Stories that seemed to be Fanfiction, but not "Fanfictions"?

[LilTV1155]

I have been noticing several interesting titles on Scribblehub which seemed to be associated with well-recognized, novels, animes, and etc.
I do understand that some people are not really original in their worldbuilding, but like to expand more on the given story's universe.
I do know that there are people who have been sued for using characters with the same names, roles, worldbuilding, and etc. because of fanbase and authors and etc. yadayada stuffs.

But what I don't really get is why do those authors or creators don't really bother to put the label "Fanfiction" on their stories (that really does look like Fanfiction works) if their stories already has direct references to the original source story with same characters, power, settings, elements, and sometimes themes.

Won't this cause the hosting site and the creators of said "stories" get into actual conflicts with the original authors/creators and their publishers, when those (looked like Fanfiction work) stories get out on the public media?

Isn't that like really risky or are those stories exceptional because they have been sorta recognized as Classics that can be made into retellings?

Examples of original works used for stories not identified as "Fanfictions" : Harry Potter, One-Punch Man, Naruto, Pokemon, etc.

 

[Minx]

Any link to such examples? Just curious since I haven't seen or come across one that's like that on this site at all.

But yes, I do agree that it's risky and even borderline rude. I mean, I can't imagine an author who uses other premises/character/world-building from another story, then to have the nerve to call such work original is a bit...

I'd understand if it's just reference, but to actually use the same character and settings, even the name didn't bother to change, yeah if that were true, that's just a-hole, idk.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

So far I haven't seen any that were blatantly plagiarising like that. But out of morbid curiosity, how many have you seen?

 

[Sinpathy]

1. Being the experts of literature, the hive mind that is the comment section doesn't let a single detail of plagiarism get past them. The amount of flak the author could get for not crediting would already give rise to considerable reports on the story.

2. Most of these 'fanfictions' are hobby work written out of a moment's passion. You wouldn't see them last through a consistent publishing schedule past the first 10 chapters, and that's also if the story even gets to that point in the first place.

3. Originality is subjective. Every character, every narrative you've consumed in pop culture is merely a replica of the first.
While it's not nice to plagiarize, it can also be seen as a way for writers who do not have good foundations yet to work on them while writing their versions of a 'good' story. You'd also be surprised to learn that some people also do not have English as their mother tongue, and struggle to find a good way to open their story. Having a 'template' creates groundwork to eventually build what is hopefully, an original piece of work.

4. It's counter intuitive to write a fanfiction without labelling it as one. I'm fairly certain the fanfiction tag alone gives you a consistent viewership regardless of the quality of your work. People eat that up like fast food. So I'd think not tagging their stories become more of a demerit than something to nitpick on.

5. These stories need attention. To be honest, this topic on authors plagiarizing original literature is negligible since the sample size is so small. I'm referring to the readers by the way. Pray tell how would a work written on an amateur novelist site get picked up by the 'public media'? Unlike Crunchyroll and other competitors, I am pretty sure Scribble doesn't do much advertisement besides relations with its sister site and the occasional writing contests. The low exposure does act as an umbrella for people who simply want to write whatever they want (of course, within reason).

There is no risk trying to write what you like, think of Scribble as a personal journal. Doesn't matter what people think of it, as long as you enjoy what you're writing.

Unless you monetize it.
Unless you're churning out bank notes every month.
Unless you've got influential figures endorsing your work or something to that degree, no one significant would bat an eye at a peddler dealing with third-rate wares.

TLDR. Nothing important is missed. Aspiring writers don't be discouraged. Plagiarize all you want, and be better.
Good artists copy, great artists steal.
Build up enough experience to eventually write something of value, something that began with a simple 'uncredited fanfiction'.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk :)

 

[Layenlml]

The only one I can think of is "My World traveling system" it has the start of The gamer with even with same first dungeon, etc and it's not a fic

Any link to such examples? Just curious since I haven't seen or come across one that's like that on this site at all.

But yes, I do agree that it's risky and even borderline rude. I mean, I can't imagine an author who uses other premises/character/world-building from another story, then to have the nerve to call such work original is a bit...

I'd understand if it's just reference, but to actually use the same character and settings, even the name didn't bother to change, yeah if that were true, that's just a-hole, idk.

 

[GodlessEmperor]

I have been noticing several interesting titles on Scribblehub which seemed to be associated with well-recognized, novels, animes, and etc.
I do understand that some people are not really original in their worldbuilding, but like to expand more on the given story's universe.
I do know that there are people who have been sued for using characters with the same names, roles, worldbuilding, and etc. because of fanbase and authors and etc. yadayada stuffs.

But what I don't really get is why do those authors or creators don't really bother to put the label "Fanfiction" on their stories (that really does look like Fanfiction works) if their stories already has direct references to the original source story with same characters, power, settings, elements, and sometimes themes.

Won't this cause the hosting site and the creators of said "stories" get into actual conflicts with the original authors/creators and their publishers, when those (looked like Fanfiction work) stories get out on the public media?

Isn't that like really risky or are those stories exceptional because they have been sorta recognized as Classics that can be made into retellings?

