Where's the line between fanfic and original fiction drawn?

There's a musical that I really like as a Guilty Pleasure. The plot has lots of Unfortunate Implications about race and ethnicity which are understandable based on the fact that it was written in 1926. These implications still exist in popular culture (sheik romances anyone?)

I've wanted to write a novel commenting on the way this show and Western popular culture as a whole uses Orientalist stereotypes and the hidden implications of this, sort of like what "Lord Of The Flies" did for The Coral Island, for quite a while. (Not that I'm claiming to be on the same level as William Golding)

Is there a line between something like this and fanfic? Is it just the perception- an "eye of the beholder" thing? For example, can I have my protagonist be known as "the Red Shadow"?

edited 2nd Sep '13 6:20:40 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

There's a difference between writing about someone else's characters and using them. If the novel you're writing actively vontrols their behavior amd personality in a story setting, then think it's technically fanfiction.

Can you explain what you mean by "actively controls their behaviour and personality in a story setting?" How would that make it fanfiction? Characters in a lot of plot-driven stories have their traits determined by the plot.

edited 6th Sep '13 8:18:09 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

Are you using someone else's characters or setting directly? It's fanfic. So your own character in their setting is fanfic, and so is their characters in your own setting.

Are you creating your own characters and setting? It's original fiction.

edited 3rd Sep '13 6:38:35 AM by Madrugada

This is basically what I meant.

It...depends. This is a good example showing how blurry the line between original fiction and fan fiction can get. It applies to Shakespeare as well, who did the same thing as Walt Disney.

If you don't think that what you're writing is fan fiction, it probably isn't. If you think it might be, it probably is.

edited 3rd Sep '13 12:59:20 PM by Unknownlight

hilarious!

There's certainly a difference between mythology and fairy tales, which are told in many different versions and are attributable to no particular person, and the work of one author.

If you think that you're not writing fanfic, does that mean you're not?

edited 6th Sep '13 6:19:08 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

How about taking a handful of characters (or even just one) from an established work and throwing in them in an effectively wholly-original setting, with the "least original" elements being in the form of expies/ersatzes, brief cameos, and the like?

Keep in mind that it's a continuum between "original fiction" and "fanfic", not a binary, hard-edged division with only two states. In between lie adaptations, reimaginings, retellings, taking inspiration from one story for different one, shared worlds/'verses, collaborations, continuations...

Consider: what would you call Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead? Tie-in and continuation novels (especially from sources that are approved by the rights holders, but specifically not canon)?

edited 11th Jan '14 3:59:35 AM by Leaper

Very late but I'd call "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" a reimagining.

The way I see it, a work can be considered a fanfic if it borrows at least one of three elements from an existing work: the characters, the setting, or the cosmology. Here's what each of those refer to, using Star Wars as an example:

• Characters: Uses characters from an existing work. If Darth Vader or Yoda show up, it's a Star Wars fanfic.

• Setting: Uses an existing location from an existing work. If a work takes place on Tatooine, it's a Star Wars fanfic, even if no canon characters show up.

• Cosmology: Uses the magic system / Minovsky particle / alchemy / whatever from an existing work. If a work has characters use The Force, it's a Star Wars fanfic even if the characters and setting are unique to the story.

But then where does the whole of Star Wars end? Is it just the films? I'm not comfortable calling Heir to the Empire fanfic. No matter what Disney says.

Then you get writers like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman who do not give two hoots between them about using other writers' characters and settings and yet still make amazing original fiction.

I think that ^^ that's taking it a bit too far. By that standard, almost everything is "fanfic" of something else. Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul is, by that metric, fanfic of Norse Mythology, because he uses Thor and Odin as characters, even though they don't have much in common with the original Norse gods beyond the names.

To me, a fanfic is a derivative work — one that wouldn't exist — couldn't exist— if the work it's a fic of hadn't been made, because a substantial part of it is lifted directly from that other work. Possibly changed a small bit, but lifted directly.

edited 16th Jul '14 7:02:38 AM by Madrugada

I think stuff like officially created EU stuff is more of a spinoff as opposed to fanfic. So I guess a fourth criteria for "fanfic" would be that the work in question is created by somebody unaffiliated with official content, or someone who isn't creating the work in an official capacity. I.e. a Batman comic made by somebody who doesn't work for DC is technically a fanfic, while if they did work for DC and had the comic published officially by the company, it wouldn't be, even if the content is the same in both cases.

Using things like Mythological Figures are a bit of a gray area, given how of they're retold throughout history anyway. Same for Public Domain characters. Other than that though, I still think it qualifies, even if it's something professionally published. Just because Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead stands on its own as literature doesn't change the fact that it's tied directly to Hamlet.

And yeah, I was working off the assumption that said things are specific to a given work, not to a body of loosely connected work. So something that borrows from "Norse Mythology" in general wouldn't be a fanfic, because it's not borrowing elements from a specific piece of literature. But if you wrote a story using elements that are specific to say, the Prose Edda, it could be considered fanfic of that specific work. Using "Odin" wouldn't qualify a story as fanfic, while using "the specific incarnation of Odin from this specific piece of literature" could.

edited 16th Jul '14 7:15:12 AM by JapaneseTeeth

It's fanfiction if someone could successfully sue you for plagiarism/copyright infringement. Fanfiction isn't really a useful artistic term, but rather an artefact of the privatization of literature.

it stops being fanfic if the source fic is public domain. then anyone can write about it and lay a copyright claim on what they've written.