Thoroughly mixed feelings

[jhetley]

Another item in today's mail: appears that a high school English teacher in New York asked the students to write a story in some favorite author's style. I have received a copy of one result from the student, a pre-story to SUMMER COUNTRY involving Brian Albion and the Gurkhas...

No, I haven't read it yet. Not sure I dare.

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Am I reading you right? An English teacher is assigning her students to write fanfic?

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

No... teacher said to write in the style of and the student either thought that meant write in the same universe (fanfic) or couldn't write in Jim's style without writing in the same universe.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

D'oh. You're right. My brain zeroed in on the pre-story bit, and completely blanked the rest...

Apparently I'm still recovering from the holidays.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about that. See my reply to Jim Hines about the letter's wording.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't surprise me either way, really. I know my own English degree included a grand total of nothing when it came to understanding copyright issues...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

So ... is it good enough to be worth offering him a co-authorship deal on it? :)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

It isn't bad*, and she doesn't do anything atrocious to Brian. Not really a story, though, more of an incident. No conflict-crisis-resolution pyramid, not enough space for atmosphere or character development...



*For 10th grade English values of bad, which can constitute an atrocity and an abomination.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The exact wording in the letter was "write a creative piece on a book of our choice." I have no idea what the _original_ assignment was, just the filtered version.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

High praise!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

You know you've made it when people start writing fanfic! :-)

[kightp.livejournal.com]

*blink* They're teaching fanfic in high schools these days?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it from this end...

[wolfette]

if you're inspiring fanfic, sounds like you're popular.

Tricky place to be - but when you get to be 90 years old and aren't writing much yourself, you can always do "collaborations" based on your earlier books with your little fanfic authors *g*