What inspire fanfics?

[Yorth]

Is it the complex world? Is it the interesting characters? A mixture of both? I have never written a fanfic before, but I'm curious as to know what goes into the mind of those writing them. How do they get inspired?

 

[GDLiZy]

Pretty sure it's fangirling/fanboying.

 

[Nanakawaichan]

Obviously, because I want him as my husbando but I can't get him since he's in 2D world. So fanfic it is!

 

[OneSixSeven]

Pretty sure it's fangirling/fanboying.

More likely 'correcting' the parts especially fixing the generic beta harem male MC.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Annoyance. Annoyance. Annoyance. And even more annoyance in my case.

 

[ludagad]

Oh, it depends on the person really. As a fangirl, my motivation was sexual frustration first and wanting to see my ship sail second. The plot and world building were filled in later.

 

[gaylolis]

the gay. it's always the gay.

 

[PrincessFelicie]

For my current fanfic, I am absolutely enamored with the source material but at the same time painfully aware of all the ways it aged super poorly, and I want nothing more than to go "I can fix this" so I get to share the world and cast with my friends I couldn't recommend the source material to.

 

[Love4NovelGuy]

Pretty sure it's fangirling/fanboying.

Definitely this!

 

[Love4NovelGuy]

I myself wanted to fix Sakura Haruno and wrote a fanfic about her, which was popular, but stopped posting after running out of inspiration, and also feeling sad that my Original Stories weren’t being read whatsoever.

 

[skillet]

ships. it's the ships. it's their chemistry. It can also be other relationships that you just love the chemistry of but lack canon for.

Also, it's a lot easier to write about two established characters in an established world for a shorter story that is sort of allowed to be more cliche because everyone is kind of in it for the ships anyway than it is to create your own and stress out trying to be original... though that might only be me, lol.

 

[AliceShiki]

Each person has their own reasons I guess? I never published my fanfics, but I made some CCS ones before... I just loved the story so much that I felt sad it ended, so I tried continuing it on my own. (My fanfic was terrible though! xD)

Or maybe wanting to self-insert yourself into a given setting that you like...
Or maybe trying to ship the best characters when the author shipped the MC with the most boring character ever...
Or maybe just trying to fix some terrible issues at a given part of an otherwise amazing story.

There are tons of reasons, really~

 

[K5Rakitan]

I'm a fangirl through and through. However, there are more reasons to why I actually write and publish my work instead of just keeping my fantasies to myself. I know a lot of people out there feel guilty for loving the people they love, and I'm out here showing them that someone understands.

For another thing, I enjoyed fanfiction a lot when I was younger, but I grew tired of reading the same old themes and stopped identifying with teenage protagonists. My protagonists are adults now.

 

[YuriDoggo]

My protagonists are adults now.

I never realized this before now, but my characters are much more mature now. I still set their age young because it's what I did before, but gradually, their mental age increased.

 

[AliceShiki]

I never realized this before now, but my characters are much more mature now. I still set their age young because it's what I did before, but gradually, their mental age increased.

Well, as we grow older, it's normal to try wanting to have more mature characters that do things with sensible reasonings IMO~

To write teenage characters once you have matured, you kinda have to try emulating the mindset of moody teenagers... It's a lot harder than it is to write someone at the same level of maturity you are at! xD

 

[ThereIsNoLoveInThisWorld]

I wrote a fanfic cause I want Mipha..

 

[BenJepheneT]

The author fucked up your headcanon and now you can only do it yourself

 

[CJWrites]

I've written quite a bit of Star Wars fanfic. I have enough material in my head with the same set of characters to fill out a dualogy, maybe a trilogy of full length books. For me, the world and setting is absolutely amazing and I love it. I've gotten a lot of great feedback about my characters, the story, setting, blocking, etc. It's really boosted my confidence that my writing doesn't suck like my inner fear says it does.

However, I won't bother with finishing the writing on it as I Darth Mickey will claim it if it gets popular. Don't believe me? Consider the case of the Youtube channel 'Star Wars Theory'. I'm a big fan and this guy makes me look like an absolutely clueless idiot (Not far off the mark actually). He took his passion and turned it into a screen play for a short movie. He contacted Disney, struck up a dialogue with them and they gave him the green light with some rules. The biggest of which was that: 1) He could not crowdfund the project, and B) he could not monetize it once released. He followed this rules to the letter. He ended up spending more than $120,000 of his own money to make this short (First of five). Within TWO HOURS of him posting the video on Youtube, Disney had claimed it, monetized the crap out of it and promoted it as their own. Two days and several million views later (with an untold payout to Disney), they released the video back to him and said "Hey buddy, sorry about that. It was a mistake." My ass it was. They didn't offer to not the take money or anything else. They just stole his work, passion and money to make a tidy sum.

As a side note, he hasn't learned his lesson. He's decided in the last two months to go ahead and produce another part, again with his own money. This time with at least double the budget. Hiring actors, building sets, the whole nine yards. I can only shake my head and wonder.

For this reason, I won't waste my effort (at least my main effort) on finishing out that project even though I have a deep and burning passion for it. If I did, I would want to share it far and wide, maybe even turn it into a publishing deal. A guy can dream right? So now I'm working on my own stolen ideas with an Isekai series.

*Throws two coppers on the pile*

Cheers,

 

[TheHelpfulFawn]

To create a self insert so I can punch the bratty snot nosed kids in the face like they deserve

 

[weakwithwords]

Back in the day of news archives and mailing lists, when there were no wikis and search portals, just web spiders, anime/manga fanfics were mostly about Sailor Moon, Ranma, and/or Tenchi Muyo. Star Wars and Star Trek fics were rare.

The FFML was something like raising gu. Authors would ask for C&C (comments and criticisms) and responses would come from other authors. Readers tended to be silent lurkers.

Eventually, sites like geocities allowed authors to host their own stories.

What inspires them? Love/hate for the series.

There was a handful of authors that worked with the motif of Tendo Akane having "rage disorder". Often, this would lead to a Ranma BAD END.

Sometimes, Ranma would fall into the Sailor Moon world, quite the harem potential, that is, if he does not become Beryl's minion or husband.

Some works are more adaptable than others. If you feel like someone is OOC (out of character), then the original was probably rigidly defined.

Imagination is your cage and your freedom.