Where do you draw the line?

[pittwitch]

Which fandoms will you NOT write or read?

[BronxWench]

Good question!

I’m not a fan of anime in general, but I have to say, I avoid Naruto like the plague itself. I’m also deeply and profoundly disturbed by real person fiction as a whole, and I will never read it for enjoyment, much less write it.

[pittwitch]

Oh yes, real person fiction is a line I cannot cross either!

[Desiderius Price]

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.

[BronxWench]

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.

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

[Desiderius Price]

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). 

[Desiderius Price]

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.

[GeorgeGlass]

I’m uncomfortable not only with real-person fanfic but fanfic involving characters played by real people. So I stick with cartoon fandoms. And mostly Western ones, because I’m not a big enough anime fan to have seen a lot of the ones people tend to write about.

The only non-cartoon fanfic I’ve ever written was about Adam and Eve, because that’s not a particularly recent fandom.

[Deadman]

Like it seems most people agree, I don’t go into the real person fic thing. I think I read a couple of them way back when I first started reading fic and it just wasn’t something I was into.

I also generally don’t write or read fanfic based on animated characters. The closest I come to that is live action adaptations of comic book characters, like superheroes or Riverdale, things of that nature. Just not into the idea of animated characters having sex. It’s a line I personally draw.

[Desiderius Price]

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).

[WarrenTheConey]

Desiderius Price "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's the absolute truth. It's because of that, I try to turn things I dislike, into challenges that broaden my imagination and world view.

I also agree that writing about real people, is something that I would probably refrain from.

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.

For instance, I actually enjoyed the cartoon, The Prince, (I hate myself for admitting that), and I wanted to write a fan-fic to resolve it's cliffhanger ending.

But I never wrote one, because I feel, that grey area, is essentially the same as writing about real people.

And I'm not alone in the sentiment, that writing about characters who act as fictitious representations of real people, is essentially the same, as writing about those real people.

I know that most people agree with me, since the decision to make prince George the main character of that show, was so overwhelmingly controversial, that the show's run, was ended, before the episodes were even aired.

[Desiderius Price]

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.

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

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).

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.
 

[Desiderius Price]

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

[Deadman]

2 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

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

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.

[pittwitch]

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.    

Edited March 7 by pittwitch

[Desiderius Price]

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.

[Desiderius Price]

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.)

[Wilde_Guess]

Hi, all.

I’m a bit late to this, but I decided to add my thoughts.

On 3/7/2024 at 1:17 AM, Desiderius Price said:

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.

I would generally have to agree with you on bringing “real life people” into a fictional story.  B is right out.  For “C,” I might bring a “personality trait” into the mix.  But while I’ve seen the trait or behavior in real life, neither you nor even the person themselves will realize that I “copied” the trait, and only that trait, from them.  There lies the way to lawsuits.

My “A” is only slightly more expansive than yours.  Since I’m using a real-life set of locations, I also need to be very careful with people holding real-life positions.  In fact, my disclaimer explicitly disclaims non-historic actions by historic or public figures.  I have one celebrity help the main protagonists in one story.  That celebrity’s actions were entirely consistent with how he would have behaved in real life under the same circumstances, and were entirely favorable without any potential slight.  That celebrity might be joined by one or two more under the exact same circumstances.  None of the “celebrities” know anything about the more “interesting” details of the protagonists’ lives. 

I’ve also named two different famous local politicians as “background” characters.  Their indirectly mentioned conduct is entirely consistent with the “non-criticized” portions of their publicly reported actions and behavior during the time-frames mentioned.  In the case of one of the politicians, I invented entirely fictitious additional members of their family who did not exist in real life.

I’ve also replaced scores of real-life people with entirely fictitious counterparts even when the behavior of the “replaced” persons appearing in my story were entirely honest, honorable, skillful, consistent with real-life, and beyond any reproach.  It’s just easier to do things that way then it is to try (and almost certainly fail) to describe an “almost famous” person I never met from forty years ago without getting sued.  I do “reference” the occasional real life villain here and there.  In those cases, their real-life villainy was well-known, as in front-page headlines, and followed up by felony convictions.  Any non-historical villainy they get up to is entirely consistent with their real-life behavior at the times and places where it takes place.

