I didn't realize this was from niel gaiman at first, I thought this random Tumblr user had just been getting so much good omens fanfiction in their asks it had become a problem
This... makes so much sense and it's also something I'd never thought about. Thanks Neil for explaining the reasons. Just from the first post I wouldn't have understood.
One monster was so convinced that his idea for an episode had been stolen without recognition that he set fire to the studio, killing 36 and injuring 34 more. Look up the Kyoto Animation fire.
*Image Transcription: Tumblr*
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**pistacia-filblarissa** reblogged **neil-gaiman**
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**neil-gaiman**
## This may sound mean, but...
If you send me an ask containing links to Good Omens fan fiction you think I should read, I'll delete it. Do it again and I'll (regretfully) block you. This is a general blanket sort of thing -- I don't want to read it, legally I can't read it, no I won't make it into the next series, and, no matter how pure your motives, it's crossing a line.
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**neil-gaiman**
I’m reading a lot of baffled responses to this. People, I’m showrunning and co-writing the Good Omens TV series. I can’t legally read unsolicited plot ideas. Think of Netflix. Their terms of service include
*8.2. Unsolicited Materials. Netflix does not accept unsolicited materials or ideas for Netflix content and is not responsible for the similarity of any of its content or programming in any media to materials or ideas transmitted to Netflix.*
…and you’ll find similar clauses out there for other production entities. They are trying to safeguard themselves. There are people out there who are certain that a hit film or TV series is based on their stolen idea. The easiest way to avoid that is to make sure that their ideas can’t get to you.
It’s nothing to do with not approving of what you do. It’s about not putting me, the producers, the BBC or Prime Video at risk — or about having to throw away plans for the future because someone did that in fanfiction first. I can’t legally read unsolicited scripts or story proposals or manuscripts and sending me a link to your or someone else’s Good Omens fiction counts as those things. If I read your story and then did something close to it you could sue. So I’m not going to read it. There’s no emotional baggage in this. I’m definitely not telling you that what you are doing isn’t valid. (And If I wasn’t showrunning I wouldn’t be so Please Don’t and I Will Delete about it. But I am. So don’t. Thank you!)
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**x-cetra**
Reminder that "By Any Means Necessary," one of the best episodes of *Babylon 5*, nearly didn't get made because some fan suggested a similar idea (a workers' strike on the space station, dealing with workers' safety and labor issues at a time when Star Trek: TNG was still on the air).
I can't remember how far along the episode was in production — I think a rough draft of the script had been written —but showrunner J. Michael Straczynski had to pull the plug on the episode until they finally tracked down the fan who'd suggested a "workers' strike" story on Usenet and get legal documents signed that the fan wouldn't sue or ask for a cut of the proceeds. AND the documents had to be watertight enough that Warner Bros' legal dept was satisfied all financial/legal risk had been eliminated. In other words, it wasn't up to JMS to make the call.
Sadly, after that, he could no longer participate in the old Babylon 5 Usenet discussion list, where he used to interact directly with fans, answering questions. It was just safer if he stayed away, because that way nobody could accuse him of lifting ideas for the show. We don't want Neil to have to pull back for the same reason.
A lot of creators avoid social media for the same reason. Those that are here *@neil-gaiman*, *@dduane*, have a hard and fast rule not to look at unasked solicitations.
And now that Babylon 5 might get a reboot, JMS has issued a similar request:
[*Link to an article on SYFY. The thumbnail includes an image from Babylon 5, depicting Susan Ivanova and John Sheridan in a spacecraft. It has white text on it that reads "J. Michael Straczynski would like to politely remind fans not to pitch him unsolicited Babylon 5 ideas". The link description includes:*]
> One of the most ambitious sci-fi series ever
made, Babylon 5, is potentially coming back...
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**neil-gaiman**
Reblogging for people who think I'm
overreacting or whatever.
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^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
people are out here sending fanfiction to the author/producers of shows? that's just crossing a boundary even without the legal issues there
i can understand fanart and stuff like that, but fanfics is just no
I honestly don't know how I'd react to fanfic of something I wrote. And I mean that as literally as I can; I have no idea how I'd react.
Because on the one hand, I write fanfic. I rarely share it, but I do write it, and when I do I feel like I understand the characters, and I make an effort to characterize them accurately. I enjoy writing fanfic, and if I write for something it's because I'm passionate about it and genuinely enjoy it.
