dragonyphoenix: Blackadder looking at scraps of paper, saying "It could use a beta" (Katchoo)
dragonyphoenix ([personal profile] dragonyphoenix) wrote2015-11-28 09:42 am

a font of nothing!

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?

[identity profile] dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com 2015-11-28 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks.

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

[identity profile] velvetwhip.livejournal.com 2015-11-28 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
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

[identity profile] dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com 2015-11-28 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] velvetwhip.livejournal.com 2015-11-28 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
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

[identity profile] dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com 2015-11-29 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] velvetwhip.livejournal.com 2015-11-29 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
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

[identity profile] dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com 2015-11-29 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, well that is different.