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What do I derive?
In defense of all possible meanings of the term "derivative work."
You know what I don't get? People who insist that fanfiction plots must be original. I mean ... hello? It's fanfiction. It is, by nature, derivative.
Okay, so I can understand it to some extent. What you write, after all, is still your work, borne of blood, sweat and tears, loved and developed and coaxed and created. I know that whatever I write - original, fandom, or some mixture of the two - feels very much mine.
At the same time, though, I am very much aware that it isn't mine. I might write something I believe to be the most innovative, most original fanfiction ever. Better than anything that has come before it. Better, even, than the original work, or perhaps bearing only the slightest relation to the work that inspired it.
And, so? It cannot be copyrighted, sold, or claimed as my own. Legally, it may not even have been allowed to be written in the first place. Fandom is an ambiguous place, and separating what is "yours" from what is not can be a very tricky business indeed.
Case Point #1: I run a fandom-based original character roleplay site. Recently, I received a character application using a canon name. When I informed the player that he could not use that name, he became quite adamant that he was very attached to it; that he had been roleplaying using that name for several years, and that it was the only one he could imagine using. That was all well and good; I am quite attached to some of my own character names, and I can understand the sentiment. Nevertheless, my decision stood. I wrote back to him that, no matter how much he loved the name, it was not his name; that, surely, he must have envisaged a time when he would not be free to use it?
To that, I never received a reply.
-----
I am not condoning plagiarism. Not even the quasi-plagiarism that is taking something from a derivative work and using it in another derivative work. But the question must be asked; at what point is it truly plagiarism, and when is it simply ... well, derivative?
Like the proper use of any source, I believe that acknowledgement is the key. To read a fanfiction and merely recreate the plot with no nod to the "original" is plagiarism, actually if not technically. To read a fanfiction and become inspired to write your own - deviating from the original idea, simplifying it or building upon it in whatever way you please; and duly noting the inspiration - is derivative. And really, when we are all writing fanfiction, who has the right to complain?
-----
There will always be people who insist that the fanfic they read, or write, must be original, in plot if in nothing else. In fandoms that are very new, or very old, or simply very sparsely populated, this may even be possible. In the more popular fandoms, however - and yes, I’m talking about you, Harry Potter; no use looking away like it’s Ron or something* - most will have been done to death, whether you are aware of it or not. And believe me, not having read a particular plot/idea/fanfiction before is no defense against those who will claim you've stolen it.
What is there to do, then? Stop writing? Find another fandom? Track down every fanfiction ever written to ensure you aren't being redundant? Write only the most ridiculous plots, in the hopes that they, at least, have never been done? Well, some of those ideas are more feasible than others, but none really strikes my fancy. After all, if you've found the inspiration to write, and the end result is something decent, does it really matter so terribly where that inspiration is found?
Case Point #2: Surreal is a Harry Potter fanfiction inspired by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Normal Again." It's a fantastic premise, and a solid fic. Is it diminished by knowing that the idea was not originally the author's? I don't think so. The joy of the story, for me, is in seeing how she realises the idea, in seeing how it's written. I could read a dozen stories based on the same idea, and I'm confident that each one would be very different.
-----
Clichés, after all, become so for a reason. They are powerful in their own right, if not used as a shortcut or dismissed out of hand. They are written so often because there is something in them that draws readers and writers alike; something that spurs us to keep writing, keep reading, to discover something new in them or simply find for ourselves what makes them so old. A thing does not have to be original to be good; it does not have to be new to be worthy of notice. As a writer and a reader both, that is not it, at all.
In the end, all your idea are belong to someone else.
*In the spirit of proper referencing, the (slightly paraphrased) quote is from here.
You know what I don't get? People who insist that fanfiction plots must be original. I mean ... hello? It's fanfiction. It is, by nature, derivative.
Okay, so I can understand it to some extent. What you write, after all, is still your work, borne of blood, sweat and tears, loved and developed and coaxed and created. I know that whatever I write - original, fandom, or some mixture of the two - feels very much mine.
At the same time, though, I am very much aware that it isn't mine. I might write something I believe to be the most innovative, most original fanfiction ever. Better than anything that has come before it. Better, even, than the original work, or perhaps bearing only the slightest relation to the work that inspired it.
And, so? It cannot be copyrighted, sold, or claimed as my own. Legally, it may not even have been allowed to be written in the first place. Fandom is an ambiguous place, and separating what is "yours" from what is not can be a very tricky business indeed.
Case Point #1: I run a fandom-based original character roleplay site. Recently, I received a character application using a canon name. When I informed the player that he could not use that name, he became quite adamant that he was very attached to it; that he had been roleplaying using that name for several years, and that it was the only one he could imagine using. That was all well and good; I am quite attached to some of my own character names, and I can understand the sentiment. Nevertheless, my decision stood. I wrote back to him that, no matter how much he loved the name, it was not his name; that, surely, he must have envisaged a time when he would not be free to use it?
To that, I never received a reply.
-----
I am not condoning plagiarism. Not even the quasi-plagiarism that is taking something from a derivative work and using it in another derivative work. But the question must be asked; at what point is it truly plagiarism, and when is it simply ... well, derivative?
Like the proper use of any source, I believe that acknowledgement is the key. To read a fanfiction and merely recreate the plot with no nod to the "original" is plagiarism, actually if not technically. To read a fanfiction and become inspired to write your own - deviating from the original idea, simplifying it or building upon it in whatever way you please; and duly noting the inspiration - is derivative. And really, when we are all writing fanfiction, who has the right to complain?
-----
There will always be people who insist that the fanfic they read, or write, must be original, in plot if in nothing else. In fandoms that are very new, or very old, or simply very sparsely populated, this may even be possible. In the more popular fandoms, however - and yes, I’m talking about you, Harry Potter; no use looking away like it’s Ron or something* - most will have been done to death, whether you are aware of it or not. And believe me, not having read a particular plot/idea/fanfiction before is no defense against those who will claim you've stolen it.
What is there to do, then? Stop writing? Find another fandom? Track down every fanfiction ever written to ensure you aren't being redundant? Write only the most ridiculous plots, in the hopes that they, at least, have never been done? Well, some of those ideas are more feasible than others, but none really strikes my fancy. After all, if you've found the inspiration to write, and the end result is something decent, does it really matter so terribly where that inspiration is found?
Case Point #2: Surreal is a Harry Potter fanfiction inspired by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Normal Again." It's a fantastic premise, and a solid fic. Is it diminished by knowing that the idea was not originally the author's? I don't think so. The joy of the story, for me, is in seeing how she realises the idea, in seeing how it's written. I could read a dozen stories based on the same idea, and I'm confident that each one would be very different.
-----
Clichés, after all, become so for a reason. They are powerful in their own right, if not used as a shortcut or dismissed out of hand. They are written so often because there is something in them that draws readers and writers alike; something that spurs us to keep writing, keep reading, to discover something new in them or simply find for ourselves what makes them so old. A thing does not have to be original to be good; it does not have to be new to be worthy of notice. As a writer and a reader both, that is not it, at all.
In the end, all your idea are belong to someone else.
*In the spirit of proper referencing, the (slightly paraphrased) quote is from here.