Examples of original works used for stories not identified as "Fanfictions" : Harry Potter, One-Punch Man, Naruto, Pokemon, etc.

My novel is something like that. But it is most definitely not fanfic. I consider it to be hatefic.
- 2 (or 3 locations depending on how you view it) are the same.
- 2 events, in the beginning, are very similar.
- The stat window is pretty similar in the beginning.
- 2 living characters have the same position but are less dumb. 1 dead character with 1 scene is pretty much the same as in the novel as far as I'm concerned.
If I had to give it a copy rating, I would say about 5% is copied. And it's dropping because I already passed the point in the story where I rage quit reading. This is certainly less similar than most Chinese xianxia novels are.

 

[LilTV1155]

TLDR. Nothing important is missed. Aspiring writers don't be discouraged. Plagiarize all you want, and be better.
Good artists copy, great artists steal.
Build up enough experience to eventually write something of value, something that began with a simple 'uncredited fanfiction'.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk :)

Then in that case, all aspiring writers and artists should not complain about getting lawsuits from other famous writers or the originals' fanbases especially regarding whether the stories being literally plagiarized words for words, names for names, and traits for traits or whether their hard works has been claimed or sniped by other people if someone caught on to their stories' coincidental similarities?

In that writer and artist group, translator and scanlator groups are still included by defaults due to their work's nature.
Borrowing the cultural setting and background details from the original sources of "inspirations" and reinterpreting it in their own way, is normal.

For monetizing fanfictions, I think it's only acceptable if they classify it as non-canon from the fictional universe and get official permissions from the creator of inspiration source. You know like FNAF stuffs.

 

[SuperHeiyan]

My novel is something like that. But it is most definitely not fanfic. I consider it to be hatefic.
- 2 (or 3 locations depending on how you view it) are the same.
- 2 events, in the beginning, are very similar.
- The stat window is pretty similar in the beginning.
- 2 living characters have the same position but are less dumb. 1 dead character with 1 scene is pretty much the same as in the novel as far as I'm concerned.
If I had to give it a copy rating, I would say about 5% is copied. And it's dropping because I already passed the point in the story where I rage quit reading. This is certainly less similar than most Chinese xianxia novels are.

So still derivation work?
Or something that is built on common legend?

 

[GodlessEmperor]

So still derivation work?
Or something that is built on common legend?

Derivation.

 

[Sabruness]

so the issue is people not labelling fanfics as fanfics, despite the tag existing for that purpose?

If that is your point, i have noticed a few in the past like that.

 

[dvelasquez]

First (most of a comedic relief), do you happen to hear about the "Divine Comedy"? Well, that's probably the most famous and more talked about fanfiction in the whole world.

Second point. As someone said above, when writing fanfiction (if what the user wants is to have a lot of readers), the best possible idea is to say that it's fanfiction and to specify what fanfiction it is, it would actually attract a lot of people that liked or disliked/hated the source novel. And yes, just as to why some people write a fanfic of their favorite novel/manga/movie/yadayada, some readers read fanfics because that way they can probably see things that they hated on the original source, be changed.

Third point. Technically, you can't be sued unless you're profiting from that fanfic or you're 100% affirming that's a completely original novel when it is not. Funnily enough, here's a gray area, because how do you sue someone that uses, let's say, zombies, which are not an "original" concept? Or heck, ninjas, that have turned to be heavily referenced by other series like Naruto or Basilisk, and so on, even mythologies like Nordic or Greek can also be taken into consideration as a "source", I know those are really out-of-context and exaggerated examples, but it's just to say that, there are ways to go around using references. For example, I can give a long explanation about a technique that materializes a spirit protector to form a giant fighter around you, which wouldn't be that much different from Susanoo, but hey, it's not a Susanoo, it's a Giant Fighting Spirit, and you can't prove me wrong if I change details here and there.

Also, related to the previous point, a lot of people says that everything is "already created", and they might be right, most of what we call "original" stories are influenced by other stories, even if those stories are not a novel or a movie or a series, but folklore or stories from the countryside, or mythology. Heck, even some mythologies are based or derivated on other mythologies. So yeah, there's a really huge grey area there when it comes to specific things.

Fourth point. Using fanfic as a tool to learn to write, it's perfectly fine in my opinion (biased as I'm doing just that, two of those actually, and one it's fanfic of Harry Potter). Going through an already established story helps you see how others create their work, how they do certain things, how to flesh out a character, identify mistakes even when you technically have no knowledge to "judge" if it's a mistake or not. Mix that with feedback from your readers, and you can start growing as a writer, even without having any base as one.

Writing fanfiction isn't wrong in any case, it helps out a lot to new writers, and it's truly a fun thing to write and read. Trying to make a fanfic pass as an original creation, that's borderline stupid and disgusting. (but hey, we're humans, we've done and kept doing more horrendous things than plagiarizing, so it's not really impossible for someone to do it).

Now, on this site, I haven't seen much (I can't remember right now if any, probably had, but not sure.) people plagiarizing a story and signaling it as original novels.