When I became a Serious Fanfiction Writer (as in, I knew that I was writing fanfiction and I was also sharing this fanfiction) I was writing real-person fanfiction, but I didn't think too much of it because there was already so much of it for the fandoms I was writing for. When I was 15 or so, I was writing My Chemical Romance fanfiction. Shortly after that, I was writing Panic at the Disco fanfiction. I knew that there were people who thought it was weird, but I was surrounded by so many people who read it, wrote it, and loved it.
Don't get me wrong, there's always been a part of me that thinks "These are real people that I'm writing about and I would feel so weird if they ever found out I was writing about them." But I never let that stop me because the people I was writing about had so many fanfictions written about them, there was a very slim chance that they would ever find my silly little stories.
But now. My fandom frowns upon fanfiction.
And I get it! I completely understand what people are thinking! They are real people, human beings! Writing about them is weird!
But I don't really see it as writing about the actual people, if that makes any sense at all.
I can't speak for everyone that writes real-person fanfiction, of course, but I can speak for myself (and probably a handful of others) when I say that when I include real people in my fanfictions, I see them as fictional characters based on real people. They look like them, they have the same name as them, they have the same career as them, and they might even have a similar personality to them. But that's about it.
When you're writing fanfiction for a book, a television show, a play, a musical, and movie... When you're writing about characters that are already fictional, you probably already know a lot about them. You probably already see how they act in their personal lives and with the people that they are close to. When you're writing about real people, you don't see that. You see fragments of their personalities. You see what you can find on the internet and in interviews and videos or old Myspace blogs, but you don't see it all. You can't see it all. It's simply not possible. You don't know who these people are. Which is why when you're writing fanfiction about them, there are SO MANY blank spaces that need to be filled. You have to come up with who they are and you only have so many pieces of the puzzle but you have to figure out the rest. And through this process, these real people become fictional characters.
If I wrote real-person fanfiction and actually believed that this is how these people would act, this is what these people would say, this is something that would happen between these people, then that's a little bit crazy. Because I don't know these people and I can't pretend like I do. But I do know my characters that I have based on these people and I do know how my characters would act, what my characters would say, what would happen between my characters. Because they are my characters. They're just based on real people. But they are still fictional characters.
Maybe it's because I've written fanfiction for so long and I'm looking for a way to justify it, I don't know. But like, right now, the fandom that frowns upon fanfiction? I've written fanfiction and I am absolutely TERRIFIED that the wrong people are going to find it. I completely understand why people think it's creepy, but I don't think it is. I don't mean to be disrespectful to the people involved in the fanfiction and I don't mean to be weird, either. I see why some would find it weird, though, which is partially why I feel the need to give an explanation despite the fact that I'm giving this explanation in a place where quite a few people already understand my point of view.
Basically to sum it all up... I don't feel like I'm writing about real people. I feel like I'm writing about fictional characters based on real people. And sometimes I'm writing about fictional events based on real events. It's all fiction.
I don't mind if people don't like it. That's 100% okay! I just don't like seeing people shaming people for writing it. And I've seen that in my fandom. Do I think people should post their fanfictions on Tumblr and tag it? No. Because the people involved have Tumblrs and check their tags. I don't think there's anything wrong with fanfiction, but it's still probably best to keep it away from the people you're writing about. But aside from that, you know, why not? Some people have overactive imaginations and writing is fun and writing fanfiction is fun and there is nothing wrong with it.
And until one of the people that I am writing about specifically states that they have a problem with fanfiction about them, I don't see any reason to stop writing characters based on them.
Yeah.
Oooooh, I've been itching to get this out for a long time, this felt good. I probably forgot a few things, but oh well!