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Question: How original do you think (A) Fanfiction and (B) Original Content need to be when in comes to storygames. In Fanfiction, do you think you should stay close to the original material or try to make your own way in the universe laid out for you.

In Original Content, at what point do you consider something to be simply a copy of something, or just inspired by, or whatever? Would a humerous game about defending a Walmart Store from Zombies be too close to the Walmart Game, or getting revenge on Jack the Ripper too close to Hunting The Ripper?

Just wondering. Thanks for any responses, Forum.

I think fanfic should take the universe & characters, but tell an original story.  I really dislike fanfic CYOA that are just literal copies of an episode/issue where the only choices are "do something differently than it happened in the show & die"

Getting revenge on the ripper is a fabulous idea for a Storygame, one I've never seen. I now want to write and/or play that game. 

 

Personally, I've never been a proponent of fan-fiction - though I do make an exception for parodies. So I always encourage people to just avoid it completely. I could get into a very long discussion about my reasoning, but I'll boil it down to, I don't think it's anywhere near as beneficial for the writer as creating an original story.

For your other question, it's not like anyone here has a monopoly or dibs on any particular aspect or feature of a story. If you think you have a way to make your story unique in plot, characterization and possibly structure, go for it. You could ask ten people to write a story featuring Necromancy as some sort of element and wind up with ten entirely different stories.

But seeing as we already do have a Wal-Mart game, why would your zombie base have to be a Wal-Mart? Unless there is a particular reason in the plot, why not make it an old abandoned Ames (you may be too young to remember those), a zoo, a Victoria's Secret, or something else of your own creation? If you are afraid of similarities, there are always little twists you can add or change to create distance. Anything that you put in a story that doesn't have a substantial bearing on the actual plot can be either scraped or morphed into something interesting that does have an impact. This is how you can create separation.

Experiment and play with tropes in your story. Establish a theme and sub themes. Create a unique plot and sub-plots. All of these things can turn two stories based off the same concept into entirely different creations. Even tone can serve to create separation.

I hope this helps.

"I don't think it's anywhere near as beneficial for the writer as creating an original story. "

Just want to point out that Fan Fiction only takes the setting and characters. It can still tell a completely separate story from what happened in the source. If anything, Fan Fiction has a great benefit for new writers in that they can focus solely on creating a good plot, without having to create lore or a cast of characters.

When you do fan fiction, you're basically rearranging someone else's furniture or using someone else's toothbrush.

Characterization and world-building are intrinsic parts of any original story. Many writers tend to do one thing particularly well, whether it be plot, characterization, development, world-building, suspense, etc. Still, any good writer does everything at least decently. I think the best way to learn how to write original fiction is to practice all those things in one heap. In other words, by writing original fiction. Rather than dip your toe in, dive in and make a splash. No matter how long you dally, you'll still be cold when you jump in. Practicing one aspect of story writing in isolation from the rest just doesn't translate well. It's like the kid that shoots 100 free throws before practice and sinks 80 of them, but when it comes day, he only hits 50%. Why? Because he doesn't practice under game conditions... noise, elevated heart rate, sweaty hands, etc.

EDIT: I do think that anything that gets young people writing, is generally a good thing. But I will always encourage them to take the blinders off their creativity.

On characterisation, I think a good fanfic-writer will always take that into account. Using someone else's characters doesn't always mean you can write them down convincingly or well. When you use someone else's character you need to understand that character as well as any other character that might be your own and writing fanfiction is a really good introduction for writers to begin thinking things like, "Why does he/she do what they do? What would they do and say in this situation? Is this a realistic reaction from this character?"

To apply things that are not your own, into a story that you make your own is really good writing practice for anyone. Exploring different sides of characters that you love by placing them in different scenarios is a great thing.

A lot of writers start out with fan fiction as their first writings. It is a step to help newer writer see what they like in different works, when they are having a hard type analyzing the work by itself. Making a fanfict of the work can help you see why something works or doesn't work.

 

In my opinion, fanfiction should have some the same story elements as the original movie/book. And it shouldn't have the exact same elements as the original content.

Jack the Ripper was a real person, Walmart is a real place, so it probably wouldn't pass off as an adaption of another game unless you have very similar elements as another game (like if terrorists started the zombie apocalypse).

Neither of those examples are fanfiction, though...

I'm starting to get the feeling that I should write one on here. I've written fanfics for years, there is a ton of things you can do with a setting or a cast of characters by throwing them into different time-lines, scenarios, introducing new plot-lines, exc. I had about 40 story ideas in the works at one point, and that is not an exaggeration. There are also cross-overs, re-imaginings, the ever-popular "let's ship these two" reasons for writing (which I am genuinely not ashamed to admit I've used) and so on. 

Good fanfiction helps you to see old characters in a new light. It should still, ideally, feel like you're watching the same--or at least, a very similar person, but they're experiencing conflicts you wouldn't otherwise see... or you're seeing a new side of them that you wouldn't otherwise know about... so on. Exploration of an existing work can be a beautiful thing, really.

...Could I bribe you to read 'Wheel Of Time' by Robert Jordan and make an epic fanfic out of it? :D Let's see here, do you think art requests and random breeding site things could cover it? *big puppy eyes* Please?

It would serve nicely as an example. ^_^ 

Uh... *looks it up* ... @_@ you want me to read fifteen books to write a fanfic? I mean, I could, but that's around a hundred dollars worth of e-books.

I'd be willing to delve into the first volume and see if I like it because I am looking for something to do during my downtime at work, but it's a bit of a tall order if you want me to have full context. I also still have my current projects vying for my attention. I could certainly use some game art, though, and I do want to get featured in the fanfic category. I don't know. We'll see.

...fifteen books, where each book has 800-1300 pages in book-form....3859 pages for the first 10 books on a pdf of small type font/size. 

First 10 books, free, no downloading or anything like that required. If you're willing to wait around 5-10 minutes every time you open it again for the massive thing to load. (or maybe it's only taking that long for my computer because it's a dinosaur)

Click~! (cleuskywalker.free.fr/e-books/The%20Wheel%20of%20Time%20-%20Books%201-10.pdf

(You may want to skip down to page 45, where it says in giant letters EYE OF THE WORLD. That's where book 1 prolog really starts; dunno what the rest of the stuff before it is about.)