Do you write fanfictions? If yes, for what fandoms? If no, why?
We all know the answer here, aren't we? *grins*
Brace yourselves, you're in for a long answer.
So, I gonna do things backward and first answer the why I wouldn't write fanfictions at first. I began writing when I was in the end of primary school, because class was kinda boring: at the time, I aced in all subjects, would always finish my work before everyone and most of the time, I felt like I was learning anything and there just wasn't enough going around to keep me entertained. So I naturally switched to drawing, reading and writing while in class. I was already a fan of plenty of fandom-material but writing about it never crossed my mind and I turned to original fictions. At the time, I wasn't interested in fanfiction because these characters wasn't mine and although I loved them, I felt it wouldn't be funny to play with them. I couldn't understand what was the interest with playing with a universe I hadn't created, which is pretty ironic seeing that we would role-play in these universes with my friends, like making like we were pokémon trainers, or saints and all that kind of stuff.
Then came Kingdom Hearts and I fell completely in love with the game and that was the first time I really wanted to write fanfictions. So I begin writing a story with an original character as its main character because using a canon character felt too strange to my taste. Also, I've always loved creating characters and that's what felt natural. I give it up very fast though.
Then I went into my first 'official' fandom, visual kei and more precisely, Alice Nine. That was a bit different since it's RPF (visual kei is a subpart of J-rock) so I considered, and still considers, my characters as OCs inspired by the musicians. Apart from one, all my chaptered fic in that fandom (or cluster of fandoms) are semi-originals: I change the characters' name and edit a few thing out and it's an original. One is a story featuring a writer who discovers that fairytale characters lives in our world, magic exists and he's from the fairytale land and supposed to save them all (geez, sounds familiar XD). Another is a sci-fi retake on the vampire myth. Another is mix of sci-fi and fantasy where a dystopian society drafts its youth to send them after a legendary artifact in Wonderland. Last in date is a collaboration with Yaki and follows the therapy of insufferable brat a genius who became a hikkikomori because he was an ijime (1).
So I really began writing 'normal' fanfic three years ago, for Saint Seiya, my favorite manga. That time, with canon characters as main characters and narrators, although there still are a lot of OCs who play important roles.
Here is a list of the fandoms I've written for and the dates:
Kingdom Hearts (2006) | Visual Kei (2008) | Saint Seiya (2011) | Mononoke (2012) | One Piece (2012) | Inazuma Eleven (2012) | Mass Effect (2013) | Wicked Lovely (2013) | Supernatural (2013) | Doctor Who (2014)
The two in italics are the only one that didn't feature any OCs. I don't know if you're familiar with all of these (probably not) so I'm gonna give you the very basic plot of the series. You should see a pattern there.
Kingdom Hearts: the heroes goes around travelling from worlds to worlds, searching for their friends. One of the main enemies are the heartless, creatures that feed by stealing and feeding on people's hearts. These poor people become heartless when it happens. Also, that's a Disney/Final Fantasy cross-over but the most of main characters are originals.
Saint Seiya: Athena is real and she's protected and served by an army of warriors called the saints. Seiya is one of them and his friends and him battle against other gods' armies to save/protect Athena. They often have to travel to wherever the hostile gods' sanctuaries are in order to do that.
Mononoke: A nameless character known as the Medicine Seller (or Kusuriuri in Japanese) travels the world to take care of mononoke, unnatural spirits that mess with people (often ending with deaths).
One Piece: Pirates who travel from island to island to find the One Piece, a legendary treasure.
Inazuma Eleven: Soccer team who travels from city to city in order to be the best.
Mass Effect: main character and their crew travel around the galaxy to save it from the Reapers, a species of high-advanced sentient spaceships who wants to exterminate the most technologically advanced species of the galaxy.
Wicked Lovely: Faeries exist and are separated in four Courts, plus the solitaries who don't belong to anyone. Story is focused on the politic games between the Courts.
And well, you already know Doctor Who and Supernatural so XD
Common point? All of these are literally begging for OCs, I mean, most of them have a universe large and complex enough for me to be interested in exploring them. The kind of fandoms when it's easy to write semi-original/seeing the world building through other characters' lenses.
So, well, the more easily I can do some world building without diverging too much from canon, the more easily I can create OCs in a fandom, the more likely I'll want to write for it or give in into writing for it when I told myself no more writing for new fandoms because too many wips XD *looking specifically at you, Doctor Who*
And that's pretty much it.
(1) Hikkikomori and ijime and Japan's special brand of... I don't think an accurate word exists because a hikkikomori is basically an outcast, someone who withdraw from society and locked themselves in their room/house and don't get out of it. It's more than often coupled with social anxiety, agoraphobia and joyful stuff like that. Ijime is Japanese's special brand of bullying.
