Received from a friend
Posted by Smokey on March 6, 2008
For those who don’t know, I’ve read Harry Potter since just after the theatrical release of the second movie, Chamber of Secrets. Yes, I realize the complete irony that I, who made fun of my HP fan friends mercilessly, would be a fan as well, but the books are quite good, and very well written. That said, after I finished HP and the Deathly Hallows (last book), I started to wonder about the time gap (not a spoiler by intent, but there is a gap of 19 years), and began reading fan fiction, where I met some interesting people after reading their take on that issue. Along the road several have been engaged in creating their own version of Harry’s story starting at various points, some even re-writing his entire life, but there is one issue my friend asked me to put to my readers.
He was writing a story, well, a trilogy to be accurate, which involved time travel. One of the stories he was reading, and I subsequently looked at, involved a character that was not in “canon” (JKR’s books), and as such, was completely original. Now, he realized that no matter how much time and effort he put into his work, nothing would be as perfect a fit to his story as this original character, and sent a message to that fan-fic author about incorporating said original character into his works. I will grant that he may have been a bit over zealous, as he didn’t wait long before he just did it, but one person at the fan-fic site where the story he read is hosted decided to begin harassing and villifying him for it. I’m not trying to discount the work needed to create a character, but this is FAN FICTION people. No one is making money, no copy rights are being infringed on (hence the standard “I don’t own HP” disclaimer). The author was civil, and while a bit miffed he didn’t wait for her to say it was OK, she eventually just let the issue go and he made sure to credit her with creation of that character.
So, the questions are thus:
1 – If you create a character for FAN FICTION, where you cannot profit in ANY WAY from the story you write, how far is too far in “defending” your work?
2 – If a story is abanoned (and marked as such), should a writer contact the original author for permission to pick it up, or just run with it. If they should ask, how long is acceptable to wait with no response before just going for it?
His point was that the person harassing him (who did NOT write said story, or create said character) was just being a petty, vindictive, and all around childish person. I agree with that, and that maybe my friend should have waited longer for permission, but that is neither here nor there.
As for the second question, the general consensus is that if a story is marked abandoned, it’s fair game. However, it is polite to ask, and if no response is received within 2 to 3 weeks, just note that you did ask and heard nothing when/if you post it. He asked me to post that question mostly to just get some extra input.
All of this said, have a wonderful day while I marvel at the SNOW in MARCH in TEXAS!
