Can You Make Characters of Movie Stars and Upload on Youtube

There you are, writing some contemporary or YA fiction, when suddenly you experience the urge to drop in some real-globe references to other well-known franchises. Maybe y'all want to permit your readers know your character is a video game nerd by namedropping Ghouls 'n Ghosts, or perhaps you lot want to draw conscious stylistic parallels between your own spooky Americana short story and The Twilight Zone and The X-Files. The challenge facing you is twofold: firstly, what's legal and what's illegal? And secondly, how do you handle existent-globe references in-text without being heavy-handed, unconvincing, or inexpensive?

The law

We've talked well-nigh the ins and outs of copyright law earlier, merely it'due south worth looking at again with a focus on referencing and quoting. After all, although referencing song lyrics or namedropping a novel is a far cry from producing full-blown fan fiction, plagiarism is something no author wants to be defendant of.

Say I'grand writing a YA novel and I want to show the reader that my teenage male protagonist is a sensitive, troubled, artistic soul. I know, I think, I'll accept him quote some verse. So I bypass the obvious become-to poets that adorn edgy teenagers' bookshelves everywhere (I'll discuss why later on) and choose, say, Philip Levine. I selection these lines from 'One Day':

I will alive to see
the twenty-four hour period end equally I lived to run across
the earth plough molten and white

– Philip Levine, 'One Day', The Simple Truth

So I'll panic. Is this legal? Have I quoted too much? Should I accept mentioned his name? Should I not? Well, worry not, hypothetical me; bodily me knows the answers. In that location are three ways to justify your reference of copyrighted material (and information technology'southward ever worth checking if what you're referencing is even copyrighted – seventy years later a writer'due south death, the copyright expires and their work enters the public domain), and the most important one is fair use, so I'll explore that first.

Fair use

Fair use is well-nigh likely what'll keep you lot off the hook for referencing other works. If you're just namedropping AC/DC, referencing Fifty Shades of Gray, or having a graphic symbol compare herself to Katniss Everdeen, fair utilise is what y'all'll likely rely on. As a legal defense, off-white employ hinges upon several factors:

• The purpose and grapheme of your usage, including whether you're referencing copyrighted material in a commercial, for-profit text, and whether your text is educational and/or valuable,
• The nature of the copyrighted work in question,
• The amount of text referenced and the substantiality of that text,
• The issue on the copyrighted work'south potential marketplace and/or value.

From this, you can pretty much glean that names and pocket-size sections of text are almost ever going to be fine. Subsequently all, if you're just dropping the copyrighted text'southward title, all you're doing is spreading the discussion – you lot're not detracting from the referenced work's value and yous're not giving away enough of it to dissuade a given reader from buying that referenced piece of work. With this in mind, it's a good idea not to go spoiling the catastrophe of any copyrighted stories you might be referencing.

Even my few lines from Levine's poem would pass under fair use; Levine died in 2015, so while his piece of work is nevertheless in copyright, the nature of Levine'south poetry is suitably far from the nature of my own YA novel, and I'm taking only a very curt department that, actually, doesn't make much sense on its ain. If anything, I'm helping Levine's sales by introducing his piece of work to a whole new audition. Yous're welcome, Philip.

If you lot're referencing whole storylines or are quoting whole paragraphs, consider rethinking your approach. One, because by sharing besides much of someone'due south book you run the take chances of being accused of piracy, and ii, considering you should be focusing on your own creative work, not someone else's.

Satire and parody

You're unlikely to fit too much parody into a simple reference or a few lines of quoted text, merely if you jump into lengthier references, bear in mind that parody is only a legal defence if your parody is sufficiently transformative. Consider Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, a purposefully ham-fisted Star Wars parody full of puns and mimicry. Information technology has a Darth Vader figure called Dark Helmet (he has a really big helmet), a Chewbacca effigy (an overweight, foul-mouthed guy in a carry costume), and a Han Solo/Luke figure (comically combined in i cookie-cutter protagonist), and the Forcefulness is renamed the Schwarz. The copyrighted material in this case is suitably transformed and is used to poke fun at the original. Of class, information technology's non quite clear what the intended transformative message is in the case of Spaceballs, which I guess indicates the fairly liberal legal definition of parody.

When referencing other works, the law is actually on your side. Click To Tweet

Satire is a different beast, as it isn't so reliant on the original copyrighted text to make its point, which may itself not fifty-fifty be about the copyrighted text. For case, George Orwell'due south Animate being Farm borrows indirectly from dissimilar fairy tales and children's books, but it makes points most Stalinism, not about the children's literature it borrows from. As such, satire is not such a good defense force every bit, bluntly, you shouldn't be borrowing so much from other people if you're not making points about their work.

Author permission

Fairly obviously, if the copyright possessor says you tin use whatever you want, you lot tin utilize whatsoever you want. Of grade, make sure you have permission in legally binding text.

What (and how) should I reference?

