So I kind of wrote comics!fic for my creative writing assignment.

[eilowyn]

Yeah. When it came time for us to write our fiction piece, I had severe writer's block, and the only thing that came to me was a fic idea I had where Buffy actually is pregnant and Spike actually goes with her to the clinic. The characters are John and Liz (with Danielle as Liz's sister, and her two best friends Alex and Gillian), but they're very

Comments

[ceciliaj]

Awesome! I was just thinking I wanted to do something creative with my evening, and you've inspired me :).

[eilowyn]

Good!

[elisi]

I'm not sure this is exactly what you're after, but I'm hoping that at least it might help your thought process. Which is my convoluted way of saying that I wrote an essay about fanfiction years ago (oh god, nearly 9 years...), but it still holds up pretty well:

Essay: What entertainment genres inspire fanfiction and why.

Hope it helps. :)

[eilowyn]

Thank you! That did help!

[molly_may]

It's not a scholarly take on the subject, but Lev Grossman's article in Time magazine from a couple of years ago does a good job of explaining fanfiction in a very positive way, and also discusses some of the legal ramifications.

[eilowyn]

I used Grossman's definition of fan fiction because I didn't want to get all scholarly or technical. Thank you!

[rebcake]

I know herself_nyc has given talks on this subject.

The aspect that has been interesting to me lately is the ubiquity of fanfic. Most people who consume media or fiction are getting professional fanfic much of the time. All these reboots, reimaginings, re-what-have-you, are just fanfic that someone is getting paid for. Notable examples:

1. Wicked by Gregory Macguire takes the L. Frank Baum novel The Wizard of Oz and creates a revisionist back story for many of the characters.

2. Steven Moffat's BBC show Sherlock retells the original Arthur Conan Doyle detective stories in a modern setting. (I use this example rather than Elementary or the many "Sherlock Holmes" adaptations - all or which qualify - because the plots/mysteries are exactly the same as in the original stories.)

3. Virtually any superhero comic book (or movie/TV version of same) is fanfic in the sense that the new writers are taking existing characters and putting their own spin on them

[eilowyn]

Thank you! If I could I would quote you verbatim, but instead I just used your examples and threw in some death of the author since that's my kick these days!

[kerry_220]

There is a fair bit of stuff here:
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/issue/archive

But it might take some wading through

[eilowyn]

Thank you!