It's... I don't know, I don't think there's anything wrong with being emotionally invested in your work, and I do understand why people are protective of it. But I do get confused by the idea of feeling that way, but then releasing your babies for consumption by a community of people who are known for taking other people's stuff and playing with it. It feels like you're almost setting yourself up to get hurt, you know? And I get that it's in part about validation and wanting appreciation, and being part of something bigger than yourself and I get that too, but I think there's something valuable in being able to let go at that point where you hit post on that fic. At the end of the day, you don't have to accept anything another fan writes/produces as 'canon' for your work, any more than the content creators we riff on accept our fanworks as canon for them.
I suppose perhaps plagiarism is different because that's not someone taking your idea and fucking with it, it's just flat out stealing. In many ways, it divorces the work from your original idea - they're not invested in (and retelling and changing) your story, they've just flat out stolen it for their own purposes. So, I guess it is different, maybe?
To caveat all of that, I'm really spitballing here, because its trying to make sense of how other people feel in a way I really can't relate to, because I've never felt that way (I had an open transformative policy long before formalising those was ever a thing). But it is interesting to think about.
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Date: 2022-01-08 01:02 (UTC)I suppose perhaps plagiarism is different because that's not someone taking your idea and fucking with it, it's just flat out stealing. In many ways, it divorces the work from your original idea - they're not invested in (and retelling and changing) your story, they've just flat out stolen it for their own purposes. So, I guess it is different, maybe?
To caveat all of that, I'm really spitballing here, because its trying to make sense of how other people feel in a way I really can't relate to, because I've never felt that way (I had an open transformative policy long before formalising those was ever a thing). But it is interesting to think about.