Thoughts on other authors using your character?

[BrokenSpokes]

I’m an admittedly rare poster here on the forum, but I saw the upcoming “virtual convention” event and had to comment. While I’m supportive of collaborative events and creative wing-spreading (people should do what makes them happy) I’m curious about author’s feeling on other authors using their characters in other works.

Personally the idea makes me want to scream and claw at my eyes. I cannot stand the idea of anyone using my characters. They live deep in my soul and the thought of anyone else animating them and putting words in their mouth and thoughts fills me with horror. I’ve had authors ask me to use my characters before and it’s always a hard no, even for author friends. I have allowed references where authors have their characters mentioned mine in passing or had them in the background but not speaking, but I can’t let myself give up my characters agency to anyone but myself.

I’m sure this will bring out all sorts of opinions and I’ll be told I’m wrong. Im
Just curious what other author’s thoughts are.

 

[Voboy]

Well, for people who voluntarily participate in the virtual convention, I'm all in favor of it. They've made a choice that it's fine with them, and just like anything else here, that's the point: consent.

I've done it once, at a publisher's behest, and although the book sold quite well, I wasn't a fan of the overall experience; myself and another writer traded characters, and I felt a very deep sense of awkwardness writing "his" protagonist. To this day, I've never read his take on my character.

It's hard for me to think of a reason why I'd do it again. Money, of course. Maybe friendship? Certainly not curiosity.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

There's nothing wrong with your standpoint.

I'm very relaxed in that sense, and I wouldn't mind other authors using my characters. I guess it all comes down to how defining you think it is for your characters if someone else uses them in a way that feels off-character to you.

I'm of a mind that only I can define my characters, and that's all that matters. Everyone else is entitled to see them differently, but it doesn't change the way I see them. The way I see them is what's important, although such a thing might motivate me to convey my vision better in the future.

Just out of curiosity, does it bother you when ordinary readers interpret and see your characters differently from the way you imagined them when you wrote them? Would it bother you if they started, say, a thread on the forum about how they see your characters, and if their view differed significantly from your own?

 

[ChuckWolf]

Within this site, I think I'd be flattered and OK with another author wanting to use a character of mine in one of their stories, as most of them I don't really have any future plans for.

If the story involves something I'm NOT into (incest, lactation, m/m stuff, etc.) or has the character acting very differently than he/she did in my stories, I'd roll with it, but I would disavow the story and not consider it canon.

 

[redgarters]

@BrokenSpokes Nice to see you here and a good topic.

I've given the go ahead for that event for most of my characters to be used, provided I'm contacted first, and a few general conditions. I completely understand your feelings about your characters, I feel deeply about some of mine as well. But provided they are treated with respect and written in tune with their original portrayal I admit that I'm a little curious to see how other writers would write them.

 

[Voboy]

Within this site, I think I'd be flattered and OK with another author wanting to use a character of mine in one of their stories, as most of them I don't really have any future plans for.

This reply made me think a bit more.

For me, not all characters are created equal. I have a lot more investment in the many "main characters" who populate my stories, but with that said? I also have a bunch of side characters and settings that I'm just not interested in exploring. I suppose that if someone asked to use one of those, I might say yes? I'm not sure; nobody has ever asked.

The nature of how I write tends to be dictated by two facts: that I write interconnected stories, and that I'm a pantser. So I don't know, as I'm writing, which characters might show up in future stories. With that in mind, I'd want to be careful that they be treated with respect for their normal personalities, and hopefully without killing them off.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m an admittedly rare poster here on the forum, but I saw the upcoming “virtual convention” event and had to comment. While I’m supportive of collaborative events and creative wing-spreading (people should do what makes them happy) I’m curious about author’s feeling on other authors using their characters in other works.

Personally the idea makes me want to scream and claw at my eyes. I cannot stand the idea of anyone using my characters. They live deep in my soul and the thought of anyone else animating them and putting words in their mouth and thoughts fills me with horror. I’ve had authors ask me to use my characters before and it’s always a hard no, even for author friends. I have allowed references where authors have their characters mentioned mine in passing or had them in the background but not speaking, but I can’t let myself give up my characters agency to anyone but myself.