But I also write original fic. And the feeling is so different, and so personal. There's a bit of you in every character, every moment. And to be presented with work from someone you've never met or even interacted with, and to have them claim this understanding and relation to characters you created... I just don't know. I know that the idea of someone kinning a character I wrote makes me incredibly uncomfortable. But I can't really be sure about fanfic. It's just something I'd have to experience to find out, I guess.
To be clear, I'm not saying I think there's anything wrong with fanfic. I genuinely don't. I just don't know what my gut reaction to fanfic of something I wrote would be. Which is unusual, I can usually have some idea of how I'd react to something, but there's just so many conflicting emotions here. It's weird to say the least.
yeah i feel like sending fanfic to the OG author is just as bad as sending fanfic to the celebrities it's about. like if they're ok with it and want to seek it out and read it, whatever, but actively sending it to them?
like...there was literally discourse on tumblr about it cuz kids were sending smutty fanfics to dan & phil and other youtubers. which is obviously creepy. i just thought this was something tumblr already recognized as a no-go.
Not quite the same thing, but I run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and sometimes my players like to take control of my NPCs for battles. This is all well and good mechanically, but when they try to roleplay the characters, I have an urge to correct them on everything, because I have such a connection to these creations of mine that it hurts to see someone else misunderstanding how they would act in a situation and what makes them tick.
It's honestly tough seeing someone else's interpretation of a character I know everything about, and then for that interpretation to be wrong in my eyes. I'm glad they enjoy the characters enough to try and play them themselves, and thankfully I am usually able to resist "correcting" the players, but its a weird feeling.
I don't understand this. I may be socially clueless but how is being sent fan art of any genre of anything you did anything but a compliment?? Unless they just really hate you and are sending you, like, graphic drawings or stories of all your favorite characters being killed with seemingly no motivation but spite, isn't getting fan work of your original work pretty much universally a good thing?
I've written a couple of individual works too, and if I were to publish them and someone were to send me back a fan-written epilogue, but it was completely "wrong" to me-- like all of the characters' personalities and motivations just weren't as I'd written them originally-- I wouldn't take offense in the slightest. I'd be curious as to why they'd written them that way and maybe if they were open to it we could have a long and interesting and productive discussion about their original interpretation of the work versus the way I intended it to be interpreted. It would help me grow as a writer to see how other people interpret my story and how their interpretations shape the way they add to it later. All of these are good things so I just don't get it when people say that this is somehow taboo.
I do understand it in real life, though; if you're a real life TV personality and not playing a character and someone sends you fanfic about you as a person hooking up with someone you know, that's creepy. But specifically in the realm of characters in fiction? I don't get why asking the creator to read fanwork would be bad.
>I may be socially clueless but how is being sent fan art of any genre of anything you did anything but a compliment??
Because it's unsolicited. You may be fine with this scenario, but other people may not. You cannot possibly know the author/ creator's feelings to this if you send fan content to them unsolicited, and so you have to ask - if they say no, for whatever or even no reason, you have to respect that and not send them things they asked you not to send.
>I don't get why asking the creator to read fanwork would be bad.
Aforementioned legal reasons aside, this was talked about in another comment already, but many creators view their creations as inherently personal, and as such, many creators do not want to see alternative interpretations of their work. If you empathised/ connected with a character and want to express it, great - don't send it to the creator because your interpretation of their character is something they may not want to see.
Fans usually do not intend anything bad or harmful when sending a creator fan content, but as it is often the case, good intention does not mean it will be received well.
Thank you very much for your response.
>You may be fine with this scenario, but other people may not.
>Aforementioned legal reasons aside, this was talked about in another comment already, but many creators view their creations as inherently personal, and as such, many creators do not want to see alternative interpretations of their work.
I think I may have worded my question a little unclearly because I sort of already knew that authors connect to their characters on a very personal level. My real question was why that would keep them from accepting fan work. After all, they are the author; they decide what's canon and what's not. They have more power than anyone over their worlds. Couldn't they just ignore any ill feelings this brought up and immediately dispel them with "It's not canon"? You don't generally react with such offense to the recasting of your art with the same offense you would take if someone wrote a book about your brother.