31 days of writing meme - masterpost
Brace yourselves, you're in for a long answer.
So, I gonna do things backward and first answer the why I wouldn't write fanfictions at first. I began writing when I was in the end of primary school, because class was kinda boring: at the time, I aced in all subjects, would always finish my work before everyone and most of the time, I felt like I was learning anything and there just wasn't enough going around to keep me entertained. So I naturally switched to drawing, reading and writing while in class. I was already a fan of plenty of fandom-material but writing about it never crossed my mind and I turned to original fictions. At the time, I wasn't interested in fanfiction because these characters wasn't mine and although I loved them, I felt it wouldn't be funny to play with them. I couldn't understand what was the interest with playing with a universe I hadn't created, which is pretty ironic seeing that we would role-play in these universes with my friends, like making like we were pokémon trainers, or saints and all that kind of stuff.
Then came Kingdom Hearts and I fell completely in love with the game and that was the first time I really wanted to write fanfictions. So I begin writing a story with an original character as its main character because using a canon character felt too strange to my taste. Also, I've always loved creating characters and that's what felt natural. I give it up very fast though.
Then I went into my first 'official' fandom, visual kei and more precisely, Alice Nine. That was a bit different since it's RPF (visual kei is a subpart of J-rock) so I considered, and still considers, my characters as OCs inspired by the musicians. Apart from one, all my chaptered fic in that fandom (or cluster of fandoms) are semi-originals: I change the characters' name and edit a few thing out and it's an original. One is a story featuring a writer who discovers that fairytale characters lives in our world, magic exists and he's from the fairytale land and supposed to save them all (geez, sounds familiar XD). Another is a sci-fi retake on the vampire myth. Another is mix of sci-fi and fantasy where a dystopian society drafts its youth to send them after a legendary artifact in Wonderland. Last in date is a collaboration with Yaki and follows the therapy of insufferable brat a genius who became a hikkikomori because he was an ijime (1).
So I really began writing 'normal' fanfic three years ago, for Saint Seiya, my favorite manga. That time, with canon characters as main characters and narrators, although there still are a lot of OCs who play important roles.
Here is a list of the fandoms I've written for and the dates:
Kingdom Hearts (2006) | Visual Kei (2008) | Saint Seiya (2011) | Mononoke (2012) | One Piece (2012) | Inazuma Eleven (2012) | Mass Effect (2013) | Wicked Lovely (2013) | Supernatural (2013) | Doctor Who (2014)
The two in italics are the only one that didn't feature any OCs. I don't know if you're familiar with all of these (probably not) so I'm gonna give you the very basic plot of the series. You should see a pattern there.
Kingdom Hearts: the heroes goes around travelling from worlds to worlds, searching for their friends. One of the main enemies are the heartless, creatures that feed by stealing and feeding on people's hearts. These poor people become heartless when it happens. Also, that's a Disney/Final Fantasy cross-over but the most of main characters are originals.
Saint Seiya: Athena is real and she's protected and served by an army of warriors called the saints. Seiya is one of them and his friends and him battle against other gods' armies to save/protect Athena. They often have to travel to wherever the hostile gods' sanctuaries are in order to do that.
Mononoke: A nameless character known as the Medicine Seller (or Kusuriuri in Japanese) travels the world to take care of mononoke, unnatural spirits that mess with people (often ending with deaths).
One Piece: Pirates who travel from island to island to find the One Piece, a legendary treasure.
Inazuma Eleven: Soccer team who travels from city to city in order to be the best.
Mass Effect: main character and their crew travel around the galaxy to save it from the Reapers, a species of high-advanced sentient spaceships who wants to exterminate the most technologically advanced species of the galaxy.
Wicked Lovely: Faeries exist and are separated in four Courts, plus the solitaries who don't belong to anyone. Story is focused on the politic games between the Courts.
And well, you already know Doctor Who and Supernatural so XD
Common point? All of these are literally begging for OCs, I mean, most of them have a universe large and complex enough for me to be interested in exploring them. The kind of fandoms when it's easy to write semi-original/seeing the world building through other characters' lenses.
So, well, the more easily I can do some world building without diverging too much from canon, the more easily I can create OCs in a fandom, the more likely I'll want to write for it or give in into writing for it when I told myself no more writing for new fandoms because too many wips XD *looking specifically at you, Doctor Who*
And that's pretty much it.
(1) Hikkikomori and ijime and Japan's special brand of... I don't think an accurate word exists because a hikkikomori is basically an outcast, someone who withdraw from society and locked themselves in their room/house and don't get out of it. It's more than often coupled with social anxiety, agoraphobia and joyful stuff like that. Ijime is Japanese's special brand of bullying.
31 days of writing meme - masterpost