That will also hold true for my Harry Potter fanfiction.  Since I’m using a real time-frame for the stories, and since I’m using real-life locations, using historical people (gently) is nearly unavoidable, as well as using real-life positions filled with fictional replacements.

On 3/6/2024 at 1:15 AM, Desiderius Price said:

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).

The most annoying “reference” I see in HP fanfiction, and I see it all the time, is using the first names of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson as the first names for Hermione Granger’s parents.  JKR never even named those two characters, much less had them appear directly; so I get that you have to call them something.  But using the names of the actors who play Harry and Hermione in the movies to (not so subtly) claim that Harry and Hermione were only right to date or marry each other is just too heavy-handed for me.  Plenty of great fanfiction authors do this in great stories.  Plenty of not so great fanfiction authors do this, too.  In the case where I had to give the Grangers names, I used the first names of the actors who played them in the movies, and there were actors who played the Granger parents to a sufficient degree that they had to be named and credited.  Ian Kelly and Michelle Fairley played the Grangers in Deathly Hallows Part One.  Tom Knight and Heather Bleasdale from CoS would also work.

Cheers!

[Desiderius Price]

2 hours ago, Wilde_Guess said:

The most annoying “reference” I see in HP fanfiction, and I see it all the time, is using the first names of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson as the first names for Hermione Granger’s parents.  JKR never even named those two characters, much less had them appear directly; so I get that you have to call them something. 

Eww… yeah, that’s not the right name for those parents!  IIRC, it was “Linda” and “Charles” in mine, the origin eludes me ATM.  Though, I did make use of Radcliffe, Watson, & Grint names in a scene where Harry, Ron, & Hermione were getting piles upon piles of hate mail, so some of that was misaddressed to the actors too

[JayDee]

Not exactly a fandom but a book. I won’t read it. I live on my own these days and nobody makes the long trip up the hill to visit anymore so I have a pretty good idea what I’ve got in the house, and I know for a fact I did not buy that book. I certainly didn’t borrow it from the library. (They are good people there, the librarians, dedicated, and they have standards even in these days when their power and their glory is unknowingly ignored by so many). Sometimes it’s on the shelf. Sometimes it’s on the table. I’ve seen it in the kitchen cupboard and I found it in the attic when I went to investigate the noise (a swallow had got in, and driven to panic by the tome wished to get out. I helped it. Of course I did. I’m no monster no matter what the villagers said). The cover has a nice blue, though the face that gazes from it is not appealing and speaks of an unhealthy appetite, of wealth gained too young. The pages rifle pleasingly in the breeze, even in a still room. I don’t care. Offer me what you may. Tempt me, taunt me. I can’t be bought, or broken. The line is drawn, underlined, surrounded by unevenly doodled pentagrams, in both black, and in red.

I’m never gonna fucking read "May I Have Your Attention Please?" the autobiography of James Corden.

This I swear by the old gods, the new, and those yet to come.

[BronxWench]

20 minutes ago, JayDee said:

Not exactly a fandom but a book. I won’t read it. I live on my own these days and nobody makes the long trip up the hill to visit anymore so I have a pretty good idea what I’ve got in the house, and I know for a fact I did not buy that book. I certainly didn’t borrow it from the library. (They are good people there, the librarians, dedicated, and they have standards even in these days when their power and their glory is unknowingly ignored by so many). Sometimes it’s on the shelf. Sometimes it’s on the table. I’ve seen it in the kitchen cupboard and I found it in the attic when I went to investigate the noise (a swallow had got in, and driven to panic by the tome wished to get out. I helped it. Of course I did. I’m no monster no matter what the villagers said). The cover has a nice blue, though the face that gazes from it is not appealing and speaks of an unhealthy appetite, of wealth gained too young. The pages rifle pleasingly in the breeze, even in a still room. I don’t care. Offer me what you may. Tempt me, taunt me. I can’t be bought, or broken. The line is drawn, underlined, surrounded by unevenly doodled pentagrams, in both black, and in red.

I’m never gonna fucking read "May I Have Your Attention Please?" the autobiography of James Corden.

This I swear by the old gods, the new, and those yet to come.

I am so in accordance with this. All of this. (Except the living on my own, which is something I aspire to with all my heart.)