I AM STEALING YOUR CHARACTERS WHAT

[featherxquill]

As fanfic writers, we are essentially textual poachers, aren't we?

But is it awkward, when we poach from each other?

Right now I feel like I am poaching someone else's character, only I'm probably not. I mean I am, a bit, in my head, but I am trying very hard (and hopefully succeeding) at making this character my own.

And, I mean, it's probably in my head. It's not like I read other people's Ritas, for example, and think 'hey this person took bits of my Rita'. Instead, I read other people's Ritas and think 'oh hey they took bits of Rita from fanon that I enjoy'.

I guess whenever you write a character that you feel someone else has made a significant mark on, you can't help but compare your version to that one, and consciously try to differentiate it.

But I am hung up on a WORD, here, an item of clothing, and that's just RIDICULOUS.

I suppose I will just have to write this character as she is in my head, and if that is coloured by other stories I have read about this character, then it's just going to have to be. And if the writer recognises her version of the character in mine any, then I hope she will take it as a homage, not a theft.

I guess that's how we recognise characters in fanon anyway, isn't it? Minor ones, at least. Because all the fic that has gone before has informed each new story, and built a character into a certain shape. Or something.

*shuts the fuck up and writes*

Comments

[kellychambliss.livejournal.com]

On the level of mutual inspiration and shared interpretations, I definitely agree. It's not possible, in any case, to avoid similar plots and events, given the fairly narrow range that any canon allows (if you're going to stay in-character and within the canon cracks, that is). I enjoy seeing how different writers make use of the same plot or trope, for instance -- as you say, the "shared sandbox" is a great deal of the fun.

But while there is a fairly wide scope for allowable sharing, it's the line-crossing that I worry about -- the stuff I consider actual plagiarism, not just inspiration/retelling. I know the line can be fairly blurry, but there's a difference between inspiration/homage, or saying "X happens in so-and-so's story, and I'm borrowing that event as canon, or "here's my version of such-and-such convention" and the sort of borrowing that is unacceptable. It's the "unacceptable" that I worry about.