[ SECRET POST #3578 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3578 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 10 secrets from Secret Submission Post #511.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

07. https://66.media.tumblr.com/dbaf9c49ef0916d27f20a65e9efba811/tumblr_oeyiqzjfww1sivacmo1_540.png

[(Anonymous)]

I consider all fic fair game if I think I can do a better job.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep. Add your twist and call it an inspiration.

[(Anonymous)]

But what if your writing ability isn't as good as you think?
Then you've ripped off someone with something that is worse, but are too arrogant to realise.

[(Anonymous)]

Why not just ask the author if you can run with their idea?

I've done it before and all were happy to let me go ahead.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

The author and the story have been inactive for several years, and I don't think I'll be able to get in contact with them to ask.

[(Anonymous)]

Meh. You can't steal an AU idea. I guarantee it has been done before.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd say go with it, and if 'called' on it just go "Yeah, I was inspired by their AU, but I wanted to do my own take on it."

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, if I felt too paranoid about it I'd go one further an mention it in my notes.

[ibbity]

Someone once did a very obvious and horribly written rip off of a fic I wrote. I lol'd and moved on because it's a big internet. It shouldn't be a big deal if you are inspired by a fic as long as you write it well and put enough unique factors in.

[(Anonymous)]

That does sound hilarious.

You tease me with these anecdotes Ibbity, you should share the LULZ with the rest of us! :(

[lentils]

Oh man, I found an AU series in my fandom that was eerily similar in concept to an ongoing AU my girlfriend and I are writing, and it included a lot of the same random minor characters that had only been in 1-2 episodes of the show...except we write in a lot of slash and femslash pairings in ours and their series was m/f almost to parody levels (except for one m/m and one f/f). I read a little bit of it and was satisfied that the writer isn't as good at character voices as we are, and I mentioned it to my girlfriend by calling it the "darkest timeline AU" and we laughed and moved on.

Then again, she did something similar with a WIP in the same fandom that was an AU of a movie and she made hers gayer, so there you go. Maybe the darkest timeline AU was karma for that, I dunno.

[kallanda_lee]

You could always contact the author and ask if it's okay to base a fic on the idea?

[(Anonymous)]

I guess it depends on how specific the idea is? Like, if you're just taking certain elements from the fic then that's probably fine. I mean, thousands of people have written A/B/O fics after a Supernatural fic first used the general idea and I don't think all of those people can reasonably be accused of plagiarizing. They just like the core idea and put their own spin on it.

[sparrow_lately]

Depends how broadly applicable the AU is, but you could always link to the original fic to cite it as inspiration.

[sarillia]

I can't really agree with people who are really possessive of their ideas. Ideas are the easy part to me. It's the execution that's the hard part, working with it so that all the elements come together into a good story. That process comes with a lot of decisions as all the details are hashed out, and twenty people starting with the same basic idea would approach those decisions differently and end up with different stories.

This is sort of a Thing with me though. I hate seeing people point to shallow similarities and shout "rip-off!" I refuse to worry about people possibly doing that with my own writing.

[ariakas]

Just say "inspired by" and link to the fic.

[(Anonymous)]

Write "Loosely inspired by 'STORY' by AUTHOR," as a note to your first chapter. Done.

(Or a paragraph about why you found the concept interesting and wanted to explore it yourself. Done.)

One of the fun things about fandom is the discourse, tossing ideas back and forth. There are good odds the author would be pleased to see more of a concept they liked, and chuffed that they inspired somebody.

[(Anonymous)]

There are fic in some of the fandoms I'm in that are so popular that other people write fic based on them. They link to the original fic and say it inspired them. Everyone seems to run with it just fine. I wouldn't worry too much, just be honest about it to your readers.

[annethecatdetective]

If you're really concerned, and the original writer is still around but not interested in/able to finish the fic, you could ask them if they'd mind your taking their WIP as a jumping-off point. They might be flattered-- or at least interested in seeing a similar story written! And then you would be able to have a little disclaimer at the start of your fic to let readers know it's cool with the author of the fic that inspired you.

As a writer who winds up leaving a lot of unfinished fics, a lot of the things I start writing, I start because I just want more stuff like it out there, and even when I do intend to finish my fic, the thought of a similar fic being written makes me giddy rather than offended or territorial. But I know not everyone thinks that way, so I don't blame you for being worried, especially in a small fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

I read a fic this year that I LOVED and had a link to the story that "inspired" it at the beginning. The other fic was meh, way shorter, and didn't get to the heart of what made the concept interesting. Write your fic and be honest about what inspired it.

[rivia]

i feel like if you can't contact the original author that if you at least say that you were inspired by that fic and that you wanted to run with the concept then i don't think it's a problem.

Write it.

[(Anonymous)]

Acknowledge it like you acknowledge the original media the story is based on. Anyone who has an issue with you playing with another writer's ideas probably should not be reading any fanfic.

[(Anonymous)]

I just wanted to chime in with my own encouragement to write it!

There is nothing new under the sun, just new ways of putting things together. As others have said, just name your inspiration, and you'll be good to go.

Heck, my current writing projects include a rewrite of a fic that was taken down years ago that has evolved into something entirely different, and another putting the cast of my main fandom in a setting inspired by what was originally a manga. Yet another is rewriting a popular-yet-trainwrecky-fic in my fandom to be more to my taste.

You might be surprised by the twists and turns your story will take, so go for it!

[(Anonymous)]

What do they say? That you can have the best idea in the world but it doesn't matter if you don't actually write it.

They didn't finish writing, you want to, so anything newly written is all your own.