Owned.
APK | January 6, 2009 | 9:32 amLet’s talk about ownership. When you read a book, full of characters and worlds and situations that you adore, you take some ownership in those things. It is, mind you, an internal ownership. The author, creator, property owner have the external ownership.
Which is where it gets interesting.
Because a lot of people seem to mix those two up. You see fans who feel that they have some sort of external ownership towards a property – bemoaning choices without seeing the real result, talking about how such-and-such a move is wrong and so on. Now the idea that a characters move can be wrong is interesting, isn’t it? I mean there are limits and characters should either act in character or have good reasons for breaking character, along with growth (temporary and permanent) but if those conditions are met then wrong just means something I disagree with.
And of course, well, I can’t speak for anyone but myself but I am fairly sure no one creative seriously stops and rethinks a major plan, a plot and a story because the fans don’t seem to like the direction. Editorial might, if pressured by suits, but sitting there alone at 1 AM you don’t consider what the fans want, you consider what your story wants. And that is the only thing that matters.
Besides, most vocal fans who don’t like what is going on tend to (and this is a generalization but this entire thought patch here is a generalization really so forgive it) yell about anything dangerous happening. Anything that makes the character they care the most about upset, in danger, hurt or otherwise majorly unhappy is a problem for them. Or so they scream. And well … that’s called a story. If everyone is happy all of the time and no one ever gets so much as a bruised toe then you would have the most boring story ever. And the fans would hate it.
But I don’t want to cover fans wanting what they want not what they say they want. It feels too obvious.
So where, then, is the ownership line? Because, let’s be honest, I want readers to feel ownership of characters. It means they have invested themselves into the story and give a shit and will generally keep up with those characters. It means a lot of things, most of them good. But it also causes problems. And sometimes when people do mix up that internal/external ownership issue it can be frustrating as hell, but at the same time you can’t/shouldn’t get mad about it because you wanted that ownership in the first place and there is that known downside and … argh!
So yeah I want to talk about ownership. What stories do you feel you own, if any, that you didn’t create? How does all of this play out in your head? Talk to me.
(You asked for it. I haven’t written in a while so I apologize for the rambling and any off topic in here.)
Stories that I own? You mean characters that I feel like I know? Stories that resonate so deeply that I feel like they are part of my soul? Worlds that show me who I am, and who I want to be? There are too many to name.
Or do you mean characters which I over-identify with to the point of obsession? Because I think that you are talking about two separate phenomena here.
The people who yell and scream about how “You got it WRONG WRONG WRONG. Harry ends up with Hermione damnit!” Are generally doing it because they themselves have gotten WAY too involved with the stories. They over-identify with them. Whether they see themselves as Harry or Hermione or who-the-hell-cares, they see different opinions as to how the story should go as a personal affront. They do not see these as mere characters, they see them as themselves. And if I’m Hermione in my heart, then I know she loves Harry. How dare an author mess up their fantasy world, just because he or she wrote it?
But. there is a door open for these people to vent these feelings, and that door is called fanfic. Don’t like the way the story ended? Write it your way. Then shut up about it. Need to show the world that really, you’re the only one who could make Snape happy? Write a Mary-Sue fic. And then shut up about it.
You can’t own the characters in the way the creator does, that is to say, you can’t make money off them, but you can play with them so long as you put them back. So long as no profit is being made it is protected in the USA by the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976.
So what am I saying here? I’m saying that for a writer, there is no line. You have to tell the story the way the story goes. Try to change that and the story will suffer for it, and you know it. We do not look at art because the subject was beautiful, we look at it because the skill of the artist makes it worth looking at.
As to the fans who love a character or a world, be grateful for them. As for the times when someone gets a little too involved and yells at Joss Whedon for woobifying Spike in the 6th season of Buffy (I was not yelling, I was speaking with intensity) to those fans I say in the immortal words of MST3K, “Repeat to yourself ‘It’s just a show, I should really just relax.’” To the writers I say again, write the story in your head. Be true to it. Either someone will get it or you need to be a better writer. You think the view outside Van Gogh’s window was as beautiful as Starry Night? I promise you it wasn’t.
My problem with the “fanfic and forget it” slogan is when those same people then get upset that their ideas aren’t the real ones. It just … all that rage. oy.