a font of nothing!

[dragonyphoenix]

In the Circle of Friends remix, the story I'd chosen to remix is itself a remix of another story. Since my transformative works policy, if I had thought it out formally, would pretty much be "You want to play with my stories? Whee! Go ahead. (Just link back and credit me)." it never occurred to me to okay a remix with the author of the original story.

Right, that sounds confusing. So, I'll give them names. In the CoF remix, I was assigned the works of IAmPrincessX. So I looked at her stories and the one I picked is a remix of a story by Y_TheLastMan. (Note: genders should not be thought of as descriptive of the people in question. I picked X and Y because they are, mathematically, the first unknown variable identifiers I go with, and those are the first names that came up for X and Y.) Since IAmPrincessX is participating in the remix, I already have her permission to remix a story. Until yesterday, basically the day I finished my draft, I did not think to check if Y_TheLastMan would be okay with a remix, and actually I didn't think of it so much as stumble across a transformative works policy which says I love having work created off of mine but "Please do not remix my written works. I am much more comfortable when that is done in the context of a remix fest that I am participating in myself." So I explained my situation and Y_TheLastMan said please don't post that story.

By the way, I completely agree with Y_TheLastMan's right to squelch a remix of the story -
(I really mean this. No dissing of Y_TheLastMan. I don’t understand why an author might say “you can’t play with my story” since we are all already playing with stories created by others, but I do understand that some people can get quite upset when someone else has played with one of their stories.)
- but ...

*sigh*

I put a lot of time and energy into it. It's a crossover. I not only watched two seasons of Buffy, I also watched all of the Harry Potter movies. I've written three drafts of 2930, 5831, and 8566 words respecitvely. After shifting years around so that Harry Potter events could happen during Buffy seasons, I made a 20 page timeline. The story is told all in letters; I created a spreadsheet to say if this letter left from this place on this day, it would get there on what day.

Even more frustraging, I was so excited about the story. One of the things I adore abut the CoF remix, is that I write outside of my box. The format for this story comes from Helene Hanff's _84, Charing Cross Road_. (It's a charming story. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.) It was quite exciting to work out the contents of all those letters and show the growing relationship through them. *sigh* again.

Hugs? Please?

Comments

[punch-kicker15.livejournal.com]

Man, it sucks to put so much work into something that's not going to happen. And I know what you mean about getting excited and invested in a story that you're working on. So--hugs to you, and I hope you have fun with whatever replacement remix story you decide to do.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I have a replacement story idea, and gosh it's going to be amazingly silly. *grin*

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I know your replacement story is going to rock and I have to tell you that there's a big plus side - I'll be able to fully enjoy it since it won't be an HP crossover that I don't understand (no, I've never read HP or seen the movies).


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Um not exactly sure if/how the replacement story will work yet.

My roommie, Leslie, also hasn't seen or read Harry Potter. She has no interest in it.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

If it helps, I found the remix challenging this year myself. Yes, I got it done, but I am not at all confident in my story. *sighs heavily* The majority of my assignee's stories had already been remixed and they preferred I remix one which had not been and so I had a limited field from which to choose.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I don't believe it should be allowed within the rules to limit you to that extent. It can be very difficult to pick a story to remix.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Oh, they didn't say I had to, just that they preferred it. Still, I did feel that I really ought to remix one which had yet to be remixed.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, well that is different.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

*lots and lots of hugs*

*more hugs*

*see icon*


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

*hugs to you*

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Ummm... If the authors in question are so opposed to remixing that story, why not to rework yours a little and post it as an independent, non-remix fic?

ETA: Yes, and while every author has a right to not allow their story to be transformed, executing that right when their story already is a transformative work looks... um, lets say, arrogant.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not both authors who are opposed, just the author of the original story. And aadler has suggested I could still post it if I modify it enough to remove Y_TheLsstMan's story elements. I'm thinking about it. IAmPrincessX added a bunch of story that's not in the original so I could do a fairly good job of remixing the second story without elements from the original.

Thank you for the suggestion. I was fairly unsure when it was just aadler suggesting it.

I still think Y_TheLastMan will not be happy if she learns of it. It's sort of obeying the letter but not the spirit of the law.

It does seem really odd to allow the story to be remixed but not remixed off of that. I don't get it but then I tend to be of the "You want to play with my story? Yay!" persuasion.

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Well, as long as spirit of the law is obeyed... why should you care about the feelings of a person who doesn't care about yours?

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea.

I've been looking at plot points in both stories to compare to mine, and I believe I can make it work. I'll be posting about it later.

Thanks! I feel much happier.