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Lengthy Discussions on Fanfiction vs. Creativity
So Dawn and I kinda sparked a huge discussion for Dr. McLeod to think about for the next time he has a writing class. Basically, our stories were based on pre-existing universes, although Dawn's story could be even more standalone than mine was (hers was FF IX fanfiction, mine was set in the Forgotten Realms universe). None of the workshop people understood this and I suppose I could have done better with a disclaimer, except that I'd do that on a website where it would be public, whereas the workshop seemed like a smaller group that wouldn't quibble about copyright issues. Bad idea.
I think the problem could have been solved quite easily with a disclaimer, but Dr. McLeod went off on a tangent on originality and creativity and negotiating with a pre-conceived universe. He was also shocked to learn that Chewbacca died some Star Wars novels back. I don't think I've ever found the exclaimation "CHEWBACCA DIED???" more hilarious.
It's just plain difficult in general for a workshop class like that to negotiate with any sort of genre, because one needs to have knowledge of certain genres in order to make certain judgement calls on realism and acceptability. There're conventions to be followed and while it's certainly acceptable to break them, the story as a whole has to cohere - a lot of fantasy writers either fall into the rut of writing within the conventions, most of which now consist of stock characters or dilemmas or quests, or they end up trying to break the conventions with the disastrous results of the story not making any bloody sense. (Or both.)
EITHER WAY... in the short story world at least, genre is really looked down upon whereas non-genre stuff is more exalted, possibly because non-genre is so much more accessible to more people than genre. Normally we wouldn't even have to question convention of genre because the environment we write in encourages the writing of literary fiction that has no real genre.
Dawn and I, though, quite stubbornly insist on writing within genre and our writing caused a furor because not only did we write within the conventions of a genre, we were also writing within the conventions, rules and limitations of a pre-conceived universe, and most of our classmates were not prepared to meet us in that plane of writing, so to speak (sorry, bad pun). They got really confused over whose idea is whose, and who gets credit for certain ideas.
The point of this entry is: If you're going to be taking ENGL 3316 (or whatever the code of this class is) and you're going to write within a pre-conceived universe where certain creative elements are not yours, throw in a disclaimer so no one's taken for a loop.
All said and done, I was really happy with the Forgotten Realms story I wrote and I'm going to polish it some more and send it to TSR at some point.
I think the problem could have been solved quite easily with a disclaimer, but Dr. McLeod went off on a tangent on originality and creativity and negotiating with a pre-conceived universe. He was also shocked to learn that Chewbacca died some Star Wars novels back. I don't think I've ever found the exclaimation "CHEWBACCA DIED???" more hilarious.
It's just plain difficult in general for a workshop class like that to negotiate with any sort of genre, because one needs to have knowledge of certain genres in order to make certain judgement calls on realism and acceptability. There're conventions to be followed and while it's certainly acceptable to break them, the story as a whole has to cohere - a lot of fantasy writers either fall into the rut of writing within the conventions, most of which now consist of stock characters or dilemmas or quests, or they end up trying to break the conventions with the disastrous results of the story not making any bloody sense. (Or both.)
EITHER WAY... in the short story world at least, genre is really looked down upon whereas non-genre stuff is more exalted, possibly because non-genre is so much more accessible to more people than genre. Normally we wouldn't even have to question convention of genre because the environment we write in encourages the writing of literary fiction that has no real genre.
Dawn and I, though, quite stubbornly insist on writing within genre and our writing caused a furor because not only did we write within the conventions of a genre, we were also writing within the conventions, rules and limitations of a pre-conceived universe, and most of our classmates were not prepared to meet us in that plane of writing, so to speak (sorry, bad pun). They got really confused over whose idea is whose, and who gets credit for certain ideas.
The point of this entry is: If you're going to be taking ENGL 3316 (or whatever the code of this class is) and you're going to write within a pre-conceived universe where certain creative elements are not yours, throw in a disclaimer so no one's taken for a loop.
All said and done, I was really happy with the Forgotten Realms story I wrote and I'm going to polish it some more and send it to TSR at some point.
A lament for Chewbacca
Re: A lament for Chewbacca