How To Write Marvel Fanfiction

Copycat (tryna cop my style)

Listen, I'm not proud to oust myself as a Billie Ellish fan, but it was the only joke I could think of.

So there's this word that gets thrown around Wattpad a lot. It's this big and scary and official word and you don't wanna fuck with it

©Copyright ©

Y'all have no idea what the FUCK copyright is, do you?

Because here's the thing. 

You

can

not

claim

copyright

on

fanfiction

Furthermore, even if you could, you don't have copyright to something simply by saying "COPYRIGHT" or throwing the little © symbol on it. Copyright is something you have to pay for, and it's this big legal mess y'all don't actually care about so I won't explain it. Basically, in order to claim intellectual property (ie, stories) as copyright, you have to register it. You can't register fanfiction, because, by law, you claiming copyright of fanfiction is you claiming copyright of those characters and worlds you used in your fanfic and unless you're secretly Stan Lee's ghost, you don't hold that copyright, bitch. 

So stop claiming copyright to something that you simply don't have copyright over. Fanfiction as it already stands in a legal grey area that can technically be sued over. If you don't believe me, google 'Anne Rice fanfiction' sometime. You going out of your way to claim copyright of fanfiction is just asking for Marvel lawyers to come knocking up your door. Not that they will because they do not give a shit about your dinky Wattpad story, but they could. 

Listen, I'm not here to discuss the legality of fanfiction. Technically it counts as "derivative work", but it's still an eeehhhhh thing. Basically, we live in a world where everything has to belong to someone and folklore belonging to the folk is a thing of the past and it sucks. That's life, man.

Basically, the whole "I don't own Marvel or these characters, this is all for fun uwu" may sound silly and stupid and saying that obviously isn't necessary anymore, we know 'xxMarvel_Lover3000xx' doesn't own Marvel. But there was a time when it was necessary and y'all should be fucking grateful for the world we live in now. 

(as a side note, that was supposed to be an entirely fake username, so xxMarvel_Lover3000xx if you're out there, I am sorry)

Furthermore, I find this whole "copyright!!!! don't steal my OC, plagiarizing is ILLEGAL" just,,,,,,,, really fucking funny. Like, you do know what fanfiction is, don't you?

Don't get me wrong, you certainly can claim intellectual property over the characters and stories you create. I literally wrote a whole chapter about not stealing fanart and cosplay photos, so like, I get it. You're allowed to be pissed off and call a bitch out if someone steals your shit and whatever.

But like, calm down. Maybe I just have my head too far up my ass and am missing the tea, but I have genuinely not seen that many instances of copying in fanfiction. If someone takes an idea or OC, there's usually credit given and all that shit. Like, for fuck's sake. There are about a dozen fucking plot shops out there, no one fucking needs to steal. Y'all out here giving away OCs and plots like Oprah. It's weird, but I'm not judging.

Basically, chill the fuck out. Stop freaking out over plagiarizing and all that nonsense. If you think someone stole your ideas, just talk to them. Fanfiction gets repetitive. I've seen so many books with the same cookie-cutter OC and plot. It's just how y'all work. Calm down.