Huh

[jmtorres]

I don't watch this dude's show, but the fact that he seems to have his head out of his ass about fanfiction makes me more likely to:

1.) I think fanfic is the sign of a healthy show. Here's what it boils down to: you're telling me that in today's crowded media space, our show made someone love it so much they take time out of their own life to talk about it? Holy. Crap.

To be fair, I have a somewhat different attitude toward media/fans than most people. I think what TV/corporate media had wrong for a long time was how they understood the idea of a "water cooler show." They saw it as making the audience talk about their show, on their terms. So any fan-created media is them losing control of their material. I see this more as the natural evolution of culture in a shared digital age. I will be blunt -- other than the satisfaction of our own creative urges (and all that entails: the quest for perfection, artistry, craft, etc), our job in media is to give you stuff to talk about in your conversations, to integrate into your social circle in whatever way you see fit. I doubt that's TNT's official stance, btw, but they are much cooler about this stuff than most companies.

2.) As far as "borrowing" our characters -- to paraphrase Alan Moore, they didn't go anywhere. There they are, sitting right up on the shelf. Waiting for us to let them loose again. Besides, how many people read a fanfic story? A couple hundred, tops? We have, on average 3.5 million viewers, well into the 4 million range when you get the DVR numbers in. I just don't see someone taking control of our Ideaspace through sheer force of Slashfic.

Sure, a lot of fanfic is crap. Of course it's crap. It's written by people who are not professional writers. If I paint, what I paint is crap. Does that mean I should give up painting and displaying stuff in my neighborhood art show?

3.) Is fanfic flattery? Again, depends on how you define flattery. If someone's writing fanfic with intention of currying favor for some ... er, frankly unguessable benefit, then they're really engaged in an exercise in futility. If you mean flattery as in: it's flattering to think someone is so entertained by our work that it inspires them to talk about it and create around it, then aces.

4.) Most writers and actors don't feel this way. Some, including writers I both like personally and greatly admire, hate the idea of fanfic.

Look, end of day, you should always be trying to create your own material. But fanfic, etc, is a different process than original creation -- which I think is the source of a lot of the controversy.

People who do original creations assume the fan is taking some sort of unearned ownership, somehow implying their act is the same/as difficult as the original act of creation. Which, of course, tees them off (doesn't tee me off, but I'm a very relaxed and often drunk guy).

And some fanfic humans are under the impression that creating fanfic is the same creative process as creating original material -- and are sometimes frustrated that they're not accorded the same respect as the original creators. That's also wrong. Fanfic to me is spiritually much closer to the fan-created music videos.

The basic rule I follow here is one I learned in stand-up comedy: Always punch UP. I am a relatively successful typing human whose words are physically produced using millions of dollars and is distributed nationally by a massive billion dollar corporation to millions of people. Exactly how is a free web page with a 1000 word story about Eliot and Hardison fighting a trans-dimensional incursion of Elves hurting my brand, exactly?

Tell you what -- if some fanfic writer is so good they manage to amass a million-person audience with their web-distributed free stories using my characters, I am going to consider that evolution in action and hire that bastard. Or, at the very least, urge them to go create their own show. But odds are it ain't gonna happen. And that's okay. We write for different reasons.

Comments

[raine]

Leverage is an awesome show, IMO. There are Doctor Who references plus lots of other pop-culture references. What I love about it:
- it's popcorn. No great angst (there is some), but for the most part: the good guys win at the end, and the eps can stand alone (though character development is an on-going arc.)
- some of the plots are ripped from headlines, which is a vicarious thrill to watch (in the "yes, the team takes down that guy! yay!" sort of way)
- characters of color matter, as do the female characters. None of what the team could pull off could happen without Hardison, Parker, and Sophie.
- there's a great family/team dynamic
- there's some great slashy moments, with a strong OT3 and not just m/m, but f/f too
- quotable dialogue. (Eliot, referring to Parker: "She's twenty pounds of crazy in a ten-pound bag." or Hardison, referring to retribution on a guy who screwed him: "I was just going to sign him up for ten million porn magazines and send them to his office.")

