FAN FICTION Do you mind if I write stories set in your worlds and using your characters? Actually nobody ever asks me if this is okay. They just go ahead and do it. But that's okay. Fan fiction has been around a long time and gives people much pleasure. I like the idea that people may be adding to what I've created. I can appreciate that some need to indulge in a little wish fulfillment. (The idea of Black Magician Trilogy slash fiction amuses me no end. Who would get with who? Cor, that's one for the imagination!) So I've found that I don't mind if people play with my world and characters in pieces of writing, but there is a point where it is no longer flattering or amusing. Actually, there are three points: 1. Copyright issues. It should be obvious that I would mind if stories using my characters or worlds were published without my permission. The big hitch for fanfic writers is that making a story available on the web is legally considered 'publishing'. My publisher s would mind a lot more than me, so if you're tempted just imagine their lawyers rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the large sums of money they might extract from you. 2. Please don't send me your stories or ideas. As I've said elsewhere on this site, I don't want to be influenced by other people's ideas. If you send me stories, I won't read them. If your email looks as if it is full of ideas, I won't read it. 3. Don't take it too far. What is too far? It’s hard to define but has to do with two issues: 1) distortion, and 2) quantity. I have in the past, for the fun of it, created stories set in the worlds of books and films. When I did, I was conscious that if I made a character from that world behave in a way contrary to how they did in the book of film, they were no longer that character. I had distorted them. When this happened, I made them a completely new character. 1) Distortion. If you have altered my character so they they behave differently, then you've distorted them. Alter them a lot and the chances are they've become something I didn't want them to be. You can't expect me to be delighted by that. So perhaps you should acknowledge that you have created a different character to the one I have made and give them their own name. 2) Quantity. So you’ve accumulated a small collection of stories or rewritten scenes. That’s fine. But to rewrite my entire books is insulting. I put many, many years of hard work into creating and developing my world and characters. The story goes where I want it to. The characters do what I want them to. If you have changed the plot, you are writing a different story. If you have removed or changed aspects of the book because of your own prejudice or desire for cheesy romance, you've taken out some of the deeper meaning of my work. So do us both a favour and give your book, world and characters different names to mine. If you are hoping to one day become a professional writer and fanfic is all or most of what you're writing, then bear this in mind: developing characters and worldbuilding is a skill you need to develop. You may learn from mimicking another writers style or writing in their world, but the sooner you develop the skills to invent your own the sooner you'll become good at it, and the sooner you'll get that publishing contract and I'll be enjoying reading your original work.