I love “Harry Potter.”
Anyone who knows me knows I have read the books more than five times each. They know that “Prisoner of Azkaban” is my favorite, tied with “Order of the Phoenix” and “Deathly Hallows.”
They know I have done Pottermore and that I am a Hufflepuff. They know I have read multiple fanfictions that include Harry/Ginny, Harry/Hermione and even Harry/Bellatrix [weirdest story ever] and Harry/Draco. I love Harry Potter fanfiction.
Heck, I love fanfiction in general. I was one of those girls in middle school [and part of high school] who had their noses pressed in a notebook, writing stories about characters that I didn’t create; characters I was “borrowing.”
What I don’t like, though, are the fanfics that get a lot of attention.
Why, you ask?
Because the fanfics that get all the attention are turned into actual novels with subpar characters.
Let’s take “Fifty Shades of Grey” for example.
How many of you knew that it was actually a “Twilight” fanfic?
Well, it was.
It was first published on fanfiction.net and titled, “Master of the Universe.”
By and large it was a BDSM Edward/Bella fanfic, which I could see since the Edward/Bella pairing is so … controlling and manipulative.
After receiving some bad reviews on fanfiction.net, E.L. James took it down and published it on fiftyshades.com. After publishing it on her own site, she then reworked the series and changed Edward to Christian and Bella to Ana.
The book became a hit and was called, “Mommy Porn.”
The book became such a hit that Hollywood is now making a film starring Jamie Dornan [Christian] and Dakota Johnson [Ana].
“Twilight” isn’t the only book series to be plagiarized.
Even my beloved “Harry Potter” has been plagiarized.
The book series, “The Mortal Instruments” was originally a Draco/Ginny fanfic. The fanfic was apparently a trilogy.
Cassandra Clare, the author of “The Mortal Instruments,” received a lot of hate for many reasons back during her fanfiction days. Even today she is receiving hate for the fact that she plagiarized “Harry Potter” by using Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley.
Hollywood even turned the first “Mortal Instruments” book into a film in 2013 starring Lilly Collins [Clary] and Jamie Campbell Bower [Jace].
As much as I dislike “Twilight” [yes, I have read all of the books] I cannot believe that E.L. James is profiting from her fanfiction work.
As much as I love “Harry Potter” I am furious that Cassandra Clare is profiting from her fanfiction work.
If you want to write a novel, go ahead.
If you want to write fanfics, go ahead.
But don’t write fanfics and then change a couple of things around and then claim it is an “original work” and profit off somebody else’s characters.
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