Imitation

Couple of my Pokemon fics were actually pretty much Pokemonized versions of well known books. I did one where the plot is similar to Ernest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, and another that's a Pokemonized version of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (with conspiracy stuff related to the Sinnoh myth instead of religion lol). Those were long ago, though.

Bardothren said:

I'd be offended if it were straight-up plagiarism, but if someone used my work in ways that demonstrated personal input from the imitator, such as overhauling the tone, making the story change by replacing a character, or putting the characters in a new setting, then I'd be flattered.

Click to expand...

I think I would feel the same way. I know there's a thing called a "remixed fic" where it's kinda like where you write a fanfic of a fanfic, haha.

I can in fact speak from experience about having someone straight-up plagiarize your work. Years ago one of my chapter fics ended up copy-pasted to the Bulbagarden forums with barely any words changed and the title only slightly altered. I was really mad, and I wanted to give whoever this guy was a piece of my mind but he'd already moved on from the forum.

Of course, that's plagiarism, and imitation is much less cut and dry. Since we mostly write fanfiction here, clearly we should all be of the mind that using someone else's setting, characters, or basic plot isn't intrinsically bad. When you write something that contains major elements that aren't your own, I think it's tremendously important to make it clear that you're doing so and never suggest that someone else's ideas are your own. And when you're writing Pokemon fic for example everyone who's reading it knows that you didn't invent the world of Pokemon or the game/anime characters so it's basically always okay.

Bay Alexison said:

I think I would feel the same way. I know there's a thing called a "remixed fic" where it's kinda like where you write a fanfic of a fanfic, haha.

Click to expand...

This is where things get sticky in my opinion. If someone "remixed" something I wrote and didn't ask permission first, I think I'd still be annoyed. The difference between a fellow forumite and an established, professional creator is that a forumite is far more accessible. I'm not going to email J.K. Rowling to ask permission to write my Quidditch/Slap Shot crossover (someone else please take that idea btw because I'm not going to use it and it'd be hilarious) because she'd never write me back and no one's ever going to confuse J.K. Rowling's ideas with mine unless they've been living under a rock. A fanfic author on the other hand doesn't got hundreds of fan letters a day and is nearly guaranteed to have the time to respond to inquiries.

The other thing is that Pokemon, Harry Potter, etc. are highly visible and ubiquitous throughout the web. The expectation is that creative works in the public sphere invite unsolicited creative responses (not plagiarism and not uncredited ripoffs mind you). An individual fanfic in contrast is usually confined to a quiet corner of the internet, even if it's on a relatively big site like FFNet. The etiquette is different when two people are metaphorically in the same room rather than just the same planet. If you want to put your own spin on the work of someone else in your quiet corner of the internet, be open and communicate directly with them.

Bardothren said:

You left out Sleepy Chateau, our take on Sleepy Hollow :D

I hadn't thought of that when I made the first post - I'm usually not so blunt as to directly rip the plot straight out of the source material, but it felt perfect for a light, festive horror novel.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that story, haha. Indeed it's a Pokemonized version of Sleepy Hollow, but nonethless it was fun co-writing it with you!

icomeanon6 said:

This is where things get sticky in my opinion. If someone "remixed" something I wrote and didn't ask permission first, I think I'd still be annoyed.

Click to expand...

Yeah usually in some sites like Livejournal there would be a post where you the author give permission for all or some of your fics to be remixed by someone else, so those kind of things are usually kept a close eye on smaller communities. If it's not for like a writing event, then I agree you need to ask first since not everyone is comfortable with that.

I've imitated before. Well, not so much imitate as drew from; I usually try for X meets Y with a splash of Z to create something new. Been pondering on posting an old, hand-written story here, but it might be, um... too violent. And sometimes, it's coincidental; I once wrote a story of virtual-reality gaming. Two months later, SAO.

If someone were to draw from me, I might not mind. Depends on what's similar, like premises or characters, or even flow. If it's a blatant copy, then yeah, I'll take offense.

I think that imitation is one of the best ways to grow as a writer. If you're not particularly skilled at something, it's amazing how much better at it you can get by imitating the quirks and styles of better writers. For example, I used to really suck at writing comedy and dialogue and whilst those are still two of my weakest areas as a writer, I've been able to improve myself in those areas a lot by imitating the way users Ice and Foxrally write those things.

I think that there's a line that you can't cross though. It's important that you continue to put your own spin on things. At some point imitation goes from being a tribute and a way of expanding and developing your skills to straight up plagiarizing and that's when it ceases to become okay and when I personally would become annoyed. In the past I've seen people commended for straight up mimicking a detailed concept/world of mine and that pissed me off to the highest degree lol.

While I try my dead level best to be 100% original, when I see something, like it, and see how great it would work, I Vragonize it. I don't copy it, oh no, I merely look over the idea, design, music, info, story, etc. and see what parts I could use, parts I can maybe change and make them with my own thoughts, or leave them alone. Unfortunately, inspiration is higher for me than object creating, so I occasionally have to look at something in order to create my ideas. But, if their good ideas and aren't copies, then I will push through with them.