Potential plagiarist alert
Now we all know that writing fanfic's a tricky business. You're not using your own characters or situations - but you're also not claiming that you are. The whole point of fanfic is to take characters you love, that someone else introduced, and tell some story about them that perhaps wasn't covered in canon (or at least not the way you would've preferred). You have no legal protections if someone wants to steal your word-for-word and reprint it as their "own." In fact, there are people out there who might say you had it coming, for "stealing" someone else's work.
Except me. When I write, *I* write. There are bits of dialogue and whole swaths of characterization, settings, etc., that I borrow from the original source - but I credit the original source on my disclaimers (important things, those). An individual's writing, their integrity, is in their turn of phrase, their style, their technical competence - and their imagination, yes, even in fanfic.
Read this story. Not bad, eh? Kind of good? Published to the web earlier this year. In fact, it's so good that somebody thought they'd read it before - here, almost five years earlier. Allegedly, this isn't the only time he's done it, either.
If you write fanfic - especially POTC and Age of Sail - keep a very careful eye on Capt. Stephen Kidd. If you see something from him that you know you've seen elsewhere, tell him. Better yet, tell the writer. I'm sure they'd love to leave him some feedback, after all. ;-)
(Oh, and I am pondering posting this to the communities I mod. What do you think?)
Except me. When I write, *I* write. There are bits of dialogue and whole swaths of characterization, settings, etc., that I borrow from the original source - but I credit the original source on my disclaimers (important things, those). An individual's writing, their integrity, is in their turn of phrase, their style, their technical competence - and their imagination, yes, even in fanfic.
Read this story. Not bad, eh? Kind of good? Published to the web earlier this year. In fact, it's so good that somebody thought they'd read it before - here, almost five years earlier. Allegedly, this isn't the only time he's done it, either.
If you write fanfic - especially POTC and Age of Sail - keep a very careful eye on Capt. Stephen Kidd. If you see something from him that you know you've seen elsewhere, tell him. Better yet, tell the writer. I'm sure they'd love to leave him some feedback, after all. ;-)
(Oh, and I am pondering posting this to the communities I mod. What do you think?)