This thing about fanfic bugs me: is there a better way? Also cute new Sinfest & GWS

[philippos42]

OK, I feel kind of like this guy, lumbering out of Hades and asking the wrong person for "story time." But I have this thing on my mind.

(Not the SOPA thing, though yeah, take Danielle's advice and write your Congressmen. Heck, write other people's Congressmen.)

I know one or two pretty good writers on my flist, and there are certainly some good fan artists online.

And I think, why do you tie yourself to fan works? You don't own it; you don't control it; you don't get any royalties, ever--is it just a cheap way to get attention? In fact, you put all these disclaimers on your work, because it's not even public domain--the trademarks belong to someone else. Is it worth it?

I hear bluefall's pretty upset about what DC did to Birds of Prey. But I remember reading some of her Harrierverse stuff and thinking it was pretty cool.

Why not, for example, file off the bits of the Harrierverse that identify it as made of DC trademarks, and publish it as your own thing? You could do it as a webcomic if you found a willing artist.

There are so many concepts that want love, and we know what they are:

That heroic vigilante/detective single father guy, the marksman.
The slightly goofy couple who have fun chasing mysteries (maybe one of them has powers).
The broken bird who sends her agents into dangerous situations while she uses her hacking skills to be as absurdly prepared as possible.
The spooky young woman for whom violence is mother tongue, chasing justice and craving mercy.
et cetera.

Waiting and whining for DC (or whomever) to do these is pretty much useless. They're not bringing back these things, nor things like them, and they don't care.

But if it's yours, you can do what you want, and DC can't pull it out from under you, nor "ruin" it by going in a different direction.

Heck, you could leave the trademarks in the public domain, or copyleft it, if that's your thing.

Think about it.

Comments

[beccaelizabeth]

if the reason one writes fanfic is to respond to, critique, and generally interact with the canon, then it doesn't achieve ones goals to write something that isn't fanfic.

I'm pretty sure everyone is capable of thinking that they could write original. Most people I know do write original. It's just fanfic is doing something different.

and it isn't a 'cheap way to get attention', it's a community all talking about the same thing, often via creative works. royalties are not the point, since fandom operates in a gift economy where the giving of fanworks is the coin and reward.

you're kind of asking why people are in fandom.

you sound kind of troll.

[philippos42]

No, I genuinely find it odd.