Canon Settings in Fanfic

[phaeous]

I have a general confusion about people writing fanfics:

if you enjoy the canon
wanna be a writer associated with such a setting
& are enthusiastic about making your own spin

why would you copy the canon setting verbatim rather than creating a fic that holds extremely likened but not literally the same setting-aspects?

Why not write an Original Canon with different characters & events while having a very similar world-backdrop​

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Part of the reason why I don't read fanfics.

 

[sanitylimited]

when it comes to shonen, its greatest strength is the characters. the powers/world are secondary. the only reason people care about the goa kingdom in one piece is because thats where the protagonist was raised.

so your question is essentially "why don't you discard the best bits while keeping in the irelavent stuff"

 

[phaeous]

@sanitylimited

I get your point. But it misses the fact that you can take your Favorite Bit from each character & event & blend them creatively in a Custom sense of life

 

[TheOneWho]

Well for something like Pokemon or Yugioh, there is kind of the point of it all. So a story ned to be a fanfic to include them.

 

[Shamiko]

Good point.
Ig some ppl might not be as creative as other writers, which might be why they focus mostly on writing fanfics. But yes, u make a good point.

 

[SailusGebel]

Bruh.

 

[Aader]

I'm currently writing a Naruto fanfic for fun, it'll follow near cannon up until the time of the Uchiha massacre then head down a different path.

Some people write fanfics to "correct" things they didn't like in the actual cannon, or to self insert. That said just cause you don't like it, doesn't mean you should look down on it.

Fan fictions are a great way to sharpen your skills as a writer. It can improve your dialog, character voicing and more.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

I'm currently writing a Naruto fanfic for fun, it'll follow near cannon up until the time of the Uchiha massacre then head down a different path.

Some people write fanfics to "correct" things they didn't like in the actual cannon, or to self insert. That said just cause you don't like it, doesn't mean you should look down on it.

Fan fictions are a great way to sharpen your skills as a writer. It can improve your dialog, character voicing and more.

I don't look down on people for liking things, except for Sailus who dislikes everything. Bruh.

 

[SailusGebel]

I don't look down on people for liking things, except for Sailus who dislikes everything. Bruh.

Now I'm sad. Why you bully me?

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Now I'm sad. Why you bully me?

Sorry, not actually! Here hab cookie delivered by bat

 

[Laius]

Because people who write/read fanfiction are interested in the new variables that the author introduce but (and that is where there is a contradiction) if your character change things too much then there is a chance that future event that you will be interested in writing/reading may not happen. Hence why fanfiction that follow the original story require balance and cannot be changed without thinking.

 

[Octopal]

Most OP fanfic I read follow the canon. They can't stray to make interesting setting like new island with new oddity setting. Naruto fanfic follow the original event with self insert. And pokemon fanfic, they follow same setting: befriend steven and cynthia, discover "new" evolution/mega/other shit, next city is one day away, forest is park, and other shit.

 

[Jemini]

There's a wide variety of different types of fanfics. But, they ultimately boil down into 2 primary types. 1, copy the setting and some characters and write a new original story, or 2, make an else-worlds story in which it takes place on the same timeline except with some key events changed.

(Also, self-insert characters and other OCs are common.)

However, the absolute most well-written fanfics tend to keep every aspect of the original work as true to the original as possible. If you are leveraging the original work for your own enjoyment or the enjoyment of the readers, you want to preserve as much of what made the original good as possible, and the readers will ultimately enjoy an extremely faithful recreation far more than they ever would something that's just wearing the thing they enjoy as a grotesque skin-suit that doesn't even pretend to act like the original.

I am currently writing a story continuation fanfic of Mother of Learning, in which I take one of the author's one-shot AU chapters and leverage it into an entire sequel of the original story. The plot is entirely original, but the nature of the Mother of Learning as a time-loop story requires that I conform exactly to the timeline as it would be in the loops where the MC doesn't mess with things too much, and keep the characters as true to themselves as possible, if I want to truly make a faithful story continuation.

(yeah, there's going to be very little room for OCs, and even then any OC I happen to make would be a minor character at best. Too much of my effort will be focused on getting the cannon characters correct to even think about adding something new to the mix. The most I've done in this regard is take a few completely off-screen characters and put them on-screen, such as actually showing the audience one of the times Zach beats down on Tesen by putting that SOB onscreen.)

