When is Fanfiction not Fanfiction?

I actually meant to post this a while back, but flat forgot. The above title is a question that came up as a tangential point in some previous comments (not all in my journal), and one thing led to another ...

At what point does fanfic cease to be fanfic?

Obviously, the answer to that depends a whole hell of a lot on how one defines "fanfic," itself. And by that, I don't necessarily mean versus "profic." Profic is fiction for which one's been paid, including media tie-ins. A media tie-in amounts to 'professional fanfic,' the difference being that the story must meet criteria submitted by the owning entity (studio, person, whatever). (There is often a list of things one can't do in a media tie-in, as part of the contract. And in fact, some tie-in authors aren't fans of the source material, may never even have seen/read the source material before accepting the contract. Media tie-ins simply sell well and authors (and their agents) know that.)

But what, exactly, IS fanfic? Part of the problem with professional writers condemning fanfic is that they often display a fairly limited view of it. Yet the problem of defining fanfic is that people write it for a variety of reasons, which obviously impacts what we think it IS -- and where/when we think a story has stopped being fanfic to become something else. So I'm kinda curious what others think on this matter.

For myself, I believe I'd define fanfic as 'Stories that utilize the characters and/or world of another creator.' That's the simplest, broadest definition. Aside from more common fanfic types, this definition also allows fanfic that may be set in a fandom world, but employs all original characters. It allows fanfic that may employ recognizable characters, but not set in the world we expect them to inhabit (whether as a crossover or an elseworlds). It also allows for AU (alternate universes -- stories that twist canon in some notable way), and even fanfic that doesn't necessarily honor the source material, but may be highly critical of it (whether or not one thinks that's polite is quite apart from whether it would qualify as "fanfic"). Last, it allows for the insertion of one genre type into another. That is, the fanfic genre may not reflect the genre of the source material -- one writes a murder mystery set in the world of an SF series. The story 'behaves' like a mystery, utilizing those genre conventions, not the conventions of SF. Genre crossing can be very fruitful for creativity, although it can also lead to problems when readers expect X and get Y instead, and wind up irked. (This is why publishing houses are a bit leery of genre-straddlers; when they work, they're often wildly successful, but when they flop, they flop.) Probably the most common genre cross in fanfic is genre Romance conventions imported into fandoms of other genre types.

In any case, my above definition, broad as it is, does have some parameters. The story must employ the fictional world and/or recognizable characters (usually both, but particularly the characters). If the characters aren't recognizably themselves, that's where I'd draw the line and say, "That's not fanfic." It's original fiction with familiar names and faces. Obviously, the one writing would disagree. (g) That may be because her understanding of the characters differ -- but it may also be because her definitions of fanfic differ. They may not feel constrained to keep the characters "in character."

But even that phrase "in character" is at least part of the equation, enit? What's "in character" for me may not be "in character" for you. That said, I think there are agreed-upon characterizations that most fans would recognize as "so-and-so" -- even allowing for individual divergence. And the corollary to that assumption is that a fan writer can push a character too far outside the bounds so that s/he is no longer that character. Characterization may be somewhat individual, but it's not "anything goes." Yet because that line of characterization IS so blurred, fans may differ (even differ radically) in what they're willing to accept.

Using a personal example, I've had readers write to me about Special to remark how very much Scott Summers still seemed to be Scott Summers, regardless of the shocking background I gave him there. In fact, part of the original challenge of that series WAS to transform him from such a radical background into the canon character we know as Cyclops (hence the subtitle 'the Genesis of Cyclops'). But certainly, some readers did find the background too far out there to buy, and he wasn't Cyclops to them (and they let me know it (g)). For those readers, my little experiment failed. And I think some of that assessment also comes down to definitions.

