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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

We're All Fine Here, Thanks. How Are You? - The FanFic Social Thread

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by mavjade , Aug 15, 2014.

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  1. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

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    Feb 27, 2014
    Maybe I'm just being naive here and missing something important, but what on earth would the legal reasons be to prohibit them from reading it, just for their own enjoyment and edification? From what I've seen, pro artists look at fans' art all the time—they get shown it at cons, etc. (TrakNar, didn't that happen with one or two of your sketch cards at one point?) If that sort of thing can happen with art, then what on earth kind of legal barrier would there be against it happening with writing?

    It's not unheard of for profic authors to take a certain amount of interest in fanfic, either. I once chatted with someone like that right here on these very boards: patchworkz7.
     
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  2. RK_Striker_JK_5

    RK_Striker_JK_5 Force Ghost star 7

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    Jul 2, 2003
    The old bre-Del rey EU... and I'm gonna catch hell for this, but I gotta be honest. It was more important to me than the actual Original Trilogy. It's how I got into SW.

    So losing that, it being non-canon? It hurts. I know I still got the books I want, but it's still a damned downer for me. Even worse, a lot of my favorite characters, never gonna get action figures of them.

    Yes, I'm serious on that.
     
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  3. divapilot

    divapilot Force Ghost star 4

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    Nov 30, 2005
    Could just be me, since it's an assumption I have. I would think you might be opening yourself up to lawsuits of fanfic writers suing you for plagiarism if you write a proficient that has a similar idea that someone else came up with. I was thinking of how someone apparently sued Taylor Swift for using the phrase "haters gonna hate" and wanted like a gajillion dollars in damages for it.
     
  4. RK_Striker_JK_5

    RK_Striker_JK_5 Force Ghost star 7

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    Jul 2, 2003
    That sounds about right. Basically, don't read it so you have plausible deniability and no legal problems.
     
  5. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

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    Jul 31, 2014
    I like chullos.

    EDIT: Wait, why did I say that? o_O
     
  6. Admiral Volshe

    Admiral Volshe Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    What about toques?
     
  7. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

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    Jul 31, 2014
    There used to be a toga robot on Twitter. It would retweet you each time you would say toga. Since toga is the genitive and accusative case of the pronoun "to" here, that was just...weird.
     
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  8. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

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    Feb 27, 2014
    Sure, I guess, but couldn't the same thing conceivably happen with visual art? Don't look at it so you have no plausible deniability and no legal problems?

    I'm sorry to be such a pest about this, and I'm not trying in any way to be confrontational, but I really am curious to know why there seems to be a double standard for fan art vs. fan writing.
     
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  9. whiskers

    whiskers Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    May 19, 2005

    Someone else once said that fan fiction is the only fan activity that doesn't get recognition from the creators. Fan films have been show and in Star Wars' case rewarded, fan art have had contests based off of it, and we all know about cosplay.
     
  10. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

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    Jul 31, 2014
    In that case, we should work on changing that. I'm serious.
     
  11. whiskers

    whiskers Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    May 19, 2005
    I'm certainly with you on that, Ewok Poet.
     
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  12. divapilot

    divapilot Force Ghost star 4

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    Nov 30, 2005
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  13. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

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    Feb 27, 2014
    Same here—that definitely needs to be changed, though I have no idea how or where to start. Do people somehow feel like fan writers are more opportunistic than fan artists? Is there some sort of fear, maybe, that we have the ulterior motive of trying to weasel our way into profic publishing, whereas artists showing their art, fan filmmakers showing their films, and cosplayers showing their costumes are assumed to have no such ambitions? Well, I have no such ambitions either—I'm perfectly content to remain in the fan sector—but some modicum of recognition from the creators, along the lines of what whiskers mentioned, would certainly not hurt.
     
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  14. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

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    Dec 16, 2012
    Was it not something that Lucas hade written down in one of his unused manuscript that then Zhan used?
     
  15. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

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    Nov 7, 2010
    I wonder what happened to cause AzureAngel2 to suddenly leave the boards... :(
     
  16. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

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    Aug 14, 2002
    I think that is it, exactly.

    Also, as discussed recently on the You Know You Are A Fanfic Writer thread, you can absorb plots and forget that you read them somewhere, and then when you next think about it, you might genuinely think you made it up.
     
  17. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Sep 10, 2005
    That seems to be the party line. It's almost word for word what the Del Rey people (and the authors) said as Celebration. But yeah, things have already been pulled so I'm hopeful that will continue.


