forget your Unified Theory of Everything

What are people's thoughts on making a fanfic into an original work of fiction and attempting to do something professional with it?

For instance, if you took a Wolverine/Rogue fic you wrote, took away their super powers, gave them different names and different histories, but otherwise kept what words you could of the fic you had written intact?

What if that fic was already posted? Would that mean taking the fic down, or locking it, would removing people's access to the fanfic be reprehensible, would it be in violation of some kind of copyright if the professional thing you were trying to do with it demanded that the work be previously unpublished? What if your fic is on someone else's archive? Do you ask that to be taken down too?

I feel like some people will answer that one should just try to write something new instead of recycling a fanfic for a professional purpose, but I have one or two things that I have posted that . . . were more just using characters in order to say something for me, rather than using something for me to say something about the characters, if that makes sense.

All thoughts and opinions welcome.

Ask me a question! Because I missed you.

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So, recently a couple people have got me thinking about the concept of "imagined audience." Let me say first that I hope if you write, fanfic or original, you do it for yourself. It's great to get fb, praise, and a dialogue going with readers, but seriously if the writing itself doesn't please you, go do something else forgodsakes. Mmmkay, now that that's over with, what is this imagined audience? Well, I'm defining it as a specific person or group about whom you're thinking when you write, and whose fb makes you feel you've accomplished your goal.

Because that definition feels a. amorphous and r. really really wrong for some reason, ( let me give an example. )

-What fics have you written with imaginary audiences in mind? Why?
-What's a group that's been your imaginary audience?
-Who's a person who's been your imaginary audience? (and name names, people. I was shy to say germaine_pet at first because for a moment she was an imaginary audience for this post, and I imagined her saying, "Dude, that TKP is a suck up! Plus she stalks me and I think she smells. Also now if I don't fb does that make me a bad person? WHAT IS HER CHILDHOOD TRAUMA?" But I totally sucked it up, and suspected Lynne could handle it, too.)
-Is there a particular person or group who is often your imaginary audience, and if so, who are they?
-Who's that person who's fb you often or always think about when you write, and against your better judgment and confidence in yourself, feel kinda vindicated when you get?
-Who's your imagined unaudience? Who have you hoped would never read what you've written? Besides your mom and that skeevy guy you saw once at Wal-Mart who followed you for a full ten minutes and got some of his guano on your shoe, are there sometimes people on lj who you hope might skip on by such and such fic? Ever write something knowing so and so will dislike it, and hope they don't read it and think less of your writing for it?

I've got questions about authorial intent...

( But I can't handle words as big as authorial, so you won't see that in here. Mostly, I want to know how you approach the table/desk/really comfy chair/bed when you write. )

Anybody got an opinion on this type of thing?

*puts on tea* *gets you a cozie*