Season 1 is out on DVD and iTunes; season 2 should be out this month, and season 3 starts June 20 on TNT. Hulu probably has a few eps from last season online, but I'd start with the first ep if I could, as it sets the stage for everything else. http://www.yidio.com/show/leverage/season-1/episode-1/links.html

[cyprinella]

No great angst (there is some)

Most of which you can ignore by sticking your fingers in your ears and going "SHUT UP NATE SHUT UP NATE SHUT UP NATE".

I may be the only person who does this though.

[settiai]

Oh, no. You're definitely not the only one who does that when Nate starts to talk sometimes.

[raine]

::chuckles:: Not from what I understand from the Leverage panel I co-modded last month. :-)

[reginagiraffe]

Besides, how many people read a fanfic story? A couple hundred, tops?

For popular, well-known stories by popular, well-known writers, he's off by at least a log, maybe closer to two, but it's still well below his million reader cut-off so I'm willing to concede the point.

The rest is unadulterated WIN!

[jmtorres]

Yeaaaaah, I'm not that huge a writer but my White Collar stuff got up to a thousand hits. But considering that he adds that if somebody manages to get a million readers his reaction will be to "hire that bastard" and not suddenly decide here's the magical number where he should feel threatened? Good on him.

[inarticulate]

…Okay, if I hadn't already been sold, the Elves would have done it.

[lferion]

I found myself watching the first episode the other night, largely because people I read here had said good things about it. I really enjoyed the ep, and this post has encouraged me to dvr it and watch more. I am quite happy to support such a sane view. Thanks for bringing it over!

[jetpack_monkey]

I got bored with Leverage early into its first season (what's the point of having a show about crooks if they're actually goody-goodies?), but I've met John Rogers (briefly) and he really is that much of a stand-up guy.

Also, he did a fairly awesome Global Frequency pilot a few years back that starred Michelle Forbes.

[mimesere]

John Rogers is amazing. Between Leverage and the (sadly killed) Blue Beetle reboot, he makes me want to draw sparkly hearts around his brain.

[grey_bard]

Hey, Jaime is still in comics every month even if he doesn't have his own title anymore. I count that as a win!

[justhuman]

Leverage is even more awesome than that write up on Fanfic!

[niqaeli]

Meh. He's saner than most and I'd be a lot happier if more TPTB thought that way, but I'm a little irritated at the dismissal of fanfiction as being -- irrelevant.

Fanfiction and original fiction are not so very different in terms of creation process considering how damned much original fiction is, in some way, derivative. I mean, arguably, ain't nothing new under the fuckin' sun, so, everything's gonna be derivative SOMEHOW. So classing them as OMG NOT THE SAME THING AT ALL hacks me off, no matter how cheerfully inclined he is towards the fanfiction.

(Do I think that people bring the same attitude to the creation of each? Generally, no. But it's not inherent to the creation process, but rather a matter of general culture.)

[grey_bard]

I ran into the works and online presence of John Rogers first in comics, and he has always seemed to be one of the good guys on a lot of levels. (People who aren't white dudes aren't necessarily Captain Ethnic! You can have more than one family of non-WASP descent in the same comic without it being set in a ghetto! Misogyny is bad.)

Also, he's ah. Made certain jokes in his comics work that seem to indicate that not only does he know fanfic exists and is cool with it, but that he is intimately aware of what people write fic about down to pairings and in-jokes concerning them... and he is amused in an approving way.

All of which is to say: I was not surprised that Leverage comes off as being watched fairly carefully to prevent the usual levels of tv-fail, since I knew John Rogers was running the show. (I'm not saying you'd never find *any* fail, but the fail levels are wonderfully low comparatively speaking.)

[aris_tgd]

Leverage is awesome, and all the TPTB people who were around the con were absolutely wonderful to the fans. Including Rogers, who blew his voice out mingling and chatting with people all weekend long.