Fan fiction and You.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I don't really have anything to add myself, but I think this explanation by Robin Hobb from the recent Reddit chat does a good job of explaining her position. And, come to think of it, mine.

(Although I will admit to having read some MLP: FiM fics recently. A few were amusing but it's really no substitute for honest original writing.)

I'm always surprised when the fanfiction rant comes up. People seem to put it at the heart of me when it is actually something that is very peripheral to my writing life. I'll mention that when it was taken up and transplanted all over the internet, it lost some of its context. Originally, to read it, you had to find the attic door in my internet home, and then get past the mad woman with the red shoe. There was a warning that over the top rants were ahead, and I approached those rants with an element (I thought) of over the top humor. Obviously, I should not try to write humor!

Last night, to save time, I cut and pasted a response I recently wrote to a young writer who asked me this same question. I'll do that again now. I'll warn you, it's pretty long:

Thank you for your thoughtful letter. I am happy to explain my feelings on fan fiction.

First of all, if it is done with the original author's consent, then I have no objection to it. That, I think, is up to every author.

I do not consent to it for my work. Here is why. My name, and the names of my books and characters are my reputation in the writing world. When people write bad fan fiction ( as in bad writing: incorrect grammar, spelling, no plot, etc) and then attach 'Robin Hobb' Or "Farseer trilogy' or 'Fitz and the Fool' tags to it, they are attaching my name to bad writing. That isn't fair to me when I have carefully done my best to put my very best work out there. Maybe my very best sometimes has some mistakes or bad writing, but they are my mistakes or bad writing. I am willing to take responsibility for that. But not for someone else's bad writing. If they are still learning, that is fine. But why must they attach their fledgling work to my name and characters.

Even if I set bad writing aside, I do not like it when people write fan fiction that makes it seem I approve of behaviors I find appalling. So much of fan fiction is written about sex! I write sex scenes into my book when they advance the plot or tell something important about the characters.

There are some kinds of sex scenes I would never write. I would never write about an adult having sex with a much younger person, and it being romantic and wonderful. No. That is rape, because no child can fully give consent. If I wrote that scene for a story, I would make it plain that the young victim was being exploited and deceived. If I wrote any sort of a forced sexual encounter, then I never write it salaciously from the point of view of the rapist. I never write a scene like that as if it could be justified. Yet I have seen fan fiction about Burrich having sex with Fitz while he is a youngster in Burrich's care. I am horrified. Burrich would never do that, nor would it be okay and romantic! Yet there it is, out on the internet, with my name and my character names attached to it, as if I approve of child rape or think it could be romantic!

But it isn't just those sorts of sex scenes. One person sent me a fan fiction in which Fitz beats Molly bloody because she didn't 'wait' for him. Wait for a dead man? Does that makes sense? Beat bloody someone you love? Oh, yeah, I'm sure that is so romantic. Worst of all? In the end of that fan fiction Molly APOLOGIZES and still wants to be with Fitz! WHAT? Those are NOT my characters. Neither Molly nor Fitz would behave that way.

So, why did someone write that story and put the names of my characters into it, and add my name to the description? I don’t understand at all. If people want to write those stories, why don't they make up their own characters, ones who would actually do those things, and then sign their own personal real name to it. Why are they happy to attach my professional name to a story like that, but not add their own real name to it? If you are proud of your work, sign it. If you are not proud of it, why are you putting it out there?

As you can see, there are many aspects of fan fiction that I just don't understand at all.

This part of my letter is about YOU, and I think it is the most important part of my letter to you.

Now, if you are twelve and want to be a writer, here is something I really want you to know now. You will not live forever. I know that sounds like doom and gloom, but I am 59 years old now, and I know that I do not have forever to write all the books I want to write. As each year passes, I know it more and more. It takes me a year to write a book. So, if I can still think clearly and type when I am 70, I can write about ten more books. And that's all, even if I have a hundred stories in my head and a thousand characters shouting, 'write me next, write me next'. So, if I use my time now to write Buffy the Vampire fan fiction, then I am not writing my own unique stories that no one else knows or can write. And that is one more book or story by me that you will never read.

