How do you share a sandbox?

[seraphcelene]

tkp's new War Stories 'verse got me to thinking and that's really no surprise because tkp inspires most of my thoughts these days and that totally makes sense considering the shininess of her brain.

I know there's been discussion on this in other places, and if anyone remembers the link please forward it. How do you share a fandom created universe? Or do you? Can you? Is it possible to play in someone else's sand box without stepping on anyone's toes? Do you ask permission before you write, or before you post? Do you ask permission at all? Does the fact that fandom is predicated on appropriation eliminate the necessity to ask permission? Is it assumed that all is open to everyone or ... well, what's the deal?



The only fic I've ever actually read in which a fic writer borrows' another fic writer's universe is Fialka's Worlds Enough and Time, written in Maayan's Sleep While I Drive universe. From the Author's Notes I suspect that Fialka asked before she dived in and Maayan agreed and also provided beta.

But maybe that's not what happened. I never asked the parties involved.

I hijacked moireach's 'verse from The Sky Has Claws for the willowficathon and wrote The Fall of Night. I didn't ask. My brain just knotted itself until I wrote it, but I felt so bad about it that I never actually submitted it. It took a minute for me to go ahead and post, and moireach graciously left positive comments.

Of course, I still wonder, did she really not mind? Or did it really make her skin crawl and bristle and her hair stand on end to think that someone had gone and added onto a story that she had begun. And without permission, mind you.

With open-ended narrative arc's like tkp's War Stories 'verse or even just stories that imply a gazillion possibilities for future events, do writers write IN a universe that belongs to another writer or do they write on the sly and never mention their inspiration or the connections between what they have written and what has been written previously? Does the story merely become part of the literary tradition for that fandom/character?

The Fall of Night is very blatantly located in moireach's Sky verse. In fact, it could come into contention with however she chooses to continue or close that narrative. Of course it could also be totally ignored as it was not initially part of the story.

Would you mind if someone was so inspired by a story that you had written that they felt the need to contribute or would you rather they keep it to themselves? This is not, after all, a money-making endeavor. We've already violated copyrights and there's always the debate over infringements, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

Is it considered bad form? Does it matter?

I don't know if I'd mind if someone dived into one of the little universes I'd created. I'm sure if they did a swell job I would be tickled to death and jealous as all hell. But, I don't think I'd mind. The Remix ... Redux Challenges are voluntary and they are altered versions of the same stories, sometimes extended, sometimes not. I don't have the courage or the nerve to participate, but maybe one day.

What do you guys think? Tell me something ...

Comments

[thawrecka]

I would love someone to do fic riffing off Rough Magic. That would make me squee like you wouldn't believe. (Which reminds me that I still haven't finished that willow story I've been writing nigh on two years. I fail!)

I know there are some fanauthors who write fic that inspires a lot of other fic for whatever reasons - I know askerian has a page on her website for the fic written by other people in a universe she created in one of her stories. So I don't think it's too much of a faux pas? Generally people seem cool with it.