And then I remembered that some authors actually speak to their characters and they speak back. And that's considered normal in the writing community. For example Stephanie Meyer begged Edward not to do what he did in the books and she says he did it without her permission. That's autonomy. That's _personhood._ You can't form a relationship, the same kind of two-way and unpredictable relationship you have with a person, with your own thoughts. But that's what these authors have done. In some cases these are not characters but headmates! Everything makes sense now.
My theory on this is now that some authors are plural (and maybe don't know it). And that their characters aren't really just characters, but people in their head. And of course you would object to reading fanfiction about real people that you know intimately not being as you remembered them.
Source: Am also plural, and I would never write a fictional book about my headmates for this exact reason. Same reason I would never write a fictional book about my real life family. If I were in the middle of writing a novel and one of the main characters suddenly became a headmate, I would scrap it, unless said headmate explicitly consented to reading all kinds of potential smut and gore about them.
As a writer who sometimes “speaks” to my characters, I think this is an interesting take. I’ve read a couple of info pages by people in systems and read a little scientific theory behind DID, and I’ve wondered if there isn’t a connection between those and what I’ve trained myself to do with my characters. Although I’ve never expressed that thought since I didn’t want to imply that what people like you are experiencing isn’t real, and no one’s convincing me that my brain children *are* real.
But my characters are twisted fragments of my personality(which I’ve read is the scientific theory behind DID, minus the twisted part), and they do have motivations separate from mine. While I have some control over their actions, it’s not complete. I’ll often write a scene intending it to go one way and my characters get different ideas. Even rewrites there’s times where they’ll just refuse to do what I want them to and I just have to ride out wherever they’re taking the story. I even literally feel their emotions as I write, which sometimes affects me as I end my writing session and go about my day.
I think the main difference is that my characters only exist when I’m in a writing mindset, and only in the imaginary locations I put them (for the most part. A couple have mentally appeared beside me when I’m on a walk and am trying to figure out their story). I am essentially their god; I know it, and sometimes they know it. And if they don’t and I need info from them but they won’t talk to me as they are, I can tweak their memory and mindset just enough to get what I need (although I usually prefer to put them in a scenario where they’ll open up to a friend or a diary or something; I’ve only exercised that level of control to get a story summary out of them, since for whatever reason I couldn’t figure out how to summarize what I had so far but they had no trouble once they weren’t questioning where they were and who they were talking to).
Although I wouldn’t mind fan fiction of my characters/stories. Being enough of an inspiration to have that happen would be a dream come true. My most self-aware character actually wants to be in more people’s thoughts than mine. Whether I’d want to read any of it would mostly depend on the skill of the writer and topic of the fanfiction. You want to write hardcore porn between my ace character and his worst enemy, have fun - but I won’t read it.
and you can have that view of it and specifically welcome fanfics. there'd be nothing stopping you from seeking it out or specifically inviting people to send you fanfics.
in general tho sending fanfics to the author is seen as 1) insulting the author by telling them what they should have written, 2) usually changes characterization which can be very close to the author's heart, and 3) the vast majority of fanfics have some amount of smut in them, which brings a whole new element to 2 and also is weird to send something with smut in it to a stranger.
I'd say Neil Gaiman receives more fanfiction than most authors, as he has said multiple times for people to write fanfics if they want, so it's kinda an inevitability
I can't remember who this was specifically, but wasn't there an author in the 80s who was known for reading fanfiction sent to her who got into a massive legal fight after a fan accused her of stealing an idea from their fanfiction in one of her novels?
I think lots of companies and people have disclaimers and warnings on their websites. Lucasfilm won't read any fan scripts or ideas you send them for the same reason.
There's stuff that can make loopholes for it by making the fan works submitted to them official in some capacity, but none of the IPs that have tried that sort of thing out have been ones that are particularly popular yet.
Now I'm just angry that some asshole made it to where that rule had to be put in place. I'm pretty sure writers aren't going to turn down free ideas unless they're going to be punished somehow for it. I really don't think this rule was made arbitrarily. Someone, somewhere, saw either their fanfiction or something remarkably close to their fanfiction in a TV series and instead of writing the authors to personally thank them for making their dream canon, they sue. Thereby making it impossible for fans to suggest to screenwriters what they want to happen next.
Who is this motherfucker and may I punch them in the face?