I’m sure this will bring out all sorts of opinions and I’ll be told I’m wrong. Im
Just curious what other author’s thoughts are.

Hey,

UPDATE: This is wrong. There is a discrepancy between the site announcement and the support thread, I’m going with the support thread saying the cut off is May 23rd.

Sadly the announcement was really late and today is the last day for submissions.

Here is the support thread:

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...or-challenge-official-support-thread.1642536/

The rules of the event are you have to have explicit permission to use another author’s characters.

This is the thread where you can do this:

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ica-convention-2026-author-challenge.1642539/

 

[SimonDoom]

I would be irked if someone used one of my characters without permission, because I think that's wrong, but if they asked I'd give permission in most cases. I've had a few people ask me permission to do that and I've said yes.

 

[StillStunned]

I can imagine it's like someone reaching into your skull to tickle your brain. It might feel nice if they have a delicate touch, but you'd definitely need them to ask for permission first.

 

[MrPixel]

Hard 'no' from me. I've finally come to the realization that I am highly visual in my writing. There is a movie playing in my head, I'm just the agent transcribing the script. I know what my characters look like, what they sound like, their banter, their habits good or bad, their settings, the action, and the people around them. Sometimes the writing is not up to the task, but I and they go on with their lives anyway.

Anybody else adopting them would not have access to the full palette that makes them who they are.

 

[BrokenSpokes]

Just out of curiosity, does it bother you when ordinary readers interpret and see your characters differently from the way you imagined them when you wrote them? Would it bother you if they started, say, a thread on the forum about how they see your characters, and if their view differed significantly from your own?

No this doesn’t bother me. In fact I enjoy seeing how others react and interpret my characters and their motivations. I’ve had people attribute motivations to my characters that are so wildly out of the realm of what I had in my head canon that I have been genuinely flummoxed.

What I can’t handle is people trying to animate my characters in a narrative sense. I had one person send me a fanfic of one of my stories and it was super flattering, but at the same time with ever word I read my brain was screaming “that’s not what she’d say!”

 

[GraiceeGirl]

This is a very interesting. It is an idea that I've never even thought of or considered before. Since many of my characters are based on real people in my life, I would find it hard to share.

I agree with poster above, "movie playing in my head". These characters (people) have been living with me for many years, months or weeks. Thinking about them even after a story is published.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m an admittedly rare poster here on the forum, but I saw the upcoming “virtual convention” event and had to comment. While I’m supportive of collaborative events and creative wing-spreading (people should do what makes them happy) I’m curious about author’s feeling on other authors using their characters in other works.

To answer your general - non-LitCon-specific - question. I’m very protective of most of my characters. I have let my friend @Djmac1031 write many of them, including ones based on me, but he knows both me and them really well. And we in any case swap text as we write, doubly so when it’s writing the other person’s character. We have had a couple of bumps in the road, but alway navigated them.

I’ve also written his characters, including the one dearest to his heart, Jenna. He helped me with her voice. With his vengeance demon, Cozbi, I think I now know her vibe like 80% of what he does, and I mostly get her right.

I’ve also written the fictionalized version of @PennyThompson twice, along with fictional Penny’s gf, Mikayla. Again it’s fair to say there were some challenges, but author Penny and I worked through them. It really helps to be familiar with the other writer’s work and to have an existing relationship.

 

[CalBishForNow]

N=1, but I was fine with it. I offered up characters I was attached to but hadn't used in a while and had no definite plans for. I thought someone else's version of them might inspire me. It didn't, but it didn't do any harm either and was cool to see.

I deliberately didn't offer up characters from my series currently in progress, because I thought that might have been messy. Continuity aside, the characters are still growing and changing and someone else's version of them could have screwed things up for me.

@dirk2024, I might as well ask, what did you think? Since you're the writer whose character I used in my LitCon story. No hard feelings if you want to be brutal.

