Please be careful when reading fanfiction

[SaltandLightTeacher]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to send a general PSA, since I used to read a lot of fanfiction when I was younger, sometimes without proper discernment. There are many fanfictions are dark stories with very unchristian values and violent revenge plots etc. These stories often reject forgiveness as an option and show characters doing terrible things in great detail, such as torture, etc. I feel such stories are best left in moderation at best, but everyone has different views on such things.

Some fanfictions depict children or teenagers acting like adults, or in unrealistic relationships, sometimes even doing sexual acts. When reading fanfiction, please keep in mind the depicted age of the characters, and choose wisely.

I'm not saying all fanfiction is bad, there are plenty of great fics out there! Just be careful what you read, it is not all uplifting stuff. Have fun reading and writing everyone, God bless.

 

[jasmine_childoftheking]

Also, I’m sure people out there should be careful in what they write in fanfic.

Given what Hollywood likes to put out these days in movies, who knows what people could write in fanfic.

 

[Tuur]

FWIW:

Fanfic that never sees the light of day is one thing; posting or publishing fanfic is another. If the fictional characters and world are not public domain, then it's protected by copyright, and some authors, publishers, and companies have no sense of humor. Frankly, I don't know how some fanfic for a certain fictional universe wasn't sued into oblivion, and that doesn't mean there wasn't lawsuits I'm unaware of.

Aside from the legal hurdles and playing in someone else' literary world, writing and reading fanfic is no different than any other fiction. Some are dark, some, well, downright pornographic. Some are the notorious "Mary Sue" type stories. Making characters act their age is hard. I hope I got away with it in some non-fanfic works because the characters were at an age when some of their peers would have been leading armies, but in some ways they did act their age (I hope). I recall reading some stories supposedly written for that age level when I was at that age and found them "dumbed down" to the point where it was insulting.