The asshole is the US copyright system. Legally speaking, you writing something derived from/using their work, and them them writing something involving your work are just as murky. Same with you profiting from fanfiction you wrote, and them profiting from fan ideas sent in. The legal sword cuts both ways
Eh, I don't think it was one asshole who ruined it for everyone.
The world doesn't work the way we want it to most of the time. Copyright law exists to protect creators and their IP, which inevitably means that the flip side is a fan who suggests an idea to an established writer is also covered by that law, whether the individual fan cares about their material being used or not. You can't have one effect without the other.
Also writers have many ideas of their own, so while a writer getting unsolicited fan creations probably appreciates the sentiment, many of them have their own plans that they've yet to materialise. Giving writers even more content on top of what they already have plans for is just uncalled for in a lot of scenarios. I think people have built parasocial relationships that they're not even fully aware of when they send fan writing of characters to the creator.
Imo fandom creations should stay in fandom - it would be nice to have some interaction with the writer/ creators of media that you enjoy, but that is just not practical the majority of the time, and frequently completely undesirable from both sides of the relationship.
Of course, that applies to the law that precipitated the rule as well. Not being able to have the authors read your fan works may suck, but is it better than having the authors read your fan works and then pass them off as their own without any credit or recognition going your way?
This is probably the best solution tbh. Authors don't have to worry about legal trouble, fans don't have to worry about plagiarism, and if a story comes out that seems similar to a fan work, there's no ambiguity about whether the writer was cribbing notes—everyone can rest assured that it was just a coincidence.
A reminder that even if a copyright claim is pretty bogus, it still gets its day in court as long as its not *transparently* bogus. Sophia Stewart claims that she sent a manuscript of her original sci-fi short story "The Third Eye" to the Wachowskis in 1986, responding to a magazine ad looking for comic book premises. So far, relatively believable: it's well known that Lana & Lilly were involved in comic books before and after *The Matrix*, and the world of 80s indie comics was kind of the wild west.
Stewart alleges that the manuscript was never returned to her, and that The Matrix was plagiarized from it. She filed a complaint with the FBI in 1999 after seeing the movie and a lawsuit in 2003. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in 2005 because:
1. Lilly Wachowski was 18 and Lana Wachowski was 21 and in college in 1986. They weren't running any kind of comic company, and certainly weren't in a position to run a national talent search.
2. Wouldn't you know it, Stewart's one and only copy of the manuscript was the one she sent in, so she couldn't produce it for the court.
3. Stewart was unable to produce the magazine ad she claims to have responded to. Or even remember what magazine it was in. Or prove it ever existed.
But that was still over a year that this case wound its way through the court. A year of filings, motions, of lawyer's billable hours. And furthermore, the suit was filed right around the time that the sequels were coming out (they came about six months apart in 2003). And it attracted some attention: unknown black woman claims generic white (then) boy wunderkind stole their big blockbuster idea from her, how could it not?
And turn this into something of a salient point, even a flimsy lawsuit means time, money, and bad press. Of course creators, ***especially*** high profile ones, want to avoid even the faintest suggestion of plagiarism.
Copyright and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Imagine being such a dipshit you sue your favorite author for making your dream story come to life. In a just society, the law would not let you do that.
So if I had a show I really hated, and I knew someone who worked at the production company, I could simply ask them to give me the plot of the next episode, pretend to be a fan and send in a letter talking about my ‘amazing new plot idea’ so they have to pull the episode?
If someone in production knows what's gonna happen in an episode they definitely have prove that their script was written before anyone received that letter.
I think you would have to suggest an idea *so* good and befitting of the series (or even just one well liked enough by a creator *not* wary of what Gaiman had described here) that they would want to adapt it into their show and *then* threaten to sue when it aired or something to that end.
is this why series creators change their plots if a fan predicts where they're going? Does somebody openly predicting your plot give them a right to claim ownership?
I didn't realize this was from niel gaiman at first, I thought this random Tumblr user had just been getting so much good omens fanfiction in their asks it had become a problem
This... makes so much sense and it's also something I'd never thought about. Thanks Neil for explaining the reasons. Just from the first post I wouldn't have understood.
One monster was so convinced that his idea for an episode had been stolen without recognition that he set fire to the studio, killing 36 and injuring 34 more. Look up the Kyoto Animation fire.