 

[Duil2]

I'd be flattered to begin with that someone read my stories and felt enough of a connection to my characters to want to use them in a new story. Then I suppose I'd like to think I'd say yes and we would work together to get the feel of the character consistent across both sets of stories.
I'd also like to have final veto if I felt their version was completely off and we couldn't come to a compromise.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Since many of my characters are based on real people in my life, I would find it hard to share.

Speaking of LitCon and @Djmac1031 - last year he wrote a (really excellent) story about his vengeance demon meeting my college best friend. As the latter is a fictionalized version of a real person, I ran the concept by her, and we agreed to let her review the text before publishing.

But she had a family medical emergency which meant we didn’t hear from her for a few days. I think it’s too complicated getting into sharing characters inspired by real people. The eventual story was worth the drama in this case, but I now only loan either versions of me or fabricated characters to other writers.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Depends on how much they buttered me up and used the character. Some characters I wouldn't have much problem with, others, absolute no-go.

I'll be real, if it was someone who had a much bigger audience than me, I'd probably say yes if I thought they'd do a decent enough job portraying the character accurately. But then I'm always trying to get people to read more non-human, so that's more my main consideration at that point, exposing more people to it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Speaking of LitCon and @Djmac1031 - last year he wrote a (really excellent) story about his vengeance demon meeting my college best friend. As the latter is a fictionalized version of a real person, I ran the concept by her, and we agreed to let her review the text before publishing.

But she had a family medical emergency which meant we didn’t hear from her for a few days. I think it’s too complicated getting into sharing characters inspired by real people. The eventual story was worth the drama in this case, but I now only loan either versions of me or fabricated characters to other writers.

Managed to double post this

 

[BeechLeaf]

Many years ago someone asked to use a couple of mine, who were just in a small, unconnected story. I said yes, gave some more information, probably added a couple of conditions about what they could and couldn't do with each other - and I never heard more of it.

These days I'd just say no, write your own stuff. Making things up is much more enjoyable and satisfying than drawing out other people's work. I'm not referring to this Convention idea, that's just a bit of fun, like webcomic guests, Zach Weinersmith doing an xkcd. And genuine, continuing collaborations like people above have, that's great. But just thinking, I liked that story, I'd like to add to it? No, start from scratch: invent. Much better.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I offered several of mine on either on that thread or a companion to it. Don't know if anyone used any, or care if they did.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I don't know. Look up Dan O'Neill? I mean, I can't control it. If I'm fine, Disney's fine, so...

I'm not giving explicit permission here, but I'm completely aware that saying "no" won't stop anyone from doing it anyway. Nevertheless, I only mind if people miss the whole point of my stories in their fanfiction, or severely modify the stories or characters to Frankenstein their worldview on work that has a philosophy already incompatible with everyone else's... Doesn't mean I have to go around declaring which is orphaned from canon and which is not though.

 

[sister jenny]

As far as this site is concerned and my stories here, I really don’t care.
Once my stories are published they are anyones, do what you want.
But would be cool if you sent me a link

 

[BrokenSpokes]

I'm not giving explicit permission here, but I'm completely aware that saying "no" won't stop anyone from doing it anyway.

I mean, I own the copyright for my characters and filing a take down isn’t beneath me.

I had an “author” on this site who did a full translation of a 140k word work of mine in German with zero attribution in the story and when I called him out on it explicitly said it was a “better to ask forgiveness than permission” situation.

I was going to have that nuked from orbit, and only because the “author” agreed to repost it with an explicit paragraph stating it was a translation of MY work and I owned the copyright for the original AND his translation did I let it stay up.

 

[EmilyMiller]

UPDATE: There is a discrepancy between the site announcement and the support thread, I’m going with the support thread saying the cut off is May 23rd.

 

[StillStunned]

Managed to double post this

Some of us saw how you screwed up the formatting as well. For a small fee, I'm sure I can convince them to keep your embarrassing secret.