Dealing with Shipping and Fanfics

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Basically given a read over of the shipping and fanfic tropes, Draco in Leather Pants, and Ron the Death Eater, how will you react to certain interpretations of characters and fanfics? And what about all the shipping wars?

How will you deal with it? Food for thought.

You ignore it.

Seriously, that's basically the best option aside from the occasional Ship Tease or Fandom Nod. If you don't, you'll soon lose yourself to the madness.

I'd actually embrace it, really. I only write my original fictions now, but I went through a phase of writing fanfiction for a summer and I enjoy reading it. Doing so changed my view. I see fanfiction writing as a display of admiration for the author's work, and as long as it isn't blatantly offensive, I have no problems with shipping or plots woven from what people see in my work and characters.

Assuming I ever get to the point where people will write fan fiction of something I'd create, either ignore it altogether or read what is good and ignore the rubbish.

As had already been said, fan fiction is a form of admiration rather than blatant attempts at getting rich from someone else's work. Though are undoubtedly are people who create "fan fiction" in an attempt to mooch money, in most cases it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin: fiction written by fans, who write it because they are fans.

I don't have anything against pairings either—whatever those pairings happen to be—for as long as the author of the story with the pairing in question is capable of making the pairing believable.

And as far as shipping wars go, well ... here is why the whole thing is fairly complicated:

Most people who write fan fiction centred around shipping do not ship characters but Possession Sues with those characters' faces.

Also, most people who write fan fiction that is primarily romance know nothing or nigh-nothing about actual romance. This is especially visible with stories where one character is shipped more than one character at the same time (so-called "harem stories"), as in most of those cases the authors know even less about it than in the previous example (where it already was at the level of "nothing, or close to it"). And don't even get me started on stories with slash, because we all know who writes that and that is enough to say they know even less than the people from the previous example (which, might I add, would cross into the impossible had it not been for the fact that we all know this is very much the case)

Not to mention the fact that most people who write shipping stories start with the shipping in mind and then rail-road the story to suit that romance. That simply doesn't happen (as in, not in real life, and shouldn't in the stories either), people, unless it's a betrothal story in which case it should be primarily drama or coming-of-age rather than romance (again, most people who write stories with betrothals know nothing about how actual betrothals work). And if you know what you are doing it's possible to nudge the story in the direction that makes the pairing happen without rail-roading it, but alas that requires skill.

With all of the above, the very idea that the whole "war" is anything more than a squabble is simply laughable.


But really, write it well (and I mean well, as in, make it a genuinely good story that is read because it's a good story rather than being read by people who want to read stories with that pairing no matter how crappy the stories are) and I can read stories with any possible pairing, even me x tentacle monster. Though, for the sake of other tropers' sanities, please do not write a story with that pairing just to prove the point.

edited 10th May '15 11:57:09 AM by Kazeto

Fanfiction, fanart, fan-podcasts (are those a thing?) are the best things readers can give a writer. It's a sign that whatever you've written has hit them hard enough to run with the idea and further personalize it. Someone else is playing with you! Awesome!

As for whether it's good in terms of quality - ehhhhh... That's debatable, and it largely depends on the story. If we focus on the bottom of the barrel, I've found that character-driven stories get a more forgiving Sue treatment, with self-inserts rolling out to pair off with whatever character but generally leaving the rules alone in favour of jamming romances down the fanfic's throat. Plot-driven stories get some of that, but those Sues tend to bend the entire universe's rules around them.

Either way, it's a huge compliment, and even if you don't like some of the writing, it's a fantastic source of feedback for what elements work and what people are gravitating towards.

It is very rare that I find fanart in any fandom that I don't like.

edited 10th May '15 12:15:05 PM by Tartra

Assuming I get enough attention for shipping/fanfics, I'd be flattered by it. I'd just make sure that whatever I write doesn't match something I read enough for someone to sue me.

That is one of the reasons why many published authors do not read fan fiction (besides the obvious).

Either way, in most cases the law would be on your side because you, as the copyright owner, have the exclusive right to prepare derivative works based upon your copyrighted work.

While my personal response would certainly be that it's none of my business what fans do, I have to question the idea that all fanwork should be seen as proof that people are invested in a story. If someone writes a crappy paint-by-numbers romance novel about two of the characters where essentially the only thing that's relevant from the original work is their names - and I've seen more than a few of these - how is that an indication that the writer really cares about the original work?

Wallpaper my walls with it. "I made it, bitches! I'm a star!"

But here's the thing: your work, creating the canon, is what then led to them creating a spin-off world. They were so engaged with the story, so taken by this or that element of it, that it led to (in the really, really awkwardly AU cases) a completely different universe of concepts.