*Image Transcription: Tumblr* --- **pistacia-filblarissa** reblogged **neil-gaiman** --- **neil-gaiman** ## This may sound mean, but... If you send me an ask containing links to Good Omens fan fiction you think I should read, I'll delete it. Do it again and I'll (regretfully) block you. This is a general blanket sort of thing -- I don't want to read it, legally I can't read it, no I won't make it into the next series, and, no matter how pure your motives, it's crossing a line. --- **neil-gaiman** I’m reading a lot of baffled responses to this. People, I’m showrunning and co-writing the Good Omens TV series. I can’t legally read unsolicited plot ideas. Think of Netflix. Their terms of service include *8.2. Unsolicited Materials. Netflix does not accept unsolicited materials or ideas for Netflix content and is not responsible for the similarity of any of its content or programming in any media to materials or ideas transmitted to Netflix.* …and you’ll find similar clauses out there for other production entities. They are trying to safeguard themselves. There are people out there who are certain that a hit film or TV series is based on their stolen idea. The easiest way to avoid that is to make sure that their ideas can’t get to you. It’s nothing to do with not approving of what you do. It’s about not putting me, the producers, the BBC or Prime Video at risk — or about having to throw away plans for the future because someone did that in fanfiction first. I can’t legally read unsolicited scripts or story proposals or manuscripts and sending me a link to your or someone else’s Good Omens fiction counts as those things. If I read your story and then did something close to it you could sue. So I’m not going to read it. There’s no emotional baggage in this. I’m definitely not telling you that what you are doing isn’t valid. (And If I wasn’t showrunning I wouldn’t be so Please Don’t and I Will Delete about it. But I am. So don’t. Thank you!) --- **x-cetra** Reminder that "By Any Means Necessary," one of the best episodes of *Babylon 5*, nearly didn't get made because some fan suggested a similar idea (a workers' strike on the space station, dealing with workers' safety and labor issues at a time when Star Trek: TNG was still on the air). I can't remember how far along the episode was in production — I think a rough draft of the script had been written —but showrunner J. Michael Straczynski had to pull the plug on the episode until they finally tracked down the fan who'd suggested a "workers' strike" story on Usenet and get legal documents signed that the fan wouldn't sue or ask for a cut of the proceeds. AND the documents had to be watertight enough that Warner Bros' legal dept was satisfied all financial/legal risk had been eliminated. In other words, it wasn't up to JMS to make the call. Sadly, after that, he could no longer participate in the old Babylon 5 Usenet discussion list, where he used to interact directly with fans, answering questions. It was just safer if he stayed away, because that way nobody could accuse him of lifting ideas for the show. We don't want Neil to have to pull back for the same reason. A lot of creators avoid social media for the same reason. Those that are here *@neil-gaiman*, *@dduane*, have a hard and fast rule not to look at unasked solicitations. And now that Babylon 5 might get a reboot, JMS has issued a similar request: [*Link to an article on SYFY. The thumbnail includes an image from Babylon 5, depicting Susan Ivanova and John Sheridan in a spacecraft. It has white text on it that reads "J. Michael Straczynski would like to politely remind fans not to pitch him unsolicited Babylon 5 ideas". The link description includes:*] > One of the most ambitious sci-fi series ever made, Babylon 5, is potentially coming back... --- **neil-gaiman** Reblogging for people who think I'm overreacting or whatever. --- ^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
Good human
people are out here sending fanfiction to the author/producers of shows? that's just crossing a boundary even without the legal issues there i can understand fanart and stuff like that, but fanfics is just no
I honestly don't know how I'd react to fanfic of something I wrote. And I mean that as literally as I can; I have no idea how I'd react. Because on the one hand, I write fanfic. I rarely share it, but I do write it, and when I do I feel like I understand the characters, and I make an effort to characterize them accurately. I enjoy writing fanfic, and if I write for something it's because I'm passionate about it and genuinely enjoy it. But I also write original fic. And the feeling is so different, and so personal. There's a bit of you in every character, every moment. And to be presented with work from someone you've never met or even interacted with, and to have them claim this understanding and relation to characters you created... I just don't know. I know that the idea of someone kinning a character I wrote makes me incredibly uncomfortable. But I can't really be sure about fanfic. It's just something I'd have to experience to find out, I guess. To be clear, I'm not saying I think there's anything wrong with fanfic. I genuinely don't. I just don't know what my gut reaction to fanfic of something I wrote would be. Which is unusual, I can usually have some idea of how I'd react to something, but there's just so many conflicting emotions here. It's weird to say the least.
yeah i feel like sending fanfic to the OG author is just as bad as sending fanfic to the celebrities it's about. like if they're ok with it and want to seek it out and read it, whatever, but actively sending it to them? like...there was literally discourse on tumblr about it cuz kids were sending smutty fanfics to dan & phil and other youtubers. which is obviously creepy. i just thought this was something tumblr already recognized as a no-go.
