Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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fandomsecrets2025-12-10 07:39 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2025-12-10 07:39 pm
[ SECRET POST #6914 ]
⌈ Secret Post #6914 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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[Wicked: For Good]
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[Sanda]
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #987.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2025-12-11 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)Like, it's easy to answer why a person writing fanfic is able to easily republish it as original fiction -- in many cases, it's because the fic is a setting change AU, where you're transplanting characters who are meant to be evocative/remind you of the original canon characters into a new setting and they have a new job (meant to be analogous to their canon one) and they're thinking about new/different problems (that are meant to be analogous to their canon problems), etc. So the author, when writing a setting change AU is often doing a lot of work that e.g. a romance novelist is doing when writing original work: they have to take the time to introduce you to these characters and what their main pain points are at the start of the story (because the fanfic author has to explain how their setting change AU works to the audience who knows the characters but are finding out from the author what is going on with them in *this* world...) -- but a lot of this is just the same work that an original novel author ALSO needs to do to introduce you to the main leads at the start of the story. In short, a setting change AU, because it plucks characters out of their original context and worldbuilding, basically requires the fic author to have to do fresh worldbuilding/world-establishing WITHIN their story, which basically resembles the kind of world-establishing an original work also has to do, making it much easier to cross the gap between fanfiction and original fiction, because less material has to be added in order to make it standalone.
But then of course, that just pushes the question back, right? That just means *setting change AUs* are barely fanfiction because they all involve taking two characters, removing them from the interesting canon world that shaped them/informs their characters, filing off all their edges, and making them the most bland and generic of (e.g.) romance novel protags ever. And in fact, I have seen this exact sentiment expressed widely in fandom (e.g. see this super viral Tumblr post: https://www.tumblr.com/starbuck/786572324657856512/is-this-ship-popular-because-its-legitimately -- but I've seen this sentiment expressed in very different ways in many places). I think if you're the kind of person who really hates setting change AUs and only want to see characters in their original setting, this definitely makes sense. But for me personally, I love setting change AUs and not only do I NOT see them as "fanfic-lite" (as in, barely fanfic, because they're barely responding to the actual canon) but I see them as "extremely fanfic" or "quintessentially fanfic" in that I think one of the characteristics that tends to make stories feel noticeably "fanficcy" to me is when someone takes a character and rotates them/shakes them around in their mind and tries to imagine what that character would look like in Regency England, or in the flower shop AU, or in the Mirror Universe or whatever. Sometimes canons even do this for their own characters and it ALWAYS comes off to me as that canon dabbling in writing fanfiction, to be honest -- that's how "fanficcy" that activity seems to me.
So personally, I don't agree that setting change AUs are "failing" to write fanfiction. I do think there are ways to keep on getting more and more divorced from canon to the point where the characters don't feel like their canon selves anymore and you might as well be writing original characters, for all the resemblance they bear to the original characters. That definitely happens in fandom and would count as failing to write fanfiction, and yes, setting change AUs ARE absolutely the main way that this "characterization telephone" or "characterization drift" happens, so people are not wrong that there is a connection between setting change AUs and the "this character is basically an OC" phenomenon. But I also think you CAN absolutely write setting change AUs where the character still really really feels like the canon version. They are just translated into a different setting, but the parallels are obvious and the setting change AU only makes sense and is only enjoyable BECAUSE it is implicitly in dialogue with the original text.
I think these traits can even still apply to ex-fanfic that gets republished as original work. While the story stands alone (because of that "character/world-establishing within the story" work I talked about above), I do wonder how many people are drawn to these serial-numbers-filed-off books because they know it will give them similar experiences to the canon that the original fic was for? Like, I wonder how many 50 Shades of Grey fans also enjoyed Twilight, or if the reason why 50SoG was popular is basically the same reason why Twilight was popular? Or you know that feeling when you're reading fic where you're like "I would read 100 versions of this same setup" or "this is my favorite fic in the world; I wish there were 100 fics like it that I haven't read yet so I could read them all", because you just like that relationship and that trope *that* much? I don't think it's unrelated that people who like to read romances tend to read a LOT of romances, or people who like Dramione also like Zutara also like Reylo and will often snoop around in those other fandoms when looking for reading material. It's not because those characters are the same or their canon context doesn't matter, but rather that the traits that draw people to those (all non-canon!) ships are the same and they scratch the same itch. And when Dramione fics get republished as original, I think the reason they will be popular in bookstores is the same reason the original Dramione fics were popular, not because the characters "don't even feel like Draco and Hermione anymore" but because they still *do*, and they are drawing fans who would have been drawn to what Draco and Hermione have going on in Harry Potter, too. Same goes for the so-called "migratory slash fandom" -- a lot of times, people are really really drawn to a dynamic that involves "hyperactive youthful overly-friendly dude who often doesn't know when to stop talking" and "grumpy repressed dignified gay" which ties Sterek with Wangxian (and heck, Gelphie too for a F/F version, why not). And you know what is a good setup for highlighting and heightening the personality and sexual tension between two such characters? College roommates sharing a dorm room. (With Gelphie, it's just canon.)