Hello, I was wondering if you still used this website. If so, I wanted to ask; Am I allowed to write a fan continuation of this series The ghosts the linger? I wanted to make some sort of resolution, because the story was so good and I understand if you grew out of the fandom and stopped writing for it. I wouldn't want to use your universe without your permission.
Hello! I don’t really use this site anymore (I think this might be the first time I’ve even logged in for...two years?), and I’m not in the RvB fandom currently, although I can’t say for sure I never will be again. I quit the site when I realized it was very bad for my mental health, and I stopped writing The Ghosts that Linger mostly because I was so frustrated with the season of RvB that was airing at the time that I noticed I was starting to incorporate my grievances into the story, which I didn’t think was making it better, really. I had written about 25k words and only barely gotten started, and I didn’t want to keep writing a story for the next year that was low-key making me angry. So I decided to stop and work on original novels instead, although it still makes me sad that I never saw the project finished. It was the first major writing undertaking I ever did with any kind of success, and I really wish I’d gotten to the end.
It is so incredibly flattering that you liked The Ghosts that Linger so much that you want to continue it! Honestly, I don’t know that there’s anything nicer to hear as a writer than that someone likes your universe enough to want to write in it themselves. I’ll admit that I’m a little reluctant to just hand it over - I put a lot of work into the story and I obviously had some very specific ideas about where it was going (especially regarding the background mystery, which was planned out from the start). In my head I spent so much time in that haunted house that it practically felt like a real place I had been, so handing someone else the keys feels a little weird.
But on the other hand! It feels completely wrong to say “no don’t write it’s MY fanfiction!” like it’s something to hoard and not a story that I already didn’t really own and that I wrote because I wanted to share. And besides all that, I’m really interested to see what you will do with it! I can’t say when I’ll even have time to get back to it myself, since I’m working on my own novels right now and they take precedence, and it would make me very happy to see a story I spent so much time on get a real ending.
So yes, absolutely! You have my permission to do a fan continuation! It was really nice of you to ask first, and all I ask is that you send me a link when you post it, because I’m dying to know how it goes! <3
