My first popular piece of writing was a fan-fiction of the book and movie series The Maze Runner. I stopped writing it over a year ago but it’s still getting views.
This fan-fiction earned me a group of readers, commenters, and followers. People commented on the chapters to tell me how much they loved the story and the twists. I had one person send me a private message telling me my story had helped her deal with depression. That was when I learned how my writing could make a difference.
One time someone asked me to read their fan-fiction and sent me a link. Thrilled that I was seen as some kind of authority, I readily accepted.
As I read the first few chapters of her story, I got angrier and angrier. The author had very clearly copied my story. A friend I showed it to
Fan-fiction will almost always look somewhat similar because you’re basing it off an already written and published story, but she had copied every attempt I’d made at making my story unique.
Here’s one line of dialogue from my story:
“If the Greenbean really is hiding, then he’s probably scared. Let Newt do it.”
And here’s a line of dialogue from the clearly copied story:
“Hey Gally. If the greenie is hiding, then he’s scared. Get Newt to find him.”
I confronted the author about it, and she admitted that she’d “taken inspiration” from my work, but she was trying to make it her own in later chapters. I agree that in later chapters the resemblances decreased significantly, but I was still peeved that my work had essentially been stolen.
You may be wondering why I was mad at someone copying me when I had written a fan-fiction, which was by definition based off of someone else’s creations. The difference is this: I gave credit to the original author. I don’t think I wrote a specific disclaimer, but in the title, it announced that it was fanfiction. No one in the fandom would have thought for a second that the entire story was mine, and most could tell what was the original author’s and what was mine.
Taking inspiration from someone else’s work is normal, expected, and even encouraged. Dante’s Inferno is considered by many to be “self-insert fan-fic,” and it’s a classic piece of literature. However, p
For example, if you see a character in a movie that you really like, don’t just recreate the character. If you like her sassy come-backs, take that (not the specific come-backs, just the general attitude). If you like her flowy dress or the way she laughs when she’s nervous, take that. No one owns those individual qualities or traits. What they do own is that specific combination of those qualities and traits.
Creating is hard, and copying is easy. Borrow, don’t steal, and continue to create things that are truly your own.