“No hitting . . .”, “Are the events/situations logical/plausible? Economically viable? Physically viable? Is the time line too compressed (a common problem)?” (Kerryn Offord), “I try to be constructive, yet at the same time realistic.” (David Carrico), “I try very hard to be honest.” (Rick Boatright), “Honesty and Thumper’s mother’s advice [9]” (John Zeek) “Rule Number One: BE NICE!” (Garrett W. Vance).
I also asked what the respondents previous involvement with fan fiction was, thinking that most of them would have used the Grantville Gazette as a stepping stone from fan fiction to published work. To my surprise, most of the people surveyed had no previous involvement with fan fiction at all; they were far more likely to have written nothing previously or only technical works. This may be a logical outcome of the Gazette’s history as an outgrowth of a technical advice forum, but it did lead me to re- examine some of my main assumptions about the Gazette authors. In fact, after I responded to another’s urging me to write my own story with an explanation of my busy finals week schedule, this was posted on the forum: “WOW . . . you have the PERFECT qualifications to write 1632 fiction. Never written fiction in your life. Never intended to[.] More educated than you have any reason to be[.] Absolutely balls-to-the- wall busy-no time at all[.] Yep. PERFECT qualifications.” (Rick Boatright) It would seem that first-time fiction writers are more the rule than the exception in the Grantville Gazette universe.
I ended the questions with an open comments section. Several people commented on the amount of research necessary for this particular genre, but a few that I specifically want to draw attention to commented on the environment presented by the forums themselves, such as, “Because all submitted drafts are visible on-line to all members of the 1632 community who hold a log-in password, authors receive help that no print publication could come anywhere near matching. Rather than feedback from a single first reader, we get feedback from dozens of fellow writers as well as the editorial board members. Instead of a couple of sentences, we get detailed analyses that can run for pages.” (Jack Carroll), and “This is an utterly unique forum, due partly to Baen’s general support, but mostly to Eric’s willingness to let people play in his sandbox with very few restrictions.” (David Carrico) This last comment, along with a few other iterations of the word “sandbox,” is the inspiration for the title of this essay.
Sharing the Sandbox: Fan Fiction vs. Open-Source Authorship
Eric Flint himself said in the afterword to 1634: The Galileo Affair, just before the first print edition of the Grantville Gazette came out, that “ “Fan fiction” usually has a negative connotation to science fiction readers-“derivative, unimaginative, poorly written dreck[10]” being the gist of most complaints-but there is no intrinsic reason that needs to be true.” This negative reputation of fan fiction in the publishing industry was one of the first topics of my initial email conversation with Paula Goodlett, the current editor of the Grantville Gazette. When asked what made the Grantville Gazette’s attitude toward fan fiction different than that of many other publishers, she responded,
“Jim Baen was never opposed to experimenting. Eric Flint was impressed by the stories that were being written. The Gazette is different because the authors have Eric Flint’s permission to write in his universe, for one thing. Most authors aren’t willing to allow fan fiction, much less publish it. And certainly they aren’t usually willing to modify their own plans for a series to accommodate events written in a fan fic story. But Eric is.”
Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture wrote that the normal approach to fan fiction is to “-get to know your characters, remain consistent with the aired [or written] material, and speculate based on what you know about people in the real world.” This may be a good basic approach for generic fan fiction, but the structure of the Grantville Gazette means that these writers need to go through several extra steps. The expected end point for their stories is not just an online forum; it’s a web magazine with paid subscribers and certain standards of professionalism. Stories must pass through a peer review system before even being considered for publication. Arguably, the willingness of Eric Flint and Baen Books to incorporate these divergent storylines into the main series canon, along with the self-correcting nature of the forums, has taken the stories of the Gazette to a place beyond simple fan fiction. The Grantville Gazette occupies some kind of happy middle ground, between the free-for-all continuity-less space of speculative fanfic and the structured collaborative novel.
Eric Flint perhaps said it best in his afterword to 1634:The Galileo Affair:
“In terms of its narrative structure-as well as the way it’s written-the 1632 series could just as easily be considered a shared universe as a series in the traditional sense of that term . . . The basic premises of the setting and the story as a whole are established in 1632 and then expanded and elaborated in 1633. From there, the story branches in many directions. Branches-and constantly reconnects. Characters who play a major role in one novel will not necessarily appear onstage in another, although their actions will often have an indirect effect. Minor or secondary characters in one story will become major characters in their own right in another.” (670)
In attempting to give new writers/tech advisers access, one could argue that Eric Flint and Baen actually followed an old science fiction publishing model of the shared universe, where multiple authors contribute stories with different characters and plotlines that do not necessarily overlap but are all based in the same “world.” Robert Aspirin’s Thieves’ World springs to mind as a good example of the genre. This shared universe, however, is a place whose continuity and rules are policed and in part defined by the readers themselves, and is in effect an open-source universe.
Towards a Convergence Culture
Henry Jenkins suggests in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers that academic studies of fandom have gone through three generational developments, from outside objectivity to attempting to integrate new media studies to the new hybrid academic fan (13). However, since Jenkins’ book was published, a new generation has arisen, which doesn’t consider participatory culture to be “fandom” at all, but an ordinary part of life in a digital world. The authors and reviewers of the Grantville Gazette may be the pioneering wave of this generation in the literary world. Their work is a striking example of what can happen when the barriers between creators and fans break down, or never come into existence in the first place.
In Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers, Jenkins states of Levy’s concept of knowledge community, that fandom is a rehearsal for the real world, that the way these people interact to a shared purpose is a model for future politics or online communities. The Grantville Gazette is certainly an example of a collective intelligence[11], but it does not need to serve as a model of anything other than itself; a shared community space where fans/technical consultants/series readers can share ideas, improve writing skills, and ultimately produce a finished product for the enjoyment of the community.
I would politely assert that this community is not a model for all online knowledge communities; I think we have already seen in the development of niche groups online that different paradigms beget different digital environments based on the needs of their users. The early alt message boards were not a scaled-down version of today’s social media, nor is the Grantville Gazette an early utopian version of the way in which all writing interaction needs to work. What the Grantville Gazette is, and what it can serve as a model for, is a means of sharing this fan-supported collective intelligence within an existing world framework, without infringing on creative license or intellectual property rights. The end result is a sort of open-source, distributed authorship, produced and policed by the fans.
Some might say that forcing fan fiction to work within set boundaries is taking away some of its best elements, that you give these authors a sandbox but take away the limitless shore. I would say that this sandbox has expanded, beyond the original shoreline to include an entire world.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the members of the Baen’s Bar Forums who answered survey questions, provided feedback, and conducted the initial reviews of this paper. Thanks also to Paula Goodlett for helping me with my initial research questions. Thank you to Virginia DeMarce for pointing out that “dreck” is a real word in the German language. I am especially indebted to Kerryn Offord for explaining the character claiming process and to Rick Boatright for pointing out that incorporating fan fiction into the main storyline is not unique to the Gazette. Thanks to Jack Carroll for very patiently explaining (twice) that the Ring of Fire was not actually a ring and not actually fire, and also for pointing out that the Gazette authorship can be considered open-source. I would also like to thank John Zeek for pointing out that non-fiction articles are there partly to help guide novice writers. A big thank you to
