Making fanfic universes yours
I went to nominate fandoms for Yuletide (I think I will actually participate this year!) and someone had surprisingly already nominated one of the things I wanted that I wasn't expecting to see there already. And not only had someone nominated the book series, they'd added the two side characters from one specific novel that I wanted! Wow.
But really I'm here today to meta.
Looking back on my life, I've always made up stories, and those stories have always been both original and fanfic. The first stuff I wrote was all original, and it wasn't until college that I actually began writing fanfic. Now, sadly, these past few years I've still been thinking about original fiction, but all I've been writing is fanfic. It's not that I feel I shouldn't write fanfic, I just wish I could flip that switch in my brain to turn the original stuff back on as well.
However, the fanfic ideas I love the most and the ones I put the most effort into are all AUs or crossovers or other things where I add a lot of original content and really make the world and the characters mine.
I think you can see that if you look at the long ideas I currently have.
the SV Luthorverse AU
the SPN/RPF crossoververse AU
the SPN hustlerverse AU
the J2 college AU
the SPN/Sky High crossover
the SV/SG1 crossover
I can't imagine writing some 50,000 word gen epic that tries to be as canon-compliant as possible. My stories tend to run long, but the longer they run, the more I have to be able to play around. I'll write short things exploring or explaining aspects of canon, but if I'm really getting into it, I stop writing someone else's characters and universe and instead write my own characters and universe inspired by and based on something else. My favorite parts tend to be the parts I add. But there's also always an aspect of still talking about canon, rather than just spinning it off into some original fiction with a similar basic theme or concept.
I think I'm not necessarily the only person to work this way, because most of the really long fic I read seems to be something where the author really takes control and adds stuff to or changes it from canon.
What say you?
But really I'm here today to meta.
Looking back on my life, I've always made up stories, and those stories have always been both original and fanfic. The first stuff I wrote was all original, and it wasn't until college that I actually began writing fanfic. Now, sadly, these past few years I've still been thinking about original fiction, but all I've been writing is fanfic. It's not that I feel I shouldn't write fanfic, I just wish I could flip that switch in my brain to turn the original stuff back on as well.
However, the fanfic ideas I love the most and the ones I put the most effort into are all AUs or crossovers or other things where I add a lot of original content and really make the world and the characters mine.
I think you can see that if you look at the long ideas I currently have.
the SV Luthorverse AU
the SPN/RPF crossoververse AU
the SPN hustlerverse AU
the J2 college AU
the SPN/Sky High crossover
the SV/SG1 crossover
I can't imagine writing some 50,000 word gen epic that tries to be as canon-compliant as possible. My stories tend to run long, but the longer they run, the more I have to be able to play around. I'll write short things exploring or explaining aspects of canon, but if I'm really getting into it, I stop writing someone else's characters and universe and instead write my own characters and universe inspired by and based on something else. My favorite parts tend to be the parts I add. But there's also always an aspect of still talking about canon, rather than just spinning it off into some original fiction with a similar basic theme or concept.
I think I'm not necessarily the only person to work this way, because most of the really long fic I read seems to be something where the author really takes control and adds stuff to or changes it from canon.
What say you?