Does anyone else find it funny...

[Megan]

...that the guy chosen to be Christian Grey is from the UK and so is the guy picked to play Edward Cullen. Since FSoG was fanfic I find this a little humorous but I am sure that is purely coincidence.

[Carly]

I think its coincidence. I think E.L James wanted Robert Pattinson aka Edward Cullen to play Christian. I am no sure how much say E.L. James had with regards to casting.

[Natasha]

Just coincidence. And EL James sure wanted Rob Pattinson badly, but he declined. Hunnam turned it down at first, then they went back negotiated for him because they couldn't find anyone else better. As for the Johnson girl, I guess she probably was the only one would like to do the full frontal nudity.

[Irene]

I wouldn't like Pattinson for the role and I think that Matt Bomer would be a much better choice from the current one, but I keep being optimistic and who knows? He might suprise us.

[Lindsay C]

No, what's funniest is that Stephanie Meyer considered Charlie for her Twilight films. The thing is they are British, women (myself included)--it's the accent.

http://stepheniemeyer.com/movie_archi...

[Martine]

Will someone explain to me what the hell fanfic is??? Been reading this comment a lot... I don't get it??

[Crystal]

Martine wrote: "Will someone explain to me what the hell fanfic is??? Been reading this comment a lot... I don't get it??"
It's short for fan fiction. Stuff that fans of books or shows or movies write that is about those specific characters or situations. When E.L. James wrote Fifty shades she was actually writing as if it was Edward & Bella - But changed the character names and I'm guessing some situations when it got popular eough to be published on its own ;)

Might have been a vague description, but hope it helped.

[Martine]

Yes Crystal! Thanx! But right now I'm wondering... does that make the author less worthy of the honors? And the work of lesser quality? (by the way, I agree that Fifty Shades was no litterary chef-d'oeuvre, but the fact remains that it was a good story to tell)

It's weird because my perceptions of Christian and Edward are completely different. So to me, James made a good job at differenciating the characters.

[Megan]

^^^Well she had to get inspiration from somewhere, so does it make it less quality... eh no and yes. FSoG pretty much mirrors Twilight, there are countless post on here comparing the two. But she still made it her own by changing the characters, setting and situations. I don't think it should get as much praise as it is getting since it was not purely an original idea or even a pioneer for BDSM and "erotica", but her sells speak for themselves.

[ratherread]

Crystal wrote: "Martine wrote: "Will someone explain to me what the hell fanfic is??? Been reading this comment a lot... I don't get it??"
It's short for fan fiction. Stuff that fans of books or shows or movies wr..."

Martine wrote: "Will someone explain to me what the hell fanfic is??? Been reading this comment a lot... I don't get it??"

Here's a Fanfic website where fans of books post their independent stories based on the books characters:
http://www.fanfiction.net/book/

[Martine]

Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even profit) should be given to the original author?!

I searched on Wikipedia and saw that some authors have taken some legal means so that their work is not used for fanfiction (Anne Rice is one of them). I think I quite agree with that... I mean, if someone used something that I invented and used it to make money with it, I'd want to get a part of the benefits!

Do you know of any other successful books that were fanfiction?

[Lindsay C]

Martine wrote: "Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even profit) should be given to the original a..."

I know S.C. Stephens published Thoughtless there killing off Kiera, not sure if you are familiar with that series. It's now a trilogy because she got a lot of backlash, and Avoiding commitment started there as well I believe.

[Martine]

Lindsay: Yes, I've heard of that series... They are on my to-read list. I had no idea they were also fanfic! This is definitely an awkward concept for me to deal with! I'm not sure where I should stand, morally and ethically...

[Siobhan]

Martine wrote: "Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even profit) should be given to the original a..."

A lot of hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, doctor who, and Star Trek books are fan fiction. And I know Cassandra Claire did Harry Potter fanfic but I'm not entirely sure if that became the Mortal instruments books. I think that's what I heard though.

[Martine]

So fanfic is very common then...

