For All Fan Fiction Writers Out There

[WBoon]

Earlier this morning, I began thinking about why I had been writing about Akiyama Mio of K-On, a character I grew to hate more with each day passed. My version of the character in my fan fiction is but a redefined person that is not Akiyama Mio herself at all. She shares the same cowardice and moe of Kakifly's Mio, but unlike the canon counterpart, my fan-made creation is a real person willing to change and break out of her comfort circle. I digress.

That was when I came across this article.

Originally Posted by Condescending Writer, Diana Gabaldon

3) But I enjoy the feedback I get—and lots of people say they enjoy what I write!

Of course you enjoy positive feedback; so does anyone who writes anything. The question is—are you getting positive feedback because you’re a really good writer…or are you getting positive feedback because some fans are so hooked on the characters that they’ll read anything involving those names (whether the writing accurately reflects those characters or not)?

One real easy way to find out. Write anything you want, using Jamie Fraser, Edward Cullen, Harry Potter _and_ Dr. Who….and then change the characters’ names before you post it. Simple. Find All: “Jamie Fraser”. Replace with: “Joe Kerastopolous”. No problemo, all your own work, and any praise you get is duly earned.

I'm a person who absorbs like a sponge. My mentality normally works in one way, my views easily influenced by outside impurities. So when I read what that AotW (Author of the Week) wrote in her debate, my mind automatically assumed the author to be accurate, and it had me thinking about how superficial my fan fictions had been, how insignificant fan works must be. Having the author's views fill that gap in my heart, it was natural for me to assume that this was the reason why I felt so empty when writing Akiyama Mio - because she is not my creation. She is not Akiyama Mio, and would rather work better as an original character.

Moreover, what I interpreted was that my fan fiction was tarnishing the initial vision of Kakifly (even though they totally abandoned Mio's character development later), and I was worried that if I'm unable to grasp hold of what Mio's character is truly like, it would be pointless for me to even write about Mio in the first place (like I wrote, might as well just create an original character).

Then I read the respond to the AotW.

Originally Posted by bookshop

You may hate the fact people are imagining more to your story than what you put there. But if I were you, I'd be grateful that I got the chance to create a story that has a culture around it, a story that people want to keep talking about, reworking, remixing, living in, fantasizing about, thinking about, writing about. To quote Originalaudience on the post in question, "Nobody is forgetting that you created the characters. The existence of fanfiction really means that nobody is forgetting the characters you created."

Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, The Little Mermaid, Beowolf, Romeo & Juliet, etc, etc. If I am to assume the AotW to be accurate, then all those works are fan fictions, readapted and reinterpreted by authors everywhere throughout hundreds of years.

Originally Posted by kagyakusha, one of the commenters of the second article

most literary theory is based on the principle that ALL literature is in some way linked to everything the author has read before -- whether they acknowledge it or not. Ergo -- all literature is "fanfiction," because nothing is completely original. The originality is in how the work changes reader perceptions, thought, and retells old stories.

So, yeah. I guess I had forgotten what I wrote before in one of my posts in my 'Moe-Tsundere' thread - my Mio is but an 'Ultimate Universe' of the canon Mio. A reinterpretation. An adaptation. A spin-off. The Movie Preview Critic once said, an adaptation improves on what the original work had lacked, filling in the gaps of the puzzle. For me, improving upon Moe-Blob Mio is the point of all these. It's what got me started writing about her in the first place. And my passion, along with the every piece of fan fiction out there, shouldn't be any more immoral than the many movie adaptations we see today.

Discuss on what fan fiction means to you, and how you, as a writer (professional or otherwise), view adaptational literature.