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In order to help make your visit a more pleasant one this FAQ is in development. Any suggestions you might have on additions or refinements to this FAQ are welcome at fountaam@141.com.
What is fanfic? And why do people write it?
Fanfic is fan written fiction. Fanfic allows the writer and the readers to explore a world of a TV series or movie in a whole new way. Fanfic has none of the bounds that an episode of a TV series or movie might have - no budget concerns preventing exotic locations, no contracts to worry about, no need to insure that the main character survives, and nothing preventing that Methos step onto the bridge of the Enterprise.
In short, fanfic allows fans to explore possibilities that were not explored on the show, or re-explore them from a new perspective.
Aren't there some legal issues?
Yes. Fanfic is in a gray area - as far as copyright issues are concerned. As such there are conventions that we hold to. First of all, most people include a disclaimer at the beginning of a story, acknowledging that the characters from the show belong to the producers/writers of the show (for more on disclaimers, look at the suggested format section). While a the usefulness of a disclaimer is often a topic for debate, the major concern of people who write and enjoy fanfic is to insure that fanfic never move from its gray area. That is, fanfic is only distributed for free, or in the case of fanzines - at cost, never bring fanfic to be autographed by actors of the show, and never refer to fanfic around the Powers that Be.
Isn't that essentially a don't ask, don't tell policy?
Yes. Since we are fans of the show, watch it and buy its merchandise, as long as we are making no money (and in fact losing a bit), it's best for them to ignore us.
However,
there is a site that suggests that perhaps fanfic writers have better standing than we once thought. Check out a legal defense of fanfic written by an academic at Yale by the name of Rebecca
Tushnet.
It's at http://www.tushnet.com/law/fanficarticle.html
Still, please refrain from asking actors or any of The Powers that Be to sign or read fanfic or fanzines.
What kinds of posts are welcome here?
Highlander fanfic and discussion thereof. Please label Adult and Slash stories in their subject lines.
A suggested subject line: Rating, Title (Part Number)/(total Number of Parts)
Examples:
How do I know how many parts my story should be in?
As a rule of thumb no post to a newsgroup or a mailing list should be above 20K. Each post should be in plain text format (NO HTML) have its lines wrapped at 72 or 80 characters. Believe it or not, there are still people using e-mail programs such as Pine that do not wrap the lines of incoming messages to the viewscreen. Please be kind, and have your e-mail program wrap lines at 72, or if you are using pine, hit return once you get near 72 characters.
If you use Netscape you can set the wrap length of your lines by going
to
Edit -> Preferences -> Mail & Newsgroups -> Messages
The side window has a line that allows you to set the line length of
outgoing messages. "Wrap outgoing, plain text messages at __
characters." This reinforces the need to send plain text
messages.
To make sure your Netscape browser is set to send messages in plain text go
to
Edit -> Preferences -> Mail & Newsgroups -> Formatting
In the side window choose "Use the plain text editor to compose
messages".
What is slash?
Slash is a label for fanfic that contains a same-sex relationship.
What is _________?
Check the athc website http://ATH.50megs.com/ for further definitions.
Where else can I find Highlander fanfic?
There are many mailing lists that exist to distribute Highlander fanfic. As well as archives that house Highlander fanfic check out the website for more info
Where/How can I get my story archived?
Check the athc website http://ATH.50megs.com/ for places to have your fanfic archived, as well as the submission guidelines for them.