Fanfic-- IMHO-- can be imitation, but at its best it is a form of transformation: sometimes obviously, transformation from one media to another or transformation of canon pairings or characterisations to new ones, but more subtly as well, transformation from one author's voice and world-view to another, without changing the voices of the characters.

Plain imitation can be part of that, depending what the author wishes to transform. If you want to transform Draco Malfoy in Sherlock Holmes or for that matter Philip Marlowe, it works best to take the characters as they are and change the tone and style of your writing. If, on the other hand, you want to transform J.K. Rowling's view of Draco-son-of-Eeevil into your own Draco-fluffy-bunny, it works best to use J.K. Rowling's style and tell a new story-- or it can. There are as many variations as there are voices.

Wow. Thank you everyone for your thoughts. If you have more, please feel free to share them. I've bookmarked the beginning of this conversation, and will come back to it, and read it even more carefully, when I start writing my paper. I'll probably have more questions as I go too...but I've got to get into the actual writing first.

actual writing

pfft, the actual writing is over-rated, it's much more fun to discuss it endlessly.

Hey, it's been a long week, and I'm trying to trick my Muse into cooperating this weekend instead of be-bopping off to Bimini.

Pfft, Elena. You have a naughty mind. Which, now that I think about it, is a good thing. I didn't intend that to sound porny, but considering that I was thinking of the Lilah/Faith at the time, I guess it might have been my smutty subconscious (rather than my smutty conscious mind) taking over.

eta: Okay, and I didn't mean to pfft. Obviously I'm a big sponge, soaking up anything I see.

Ok...new question...

This is just for survey sake...

What's the highest level of education you've had? (this doesn't really matter...and I don't think I'm going to use it...it's more curiosity...)

Did you do any *formal* (and by that I mean did you have assignments in school at any level) that required you to imitate a writer? Actually, I think I'm going to ask this question in Natter too. I'm interested in how wide-spread this kind of assignment is.

I have a Masters in English and I never had an assignment to imitate another writer, even in my creative writing courses.

What's the highest level of education you've had? (this doesn't really matter...and I don't think I'm going to use it...it's more curiosity...)

I'm in my second semester of grad school.

Did you do any *formal* (and by that I mean did you have assignments in school at any level) that required you to imitate a writer?

Not yet, but I'm being threatened with it later this semester in my non-fiction writing class.

but I'm being threatened with it later this semester in my non-fiction writing class.

It's not as bad as it sounds. I thought I would hate it, but I actually found it kind of fun.

I think so. In creative writing. Ray Carver, iirc. (I shouldn't call him that, like we kick it, or something. We'd have to be in a hellmouth...Carver's dead.) I've had many writing classes. A couple of teachers have told me that imitation is a necessary stage for writers starting out, vw. But only one ever really asked me to.

BS in Economics here, with assorted writing classes here and there. Never had an assignment to imitate a writer.

I go to fanfic, both as a reader and a writer, to get something I'm not getting from canon for whatever reason. Sometimes that's just a more leisurely, detailed exploration of interpersonal relationships than an action-oriented TV format typically allows. Sometimes it's a futurefic or an AU, for the sheer joy of the what-if. And sometimes, yes, I just want my woobie to get a happy ending and settle down with the girl.

My favorite fanfics are usually sweeping AU-epics, though they often don't really start as AU's--they just take so long to write that they're thoroughly Jossed by later canon before the author has time to finish them.

And the one fanfic of any length I've written was a Lois & Clark futurefic almost wholly devoted to the middle of the three daughters I invented for them, the only one born without superpowers. Though I have been known to refer to my current original fiction projects as "Jane Austen fanfic."