    As for fanfic being recognised, the first year I went to Celebration (C5) someone introduced me to Shelly Shapiro who is the Editor At Large at Del Rey and told her I was a fanfic mod here on the boards. I was horrified he told her that, not knowing how she felt about fanfic. But she told me she loves fanfic, that it gets people writing, but that she can never read it because of copyright issues. That even though fanfic is writing in someone else's world, the writing and ideas from it are still proprietary and they could get sued for infringement.
     
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  18. Exeter

    Exeter Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Feb 2, 2005
    A few years ago, Chilla posted a quote from Michael Stackpole that pretty much echoes what divapilot said...basically, his lawyer forbade him from reading fan fiction and he was happy to comply because he was kind of terrified of plagiarism (unintentional or not).

    On the surface of it I think the lawyer's concerns are sort of silly, considering what the burden of proof and financial demands would be for a fanfic writer pursuing such a claim. But I suppose that's what risk management is all about. On the other hand, I get Stackpole's reluctance to read, because it stems from worries about his own artistic integrity and the idea of subconsciously adapting ideas you've read elsewhere into your own work.

    Still, it speaks to the status thing we've been talking about. To borrow from a point Findswoman made, did Lucasfilm tell their costume and prop departments not to browse DeviantArt so they wouldn't accidentally appropriate something they saw online? Can you imagine JJ Abrams refusing to watch a fan film for fear it would influence the sequel trilogy? Do his lawyers tell him not to watch SW Youtube videos for fear of lawsuits? Maybe, but I doubt it.

    Fan fiction remains the ugly duckling of fandom and it's as true from within as without. I'm always surprised at the folks on this very forum who enjoy a great piece of original SW artwork but are disdainful of a written story set in the same universe.

    The name was all Zahn, but the idea for a city-planet that served as the Empire homeworld came from Lucas. Originally, it was going to be called Alderaan, but the ANH budget was too small so the scenes were moved to the Death Star instead and Alderaan became Leia's home. The idea got brought up again for ROTJ under the name Had Abbadon, an ecumenopolis with two uncompleted Death Stars in orbit as well as the Green Moon (Endor). Ralph McQuarrie even drew some great concept art for it. This time, the budget was big enough but they felt technical limitations at the time made it impossible to show what they wanted to onscreen, so it was cut once again. By the time the special editions rolled around in '97, technology had advanced far enough that Lucasfilm finally felt comfortable enough to show the planet for the first time and Lucas decided to use Zahn's already established name for it.

    As for the name itself, Zahn said:
    Though I gotta say, I bet there were a bunch of Imperial bureaucrats who would totally name a planet 'Imperial Planet.' I mean, that's not very far from "Imperial Center."
     
  19. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

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    Nov 7, 2010
    Just a note that we're quickly approaching 10,000 posts in this thread. In fact, we're just slightly over one page away from that. :D
     
  20. RK_Striker_JK_5

    RK_Striker_JK_5 Force Ghost star 7

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    Jul 2, 2003
    Is 10,000 posts the limit for threads?
     
  21. Admiral Volshe

    Admiral Volshe Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    But can we get to 1000 pages? :p

    The not reading fanfiction is kind of ridiculous in my opinion. I understand they don't want to risk plagiarism, but I'm sure if you ask most authors how they became so skilled at writing, one of their answers will be reading. They all read. Fanfiction is not that far from any actual novel, so I don't see the issue. If they read books without being afraid of plagiarism they should be able to read fanfic too.

    ETA: RK_Striker_JK_5, there is no real "limit", but most mods lock threads after 1000 pages.
     
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  22. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

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    Nov 7, 2010
    No, there are a few threads scattered around the boards with way, way more. But here in Fanfic Resource, the mods typically lock the social thread when it hits 10,000 posts and then relaunch it as a new thread with a new name. Which means that we get to see mavjade and Briannakin fail at coming up with a funny name for the new thread. :p
     
  23. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

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    Dec 16, 2012
    Well then ladies and gentlemen: To Eternity And Beyond!
     
  24. RK_Striker_JK_5

    RK_Striker_JK_5 Force Ghost star 7

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    Jul 2, 2003
    Thanks. Looks like I picked the wrong week to come back to the boards. :p
     
  25. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Sep 10, 2005
    On the old boards any thread that was over 10K posts messed up the boards so threads were always closed at that amount and restarted. It doesn't matter now, but we tend to do it with the social thread, mostly because of tradition. And yeah, gives us an excuse to come up with a new name for the thread. :D
     
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