiction!

The story is now known as "The Chronicles of Quinn Kane," and can be found here: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600107728

I reuploaded all three chapters because, why not?