Book, a TV show and fan fiction.

[kuda]

I've been watching the new show, Under The Dome. I haven't read
the book by Stephen King which is a huge book. The hardback was
over a thousand pages long. Many are questioning the series since
it doesn't follow the book verbatim. Stephen King addressed this in
an open letter.

For those of you out there in Constant Reader Land who are feeling miffed
because the TV version of Under the Dome varies considerably from the book
version, here’s a little story.

Near the end of his life, and long after his greatest novels were written,
James M. Cain agreed to be interviewed by a student reporter who covered
culture and the arts for his college newspaper. This young man began his
time with Cain by bemoaning how Hollywood had changed books such as
The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. Before he could
properly get into his rant, the old man interrupted him by pointing to a shelf
of books behind his desk. “The movies didn’t change them a bit, son,” he
said. “They’re all right up there. Every word is the same as when I wrote them.”

I feel the same way about Under the Dome. If you loved the book when you
first read it, it’s still there for your perusal. But that doesn’t mean the TV series
is bad, because it’s not. In fact, it’s very good. And, if you look closely, you’ll see
that most of my characters are still there, although some have been combined
and others have changed jobs. That’s also true of the big stuff, like the supermarket
riot, the reason for all that propane storage, and the book’s thematic concerns with
diminishing resources.

Many of the changes wrought by Brian K. Vaughan and his team of writers have
been of necessity, and I approved of them wholeheartedly. Some have been
occasioned by their plan to keep the Dome in place over Chester’s Mill for months
instead of little more than a week, as is the case in the book. Other story modifications
are slotting into place because the writers have completely re-imagined the source of
the Dome.

That such a re-imagining had to take place was my only serious concern when the
series was still in the planning stages, and that concern was purely practical. If the
solution to the mystery were the same on TV as in the book, everyone would know
it in short order, which would spoil a lot of the fun (besides, plenty of readers didn’t
like my solution, anyway). By the same token, it would spoil things if you guys knew
the arcs of the characters in advance. Some who die in the book—Angie, for instance
—live in the TV version of Chester’s Mill…at least for a while. And some who live in the
book may not be as lucky during the run of the show. Just sayin’.

Listen, I’ve always been a situational writer. My idea of what to do with a plot is to
shoot it before it can breed. It’s true that when I start a story, I usually have a general
idea of where it’s going to finish up, but in many cases I end up in a different place
entirely (for instance, I fully expected Ben Mears to die at the end of ’Salem’s Lot,
and Susannah Dean was supposed to pop off at the end of Song of Susannah).
“The book is the boss,” Alfred Bester used to say, and what that means to me is
the situation is the boss. If you play fair with the characters—and let them play their
parts according to their strengths and weaknesses—you can never go wrong.
It’s impossible.

There’s only one element of my novel that absolutely had to be the same in the
novel and the show, and that’s the Dome itself. It’s best to think of that novel and
what you’re seeing week-to-week on CBS as a case of fraternal twins. Both started
in the same creative womb, but you will be able to tell them apart. Or, if you’re of a
sci-fi bent, think of them as alternate versions of the same reality.

As for me, I’m enjoying the chance to watch that alternate reality play out; I still
think there’s no place like Dome.

As for you, Constant Reader, feel free to take the original down from your bookshelf
anytime you want. Nothing between the covers has changed a bit.

Stephen King
June 27th, 2013

Source

I think this applies to fan fiction as well. Canon is canon. Fan fiction
takes the basic idea and characters then gives it new life and a different
vision that the original author created. Fan fiction often is just as well written
and thought out as the original work. Sometimes it's even better if we are lucky.