Not my Place
Today I'm going to talk about a kind of fiction that rips me off. I guess I'm not majorly angst-ridden about this - I just think it's a pointless waste of time.
This is when someone takes a story that has already been written and tunes it to existing characters from another story. There are a couple of these that I like. For instance, when someone writes a myth (like the Cupid and Psyche myth or the Persephone and Hades myth) and uses anime characters. Myths are so vague and can usually be summed up in three poorly written paragraphs. They've got gapes in their description the size of the Sea of Tranquility. This, I can tolerate, and I've got a couple that I really like.
But, when someone takes anime characters and sets them to an already existing novel ... it's like - what's the point? My favourite book of all time is called 'The Blue Castle' by L.M. Montgomery. I love this book so much, but I would never think of stealing her plot and casting Escaflowne characters to it. The reason a plot works the way it does is because of the characters so if you steal characters and set them in a pre-made plot, you are going to spoil one of them.
For instance - the anime characters may not behave in the same manner as the characters in the original story you're ripping off, so the story will have to be altered to accomodate the new (unintended) characters. Or it goes just the other way - you make the anime characters behave in a way that is contrary to their nature in order to accomodate the plot. See?
In my mind, this just doesn't work. I don't know why people bother doing this. It just strikes me as SO pointless.
Not to mention that since it's fanfiction - you're already stealing half your idea (or maybe someone's whole idea if you're doing an insertion). Is it really okay to steal the other half of your story as well? I don't think so. In general, I have to say that this is extremely poor practice and fanfiction is already sort of pathetic, because you're outright stealing someone else's idea. Not that I don't do it too, so I can't criticise others ... but STILL!
Like I said, this doesn't outright piss me off. I've thought of writing something that fit this bill in the far distant past, but whenever I thought about doing it - I got bored. I don't know how anyone can actually make it through writing something like this ... I get so bored even thinking about it.
posted by Sapphirefly @ 6:27 PM
3 Comments:
Trust me - I don't feel offended at all. I'm a mercenary. My Escaflowne AU fic was original fiction to start with. All of Dragon's Moon was written as orginal fiction. I couldn't get a followingm on fictionpress.com, so I edited it and gave the characters names from Escaflowne so that I could get someone to read it. Evil, aren't I? Well, I don't feel evil. I feel like I chose to do something smart.
But I want to say really quickly that what I'm telling you isn't a secret - I've screamed it from the rooftops.
After this, I have two original fiction stories lined up. I don't think I'll be returning to fanfiction after that. I want to be a published author. Fanfiction was a stop along the way. 'Ghost Mist' is the name of the book I'll be writing after 'Mark of a Goddess' is finished. Everyone knows - THAT'S the plan ~_^!
I wrote Dragon's Moon seven years ago, and I rewrote it (it needed a major makeover) as an Escaflowne AU piece when I released it on ff.net. Dragon's Moon wasn't a complete thought, and I knew it needed a sequel.
So, the Mystic Wings and Mark of a Goddess are ... whatever I say they are. I wouldn't have written them if Dragon's Moon hadn't been so popular. I've had a few people on ff.net tell me I should change the character's names back to their original ones and approach a publisher. I think it's too late for that myself, but I needed the practice, so it has been ALL good.
Fanfiction isn't really my bag - I just wanted to know if I was a good writer.
I've read many fanfics like that, adapter from books and such...
99% of them SUCKED... really really sucked. I can even point out the one that sucked the most: a Phantom of the Opera fanfic called "Escort" which is adapted from a movie (or novel, I'm not sure) and suuuuuuuuuuucked.
Did I mention that I've read LOTS of fanfics? I have the right to say that those kinds of fanfics are so stupid (and boring) that I feel like banging my head against the wall!
Still, there was ONE fanfic, adapted from a book, that was good. LOL (at least ONE had to be). It's a Card Captor Sakura fanfic called "The Six Swans" or something like that. I loved it. Really sweet.
PS: ^^ glad you liked the changes in my blog. I got sick of so much pink! When you commented, I hadn't completed the post (I didn't have time to) so now it's a bit different.
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