This week: On Real Person Fiction Edited by: Kit  
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Fictional stories about real people... are they harmless fun, or morally problematic?
This week's Drama Newsletter is all about fan fiction, and the real person fiction subgenre.
Kit |
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I’ll apologise in advance – I’ve done my back in (again), and it’s not easy to sit up and write this newsletter, so it may not be up to my usual standard. Pain is distracting. It hinders the creative process – at least, it does for me. But, I’m here, and I’ll do my best, and when we next meet I’m sure I’ll feel better and do better.
I believe I have mentioned before that I quite enjoy reading fan fiction. I got interested around the time when the Game of Thrones TV series became… bizarre. I felt utterly disappointed in how it ended. I hadn’t expected the characters to hold hands and skip off into the sunset, as those of us who didn’t like the ending are often accused of. I’ve read the books. I know that George R. R. Martin isn’t that kind of writer. There was just so much that didn’t make sense, didn’t add up. Like, who had a better story than Bran? Everyone.
I wasn’t alone, and some talented writers got to work and wrote different endings. Some of them are excellent. They understand the characters, the world they inhabit, the history, the lore, and they create these labours of love that can be very beautiful.
Not all stories out there are good, of course. And some may be good, but they’re not up my street. And Game of Thrones fan fiction is just one tiny corner in the fan fiction genre. I’m pretty certain that there are stories out there about just about every movie and TV series in existence, or close to it. What’s also out there, and what I am not too certain about, is real person fiction. It does what it says on the tin – they’re stories about real people. Actors, musicians, athletes… There’s a part of me that feels that this crosses a line or, at least, that it has the potential to.
Some years ago a person I had never met, never exchanged a single word with, wrote a story about me and placed it on the Internet. They’d created this mental image of who I am and what I am about, and when someone I knew spotted it and notified me it felt weird. It was weird. I can’t imagine, then, what it would be like if hundreds of people created thousands of imaginary scenarios and placed me in them for their and their readers’ entertainment. People who don’t know me. People who have built up a fictional version of me based on my public persona. People who write romantic scenes between me and their fictional version of some other person. I don’t think I’d be very happy about it.
Or… maybe it’d be okay if someone took my name and my likeness and turned me into a character in an epic fantasy story. Something like The Lord of the Rings, say, except I’d get to befriend dragons, because dragons are cool, and maybe I’d have a panther who I could communicate with… something along those lines would be fun, rather than creepy. But that’s just me. Someone else might still not be comfortable with that. And that’s understandable.
Fan fiction in general is a morally grey area. Some authors are fine with fans using their worlds and their characters in their own creations; others are not. I haven’t written any works in the genre because I don’t believe that I could do another author’s work justice. There are times when I think it would be great fun because I, too, have ideas for certain characters, and for blending an existing fictional world with one of my own, but I don’t think I have the skill. Not like some fan fic writers out there who not just take a world and play with it, but who lovingly build upon what has been established and create something new and beautiful.
Real person fiction is more morally problematic. I stumbled upon it a while ago when looking for something to read. I had no idea what the RPF tag meant, and that’s a lesson learned. I don’t deny that as a teen I had a daydream or two, or a hundred, about what it would be like if I met an artist I fancied. That’s normal, isn’t it? You have their posters on your wall. You want to meet them, get to know them, be that person who truly understands them. But they’re real people. People with lives and personalities that most likely do not match what you’re imagining them to be. Creating content featuring your version of them and posting it online without their consent, well, it’s not something I would be comfortable doing.
Perhaps, though, you view it differently. Many people do. It appears to be a flourishing subgenre. Someone had their RPF novel published. It started off as a boy band fic on a fan fiction website, became popular, and the author got a book deal out of it (with names changed). I believe there’s even a movie.
How do you feel about real person fiction? Do you read it? Write it? If so, what do you enjoy about it? I’m always interested in what inspires different genres. 
Kit
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Drama: June 01, 2022 Issue [#11390]
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