I have my own thoughts on the topic, which have been a part of my Fanfic Writer's Guide for many years:
15. Don't disguise original fiction as fanfiction.
Some might phrase this as "don't make the characters so unlike
themselves that they're different people with the same names".
Either way you look at it, it's a complete puzzle to me. If
you're writing fanfiction, you're celebrating the source
material. Why choose to change it so completely that it's
unrecognizable? Conversely, if you have a good and compelling
story idea that is so utterly different from the original
setting, why feel constrained to turn it into fanfiction?
A good example of this would be the acclaimed "Ranma 1/2" fic
"Ten", by "Richard E" (http://ten.waxwolf.com/). This is an
amazing story demonstrating outstanding literary skill ... but
it has absolutely *no* reason to be a "Ranma" fic. None of
the "Ranma" characters really act like him- or herself here,
their the backgrounds are all so radically different that it's
hard to justify it even as an "elseworld", and there's really
nothing here that anchors the story to the "canon" Ranma
world. (Just as one example: Ryoga as a crippled,
intellectual scientist. Huh?)
Another good example would be "Rendezvous With Fate" by iCe
(found at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/67364/1/), also a
"Ranma" fic. Here Akane is the twenty-something widow of
Ryoga; her mind/soul is sent back in time to Edo-period Japan,
where she finds herself occupying the body of Kodachi,
estranged wife of Ranma Saotome, a high-ranking warrior in the
service of Happosai and twin brother of Nabiki... It's an
extraordinary story, well-written and engrossing, but once
again, the characters and settings are so vastly divorced from
"Ranma 1/2" canon that there is no real reason for it to be a
"Ranma" fanfic.
If you're writing something so thoroughly altered, you might
as well take that last step, use new names, and call it
original fiction.
Who knows? Maybe you'll find an editor who'll buy it. It's
happened before -- as "50 Shades of Grey" (which started out
as a "Twilight" fic, if you didn't know) and the "Vorkosigan
Saga" by Lois McMaster Bujold (which has its roots in a "Star
Trek" fanfic) amply demonstrate.
15. Don't disguise original fiction as fanfiction.
Some might phrase this as "don't make the characters so unlike
themselves that they're different people with the same names".
Either way you look at it, it's a complete puzzle to me. If
you're writing fanfiction, you're celebrating the source
material. Why choose to change it so completely that it's
unrecognizable? Conversely, if you have a good and compelling
story idea that is so utterly different from the original
setting, why feel constrained to turn it into fanfiction?
A good example of this would be the acclaimed "Ranma 1/2" fic
"Ten", by "Richard E" (http://ten.waxwolf.com/). This is an
amazing story demonstrating outstanding literary skill ... but
it has absolutely *no* reason to be a "Ranma" fic. None of
the "Ranma" characters really act like him- or herself here,
their the backgrounds are all so radically different that it's
hard to justify it even as an "elseworld", and there's really
nothing here that anchors the story to the "canon" Ranma
world. (Just as one example: Ryoga as a crippled,
intellectual scientist. Huh?)
Another good example would be "Rendezvous With Fate" by iCe
(found at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/67364/1/), also a
"Ranma" fic. Here Akane is the twenty-something widow of
Ryoga; her mind/soul is sent back in time to Edo-period Japan,
where she finds herself occupying the body of Kodachi,
estranged wife of Ranma Saotome, a high-ranking warrior in the
service of Happosai and twin brother of Nabiki... It's an
extraordinary story, well-written and engrossing, but once
again, the characters and settings are so vastly divorced from
"Ranma 1/2" canon that there is no real reason for it to be a
"Ranma" fanfic.
If you're writing something so thoroughly altered, you might
as well take that last step, use new names, and call it
original fiction.
Who knows? Maybe you'll find an editor who'll buy it. It's
happened before -- as "50 Shades of Grey" (which started out
as a "Twilight" fic, if you didn't know) and the "Vorkosigan
Saga" by Lois McMaster Bujold (which has its roots in a "Star
Trek" fanfic) amply demonstrate.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....