Reforming Fan Fic into Original Fic

Reforming Fan Fic into Original Fic
i'm just curious as to how many writers have redone their fan fic (if they do any) into submittable Original Fic stories. I have a very large backlog of fan fic material in which I am considering the revisal of....

I've done a few of mine, but my fanfic wasn't very 'canon' in the first place so it was easieir to adapt than if I'd stuck to episode-based fiction, for instance. I have found that it takes more hard work than you might think! It's no good just changing all the names and sending it somewhere - you have to work on adding backstory because iiin most fanfic the backstory is already established so you don't need to bother witih it. There's also all those pesky little things that make characters instantly recognisable as themselves, even wiithout their names. And if you're going to submit more than one story, you probably need to change some of the physical descriptions too, otherwise all your storiies will involve two people who sound exactly the same! Does that help any? :)

Two of Leigh Ellwood's works were revised excerpts of old fan fiction. Truth or Dare and Dulce. In her case, she used only particular scenes and built the original story around them.

Two of Leigh Ellwood's works were revised excerpts of old fan fiction. Truth or Dare and Dulce. In her case, she used only particular scenes and built the original story around them.That's probably what I'll end up doing too... Damn POTC! How can I write a pirate slash adventure now, without being derivative? (especially since I've always written little, alpha men)

Damn POTC! How can I write a pirate slash adventure now, without being derivative? (especially since I've always written little, alpha men) *grins and raises hand* I've done it twice (the pirate adventure thing), so go for it!! :D

Two of Leigh Ellwood's works were revised excerpts of old fan fiction. Truth or Dare and Dulce. In her case, she used only particular scenes and built the original story around them.That's probably what I'll end up doing too... Damn POTC! How can I write a pirate slash adventure now, without being derivative? (especially since I've always written little, alpha men) Are you kidding, Stella? That would be a hot commodity right now thanks to POTC. :P

Arrr, matery! I'll share me booty with ye, but only if ye lets me have a look in yer treasure chest! /end tasteless pirate joke Speaking as a reader, if you're planning to redo your fanfic as original fic, PLEASE scrape the serial numbers off right down to bare metal. I've read only one fanfic-turned-originalfic that didn't have that chewy fanfic feel, and that one got by because I didn't know the source material. (According to people who knew the source material, it screamed "fanfic.") Given all the work it would take to reshape a fanfic into an original fic, you might find it easier to salvage the plot and use it with completely different characters. And then there's the fannish reaction to consider. Many fans put selling fanfic-turned-originalfic on the same level as selling fanfic for profit. I don't know how many of your readers are fans or what the general attitude in the erotica/erotic romance community is, but if you have a large overlap with fandom, you might catch flak.

Arrr, matery! I'll share me booty with ye, but only if ye lets me have a look in yer treasure chest! /end tasteless pirate joke Speaking as a reader, if you're planning to redo your fanfic as original fic, PLEASE scrape the serial numbers off right down to bare metal. I've read only one fanfic-turned-originalfic that didn't have that chewy fanfic feel, and that one got by because I didn't know the source material. (According to people who knew the source material, it screamed "fanfic.") Given all the work it would take to reshape a fanfic into an original fic, you might find it easier to salvage the plot and use it with completely different characters. And then there's the fannish reaction to consider. Many fans put selling fanfic-turned-originalfic on the same level as selling fanfic for profit. I don't know how many of your readers are fans or what the general attitude in the erotica/erotic romance community is, but if you have a large overlap with fandom, you might catch flak.Yep, that's my problem in a nutshell. I don't have an enormous readership, but any pirate right now is going to automatically be compared with Jack Sparrow, thank you ever so much Johnny! :wink: The only thing I can think of doing is transferring the whole shebang to outer space... or some other universe. I can't remember the woman's name, but she's making a big noise right now writing urban Vampire-ish novels. She started out as a Buffy FF writer. She's changed an awful lot of stuff, including some of the "rules" but... well, you know.

I can't remember the woman's name, but she's making a big noise right now writing urban Vampire-ish novels. She started out as a Buffy FF writer. She's changed an awful lot of stuff, including some of the "rules" but... well, you know. And there's Cassie Cla(i)re, who wrote HP fanfic and is now having her original novel run over with a fine-toothed comb for evidence that she used pieces of her fic in her novel. Mmmyep, it's a problem. That said, Jack Sparrow is a distinctively distinct character. If you can write a pirate who doesn't have his particular flavor, I think you'll be able to get away with it. Sure, he'll still be compared to Jack Sparrow, but the entire genre is being compared to Jack Sparrow. Alternatively, you can pile on the silly. My friends and I joke about writing a series about the Princess of the Vampire Pirates and her torrid romance with the enemy Prince of the Robot Ninjas. If you can get enough crack into your fic, no one will care what or who you ripped off to get it.

