Amanda Jane is a 30-year-old writer, social media lover and pop-culture obsessed adult*. While she isn't working on her novel, she enjoys watching television shows, wondering about the YouTube business model for vloggers, movies and reading any books she can get her hands on. She might be made up of 20% coffee and 80% sarcasm.
*An adult when her parents are looking.
Now would be a good time for the ED social media team to actually have a Tumblr account. Because seriously – please don’t touch fanfic. You know it exists. We know you know. But what ITV’s lawyers and accountants and big wigs like is that there’s this unwritten law between studios and fandom: plausible deniability.
You don’t read it, you don’t look for it, you don’t talk about it. We write it, we post it, we make a sum total of zero pence from it.
It works both ways, you know that? Growing up I watched Babylon 5 and the writer/creator spent time on an official message board. He’d talk to the fans, he’d answer questions… Then one day he saw a post with a “what if” storyline and suddenly it wasn’t fun because they’d just commissioned a script with pretty much that exact storyline. The guy who posted was just speculating and had no clue but he had to sign a release because otherwise he could have claimed influence.
Another show I watched actually had a standing arrangement with some writers/producers and they would answer directed questions and comment on episodes. They asked for their accounts to be limited so they couldn’t access the fan stuff: videos, fics, artwork. They didn’t want to notice that stuff because if we sailed a little too close to the truth with some speculation then we were all covered.
If I write a fic where Ross is actually Seb’s father and you’re reading it or talking to me about it? You can’t ever do that. Joe Tate turns out to be two kids in a fancy suit? Debbie finally gives up men altogether? All storylines that are now burned.
Because otherwise I can claim intellectual influence (or something like that). The characters are yours, yes, but the ideas and the stories? They’re ours. That’s why fanfiction exists in this little grey area.
Please. Don’t come and play in this sandbox. No fic writer wants this. You don’t want this. Share the artwork, talk to us, give us clues and tidbits and be sarcastic when we point out it must be voting season.
FRIENDLY REMINDER: You are allowed to feel proud of yourself for things that might seem silly to other people, like getting better at a video game or putting together a nice outfit for the next morning or finishing a book. You deserve to feel proud for your accomplishment.