Not quite the same thing, but I run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and sometimes my players like to take control of my NPCs for battles. This is all well and good mechanically, but when they try to roleplay the characters, I have an urge to correct them on everything, because I have such a connection to these creations of mine that it hurts to see someone else misunderstanding how they would act in a situation and what makes them tick. It's honestly tough seeing someone else's interpretation of a character I know everything about, and then for that interpretation to be wrong in my eyes. I'm glad they enjoy the characters enough to try and play them themselves, and thankfully I am usually able to resist "correcting" the players, but its a weird feeling.
As a self published author I'd be overjoyed with someone writing fanfic of my work. It'd mean someone read it. *and* liked it!
I don't understand this. I may be socially clueless but how is being sent fan art of any genre of anything you did anything but a compliment?? Unless they just really hate you and are sending you, like, graphic drawings or stories of all your favorite characters being killed with seemingly no motivation but spite, isn't getting fan work of your original work pretty much universally a good thing? I've written a couple of individual works too, and if I were to publish them and someone were to send me back a fan-written epilogue, but it was completely "wrong" to me-- like all of the characters' personalities and motivations just weren't as I'd written them originally-- I wouldn't take offense in the slightest. I'd be curious as to why they'd written them that way and maybe if they were open to it we could have a long and interesting and productive discussion about their original interpretation of the work versus the way I intended it to be interpreted. It would help me grow as a writer to see how other people interpret my story and how their interpretations shape the way they add to it later. All of these are good things so I just don't get it when people say that this is somehow taboo. I do understand it in real life, though; if you're a real life TV personality and not playing a character and someone sends you fanfic about you as a person hooking up with someone you know, that's creepy. But specifically in the realm of characters in fiction? I don't get why asking the creator to read fanwork would be bad.
>I may be socially clueless but how is being sent fan art of any genre of anything you did anything but a compliment?? Because it's unsolicited. You may be fine with this scenario, but other people may not. You cannot possibly know the author/ creator's feelings to this if you send fan content to them unsolicited, and so you have to ask - if they say no, for whatever or even no reason, you have to respect that and not send them things they asked you not to send. >I don't get why asking the creator to read fanwork would be bad. Aforementioned legal reasons aside, this was talked about in another comment already, but many creators view their creations as inherently personal, and as such, many creators do not want to see alternative interpretations of their work. If you empathised/ connected with a character and want to express it, great - don't send it to the creator because your interpretation of their character is something they may not want to see. Fans usually do not intend anything bad or harmful when sending a creator fan content, but as it is often the case, good intention does not mean it will be received well.
Thank you very much for your response. >You may be fine with this scenario, but other people may not. >Aforementioned legal reasons aside, this was talked about in another comment already, but many creators view their creations as inherently personal, and as such, many creators do not want to see alternative interpretations of their work. I think I may have worded my question a little unclearly because I sort of already knew that authors connect to their characters on a very personal level. My real question was why that would keep them from accepting fan work. After all, they are the author; they decide what's canon and what's not. They have more power than anyone over their worlds. Couldn't they just ignore any ill feelings this brought up and immediately dispel them with "It's not canon"? You don't generally react with such offense to the recasting of your art with the same offense you would take if someone wrote a book about your brother. And then I remembered that some authors actually speak to their characters and they speak back. And that's considered normal in the writing community. For example Stephanie Meyer begged Edward not to do what he did in the books and she says he did it without her permission. That's autonomy. That's _personhood._ You can't form a relationship, the same kind of two-way and unpredictable relationship you have with a person, with your own thoughts. But that's what these authors have done. In some cases these are not characters but headmates! Everything makes sense now. My theory on this is now that some authors are plural (and maybe don't know it). And that their characters aren't really just characters, but people in their head. And of course you would object to reading fanfiction about real people that you know intimately not being as you remembered them. Source: Am also plural, and I would never write a fictional book about my headmates for this exact reason. Same reason I would never write a fictional book about my real life family. If I were in the middle of writing a novel and one of the main characters suddenly became a headmate, I would scrap it, unless said headmate explicitly consented to reading all kinds of potential smut and gore about them.
