[Discussion] How much fan does one put in fanfiction?

[Dova]

Now, I've been tampering with a few fanfictions for a while, along with an RP based again in another universe, and that got me thinking about the appeal of fanfictions. When I write, how can I make it so that everyone can enjoy it, and aren't turned off by having to do a whole bunch of lore lookup? The obvious answer is to treat your chosen world as your own ORIGINAL^TM world, and treat your audience as knowing nothing, so not relying too much on the lore of the franchise/world you're borrowing from and explaining it when you do where necessary.

 

However, this can be annoying for those already familiar with the world in question, and it can become a slog through names and history that they're already very familiar with. Again, the counter for this isn't hard to realize, if hard to implement; just try and find a balance between the to extremes, without going too far one way or the other. This is, at least in my opinion, and important part to writing a fanfiction that is enjoyable to all.

 

But hey, I haven't actually even written a full fanfiction yet, so I can't really talk. I know there are may CW vets here who have written original stories and fanfictions, and have made their own decisions as to how accessible they want their stories to be. It can even vary depending on the story, and who says you need a consistent target audience? So, yeah, I was just curious as to others' approaches to this topic.

 

How much fan do you put in a fanfiction, and why?

[mitchermitcher]

In the crossover project I'm doing right now, we don't go out of our way to try to appeal to people who aren't familiar with the two source materials. In the first place, the idea we're going with is something that requires the reader to be familiar with not just the characters involved from each, but the deeper ideas used in both works to see why this idea has enough appeal to make a fanfic at all. To that end we're not bothering to explain things to a total newcomer, we're just explaining whatever feels natural to explain at the time. We're not aiming for newcomers at all, and at least, I only care about this fic reaching someone who'd also see the appeal of it. Since the two of us already understand the appeal of the work, that's enough for me.

 

Although I wouldn't mind a large readership that fulfills those conditions I guess.

 

Since you actually want the story to be accessible to others I wouldn't quite recommend doing it like this. I'll just say to really consider whether you truly want accessibility over say, being able to write what you want without padding it out with explanations for other people.

[Catterjune]

To answer your question...

If you're writing a fanfic there's probably a reason you're doing it. There's some story you wanna tell that you felt the original writers either told poorly or didn't delve deeply into it enough. So focus on what makes your story different from canon and start from there.

Love story between your favorite characters? Make them bond over reminiscing of moments they had together. You show why they're the OTP, you make references to old stuff for the fans and you make new readers not familiar with the story slightly more familiar with it.

Action Adventure fic, with a comedic twist? Make references to the original but statet how what you're doing is different. "Remember when Harry Potter walked into Mordor and destroyed the Death Star? It's gonna be just like that but we're gonna dress like ladies!"

Action Adventure, but takes itself straight? A little more subtle of the approach, but same as above. "Hey remember that time Batman dueled Light Yagami in the Matrix? That was awesome."

You're writing a story for a reason, so focus on that reason as you write.

[I Hate Snatch Steal]

I'd say don't explain too much, since the people who will read your story are far more likely to know about the characters involved then to not. However, don't be afraid to state/explain things that are popular fan theories that are not explicitly cannon and/or extrapolations from cannon.

 

eg:

You don't have to explain the events of the plot of Startrek Nemesis from start to finish. EG, "Picard felt like he'd failed in his responsibility to his crew. He'd been captured by Shinzong and Data helped him escape.... [insert the rest of the plot summary here] ... After Shinzong finally died in hand to hand combat, Data fired his phaser into the thaleron redaition emmiter, which stopped the scimitar's assault and destroyed it, but that action cost commander data his 'life'. Thus Picard felt sad.

 

You could shorten that to:

"Picard felt like he'd failed in his responsibility to his crew. Losing Commander Data during the battle with the Scimitar made him feel very sad."

 

Since fans would know what scene you were talking about from that sentence alone, or they could look it up. I find that referencing events is also a good way to inform the reader of the time within the series in which a story takes place.

 

However, its a good idea to state something that's either an extrapolation from something cannon or a fan theory. (You may need to use an author's note if what your writing references something only the reader knows about at that time, as in the below example)

 

eg:

Picard worried about his science officer. Data was due back on the Enterprise days ago but hadn't reported in. He considered sending an away team to search for him. (Author's note: I'm assuming that the positronic readings that lead the crew to find B4 in "Nemesis"  were purposefully generated and amplified somehow and thus the Enterprise can't locate Data with a simple scan)