Yep, and yep. I know it sounds like it’s obviously the same thing, but it’s really not.
So, here’s the thing: when we write fanfic, we’re all acknowledging that fanfic is what it is. We didn’t make the universe or its primary characters or rules, though we play in that sandbox and often bring in new ideas and original characters to join the fun. But at the end of the day, we’re not sitting here going, “everything here is ours!” We’ll claim our ideas and our original characters, but the sandbox at large belongs to the originator of that fandom. We just sat in it for a while building our own castles made from that fandom’s sand.
BUT: when we write our fanfics, the ideas within them, the way we write them, the way characters speak to each other and behave–that’s us. That is our work. We may not be trying to make money from it, but it’s still our blood, sweat, tears, and typing that made those words appear in that configuration on that screen.
No one (intelligent) is going to throw a fit over someone using time-travel in their fic after you wrote a fic with time travel. That’s a wide-reaching idea, a trope. That’s not copying anything.
If we noticed that someone wrote a fanfic after we wrote ours that had exact passages lifted, or the same idea was carried out in the exact same way with the exact same characters in the exact same situation…yeah, that’s a problem. That’s called Plagiarism. It doesn’t matter if the original source material is owned by someone else; we typed those stories in our specific ways, and that sort of plagiarism is why AO3 and Organization for Transformative Works exists–to protect what IS ours.
However, if someone messages you and says they loved your story idea and what to play around with it, or write fic within that same universe, and asks permission and wants to credit you and link back to the source of their direct inspiration? That is not only good manners, that is excellent fandom etiquette.
Stealing another’s creative endeavors, *no matter what type of creative endeavor* is wrong.
The only exception I‘ll ever make to that rule is if you’re starving and desperate, in which case I very much ascribe to the Robin Hood school of morality.
Also, if you’re writing fic, people *know* who to credit the original themes, characters, and settings to- they know what you’re adding to the world or changing in it because they know how the original looks. They can see how much of the final product is your effort, your creation, versus how much is the work of the original creators. If you try to take credit for things that everybody knows to be canon, it’s going to be obvious.
That degree of obvious doesn’t exist in a case where you’re appropriated another fic author’s work. It comes across as you presenting ALL of the new elements as your own- and you all understand why THAT is viewed as a bad thing, yes?
Also, the culture surrounding fic has shifted, and these days remixes are common enough that telling someone, “Hey, I read your thing and it inspired something, are you cool if I write it?” is far more likely to get you a “HOLY SHIT DO IT, SHOW ME NOW!!” than a, “HOW DARE YOU.” So there’s really no reason NOT to be polite and talk to your fellow fic writer about it first.
At minimum, talk to them before you show it to anyone else, if it’s a case of “THIS THING WAS IN MY HEAD AND I NEEDED TO WRITE IT DOWN TO GET IT OUT.” If they say they’re not cool with you making it public…well, I guess it’s up to you whether or not you want to show them the same level of respect you’d want to be shown if you were in that position. o.O
Queue’d/reblogged for additional commentary
This is the difference between legitimately, creatively writing fanfic…and what Cassandra Clare did.
Death By Catchphrase 