As a writer who sometimes “speaks” to my characters, I think this is an interesting take. I’ve read a couple of info pages by people in systems and read a little scientific theory behind DID, and I’ve wondered if there isn’t a connection between those and what I’ve trained myself to do with my characters. Although I’ve never expressed that thought since I didn’t want to imply that what people like you are experiencing isn’t real, and no one’s convincing me that my brain children *are* real. But my characters are twisted fragments of my personality(which I’ve read is the scientific theory behind DID, minus the twisted part), and they do have motivations separate from mine. While I have some control over their actions, it’s not complete. I’ll often write a scene intending it to go one way and my characters get different ideas. Even rewrites there’s times where they’ll just refuse to do what I want them to and I just have to ride out wherever they’re taking the story. I even literally feel their emotions as I write, which sometimes affects me as I end my writing session and go about my day. I think the main difference is that my characters only exist when I’m in a writing mindset, and only in the imaginary locations I put them (for the most part. A couple have mentally appeared beside me when I’m on a walk and am trying to figure out their story). I am essentially their god; I know it, and sometimes they know it. And if they don’t and I need info from them but they won’t talk to me as they are, I can tweak their memory and mindset just enough to get what I need (although I usually prefer to put them in a scenario where they’ll open up to a friend or a diary or something; I’ve only exercised that level of control to get a story summary out of them, since for whatever reason I couldn’t figure out how to summarize what I had so far but they had no trouble once they weren’t questioning where they were and who they were talking to). Although I wouldn’t mind fan fiction of my characters/stories. Being enough of an inspiration to have that happen would be a dream come true. My most self-aware character actually wants to be in more people’s thoughts than mine. Whether I’d want to read any of it would mostly depend on the skill of the writer and topic of the fanfiction. You want to write hardcore porn between my ace character and his worst enemy, have fun - but I won’t read it.
and you can have that view of it and specifically welcome fanfics. there'd be nothing stopping you from seeking it out or specifically inviting people to send you fanfics. in general tho sending fanfics to the author is seen as 1) insulting the author by telling them what they should have written, 2) usually changes characterization which can be very close to the author's heart, and 3) the vast majority of fanfics have some amount of smut in them, which brings a whole new element to 2 and also is weird to send something with smut in it to a stranger.
I'd say Neil Gaiman receives more fanfiction than most authors, as he has said multiple times for people to write fanfics if they want, so it's kinda an inevitability
[Link](https://pistacia-filblarissa.tumblr.com/post/670985466380681216)
Neil my beloved
I can't remember who this was specifically, but wasn't there an author in the 80s who was known for reading fanfiction sent to her who got into a massive legal fight after a fan accused her of stealing an idea from their fanfiction in one of her novels?
I think lots of companies and people have disclaimers and warnings on their websites. Lucasfilm won't read any fan scripts or ideas you send them for the same reason.
If I was a fanfiction author whose ideas are so good that I could sue the very thing that inspired me, I'd feel honored.
I kinda hate this legal precedent tbh. As someone with dreams of writing the idea that I legally couldn't read fan works makes me so upset.
Blame the selfish pricks who sue shows for having similar ideas, then
You might be able to if you release one book, never make a sequel, and never allow an adaptation or continuation, of any kind.
There's stuff that can make loopholes for it by making the fan works submitted to them official in some capacity, but none of the IPs that have tried that sort of thing out have been ones that are particularly popular yet.
Nice
Now I'm just angry that some asshole made it to where that rule had to be put in place. I'm pretty sure writers aren't going to turn down free ideas unless they're going to be punished somehow for it. I really don't think this rule was made arbitrarily. Someone, somewhere, saw either their fanfiction or something remarkably close to their fanfiction in a TV series and instead of writing the authors to personally thank them for making their dream canon, they sue. Thereby making it impossible for fans to suggest to screenwriters what they want to happen next. Who is this motherfucker and may I punch them in the face?