Strange as it may seem, that is also true for you. There are stories inside you, right now, that only you can write. And you should write them while you are twelve years old. You should not wait until you have a degree in writing or until you are out of school or have a holiday to write. You should write every day right now. Because the story inside you, and how you will write it while you are twelve is unique. It will NEVER come back to you. Maybe you will write it when you are 25, but it won't be the same story. You'll be a different man then, and the things that fire your imagination right now may seem pale and cold then. Right now, at twelve, you see the world in a certain way. You know more about being twelve years old in 2011 than any research will ever teach me. So, even if you are writing in a fantasy world, you are carrying that your own personal to you, twelve year old Point of View into you fiction. It's a precious thing. Maybe you can't publish it or don't want friends to see it. Maybe you can't even finish the story. (I think I wrote about 5000 stories when I was a kid. I think I finished 3.) But you can squirrel it away in a safe place. When you come back to it, maybe when you are 59 years old, it's like a time capsule. You will remember everything so vividly from your own writing. And when you want to write a 12 year old character, there you have it: essence of twelve years old, carefully preserved over the years. No one else can give that to your future writer self. Only you. Believe me, even if you think what you are writing is junk, when you come back to it, the diamonds hidden in the junk will gleam for you. And they will be absolutely and uniquely your own.

But if what you write is a fan fiction, then you lose a lot of that. Your writing will be in a straight jacket as you try to jam your story into my world. And my characters will be torqued as you twist your characters into the outer shape of my characters. It will come out like one of those horrible school exercises: write a different ending to this story.

When you read a book or story and it makes you dream of other stories about those characters, please make them your own. Think of why you want to write that story. Does Fitz, for example, make a different decision than he does in my story? Good. That shows he is not Fitz at all! Write a different character, one who would logically make that sort of decision in the world you made. Writers do this all the time. They are inspired, they take what inspires them, file off the serial numbers, and make it new. When you do that, you learn the real skills of writing, which is creating a setting, creating your characters and having a plot. Fan fiction skips all that.

Here's a great example. Zorro and Batman.(Original, old Zorro from 1920's) Zorro inspired the creator of Batman. You can see the ways they are similar, you can see where Batman's creator started: Both characters have no super powers. They dress in black, wear masks, and by day they are wealthy, sophisticated men. Zorro/Don Diego pretends to be foppish, lazy and shallow. Some of the early Bruce Waynes were like that, too. Zorro has the magnificent black stallion he rides. Batman has the Batmobile. When Zorro escapes, he rides to his hacienda, where vines conceal a secret entry cellar door to the place where he stables his horse. Like the Batcave. Then he goes up a secret passageway to an office in his house where he keeps his notes and costumes, etc. Just like Batman. Zorro has no super powers, only his courage. Just like Batman.

But Batman is NOT fan fiction. It was inspired by the original story but it does not slavishly ape it. He doesn't carve a letter B on evildoers. Nor does Bruce Wayne annoy his girl friends with terrible magic tricks, as Don Diego does! Both Batman and Zorro can stand alone. Even if you've never seen a Zorro movie or read the book, Batman is complete and makes sense. Most fan fiction makes no sense to someone who hasn't read the original. And even if all Zorro movies and stories were accidentally destroyed, Batman could continue undiminished. Fan fiction often vanishes over the years. Do you read fan fiction about Xena the warrior princess or Vincent's Pride? Or Man From Uncle fan fiction? As those TV franchises were cancelled and faded, the fan fiction attached to them lost audience and relevance.

Well, I'm not getting my work done this way, so I have to end this. Thank you for a thoughtful letter. I hope you can understand my point of view on fan fiction, even if you continue to disagree with it. I don't demand that my friends agree with me on everything! Often I get very angry letters in which it seems the person is just SO OFFENDED that my opinion of fan fiction is different from his own that all he can think of to do is scream at me. So I welcome the sort of dialogue you invited.

And I wish you every success in your pursuit of writing, no matter how you choose to go about it.

Robin Hobb

(And now you know why I conceal my address. It's because when I am interested in a person's thoughts, I get caught up in writing horribly long letters . . . .)

Concerning the point about one's old writings being a time capsule, I recently came across the "novel" I wrote when I was seven. Dear goodness. And I mourn the fact that my second attempt at a novel when I was eleven no longer exists.