I was thinking a couple of weeks ago about writing a story about a witch in the Harry Potter world. It wasn't going to include any of the characters or events that JK wrote about: it was going to be an original story about a witch born into a muggle fundamentalist-Christian family (imagine how tricky that situation would be). The things taken from Harry Potter would have been the different sorts of magical creatures, the fact that there is a ministry of magic, the historical background, the spells and, of coarse, Hogwarts.

Anyway, I got over that idea pretty quickly but it got me thinking: would my story have been classed as "fanfiction"? Where is the line drawn between fan fiction & original fiction? Are there certain unwritten guidlines about this sort of thing?

I thought this was a pretty interesting topic, so give me your opinion . . .

Fanfiction is basically any fiction that contains writing with another author's writing: that could be the world/setting or the characters. So yes, your story would have been fanfiction because you use Hogwarts, the ministry of magic, etc. You did not create those, they were created by JK Rowling. So it's fanfiction. The only thing you would be able to call original would be your characters.

Original fiction is when everything you write has been created by you. Like for instance my cyberpunk story takes place in a fictional city called Arcopolis that I made up and the characters in the story have been  created by me.

Hm... I don't know. I think there is a point where if you borrow a few things from another person's work it isn't fanfiction but is rather 'inspired by Rowling'. I'm not sure where that line is. But I think yours still falls under fanfiction because you are using environments/settings created by someone else.

A wizard/witch in a Christian family? Very interesting  That reminds me....didn't they celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts?  I always wondered what aspects did the Wizarding world celebrate in regards to Christmas?

Yeah it's still an interesting idea since they celebrated Christmas at Hogwarts. It would make for interesting fanfiction, that's for sure.

On Sep 7, 2007 8:54 am, BogusRed said:
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Hm... I don't know. I think there is a point where if you borrow a few things from another person's work it isn't fanfiction but is rather 'inspired by Rowling'. I'm not sure where that line is. But I think yours still falls under fanfiction because you are using environments/settings created by someone else.

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Yeah, I think that's the case. I think it's ok to reference other stories or ideas from other authors. E.g:

• If you wrote a story in London and you mention that your characters have heard of a mysterious school somewhere far away that schooled people in the art of magic. You're stating that your story takes place in the Harry Potter universe, but because you're neither naming the school or using ideas from Rowling's world, it's not Fan Fiction. 
• If something happens in your story and one of the characters says something like "Damn, just like in Harry Potter!" You're referencing that the Harry Potter novels exist in your story world and the situations may be similiar, but still not using any of Rowlings stuff (hopefully).

I know i reference a lot of stuff in my stories because there's so many stories that influenced and inspired me.

So, if you reference to them it's ok? What about copyright infringement? If you even name Harry Potter in your works, don't you have to worry about that?

Hmmm... I don't know enough about it I guess :S I was sorta going on Stephen Kings Dark Tower series where he referenced almost every well known story under the sun. He wouldn't have asked permission for absolutely every refernee.... would he? *attempts to look thoughtful*

Hmmm... I don't know enough about it I guess :ponders: I was sorta going on Stephen Kings Dark Tower series where he referenced almost every well known story under the sun. He wouldn't have asked permission for absolutely every reference.... would he? *attempts to look thoughtful*

What kind of references did Stephen King use? It's one thing to be inspired by things like classical mythology or folklore. Those things already belong to everybody. Nobody owns them and everyone who has a creative bent is allowed to make a profit off them. It's also permissible to just refer to other stories as either a tribute to them or to make your own story fit better in a real world setting (for example, having your characters go see an Indiana Jones movie would help establish a timeframe and social scene). Also, parody is generally permissible.

Maybe someday in the far future, Harry Potter will be part of folklore that belongs to everyone. Copyrights do expire. (Professional authors have written and published stories based on literary works whose copyrights have expired -- just a couple of years ago, a book called March, which was about the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, won a Pulitzer prize.) For now, it's still under copyright, so anything that anyone else writes in that universe is fanfic.