I was never really interested in doing fan fiction.

I’ve never had much interest in writing fan fiction.  Or, maybe I saw the limitations of genre.  Submission guidelines in magazines would explicitly state ‘no fan fiction’.  

You can’t sell work based on someone else’s characters.  Which is not unreasonable.  I don’t want someone else making money off my characters.  I put a lot of work into them.  It’s taken thousands upon thousands of words to get my Dragonson characters to where they are.  

I’m not disparaging fan fiction at all.  Actually, it could be a really helpful way to learn the craft of writing.  

In fact, I think beginning writers may start by imitating the work around them. I remember seeing a comic character that someone was supposed to be their creation, and I immediately thought, ‘That’s Wonder Woman’.  To them it was a separate character, but that’s immediately where my mind went.  If I looked back on my early work, I’m sure there are characters that I accidentally stole.  

And  it needs to be noted that “50 Shades” started as fan fiction.

As one absorbs more and more of the art around them, it gets a little hard.  “Wait!  Is that mine, or someone else's.”  I recently heard an interview of David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, and he said that he had a bad habit of playing bits from other people’s songs in the studio.  And Roger Waters would be, ‘That’s Great!’.  But Gilmour would have to tell Waters that they could not use it.  In another interview, Tom Petty was talking about the “Blurred Lines” lawsuit, and Petty said that sometimes things make it out of the studio before people notice. [I did try and find the actual quotes, but no luck.]

Now, if you’re riffing on someone else's work, or making an homage, that’s different, but that’s a conversation for another day.

So, what do you do if you have a really cool idea for...say, ‘the Fantastic Four’, but the chances of writing for them are pretty darn small?

What I do is make up my own characters, like I did with “The Rockhound” .  [You can click on the name to read it.]  

That story came about because I was thinking about ‘The Fantastic Four’s The Thing and dusty old rocks.  

First, let’s look at Ben Grimm, aka the Thing.  I always felt sorry for the Thing, because he was seriously trapped in that shell of rock.  And his rocky exterior was always portrayed as dull and orange.  

Second, I’ve spent a lot of time in the Great Lakes around Michigan, and it is fascinating how a rock that is brilliant in water, will turn dull when dry.  But, that brilliance emerges, once it is wetted.  

So, maybe the Thing’s exterior had a hidden brilliance in it, but it was just dry and dusty.

By creating my own characters, it allowed me to present a cool idea, and still get it published.  However, if I wanted to dig deeper into the story, I would want to change things more.  Right now, it’s just a charming homage, but I wouldn’t want to do a wholesale ripoff of the FF.  That’s tacky and gauche.

Grin!

~W