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Fifty Shades of Twilight Fanfiction

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Thaumologist, Feb 23, 2017.

  1. Thaumologist

    Thaumologist Fifth Year ~ Prestige ~

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    So, browsing Reddit, I found this, a comment from someone involved in the Twilight fanfiction community who saw the rise of FSOG, and who 'helped' propel it up Amazon's bestseller list.

    It's actually pretty interesting, looking in from the outside. We have the perspective of someone invested in multiple other fandoms, which makes it even more interesting, I think.

    If you go down the page a bit further, there's stuff about Cassandra Clare and HP fandom, and a few other tidbits.

    The author of the main comment keeps posting further down the thread, and there's interesting conversations going on. It's worth a read through, at least.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2017
  2. Seratin

    Seratin Proudmander –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    This is a pretty good read. It puts me in mind of Joe. The fuckin' hack.
     
    Joe
  3. Thaumologist

    Thaumologist Fifth Year ~ Prestige ~

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    I think the most interesting part of it is how she says it's a monoculture - the majority of people who got invested into Twilight fanfiction didn't have other fandoms they cared about, so it was almost grown from the ground up. One of the other posters refers to the fans as "feral", because they didn't "know the rules".

    I wonder what unique terminology sprung up? The Description!Character thing is pretty common across ff.net, but I know I've seen people confused about "dark Not Harry". Similar with Mary-Sues and so on. Seeing what arises organically (AH-verse, etc) as opposed to in response is also pretty cool
     
  4. Joe

    Joe The Reminiscent Exile ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter ⭐⭐⭐

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    Well, sure, the only difference is I never burned my bridges here.

    Though I should - you bastards do nothing but hold me back!
     
  5. Download

    Download Auror ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    That was an enlightening read.

    I'm just glad the author will probably never write another book.
     
  6. Seratin

    Seratin Proudmander –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    Don't think of it as holding you back, think of it as resistance training.

    Anyway I learned something new, I didn't know the Twilight fandom was mostly anti-vampire. That actually comes as a massive surprise.
     
  7. Republic

    Republic The Snow Queen –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    You delude yourself. Without us to keep you in line and motivated, you'd have accomplished nothing. Nothing, I say.
     
  8. Alindrome

    Alindrome A bigger, darker mark DLP Supporter Retired Staff

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    That's actually pretty sad - looks like with the success of Fifty Shades of Grey, it was blood in the water, and the fandom got snapped up. It does seem pretty inevitable that the fandom bubble would burst, though, if they were writing nearly entirely original fiction at that point.
     
  9. Seratin

    Seratin Proudmander –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    With the slow, painful death of sites like SIYE, is it possible that DLP alone, with Potter Law and its insistence on Harry as the main character, saved the fandom?

    More on this at ten.
     
  10. Lord Ravenclaw

    Lord Ravenclaw DLP Overlord Admin DLP Supporter

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    That was surprisingly fascinating. Like Seratin said, I'm rather surprised that the Twilight FF community was so anti-vampire.

    I somewhat see parallels to DLP's brand of HP fanfiction. I'm not sure that anyone beyond Taure actually remembers what the real characters were like. I think we're a bit better than full-human AUs, however I think everyone gives Harry a brain transplant.
     
  11. Dark Syaoran

    Dark Syaoran No. 4 Admin

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    Wouldn't that be something.
    I feel like -- at least in my case -- that I've gone in the opposite direction. I'm much more in-line with canon than I've ever been and the few stories I read these days tend to reflect it. Re-reading the series half-a-dozen times two years ago really shifted my outlook. Not just in what I read for Harry Potter, but in how I write it as well.

    I guess I appreciate Harry's character a lot more than I once did. Even though I always liked Harry, I perhaps misunderstood certain aspects of his personality and decisions.

    On the subject of people changing fanfiction into original works or writing original works with Twilight names, I remember encountering some of these in the Naruto fandom some years ago, where someone had written basically an AU with the Naruto characters, then the very same story was posted elsewhere on original fiction sites with the real names. In that case, I don't believe it was the author doing it, but someone stealing the work and passing it off as theirs.
     
  12. Nemrut

    Nemrut The Black Mage ~ Prestige ~

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    That was a fascinating read, but I honestly don't think the HP fandom is in the same amount of danger as the Twilight fandom was. Reading that post, one of the main things that popped out was the fact that the fandom itself didn't really value a lot of things within its source material. The supernatural stuff got dropped the second it became inconvenient to the real things the fans cared about and I can't imagine that Bella and Edward were in character in most of those fanfics, seeing as they are universally described as shit characters.

    Seems rather clear that Twilight just happened to be there at the right moment at the right time to serve as a launchpad for romance stories, where, as the author said, the fans got a lot of use from established characters that the readers would know about and just explored the kinks and tropes they loved. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I don't think HP is in danger of running into that.

    Sure, there are tons of AUs, the setting and characters get tweaked constantly but overall, people appreciate the core Harry Potter elements. The magic, Hogwarts and the characters.
     
  13. Meerkats

    Meerkats Unspeakable

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    I think another difference is that Harry Potter didn't really fall out of the public eye so people still have content to consume, discuss and write about. Even Stephenie Meyer doesn't give a shit about writing for Twilight anymore if you consider midnight sun.
     
  14. Majube

    Majube Order Member DLP Supporter

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    I was honestly more interested by the Cassandra Clare scandals(had never heard about any of it before), does anyone know about all that?
     
  15. Joe

    Joe The Reminiscent Exile ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter ⭐⭐⭐

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    It was all mildly plagiarism-y and not worth much more discussion. Google her and you'll see.

    Personally, I just saw a person capitalising on a good thing. But then, short of directly stealing someone else's work, I may not be the most unbiased source in that. Hell, my last update to Heartlands was only so I could brag about my original work.

    For what it's worth, I still intend to finish that one for the sake of finishing it.
     
  16. pbluekan

    pbluekan Chief Warlock DLP Supporter

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    You're like Valve with the next Half Life, or how Blizzard used to be over Starcraft 2. :nyan:

    Interesting writup on that fandom. I'm amazed there hasn't been more scrutiny on other fandoms over copyright infractions. The author of Methods of Rationality tried to monetize his stuff didn't he?
     
  17. Jon

    Jon The Demon Mayor Admin DLP Supporter

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    Iirc he claimed that it was just the cost of getting a physical copy of the story, and that no monetary gains were made.
     
  18. Quiddity

    Quiddity Squib ~ Prestige ~

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    That and asking for donations to the non-profit that pays him.

    But let's not get into that again.
     
  19. Miner

    Miner Order Member

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    I mean based on my understanding she was directly taking the ideas of other people and presenting them as her own through ripping off other stories. Sure, they're not word for word copied, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the story contains elements that are not her own. At least when you're bragging about your work in your fanfic its.. you know... your own work.

    I don't know a whole lot about FSOG so maybe I'm wrong, but based on what I read (fascinating read) I'd feel pretty pissed if I saw someone else monetizing something that was partially my own and gaining so much success for it. And that's without even going into the whole charity thing that it destroyed (Like, can we talk about how she's going to publish the story she wrote for fucking charity? Hello?)

    Edit:
    I'm actually still living in 2017. Forgive me for my sins.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2018
  20. Sataniel

    Sataniel High Inquisitor

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    I know I was very confused about this initially (though I've seen this first in non-fanfic content with characters being described as Not!X which only increased my confusion) and I still dislike this method of description.

    EDIT: Ups, didn't notice that this was necroed thread.
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2018