Writers and the Remix Culture

It's no secret that many of us -- especially fantasy writers like me -- got our start by working in someone else's established universe. For me, my first "real" creative work was from the Legend of Zelda when I was eight or nine years old. After that, it was the worlds of Dragonlance and the Death Gate Cycle when I was thirteen years old. I did also work in my own universe, though the concept (Atlantis) wasn't terribly original (hey, cut me some slack, I was fifteen), and the execution was...well...adolescent to say the least (again, I was fifteen).

In time, I graduated to world-building while playing and writing campaigns and adventures for Dungeons and Dragons. I also developed a healthy dose of respect for cartographers, artists, and dungeon designers -- not to mention architects! By the time I got into college, I was generally writing my own original works, mostly plays and short stories as I had not really developed the chops for novel-writing. I did, however, continue to write fanfics. I wrote several set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe and one set in the world of Final Fantasy VIII. The fanfic that really got me convinced I could finally do a novel was Alayne's Story, posted over at my own website. I spent the better part of five years writing that story, posting it on the World of Warcraft European forums every Friday. Even today, I still dabble in fanfics when I need to just build up my chops or let something original percolate so that I don't over/underwrite it too badly.

The Internet, through services such as Fanfiction.net, have really given a good boost to remix writers. None of us ever think to try to profit from our works. After all, the characters and the settings are not "ours" in the ownership sense of the term. However, it is distressing to sit back and see just how many authors and corporate owners feel threatened by fanfic writers or feel as if having fanfics written with their property would somehow diminish the value of that property. This is a rather blinkered view, if you ask me. Yes, certainly, there are a lot of poorly-written fanfics out there. I've seen plenty of them where I wondered if the writer had any concept of grammar, spelling, or readability. There are some fanfics that, while earning passing marks for grammar, spelling, and formatting, fail because the story is unoriginal, the pacing is poor, or parts of it were too gratuitous. Granted, I'm sure all of us have written at least one or two scenes or treatments just for catharsis (and if you haven't, you're either not a writer, lying, or under the age of six). But, for the most part, we wouldn't show those to anyone. There are many fanfics out there that cater to a specific audience or attempt to "fix" the story that the creator told because parts of it were unsatisfying. There are some, like mine, that delve into the "what if?" realm where we change events and then ride the ripple of that change throughout the universe (these are often called "alternate universe" or "AU" fanfics). There are some that attempt to tell the story of the characters in the days after the ending. And many of these are quite good. Many are very original. Many, in my opinion, rival the "canonical" or "licensed" works in quality.

For those authors and owners who either tolerate or, better still, embrace their fans and their fans' written fanfics, these things can enrich and enhance the community -- not only of that particular work, but the writing community in general. For those authors who try to stamp out fanfics using their works, who focus on exercising complete control over their works, the community of writers is left much poorer for their successful efforts.

After all, in the end, we're all fanfic writers of one kind or another. All of us grew up hearing nursery rhymes and fairy tales and I'll bet every last one of us, even the non-writers out there, would sometimes imagine "what if?" "What if Snow White didn't eat the apple?" "What if the evil stepmother was actually nice to Cinderella instead?" "What happened during 'happily ever after?'" "Why was the Wicked Witch...well, wicked? What made her like that?" From these questions and our imagination, new stories were born. And from practice in doing that, we began to build original tales with new characters, new roles, new monsters, new conflicts.

"There is nothing new under the sun." By tolerating -- nay, encouraging -- fledgling writers to test their wings out with established characters, events, and universes, we enrich the literary universe and ourselves. At least, that's what I think. And I will always be eternally grateful to Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto,* SquareSoft (now Square Enix), Blizzard, and the BBC for not suing the crap out of me whenever I, unlicensed and unauthorized writer that I am, decided to dabble in their universes for a little bit when I needed a break from my own.

-- G.K.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson are my Holy Trinity of Writers. They are served by the Archangels Russel T. Davies, Margaret Weis, Tracey Hickman, Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Piers Anthony. Don't you dare judge me.

Are You A Plotter Or A Pantser?

I'm sure that many of us have different ways of writing. Some write to music. Others to silence. Some do well with a deadline. Others love the "whooshing" sound that deadlines make as they fly past. Some of us write by hand. Some by typewriter. Most by computer. Some of us write chronologically. Others write important scenes out of order and then tie them together.

But the greatest distinction of all is between plotters and pantsers and, at some point, each of us has done both.

For those of you who are not writers, plotters are writers who meticulously outline their drafts, do all of their research beforehand, have copious notes organized in a manner that is intuitive to them, and then proceed to write exactly what they've planned. Pantsers are those of us who do a bit of quick organization and then jump right in. Notes are jotted down as we reach the point where we needed them five pages back. We may keep tabs on things -- especially when we're doing fantasy world-building -- but our wikis, notebooks, or whatever are filled out on the go. We look at our outlines more as opening bids than ironclad commitments and have been known to completely change the ending of the story three or four times before we actually write it out.

Plotters abhor our chaotic method. And, in a lot of ways, they are right to. Several times I've developed a series in my head and sworn I was going to get all of the world-building done in advance only to open up Word and be twenty pages in before I realized I hadn't done an outline yet.

So, which are you? Which would you prefer to be if you could choose?

-- G.K.

Big News For Rooster and Pig!

First of all, we'd like to welcome TN Tarrant to the Rooster and Pig family! TN has just submitted her latest work to us and we should be announcing a release date for it soon. She is a well-known writer in her circles with several works out in print. We are definitely looking forward to having her as part of our crazy, eclectic family!

Also, with it being the start of August, we are now taking submissions for the Rooster and Pig Steam Punk Writing Contest! If you've been working on your submission, send it in before August 31st for your chance to win.

We're looking forward to reading your entries as well as showing you the latest and greatest from our newest author.

-- G.K.