 

[phaeous]

@Jemini

I too am writing a fanfic that honors the reality depicted in the story -deriving noncontradictory enmeshing- not introducing 4th wall breaking insert

It's inevitable that because free will exists : each moment will be owned in a unique and unpredictable way

Fanfics that annihilate Chance Causality _ or throw away inspiration that canon gives you in favor o dispensing a new 'superior' canon ■ what's the purpose besides expressing spiteful discontemt or sophistic sham arrogance

 

[K5Rakitan]

Why not write an Original Canon with different characters​

Because we're in love with the characters.

@sanitylimited

I get your point. But it misses the fact that you can take your Favorite Bit from each character & event & blend them creatively in a Custom sense of life

That's like trying to find pieces of your former partner in your new partners. It will simply never be the same, and you'll both wind up miserable.

All that aside, it can actually help you get a job in certain industries. I know someone who became a narrative designer for Blizzard who got her start writing fanfiction.

 

[Rhaps]

I wrote an AU Naruto fanfic, because I am deep into the lore of the world and really appreciate such an amazing world building. And a thought came to me: how far can a person fall in this world? That was how Blood Demon of the Whirlpool was born.

It's really hard to write a fanfic while staying true and faithful to the original, that's why I made it an AU. Why didn't I just make another story with a similar world building to Naruto? Idk, that thought didn't even ocurred to me lol, I was too swept up by the 20th anniversary hype lmao.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Because then it's not a fanfic anymore, it's an original story heavily inspired by another story.

Fanfic is actually pure wish-fulfillment. Have you ever watched or read something and don't like a part of it? Maybe the male lead ends up with a girl you don't like. You're frustrated. What to do? Yep, you write a fanfic where the male lead ends up with the girl you think is more suitable. Heck, you can even make it a harem if you want to.

Lemme give you an actual example, coming from a reader/audience point of view: I remember watching Fairy Tail and thought, "Damn it, when will Natsu and Lucy get together? They clearly have feelings for each other, so please don't do this to us, author!" If you watch Fairy Tail, you'll know the author like to tease us with the ship that will never sail. It's kinda just there at the dock, ready to take off, but... not quite. So what did I do with that frustration? I'm afraid to inform you that I didn't jerk off that day, instead I went to fanfiction and found a story where Natsu and Lucy do end up together. Goddamn were there so many of them! There were some harem as well. Now, that's what I'd call a delightful collection!

Now, if we go by your theory and make something new out of it, that wouldn't be Fairy Tail anymore, it would be something completely new. There would be no Natsu, no Lucy, only something similar. That's fine and all, but it's not quite as satisfying as seeing the actual characters I've come to care about.

Another example I think a lot of people can resonate: ever watched a harem anime and thought, "Goddamn, mc, don't be such a pussy! Being a gentleman is cool, but being a pussy is not! Big difference, my guy. Stop blue balling us with that indecisiveness of yours!"? Now you're frustrated, what to do? You can jerk off, yes, but I would go for a fanfic and search for the same exact story with the same exact characters, but with a different mc. It can be an original character, self-insert, or the exact same one, but their personally definitely has to change. No more blue balls. Now, that's a delightful collection, indeed.

 

[Jemini]

Fun fact. One of the oldest known cases of fanfiction were the public response to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ending the Sherlock Holmes series by supposedly killing off the title character. Dozens of people started writing their own fan-fictions of how Holmes might have survived falling off Rineback falls after Moriarty, and taking that to continue on the story themselves.

This was right at the beginning of the 1900s, so it's seriously saying something that these fan fictions actually got spread around back in those days since this was before the internet was ever even conceived of. It took some serious effort for people to spread around their fan-fics back then, and yet they spread anyway because that's just how well loved the character of Sherlock Holmes was at the time.

It was, in fact, this fan reaction that got Doyle to resume writing the series, and he wound up taking inspiration from the many fan-fics to come up with a means for his character to survive, and then continued on.

This is the power of a well-written fan fiction that uses all the original characters and settings well.

(And, honestly, I think the only reason the Sherlock Holmes fanfics are considered the oldest is because they were categorized as non-cannon. I'd say some of the installments to the King Arthur stories or even the Judeo-Christian adjacent stories that were rejected from the cannon and the Apocrypha when they were putting all the stories together to form the bible would likely qualify as well if it weren't for how contentious it would be to call them as such.)

 

[Generic.Archdemon]

One of the oldest known cases of fanfiction were the public response to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ending the Sherlock Holmes series by supposedly killing off the title character. Dozens of people started writing their own fan-fictions of how Holmes might have survived falling off Rineback falls after Moriarty, and taking that to continue on the story themselves.

Yep. Another possible example IIRC was Virgil's Aeneid to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey