In which I blog about writing, YA fiction and the occasional sparkly unicorn.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Feature and Follow Friday

Feature and Follow is a fun blog hop hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read. It's really easy to participate, and it's a great way to meet new blog friends! Go check it out here

This week's Question: Do you mind books with similar ideas to other books? Similar concepts, backgrounds, retellings or pulled-to-publish fanfic? 

Hmmm, this is a hard one. I'm one of those people that believes that there's not really anything new under the sun. But it's not really the basic idea that's important, it's what you do with it. Basically, I don't mind when an idea is similar to another, as long as it's spun in a different way. There were stories about magical boarding schools long before J.K. Rowling came along, what made her so awesome was that she managed to do something entirely unprecedented with the idea. Do something crazy, and new and completely awesome with an old idea and I won't hate you for it, in fact it might even make me love you all the more! As for retellings-- I love retellings, especially fairy tale ones (however, this may be in part due to my love of fairy tales in general. So bring me ALL THE FAIRY TALE RETELLINGS).

Published fanfic *sigh*. This is a complicated topic. I, quite adamantly, find nothing wrong with fanfiction. The fanfic writer isn't making any profit of another author's work, and so it doesn't negatively impact anyone in any way. And for that matter, there is a lot of beautifully written fanfiction out there (sometimes it's just a little hard to find). Now, when a fanfiction story is re-vamped and slated for publication, things get a little bit tricky. If the story is a completely different one, where there are similar themes or origins (like Cassandra Clare's Immortal Instrument series) that's fine. But when you get a story where basically only the names and some slight aesthetic details have been changed (like another story I won't name here), that's when you get into dangerous territory.

So, in short (even though this wasn't short at all), similar ideas are fine with me. As long as the authors do something cool with them.

What are your thoughts on the question? Leave a comment so I can go check out all your awesome posts!

9 comments:

  1. Great answer! I am a new follower!
    http://racingtoread.blogspot.com/2012/11/feature-follow.html

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  2. Well stated! New follower through GFC as lucyatmax. I can be found and followed at bethartfromtheheart.blogspot.com .
    Happy Reading!
    Beth

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    1. Thanks for the follow! I followed back (via GFC) :)

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  3. You have such great points!! Well written and I agree. Great blog also, new GFC Follower. :)

    My Feature and Follow Friday

    Christine
    Rainy Day Reads

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  4. I agree! I don't mind as long as there seems to be some original thought put into the story.

    New Follower GFC: http://mydailyobsessionreview.blogspot.com/

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  5. Great answer!! Mine was similar.

    Thanx for visiting my FF!
    Naomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace

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