[Mochaspresso]

Martine wrote: "Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even profit) should be given to the original a..."

Sylain Reynard's "Gabriel's Inferno" series started as Twilight fanfiction too. It was originally called "The University of Edward Masen".


"Beautiful Bastard" was Twilight fanfiction as well. It was originally called "The Office".

This FSOG fanfic hasn't been published as a book, but some of the stories were pretty interesting reads. I enjoyed the "Fifty Shades From Twenty" (a prequel to FSOG--Christian's story and pov from the age of 20.) and "Fifty Shades of Taylor" (FSOG told from the pov of Taylor).

http://fifty-shades-of-grey.me/home-p...

"Pride and Prejudice" has tons of fanfiction, published and unpublished, attached to it also.

[Somerandom]

Martine wrote: "Yes Crystal! Thanx! But right now I'm wondering... does that make the author less worthy of the honors? And the work of lesser quality? (by the way, I agree that Fifty Shades was no litterary chef-..."

That's a good question..

Well.... Whilst I do agree that authors have a right to protect their intellectual property, nothing is really original anymore. It's not about your ideas so much, it's about how you package them.

Look at cliches. We see them everywhere. Some more hidden than others. Love triangles. Well, you can find that in quite a few YA novels. Some trios work genuinely very well while others tend to irritate the fanbase or the general audience.
Good vs Evil. Found in the Narnia series, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter etc. Actually within the epic fantasy genre you will be hard pressed to find a book, TV show, movie or even video game that hasn't borrowed some tiny smidge of influence from The Lord of the Rings. Does this mean that all epic fantasy authors are just cheap imitators?
No, some are extremely skilled and use it to show off their strengths.

If you read a book, you can often spot where an author has been influenced by another, whether intentional or not.

In addition to practicing their technique and craft an author will generally read a lot of books, more often than not from a varied selection of genres and targeted audiences. Whether they are for fun or to analyze them. This helps authors find different styles of writing, different techniques and different vocabulary usages.
And whether they realize it or not, those books and authors will greatly influence their own writing. So technically a lot of authors might be "stealing" others ideas without even realizing it.

Does it take away from the quality if something is originally fanfic? Not necessarily. But it depends on the actual author of said FanFic.
Sometimes the imitator might be a more skilled wordsmith and storyteller than the original author. They could therefore hide the origins better and churn out a thrilling yarn entirely their own, showing off their talents. They could build all new worlds being influenced by the original work. They could create all new characters from the existing ones.
If an author can do that, then most people wouldn't even know that it even started as a FanFic.

If, however, something is very blatant and the author has just used someone's work as a vehicle for money rather than telling their own story. Well, then I hope they get sued for copyright infringement.

[Megan]

Mochaspresso wrote: "Martine wrote: "Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even profit) should be given t..."
How similar is it to Twilight? Is it a lot like FSOG where you can see them mirror, or is it subtle differences?

[Martine]

Megan wrote: "Mochaspresso wrote: "Martine wrote: "Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even pro..."

If you ask me, I would have never linked FSoG and Twilight together and I read them all....

[Rebecca]

Mochaspresso wrote: "Martine wrote: "Thanx for the website reference Ratherread! I had no idea! There are so many! But if a fanfiction becomes successful, shouldn't part of the credit (or even profit) should be given t..."

You can also add "The Dominant, The Submissive, The Training" by Tara Sue Me
and "Wallbanger" by Alice Clayton.

The thing all these published "Twilight" fanfics have in common is that they were all AU/AH (Alternate Universe/All Human).

Thus the only thing it had in common with the "Twilight" books were the names of the characters and their descriptions. These are things that can be easily changed before being published as original works. Also, since the stories and plots originally bared no resemblance to the "Twilight" books, once the names where changed there was not a copyright issue.

I'm sure there are many more out there, these are just the ones I can recall that fit in this particular criteria that have not already been mentioned.

[Martine]

Wow thanx a lot for the comment Rebecca. In fact, all of the other comments are very interesting! Where do you all get this information from??