3.01.2009

What the hell is fan fiction?

Like many, I have a very active imagination. For as much of my nearly 43 years on this planet as I can remember, I have been creating what I now know to be fan fiction in my mind. It started with Star Trek (First Generation) when I was about three or four and would regularly watch syndicated episodes on TV. In my imagination, I would be beamed aboard the Starship Enterprise to help Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock with some strange mystery that only a small child from my time on earth could assist with. I can still remember the stories I made up.

I kept them all in my head and never, ever, admitted out loud that I did this.

Then came a show called S.W.A.T. that was on in the mid 70's, when I was about eight. Together with 2 of my closest friends, I developed a female persona named Amy Stuart, who was the female counterpart to the character of Dominic Luca. My two friends created female counterparts to the characters of TJ McCabe and Jim Street, and together, we created and acted out incredible adventures that encompassed law enforcement, travel, singing in a band (Beatles and ELO covers), paramedic rescue, and secret investigation, all involving these 3 original female characters and the three male ones from the show. By this stage of my life, the taboo of taking someone else's creations and going in a new direction with them had eased slightly in the discovery that my friends had the same desires. It was a secret I was thrilled to be able to share. And at the ages of eight, nine, ten, eleven, and even twelve, I could get away with it in my conscience. But then I became too old to play such imaginary games.

And then came the dilemma of what to do with this intense desire to make up stories with other people's characters? I liked to write, but I couldn't use these characters with clear conscience in my stories, at least not publicly. And though I had no reason to fear my private notebooks would be violated by snooping eyes, I just couldn't take the risk of writing down these fantasy stories and making them real by committing them to paper. What if somehow, someone who would recognize these characters came across my story and realized I had stolen them?

I developed a coping mechanism of keeping the stories in my head as much as I could. When I had to write them down, I would change the character names, and try not to feel the loss of identity that I so strongly associate with them while I wrote out my new adventures for them.

This has been the case for my entire adult life. I kept with the S.W.A.T. characters in my imagination for years before Pierce Brosnan showed up as Remington Steele. Then, I moved Amy away from Dom Luca and on to a new character based on Remington Steele's persona. Still too worried about being discovered for stealing someone else's character, I finally morphed him into an OC (original character in fanfic land) and named him Bryson Wilde. At this stage of my life, the compulsion to see my stories come to life drove me to write a novel starring both Amy and Bryson. I self published it. (Images of Silence, by D.S. Kirchen)

And then it was done. And then.... well, now what?

Another TV show turned up called Nash Bridges. This cast of characters absolutely enchants me. The fact that the show was filmed in San Francisco was the icing on the cake. The show has been off the air for several years already, but I still make up stories with that cast. Still mostly in my head. But my stories take them out of the SIU of the SFPD, and put them into a whole new genre with a selection of new characters. I could write the story out with new names and no one would know these men were Nash Bridges characters, but I am still too paranoid of getting caught stealing. Besides, no other names truly fit these characters... I've tried!

The irony is, very few people read my stories anyway, and none of them watched those TV shows....

So what to do? do I write the stories with the cast of someone else's characters or not?

Author's Note (A/N in fac fic vernacular): if you haven't already explored the world of fan fiction, the best place to start is fanfiction.net.

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