Questions tagged [fan-fiction]

This tag should be used for questions about the craft of writing fan fiction or related writing topics, such as questions about copyrights. Fan fiction is characterised as new works that are being created by fans taking characters or the general setting of an existing work of fiction as the basis.

This tag should be used for questions about the craft of writing fan fiction or related writing topics, such as questions about copyrights. Fan fiction is characterised as new works that are being created by fans taking characters or the general setting of an existing work of fiction as the basis.

You can use this tag for different types of questions, such as:

  • general questions about writing fan fiction, for example whether there is a market for this kind of work
  • copyright questions involving the original works and what you have to keep in mind when writing fan fiction
  • the processes involved in writing fan fiction

You should use other appropriate tags to further define what you are asking about, such as , , , , or .

54 questions
33
votes
19 answers

Fan Fiction: a crutch or a good start?

Writing is writing, but I am not confident enough to take on creating a whole world from scratch. Will writing fanfic or writing in other shared world spaces be beneficial, or will it simply allow me to get into some bad habits?
Larry Smithmier
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21
votes
11 answers

How to avoid writing irritating fan fictions?

I have recently started writing a fanfiction and I am posting it online as I write it. However, I often see in comments sayings 'This fanfiction gave me cancer','The writer of this crap should just kill herself.' and low ratings that accompany those…
Maiko Chikyu
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20
votes
9 answers

I have 97 pages in my book draft. Is it too late to swap to third person from first?

I've been writing a One Piece fan fiction to improve my writing. I foolishly decided to write it in first person and now I kinda want to change it to third person - but I'm already 97 pages into the book. Should I do it? This is the first piece of…
12
votes
4 answers

How to continue someone else's story gracefully, with fan-fiction?

I've been juggling some ideas for NaNoWriMo and one of them is a Doctor Who story. Now I've not read a great deal of fan fiction but I've never read any that I'd say that compares to the original, and often I feel most fan fiction is a written…
ProseFerret
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12
votes
9 answers

Can fanfics be bestsellers?

Fanfiction is somewhat of an uncharted territory, which few actual writers/critics take serious note of or are very enthusiastic about. It has been long asked and established whether publishing fanfics is even legally possible at all. Yes, it is…
Soha Farhin Pine
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11
votes
4 answers

How do I write a deep conversation scene?

So two brothers are having a conversation about one wanting not to be a vampire anymore, and asks him if there is a way he can change to human. How do I make the conversation interesting and wanting the readers to read more?
Alison Smith
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10
votes
5 answers

Using a world created by someone else for your own fiction

What is the procedure if you want to set a story in a world created by someone else?If, after reading someone else's novel I came up with some neat plot that would fit into that novel's world, but would be a separate story from the original, with…
slashmais
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7
votes
5 answers

Is fan fiction publishable?

This is a question that has been touched on here and there, and yet I can't find a good answer. Suppose I am writing a story set in the Star Wars universe. I don't want to dodge copyrights and trademarks by renaming everything and everyone. I want…
Alexander
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6
votes
3 answers

Method for handling non-canonical fantasy fiction

I started writing a short story that involved demonic possession. The nature of the possession is symbolic. The story is an allegory. When I shared the initial draft among some friends, I had feedback that included some questions about which plane…
Kit Z. Fox
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6
votes
5 answers

Can a mock-magazine with fictitious content count legally as fan fiction?

I contribute to a small website, well, one that's got Photoshop of various things. - it's a small obscure site with only a few users. Recently I've been learning InDesign and Quark Xpress for digital publishing, and made a few of my own publications…
avenas8808
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6
votes
4 answers

Is it okay to publish a fan-fiction book from a TV series?

I'm 13 years old and I'm writing a story called 'Destiny'. This book is a fanfiction of the TV-Show "Merlin" (the TV series 2008) and I've added a character into it. There currently is no book of Merlin, so would it be okay to publish this book or…
6
votes
2 answers

How do I calculate how many copies I am planning to print?

I wrote a fan-fiction story and had emailed a company to get a license from them so I could publish it. (The license would cover copyright stuff, etc.) However, the person in charge of licensing asked me how many copies I planned on printing...…
5
votes
2 answers

Is 7000 words too long for a chapter?

I've been working on a story for the last 4 years. It's just a personal project now and I've gone really in depth to clean up any plot holes I can readily see (thanks Cinemasins). I think I love this story almost as much as I love my boyfriend; it's…
Emily
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5
votes
4 answers

When an imagined world resembles or has similarities with a famous world

Arguably this might belong in worldbuilding.stackexchange.com, but the question has to do with a fiction story and its relation to other fiction in the real world. I have a plot which involves an alien race. This race needs certain characteristics…
5
votes
5 answers

How to avoid info dumps in fan fiction?

I was wondering what kind of advice do you have to avoid info dumps in fan fiction? Granted this can usually be avoided in fan fiction by sticking to what is known. But when you work with au's or other canon divergence, how do you handle giving the…
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