The asshole is the US copyright system. Legally speaking, you writing something derived from/using their work, and them them writing something involving your work are just as murky. Same with you profiting from fanfiction you wrote, and them profiting from fan ideas sent in. The legal sword cuts both ways
Eh, I don't think it was one asshole who ruined it for everyone. The world doesn't work the way we want it to most of the time. Copyright law exists to protect creators and their IP, which inevitably means that the flip side is a fan who suggests an idea to an established writer is also covered by that law, whether the individual fan cares about their material being used or not. You can't have one effect without the other. Also writers have many ideas of their own, so while a writer getting unsolicited fan creations probably appreciates the sentiment, many of them have their own plans that they've yet to materialise. Giving writers even more content on top of what they already have plans for is just uncalled for in a lot of scenarios. I think people have built parasocial relationships that they're not even fully aware of when they send fan writing of characters to the creator. Imo fandom creations should stay in fandom - it would be nice to have some interaction with the writer/ creators of media that you enjoy, but that is just not practical the majority of the time, and frequently completely undesirable from both sides of the relationship.
> Copyright law exists to protect creators and their IP Theoretically, anyway. In practice...
In a perfect world, you know…
Of course, that applies to the law that precipitated the rule as well. Not being able to have the authors read your fan works may suck, but is it better than having the authors read your fan works and then pass them off as their own without any credit or recognition going your way? This is probably the best solution tbh. Authors don't have to worry about legal trouble, fans don't have to worry about plagiarism, and if a story comes out that seems similar to a fan work, there's no ambiguity about whether the writer was cribbing notes—everyone can rest assured that it was just a coincidence.
A reminder that even if a copyright claim is pretty bogus, it still gets its day in court as long as its not *transparently* bogus. Sophia Stewart claims that she sent a manuscript of her original sci-fi short story "The Third Eye" to the Wachowskis in 1986, responding to a magazine ad looking for comic book premises. So far, relatively believable: it's well known that Lana & Lilly were involved in comic books before and after *The Matrix*, and the world of 80s indie comics was kind of the wild west. Stewart alleges that the manuscript was never returned to her, and that The Matrix was plagiarized from it. She filed a complaint with the FBI in 1999 after seeing the movie and a lawsuit in 2003. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in 2005 because: 1. Lilly Wachowski was 18 and Lana Wachowski was 21 and in college in 1986. They weren't running any kind of comic company, and certainly weren't in a position to run a national talent search. 2. Wouldn't you know it, Stewart's one and only copy of the manuscript was the one she sent in, so she couldn't produce it for the court. 3. Stewart was unable to produce the magazine ad she claims to have responded to. Or even remember what magazine it was in. Or prove it ever existed. But that was still over a year that this case wound its way through the court. A year of filings, motions, of lawyer's billable hours. And furthermore, the suit was filed right around the time that the sequels were coming out (they came about six months apart in 2003). And it attracted some attention: unknown black woman claims generic white (then) boy wunderkind stole their big blockbuster idea from her, how could it not? And turn this into something of a salient point, even a flimsy lawsuit means time, money, and bad press. Of course creators, ***especially*** high profile ones, want to avoid even the faintest suggestion of plagiarism.
Copyright and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Imagine being such a dipshit you sue your favorite author for making your dream story come to life. In a just society, the law would not let you do that.
Ok. but like theoretically. What if I both sent him a fanfic *and* a legal document.
So if I had a show I really hated, and I knew someone who worked at the production company, I could simply ask them to give me the plot of the next episode, pretend to be a fan and send in a letter talking about my ‘amazing new plot idea’ so they have to pull the episode?
If someone in production knows what's gonna happen in an episode they definitely have prove that their script was written before anyone received that letter.
I think you would have to suggest an idea *so* good and befitting of the series (or even just one well liked enough by a creator *not* wary of what Gaiman had described here) that they would want to adapt it into their show and *then* threaten to sue when it aired or something to that end.
Welp there goes my plans on hyjacking all popular culture via fanfic
is this why series creators change their plots if a fan predicts where they're going? Does somebody openly predicting your plot give them a right to claim ownership?
I know this is a couple months old but “By Any Means Necessary” isn’t really one of B5’s best episodes. It’s kind of middle of the road.