fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2681 ]

[ SECRET POST #2681 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2681 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Have any of you ever written a fanfic that successfully made the transition to original fiction? Here is my tl;dr story:

I've been working on a very long Twilight fic for maybe a year now, and I'm really invested. You can laugh if you want; I love my story. However!

In the course of writing it, the focus has drifted away from anything having to do with Twilight -- except for the setting, about half the main characters, and the presence of vampires and werewolves. It's mostly about Jessica and Lauren and their friendship, and a bunch of family and community relationships.

Part of me wants to cut it loose from Twilight, change a few names, and try to make it work as original fiction. I've put a ton of effort into it and I don't know if it even works as Twilight fic any more, or if anyone looking for Twilight fic will be interested in it. But the vampires and werewolves play a role that feels important, and so does the setting. Plus, I feel like it benefits from having Twilight as a reference point even though Bella and the vamps are barely even supporting characters most of the time. So I'm not sure what to do with it.

Has anyone had a dilemma like this -- where you weren't sure whether something wanted to be "original" or fanfic? Do you have any advice?

I have taken ideas from fanfic and adapted them to original fiction. Basically what I do is decide which aspects of the story get me the most excited. Plot points, bits of characterization, relationships dynamics, anything. Then I look at whether these came from the source material or if they are things that I can put into a new story that isn't fanfic and it will work on its own without people immediately thinking of where it came from.

That is good advice, thanks for responding!

Part of the problem here is I really like the supernatural aspect of the story, but supernatural isn't my forte, and I don't trust myself to make up anything that works as well as the Meyerpires. So if I stick to my strengths, it will end up being a fairly realistic story of teenagers with problems, which is not as compelling to me right now. The vampires are serving as a kind of handrail for the parts of the story where I'm weaker.

That doesn't mean I won't try it! I'm just kind of muttering out loud. Thanks!

DA

Honestly, vampires (and werewolves!) have been done *so many* different ways, I wouldn't worry too much about keeping that aspect if you decide to make it an original fic. Maybe change some of the specifics about how vampires work (the sparkling part is really the only majorly Meyer aspect, pretty much every other thing can be found in other vampire lit. Werewolves, I'm less sure about, but I'm pretty sure that even the soulbonding stuff has been done elsewhere.) but otherwise, you'd be good to go.

TL;DR: As long as your vampires aren't glitter monsters, you're leaning on vampire lore in general, not Twilight. If you do decide to change to original fic.

I'd say also give your vampires fangs. because wtf kind of vampire doesn't have fangs.

My Meyerpires already have small fangs, and the sparkle factor has been much reduced. Part of my working headcanon is that Bella is a very unreliable narrator.

That is excellent headcanon. It's basically truth.

The reference point can be a big issue. I once tried to convert an MLP fic to an original story, but failed because I'd been relying so much on the reader having prior knowledge of who these characters were and what motivated them.

It's tough! I've tried to do it before and given up.

It's feasible to do this, but you'd have to be careful about backstory and context. Most fanfic assumed that the reader will already know the background, so that works like a major shortcut when it comes to characterisation, world building, etc. If you present your story as an original work, you have to make sure it still makes sense to someone without all that baggage and the context of Twilight.

That's what I've been thinking. Right now, a lot of it is drawing on that baggage.

I've had three stories published that began life out of fanfic universes. The trick, as others have said, is to make the story and characters yours enough that the source material isn't immediately obvious. Or, if it is, it scans as "homage" rather than "ripoff."

Vampires and werewolves have been done enough that you should be able to tweak whatever you need to tweak in order to make the story work--it might even work better because you're not stuck within the constraints of Meyer's world.

Congratulations on your stories! And yeah -- I'm not sure yet how well I'll be able to tweak, or if the result will be an improvement. But the responses here have been encouraging, so I'm going to give it a try.

I... sorta have a fic like this. It started out a Vagrant Story fic, but none of the characters in it are actually in the game. Some of their names and a few details about them are in the descriptions of certain magical artifacts, in most cases. The one character who even is mentioned in the game proper is Mullenkamp, the founder of the "cult" that serves as initial antagonists. And basically what we know about her is that the city of Lea Monde is known as her city (or her followers' city?), she lived ages ago, and she was a dancer and high priestess. We see her dancing in the opening FMV, and that's it.

And I have this elaborate headcanon involving her and some of the originators of those other magical relics, but... basically none of them are actually known characters, and they could just as easily be made into original characters.

But the whole plot is pretty much explaining the origins of the cult and why the city is what it is and why certain magical items exist, and if there's no connection to the actual canon, then why does anyone care about the origins of the cult or the reasons/methodology for turning Lea Monde into what it became and how those magical relics came to exist? Not to mention I'm blatantly leaning on those item descriptions and certain game mechanics as part of the worldbuilding.

So yeah, I'm in the same boat, and no advice here because I'm just as stumped.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2681 ]

Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?

Re: Fanfiction or original fiction -- advice ?