For me, characterization is about the essentials of personality, rather than all the details of a character's background. Others would include background details to a greater degree. For them, Scott as an ex-hustler is not Scott because that's not his canon history and/or their perception of the character wouldn't allow him to have done such a thing. This argument isn't limited to fanfic, of course. Consider the very different opinions of how Grant Morrison handled Scott Summers during his run on New X-Men. I have people on my Flist who very much liked Morrison's handling, and others who thought he twisted the character out of recognition. I'm closer to the latter than the former, but I acknowledge that why I think so has a lot to do with my perceptions of the character . . . just as other readers can't imagine a hustler-Scott, even as a desperate teen.

So by no means is "in character" a cut-and-dried class of criteria, and I recognize that.

I also recognize that "out of character" twists can be a simple function of bad writing. The 14-year-old X-Men Evolution fan writing a story on fanfic.net, who has Charles Xavier speak like a teenager, not a past-middle-age academic, is writing him that way because she's young, and has no ear yet for dialogue. All her characters sound the same ... just like her. That's an extreme example, but many cases of bad and/or inconsistent characterization are just a function of youth and/or lack of writing ability.

But that's not the only reason. There are other reasons. A second cause for character bending stems from a clash of genre conventions. I already mentioned above that the fanfic genre may not be the same as that of the source material. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if the conventions of one cause serious permutations of the source material -- including characterization -- we can wind up with a mess (at least to my mind).

The most common culprit here, I think, is the imposition of Romance convention on non-Romance source material. Romance has a set of plot/character expectations (called 'conventions') that are more or less strictly followed by professional writers of the genre -- and failure to follow them can result in not getting published, at least, not in Romance. In fanfic, if one attempts to impose those conventions on characters who would not behave in those ways, the end result is the inevitable distortion of the characters. The ones I'm probably most familiar with seeing this done to were Mulder and Scully from the X-Files. Mulder is not a Romance Hero, and Scully is not a Romance Heroine, and trying to turn them into such twists their personalities until they're no longer themselves -- at least, in my opinion. This applies, by the way, to slash just as much as to het couples.

I should add that Romance is something very specific, and a story with romance (or sex) in it isn't necessarily a Romance -- hence my use of the capital to denote the publishing genre. Also, there are some fandoms in which Romance conventions can be successfully employed -- Lois and Clark, for instance. The show itself employed them. Problems only occur when crossing genres so warps the characters that it ceases to work, and Romance, while probably the most common example, isn't the only one. If one wishes to write a thriller in which a gentle character becomes a maniacal killer, that won't fly, either, for the same reasons.

Finally, there's at least one other reason I think characters are not always recognizable -- and it has nothing to do with writing ability or genre conventions. I've read stories that were quite well done that nonetheless had characters acting in ways I thought out of character. Some of these stories were even penned by professionals (e.g., actual writers of the source material -- comics, TV episodes, etc.). (g) That doesn't stem from an inability to write, but from an inability to write a certain type of story.

To my mind, the essential requirement of fanfiction is to be able to borrow someone else's characters and world and maintain them. I think any writer of any sophistication will add unique elements to the characters s/he borrows. Thus, fanfic authors can do things like the "My ___" meme wherein we discussed our version of a canon character -- and each description was a bit different from someone else's. Personally, I find those things fascinating, how so many different people can come up with unique and -- to my mind -- absolutely valid readings of the same character. But there are cases where I think the author has simply changed the character too much, and it's no longer that character.

The ability to do "the chameleon thing" is not a skill every writer has, even every good writer -- and that includes a handful of good authors in fanfic. They may write well-honed stories, but I always feel as if I'm reading their characters rather than canon characters that they've fleshed out. Again, some of this is character perception. As noted above, not everyone likes or accepts my view of Scott (or Jean, or Ororo ...), and some of them are probably reading this journal. ;> Just as a good writer of SF may be a lousy writer of mysteries or mainstream, likewise being a good writer doesn't necessarily mean one will be a good fanfic writer.

So my own answer to the "When is fanfic not fanfic?" question boils down to the ability to portray familiar characters (and worlds) in a recognizable fashion -- to make a world come alive that is not entirely of one's own creation.

Now, I ask the rest of you -- when do you think fanfic has stopped being fanfic?