This is an interesting distinction, but I think making it the distinction between fanfic and original fic is a poor labeling job. We talk all the time of fic that doesn't require canon knowledge to enjoy. Most if not all of that fic subverts your labels. My "The Effluence Engine" fic, "The Petro Dynamo", crosses over with Frankenstein. And as a Frankenstein fic, it fills in the spaces, doesn't move the plot forward, does all the things you ascribe to fanfiction. But as "Effluence Engine" fic, it barely acknowledges the canon. It uses the same world and the same characters, but the characters move linearly through a plot that is carefully determined and entirely separate from the original canon. In thinking about it, many of my crossover-heavy fics similarly fail your schema. My hopefully soon to be posted Avengers/West Wing crossroles fic builds outward on one of the fandoms, but builds forward on the other, using it only as a setting to tell a basic story. (It offers secret history to the West Wing verse, but it's just a straightforward superhero story, no more fanficcy than any Marvel comic book)
I know a lot of people who enjoy certain fics without being familiar with the source material, but that actually rarely works for me. I have a really hard time connecting with unfamiliar characters, even when they're placed in settings and situations that are almost entirely divorced from the original one. I feel like I'm missing a necessary piece of emotional context, more than anything else -- an understanding of the nuances and in-jokes and nods to the canon, a pre-existing investment in the outcome (or expectation/hope of what that outcome will be). Sometimes I have the same problem with crossovers when I'm not familiar with both the source canons, though there are exceptions. I think a lot -- not all, maybe, but a lot -- of fanfic is written with the expectation that the reader already cares about something in the story. The characters, the setting, heck, even the tropes. The reader might later decide that they don't really care about your story, but they probably still care about what it was that drew them to the story in the first place.
I just have a really hard time caring about fanfic set in canons I don't know, because I read fic to visit and see more of characters and worlds I love. But sometimes people read fics because they like a particular author, or a particular trope or kink or narrative device, or because they think the summary looks nifty. And that's cool, too.
...okay, that was kind of a long tangent.
To address another point of your comment: I do think fanfic can build forward -- and that a lot of fanfic does, including fic I've written. I just don't think fanfic has to, necessarily, whereas I really struggle with original fiction that provides thematic and/or emotional payoff but not specifically narrative payoff. Then again, I've devoured short-form original erotica and okay, there's usually some kind of narrative framework in there, but the payoff is ultimately less narrative and more emotional. It's a similar case of the audience going in and already knowing the core framework, I think.
So yeah, the categories aren't as cut-and-dry as I've made them out to be, but they're useful to me in thinking about my own work.
Yeah, I agree that they're useful in thinking about fiction generally, but it ends up coming off to me like an attempt to police the boundaries of fanfiction, which I'm always wary about because my interaction with fanfiction is nonstandard in many ways.
My point isn't that everyone can read fanfiction sans canon, but that some fanfiction works that way and some people read it, and that I don't think that trying to frame that as "fanfiction written like original fiction" is fair or appropriate.
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I just have a really hard time caring about fanfic set in canons I don't know, because I read fic to visit and see more of characters and worlds I love. But sometimes people read fics because they like a particular author, or a particular trope or kink or narrative device, or because they think the summary looks nifty. And that's cool, too.
...okay, that was kind of a long tangent.
To address another point of your comment: I do think fanfic can build forward -- and that a lot of fanfic does, including fic I've written. I just don't think fanfic has to, necessarily, whereas I really struggle with original fiction that provides thematic and/or emotional payoff but not specifically narrative payoff. Then again, I've devoured short-form original erotica and okay, there's usually some kind of narrative framework in there, but the payoff is ultimately less narrative and more emotional. It's a similar case of the audience going in and already knowing the core framework, I think.
So yeah, the categories aren't as cut-and-dry as I've made them out to be, but they're useful to me in thinking about my own work.
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My point isn't that everyone can read fanfiction sans canon, but that some fanfiction works that way and some people read it, and that I don't think that trying to frame that as "fanfiction written like original fiction" is fair or appropriate.
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