Now that we've talked about the legality of referencing, we can become to how and why you lot'd want to practise information technology in the first place. Referencing or quoting other works tin can exercise wonders for your world-building, exposition, and character evolution. After all, references to existent-world media tell the reader that your fiction takes place in a recognizable globe, which in turn lets them know what to expect, what's possible, and what should be impossible. In a sci-fi, for example, references to the real world tin make the eventual divergence from that globe more than shocking. Similarly, placing characters who similar familiar things in unfamiliar contexts helps basis the character and makes them (and thus their otherworldly adventures) more than relatable.

Referencing pop culture can be an easy style to establish a character or setting. Click To Tweet

Finally, as I mentioned in the introduction, having a graphic symbol similar (or dislike) existent-world media informs the reader about that character's gustatory modality, personality, and intelligence.

Consider, for instance, this passage from John Dark-green'due south YA novel Newspaper Towns:

Ben and Radar showed up at eight on the dot. I got in the backseat. They were shouting along to a song past the Mountain Goats.

– John Light-green, Paper Towns

This scene suggests, among other things, youthful carelessness, the warmth of close friendship, and excitement. It conjures a sure image that, arguably, could likewise have been conjured by a different, better-known band, but the band in question (an American indie-folk band known for the pb singer's lyricism) helps indicate the character's own personal taste and grapheme. This isn't like Bella Swan in Twilight listing off the approved writers she'southward read – the Mountain Goats aren't the musical equivalent of whatever turns upwardly after Googling 'famous writers' – rather, their brand of sometimes quiet, sometimes rapturous, always powerful music points to the narrating character'southward sensitivity, his position away from the mainstream, and his (equally Dark-green puts it) 'good taste in music'. Quentin (the character in question) is planted firmly as someone into cult bands, and that'south important to him. Consider the passage that directly follows:

Ben turned around and offered me his fist. I punched it softly, fifty-fifty though I hated that greeting. "Q!" he shouted over the music. "How practiced does this feel?" And I knew exactly what Ben meant: he meant listening to the Mount Goats with your friends in a auto that runs on a Wednesday morning in May on the mode to Margo and whatever Margotastic prize came with finding her. "It beats calculus," I answered.

– John Dark-green, Paper Towns

If Green had instead opted for, say, Bob Dylan, the effect would take been dramatically different, and the text would have suffered. Dylan carries too much history, as well much baggage; he'south too much of a symbol, and his legacy is larger than the legacies of any of the book's characters (or of the volume itself). Quentin and his friends would have fallen against their volition into Dylan'due south wide history, becoming just some other bunch of out-of-time beatniks occupying Dylan's vast shadow.

This could be called The Big Bang Theory fallacy: the belief that the best-known example of a given cultural miracle are the ones to choose when developing your characters. The Big Blindside Theory's protagonist nerds are barely defined past their interests because the things the writers take them endlessly discuss – Star Wars, Star Trek, and DC comics – are such obvious, clichéd examples of nerd civilization that they barely annals every bit unusual. The show's protagonists are not deepened, developed, or divers by their interests in these things; rather, their personalities go bland, lost in the stock images and stereotypes summoned by overly obvious associations.

Real characters take specific tastes, then cull your references carefully. Click To Tweet

Your characters are individuals! Let them have gustatory modality, idiosyncrasies, guilty pleasures. Don't just rattle off a list of approved authors for your 'smart' characters, and don't just Google a list of indie films for your trendy, misunderstood teens to preach nearly – after all, your indie teen's love of (500) Days of Summertime will say something quite different than his beloved of Eraserhead. Think nearly your characters equally bodily people – a adept way to do this is to think of your own favorite writers or films and consider what your taste says about you. Nobody believes Bella Swan has made it through The Sound and the Fury, and it would exist similarly inconsistent if Quentin'southward friends in Paper Towns arrived blaring the atonal symphonies of John Muzzle. Our tastes speak for usa – consider them carefully.

A little reference goes a long way

Equally I mention before, it'due south commonly best to keep references minimal. That sentiment applies to both how much other civilization y'all're referencing and how all-encompassing those references are.

If you're constantly discussing other works, your own story starts to become about them, and that's a fight it can never win – they're the masters of beingness about themselves, after all.

Make sure popular culture references don't swamp your own story. Click To Tweet

Information technology'southward like shooting fish in a barrel for authors to get a piffling boozer on references, believing that the correct grouping of interests can perfectly define who a graphic symbol is. Maybe they tin can, just that method might not endear them to the reader, especially those who don't get every reference.

Readers can become drunk too – afterward all, references are fun! Seeing something you recognize in a story is a weird kicking, but it'due south also insubstantial. Make sure in that location'southward real content and intent behind each reference, because otherwise you could exist fooled into thinking you've said more the reader has really heard.

Use your allusion

A good reference is a perfect little moment of agreement between author and reader – a reference to a signpost that both empathize which tin moor stories to the existent world for a variety of reasons. Put some work into each reference and you'll seed your story with moments of relatability that volition blossom equally your tale unfolds.

Which of your favorite books reference other works, and how do they handle it? Accept y'all tried it yourself? What did you detect difficult? Let me know in the comments. Or, for more keen advice on this topic, check out How To Get Abroad With Using Real People In Your Story and Make Sure Your Fan Fiction Is Legal (Or Regret Information technology Later on).

greeleysais2001.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.standoutbooks.com/reference-pop-culture/

Share this post