When someone actually finishes that fanfiction that's really only a fanfic 'cause one or two names are the same, we're missing the dreams and short stories and mental dialogues that slowly evolved from the real characters into these kind of... you know, parody people. But your work still sparked that flame, and as wildly unrelated as the worst fanfiction (plot-wise) may seem, they linked it to the world you made. That's some serious commitment, to have those heavy kinds of ideas and yet still attribute it to the source.

It's not like Fifty Shades Of Grey, where the source material ended up mattering so little that it got cleanly gutted out and nobody noticed the difference.

edited 10th May '15 3:44:08 PM by Tartra

Some creators see fan fiction as a compliment, some do not care for it and do not have an opinion on the matter, and others see it as an outright insult. All those views are valid.

I, as a creator, have spent a lot of time and energy creating the world for my books and the characters who live in it. I have tried to create a (somewhat) original and engaging story that people will enjoy. So I think I have the right to feel that "this is my toy and no, you cannot play with it".

Now, if a fan talks to me and says that they liked the books I wrote I'll be flattered because that, to me, is a compliment. However, when another fan comes to me and tells me that they liked my books but they changed this and that, my first reaction is to think that if they'd like the story I wrote they wouldn't have felt the need to fix it.

As for being the spark that triggered a wildfire of imagination and endless possibilities... well, that is not the only interpretation an author may get when they see fan fiction. The original creator could also think that the fan fiction writer is only using his or her characters and/or world just to ride on the wave of the original work's fame.

Personally I think fanfic writers should find out what's the creator's stance on the matter and respect their wishes.

Anyway, to respond the original question (because I didn't do it before), I deal with fan fiction and art by just ignoring it. As long as my fans don't try to profit from it, I look the other way.

You're right. They're all valid. I'm just firmly in the 'Fanwork is good' camp, and it makes me kinda sad to hear the "No, you can't play with it" reason.

It is a different ideology, though, and one I can understand. You sound like you write to have an audience enjoy and appreciate your work as a whole. Me, I'm up for people screwing around with everything because I can only deviate so far from the main plot. I like seeing my toys in other people's sandboxes. You know, so long as they're not doing the really, really, really weird stuff. That I'll - uh... Well, I'll just stay away from that sandbox.

And typically it's all a matter of perspective. You can't please everyone with every single thing you write, and sometimes what makes a GOOD story isn't necessarily what people WANT. If the events being "fixed" aren't a main point of the story, Fix Fic for me is a sign that people have put enough thought into exploring the different aspects that the writer can't/won't.

I may not like that people dislike my choices as a writer, but I will respect the time they took to metaphorically "fix them" through fanfiction. After all, fix-fic is just another aspect of Alternate Universe or For Want Of A Nail.

edited 10th May '15 5:57:46 PM by Sharysa

I'm all for taking the fans' money and retreating to my hermit cave, because I have my own creative process and (would have, I'm dreaming,) marketing to deal with. That is already lot to deal with.

But let's say that my creative integrity has been crunched from graphite to diamond, with a few trusted beta-readers and editors to help me polish the manuscript. Let's say that I do have the time, the energy, and the clarity to tangle with the fans beyond their payment.

I don't mind Fix Fic. If they do it better, then I could very well learn from that in a way that will apply to future works...and I would still have the money. If they do it worse, as in not to my vision or even to my personal values and principles, then at least they did it themselves and didn't, like, lock me in their house to force me to write fanfiction, and break my legs, and chop off my hand for escaping. That's just rude. I'd rather they write it themselves, and I certainly don't mind if they write it at all.

Yes, I'll wonder for a moment of weakness if my canon One True Pairing wasn't written well enough to cater to every reader. Yes, I'll whinge to my therapist if somebody re-writes my gay characters as reforming into heterosexuals after these characters admit the traumatic past of sexual abuse (that they don't have in my headcanon or in what I published.) Yes, I'll want to retreat to my hermit cave and not go on the internet anymore if anybody ships my Strong Female Characters with various kinds of rape written titillatingly without a safeword.

But my characters are not real, especially after I'd let them fly the coop o' me own cranium.

On the one hand, I do consider how casual hostility (such as writing homophobic and misogynistic fanfiction, let alone some off-canon pairing that supposedly deviates or disrespects the canon material and the tradition and meaning that the official creator has put into motion) validates the violent hostility (see link to Misery, above,) and in some psyches it's going to be a gateway to abusive behavior that could even turn criminal.

On the other hand, it could be an opportunity for exploration. Through the medium of fanfiction and fiction and meta-fiction and fandom, people work through their issues rather than exacerbating those very issues: socially, psychologically, whatever.

Fiction becomes a sort of safe space, because no matter how horribly you write, no matter that Words Mean Things...they're no more than words. They're not actions. They're not real. So, better my characters take the brunt of it than real people. And you know what? They won't even be "my" characters anymore. They're my characters in somebody else's headcanon. I'm only responsible for my own headcanon...and the copyrights, because that pulls in the money.

edited 11th May '15 5:23:45 AM by Faemonic