There is a minor bru-ha-ha going on right now about an erotic romance writer who has been accused of converting her fanfic into a published novel. I keep wanting to interrupt the posts about this and ask, "But is it a good novel?" Some so-called fan fiction is so AU that I can't imagine why the authors bother to call it fan fiction. It's quite obvious that the authors have created their own characters and simply slapped a fan label onto them. My problem isn't figuring out how to convert fan fiction to original fiction. My problem is getting my Muse to stop turning my fan fiction characters into original characters.

That said, Jack Sparrow is a distinctively distinct character. If you can write a pirate who doesn't have his particular flavor, I think you'll be able to get away with it. Sure, he'll still be compared to Jack Sparrow, but the entire genre is being compared to Jack Sparrow.Yeah, fuck. What I am interested in, in the character, is the way he's small, slender and flamboyant, he's alpha, he's dark- I would write him as mixed race and fighting against that stigma--- he's ambivalent sexually. And yet he manages to retain command of a group of nasties. I'm not sure if I can get away with that, what do you think? :? The funny thing is, I've already written a character who is a bit like Sparrow-- I started writing him back in '92. He's a rock'nroll musician on the verge of stardom. And both of these characters go back to one of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi fantasy series, the "Swords and Sorcery" series by Fritz Lieber. One of his anti-hero due is called the Grey Mouser, a "small, swarthy southerner" who teams up with a red-haired northern barbarian named Faffrd.

I personally LOVE the idea of such a character!

There is a minor bru-ha-ha going on right now about an erotic romance writer who has been accused of converting her fanfic into a published novel. I keep wanting to interrupt the posts about this and ask, "But is it a good novel?" If you're talking about D.L. Warner, author of A Soldier's Choice, the answer is "No." There are excerpts online. They're grim for FMA fanfic, never mind original fic. My problem isn't figuring out how to convert fan fiction to original fiction. My problem is getting my Muse to stop turning my fan fiction characters into original characters. Snirf. I sympathize. Getting someone else's character's characterization down pat is hard, and then there are all the things that annoy you about the character to fix, and there's always a pretty characterization hole or seven to fill in, and pretty soon you might as well say, "It's my new character Originalio cosplaying as Inuyasha, all right?" Yeah, fuck. What I am interested in, in the character, is the way he's small, slender and flamboyant, he's alpha, he's dark- I would write him as mixed race and fighting against that stigma--- he's ambivalent sexually. And yet he manages to retain command of a group of nasties. I'm not sure if I can get away with that, what do you think? Plz to stop pushing my "hot man" buttons kthx will be in bunk. You can definitely get away with it. Just change the character's style. Jack Sparrow is pirate + trickster + indefinable Jack Sparrowness; if you replace the last element of the equation (and are willing to deal with comparisons to Jack), you'll have a great character. As I read your description of your character, my hindbrain said, "Like the Gray Mouser! Tell her about the Mouser!" But I see you already know all about him. *happy sigh* Ah, the Mouser. Fussy and overcivilized and far too satisfied with himself, and so convinced that Fafhrd would die without him. Meanwhile, Fafhrd is convinced that the Mouser would fuss himself into a hole and die of his own conceit without him. And they're both right. When I read those books as a teenager in the pre-Internet age, they had a cute Odd Couple thing going on. Rereading them as an adult? So slashy. So very, very slashy. They may not be in love, and they may be all about the ladies in public, but Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser share far more than their misfortunes. (Besides, they were on the sea for weeks with no one but Ourph the Mingol to keep them company. Man-panky was hanked, and it wasn't all Ourph's.) /fangirl off

(Besides, they were on the sea for weeks with no one but Ourph the Mingol to keep them company. Man-panky was hanked, and it wasn't all Ourph's.) /fangirl offfangirl squeeee! :P Yes, those two knew each other... very well. I think there are a couple of stories where there's more than a vague implication, but my copies are all crap paperbacks and scattered to the winds. Wanna write Lankhmar FF with me? I just googled "Fafhrd fan fic" and "fafhrd slash" and came up with just one story-- and it isn't that good. I could do so much better. Catching Leiber's voice would be a worthwhile exercise in itself, IMO. See? SEE? THIS IS WHY WE WRITE FAN FIC!!!!

It really depends on what kind of fanfic you write. I write primarily RPS (real person slash) so while the characters might *look* like the men in question, they are, in essence, original characters to begin with because I don't know the real guys so how could I possibly get their personalities right? And because it's RPS the storylines are all my own, there's no canon backstory or existing world, nothing recognizable as those men other than their names and descriptions which could, honestly, apply to any number of people in the world. So I think converting a fic based on a tv series or a comic or a book would be much harder than converting RPS to original fic since, really, RPS is original fic to begin with.

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