Word to the Wise for Fellow Fanfiction Writers

For those of you who also read Fimfiction's submission policy, you're probably well aware of their rule "Don't Post: Stories that plagarise other stories."

To an author new to the world of writing, this is a frightening loophole. To you - a creative Brony who most likely enjoys the art of writing - this rule is actually so obsecure that it's hardly even necessary for them to put it up on the site's policy beyond the classic, "It says right here, 'do not plagarize.'"

I doubt anyone on this site would intentionally go out of their way to violate this rule. Bronies know the Internet well, and, in my experiences, are usually pretty damn nice, even with knowledge which could be used threateningly.

To get to my point of this blog, I would like to say that unless you're willfully ripping somepony off a preexisting work, do not threat about this rule. It doesn't apply to you. It doesn't apply to anyone. Why not? I am happy to explain the two reasons why this rule is moot to practically every user of this site. The first reason is because the Brony community: you've seen one parody, there's a hundred more. There is almost zero originality out there anymore because the fatest online community in the history of mankind acts on anything new to ponify or fabricate. Lyra's obssession with anthropology. Twilight kissing Rarity or whomever. Shipfics. Clopfics. Rewrites to the ending of episodes because someone found it dissatisfying. They've all been done to death. If that rule really applied, there would - and could - only be one fanfiction in which Twilight is shipped with Fluttershy (or whomever, I'm just giving examples), and no one else could write that due to copyright. Copyright here has one meaning and one meaning only: your work is your work. But if you have the idea to ship Twilight with Fluttershy, it's been done a million times over. So, it's still illegal for someone to willingly steal your work and publish it as their own, in which case Fimfiction would deny their publication (most likely, if they catch the infringement). And the plot of your story is yours, but the whole idea, 99% of the time, has been done and is lacking in originality.

If your problem is trying to find originality in your fanfiction, my advice as a writer is to dig deep. What I recommend is creating more OCs and locations alongside the Mane Six and Equestria. Get Twilight and the girls out of her precious home in Ponyville. That way the story becomes more of your own. You risk infringement even less, and your story becomes more unique. Now, this can be a challenge for some. And if it is, just do what good writers do: write what you know. If imagination is a bitch, then write with what you have and not with what you cannot grasp.

Now, the second reason, for those of you who are afraid of pressing the "Submit" button for your crossover fanfiction: parodies are void of all copyright laws. "Weird Al" Yankovic only parodies songs only after receiving permission simply out of the kindness of his heart. (Really quick, if you've seen the "White and Nerdy" music video, when he's typing 'YOU SUCK!' on Wikipedia, he's vandalising the Wikipedia page of an artist who denied him permission to parody a song he wanted to do.) But you aren't "Weird Al." You don't need permission unless it violates nothing more than your own moral standards. The only permission you need is your own. It is infringing nopony's copyright to write your own parody of An Unexpected Journey or Harry Potter or The Hunger Games or Avatar or whatever banality you're interested in. Parodies are for satirizing, and are both in no way a crime, nor are in no way subject to plagarizing outside of the classic willingness to download another person's story, switch their name for yours, and expect to be deeded copyright to that person's work. That is always illegal, parody or not. But unless you're doing that: don't sweat it.

One of the reasons I'm bringing this up is because some of you might remember when I submitted my story, The Pony: An Unexpected Journey, and when I read the comments I thought I was in bucking hot water. A few days passed, and by that time, I had cancelled it, saying instead of my embarrassing mishap, that "it wasn't turning out as planned" and bullbit like that (which was true, nonetheless), and I had not heard back from Fimfiction, even though I was told it had been reported and everything. A moderator never messaged two words to me about it. Or even one. To this day, I'm still not sure if it was because I cancelled it which saved my plot or maybe Fimfiction also understands that it's a parody and therefore, no matter what, since I'm not willingly ripping someone else's parody off, I'm in the green. And I don't want any of you to have to go through such a scary event. If your work is ever reported, there better be a damn good reason why.

In summation: there's hardly anything written and published on Fimfiction which has any originality to it anyway (even this Writer of the Shadows has seen some pretty unique works), so don't feel guilty about your next shipfic, clopfic, or any fanfiction really. And, if you're writing a crossover parody, as long as it's your own work, feel free to say to anyone who has the balls to report you, "If I had any fingers, I'd be showing you one!" because they probably deserve it.