Reputation of Fan Fictions?

I was talking to an American friend of mine who made a comment that threw me off guard. We were talking about the Twilight books and she said, "Yeah my sister is so crazy about them that she even reads fanfics about them online." I was surprised and asked her what was wrong with that. She said, "Well fan fictions have the lowest reputation in writing. I mean if you want to write, why steal someone else's characters?"

That really surprised and shocked me. I write fan fictions on this section myself, I thought they are a fun way to improve your writing skills while making friends. Angad and Kripa are merely names to the fictional personalities I create.  Am I still really "stealing" someone else's characters?

Are you open about your FF hobby or do you prefer to keep quiet about it?

Please share your views and experiences😊

*Mods, you may close this if it breaks any rules. I just thought this would be an appropriate section for this topic. Edited by sweetmagic4u - 15 years ago

i don't think so ... if you want to write and express what you feel then what wrong with it !!

just write what you want it improves your writing skills
and tell her there are words like INSPIRATION and some ppl are inspired by something so what is you are inspired by others writers characters... and its not like you COPY it ... you also make some littel changes in it !!

😊 Edited by sabzz - 15 years ago

I don't think your stealing someone else's characters bcos sum ppl change their age, attitude, roles and make up a whole new identity 4 the characters, only using their names! I think it does help our writing skills as we try and create an interesting story which helps us with vocab and sentence structures! but thats my point of view, others may disagree 😊

ur not stealing anyones characters. it's ur story; its your thoughts. it would be stolent if the charater were exactly the same as the drama. theres nothing wrong with fan fictions. the story and thinking is yours and the characters is what you put them as not the dram so its not stealing 😊

i don't think like that i mean its not like you are just using same people name i mean many people write such a diff version in diff format so yeah i think your friend is little(sorry a lot actually) wrong there 😊

When you're writing fanfictions, all you're doing is getting creative and having fun while improving your writing skills on characters you admire. It's not "stealing" someone else's characters, no. :)

i have always interpreted fan-fic as fictions written by fans, as in how the fans of a show/book/etc interpret the characters or how the fans would like to see the characters and create a fiction based on their individual ideas. i could be wrong but fan-fics are meant to be this way right?

Interesting discussion. Personally, I'm not a big fan of fan fics that follow the serial/book/movie too closely. I guess I agree partially with your friend that using someone else's characters and situations makes the story less original. It makes sense that the reputation of fan fics will not be as respectable as stories that are based on unique characters and concepts.

I'm writing two stories right now, one that is not based on any show and one that has the names of Prem, Mukti, Angad and Kripa. But since I've never seen KZK or KYPH, the characters and events are not based on the shows. That's the only way I am really comfortable writing a fan fic and can honestly feel like I'm being original.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with writing less original fan fics, but it's just something I don't really like doing. We are already influenced by every thing we see and hear...why make it even more blatant?     

My daughter said the same thing about FFs when I first started writing! 😆 😆

But FFs are not just stories about serial characters....they are our own interpretation of those characters in situations we would like to see them in! 😉
Its like a wish fulfilled, or fantasies in writing involving ur fav stars or characters. 😳
As long as ur story is original and not plagiarized, they are legitimate! 😃

Speaking abt plagiarism, many writers copy scenes and dialogs from movies more than the original shows. 😆
Bollywood movies copy shamelessly from Hollywood movies. 😉
Serials copy from Bollywood movies.... 😆

If Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni (Sister of My Heart, Mistress of Spices) can write a novel about characters from Mahabharata, would u call that a Fan-fiction too? Since its based on characters written a long time ago by Rishi Vyaasdev? 😆 😆

No, its HER interpretation of Draupadi and her 5 hubbies (and the 6th hubby that could have been 😉)

Just becuz the characters are taken from teh serials doesnt mean the stories are copied too!

pallavi

Edited by pallavi25 - 15 years ago

I dont think so dear, bec we love some caracter and we love to write with them to make them with us.