Follow Friday is a feature created by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. It's a fun blog hop where you meet other book bloggers and find people to follow.
Question: Do you mind books with similar ideas to other books? Similar concepts, backgrounds, retellings or pulled-to-publish fanfic?Oh goodness this cannot possibly be a yes or no question because that's more than one question. So I'm going to have to answer them all seperately.
Similar Concepts?
Depends on how similar. There are broad concepts that I will always love. Girl dressed as boy to make her way in the world (in fact there's going to be some of that in my NanoWriMo story this year) is a concept that I will read almost every time. It's just something I absolutely love. However "girl meets supernatural creature she's destined to be with" is concept that I hate, thus those are out. So really it depends on the concept.
Backgrounds?
Most books pull from the same mythologies, especially if you read a lot of fantasy. I actually enjoy seeing the greek/roman/norse legends in different variations There are certain characters from faerie that I've encountered in numerous series and I always find the different interpretations interesting.
Retellings?
Oh goodness I love re-tellings. Seriously I want to read ALL THE FAIRYTALE RETELLINGS. (Publishers that's a subtle subliminal message there). Once Upon A Time is my favorite TV show because it gives new life to so many great stories. We get everything from sassy Belle to kick-ass Snow White. Fairytales are wonderful because of their simplicity. Because they are simple you can expand upon them and always find ways to make it your own. (If you're wondering why these are different from my next answer, fairytales are in the public domain).
Pulled-to-Publish fanfic?
Hell no. As a former fanfiction writer it baffles my brain that anyone thinks this is okay. The ethics and the disrespect to intellectual property is one thing but what bothers me most is the disservice it does to the whole fanfiction community. Fanfiction is a wonderful playground for budding writers. It gives you a world to work in and characters with certain behaviors that you can explore. Basically it gives you shortcuts to flex your writing muscles. Fanfiction is much easier than original fiction, especially when it's fantasy and there's no real world building involve. I'm going to stop rambling because I have a whole unpublished (okay only half-written) blog post on this topic that eventually I'll get around to posting. But in my book this is not okay.
25 comments:
True. It IS a loaded question. Great answers. :D My FFs are at Musings on Fantasia and LKHill. Happy Friday! :D
Wow! You put alot of thought into your answers, which by the way, are all great!
New Follower :)
My response @ Marilyn's Mystery Blog
Hopping through. I agree with you on the fanfic. I love writing it and it helps me work on my writing skills. But I only like it when it's in the original story's world, so that wouldn't be publishable.
My Hop
Hi!
I don't think I've read any fanfic, so not sure how I feel about that.
New follower via GFC :)
MY F&F: http://nightmareonbookstreet.blogspot.com/2012/11/feature-and-follow-2.html
I don't read FanFic myself. I have too many other books to read to dive into those. But I LOOOOVE fairy tale retellings too!
Here's my Follow Friday
Have a GREAT weekend!
Old Follower :)
I love your answers and I'm a huge Once Upon a Time fan too! New follower =) My Friday Hop
I love how you divided up your answer. I am in complete agreement on the retelling love...want more now! Old follower.
Jennifer @ Feminist Fairy Tale Reviews
I agree with quite a bit of this. I LOVE retellings - have you ever read The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor? It's a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter is a bodyguard, Alyss is a princess on the run from her evil aunt Redd, and the Chesire Cat is actually an assassin with nine lives. Meep! :D
Aside from that, I agree this is not a simple question to answer. There's a fine line separating copying from similarity. Lovely answers.
Old follower. :) Thanks for stopping by my blog!
WHAT's this about your NaNoWriMo book??? A cross-dressing girl? I must read it. ;) I think you know that we both have a major weakness for that. Whenever I see it in a synopsis I'm like...I'M IN.
I really love re-tellings too, but I think I've read so many now that I get overly critical of the bad ones.
Hi, thanks for checking out my blog and following. I am already a follower of your blog. I am a ex ff writer as well and I totally agree with you, we wrote pretty simillar answers to this question.
Definitely with you on the fanfic front!
New Follower!
Kristen @OCA
I love retellings too! Thanks for stopping by :)
Good answers! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Have a great weekend!
Hi new follower! Thank you fro stopping by my blog!
New follower. I love fairy tales and any retelling is A-okay by me. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Great thoughts. I pretty much agree with you. Thanks for visiting!
That's kind of how I feel about pulled-to-publish fanfiction: that it's a great playground for budding writers... and just that. And that it should stay that. Also a fan of Once Upon a Time and my friend is trying to get me into Grimm on NBC (maybe you'll like that show too :D).
New follower!
Momo @ Where the Mome Raths Outgrabe
Like I said in my post, I haven't delved into the realm of fanfic, but I have some pretty vocal friends. Bottom line - it's skeevy to take someone else's work and act like you invented it, not just added to it.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Your friends can see me post at http://inkandpage.me/feature-and-follow-friday-11-09-2012/
I love how you explained every aspect of it, and I can't agree more. I can't ever get enough fairy tale (and classic stories or myths) retellings, but fan fiction? Unoriginal and unfair. Thanks for stopping by :) New follower!
Judith @ Paper Riot
Wow, deatailed answer! But I agree - with very one of ypur points! Especially the one about girl meets paranormal creature etc. etc. blablabla... :D I'm tired of it!
Thanks for visiting my blog - I'll make sure to start following you as soon as this comment is typed :)
FABULOUS answer! Very well said. And I love the girl dressing as boy stories too!
Thanks for stopping by :)
Insightful answer.
old follower
thanks for stopping by :)
LOVE your answers! I enjoyed getting your insight into each!
*New Linky Follower*
~Kayla
I really like all of your answers. I think that genre can count as similarity and that there is no TRUE originality. That said, I hate copycats! Especially of Twilight like you said :-)
Thanks for stopping by!
I agree that a lot of books pull from similar basic concepts, it's just when they get too similar that I get queezy!
I'm a new follower :D Here is my FFF
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