How to Write a Good Fanfic

7.2.1 - Questions to Ask When Writing an AU

In "7.2 AU's Need Canon – No Canon, No Fanfic" I write about how writing a good AU requires a writer to think critically asking themselves critical thinking questions. This in itself makes writing an AU hard for many writers, but in particular young writers who are still learning how to think critically in school. In part, for younger readers the dilemma results from the stage they are at in their education, and not an actual personal lacking.

Critical thinking involves both answering questions posed, but also being able to formulate questions to ask oneself. Many middle school and high school students, and sometimes even college level, are at the stage where they are learning to answer critical thinking questions, so sometimes it helps to have another person to pose the critical thinking questions to the writer.

A major key element to knowing one's limitations with critical thinking, as this will determine the type of AUs a writer is ready to write. The more a person struggles with critical thinking questions, the more likely they will struggle with writing an AU in general. However, for all fanfiction a writer needs to also have strong reading and/or visual comprehension, but also know the difference between context and subtext.

How Does Canon Work?

The first question, or type of questions a writer needs to be able to ask themselves is how the canon works. This means the writer needs good reading and/or visual comprehension in order to decern what is or isn't within a canon material, but to make inferences about the canon material which are based on context and not just subtext.The idea there are fans out there which make inferences which are inaccurate is a foreign concept to some, but they do exist.

- I know of one Avatar: The Last Airbender fan who ascribed the trait of "pet" to Flying Bison despite the fact these creatures are more than just a pet, but a companion and the sign that an Airbender has reached maturity within the social structure.

- A few Narnia fans, particularly those who've only seen the movies, try tossing in humans from our time frame despite the fact the first movie makes it quite clear how time works in Narnia.

- In Bleach, there are fans who don't believe Hitsugaya Toshiro is still a kid, but is instead a midget adult. They think this despite the canon material making quite clear he's still a kid, even the character eventually admitting he isn't an adult during the final arc.

Context and subtext, but also understanding the difference helps a reader or viewer in regards to understanding the canon material. According to Merriam-Webster...

Context: the situation in which something happens: the group of conditions that exist where and when something happens or the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs

Subtest: the implicit or metaphorical meaning ( as if a literary text)

Implicit: involves in the nature or essence of something though not revealed, expressed, or developed

Within a canon material, context is fact, the subtext is simply inference. Thus building an interpretation on subtext alone is faulty. Context comes from two places, both the canon material, but also how the real world works. Subtext comes from a feeling. This is important in particular for writing shipfic, but also determining whether a pairing constitutes an OTP or not.

Also, knowing how the canon works actually can help a writer come up with potential AU ideas due to the fact they know what is within the canon, and are able to ask themselves the what if the question regarding what would happen if said context changes.

How does the canon need to change to make the AU idea work?

The next question a writer needs to ask is what will need to change within the canon to make a particular AU work. The answer to the question is actual, in the vast majority of cases, very simple, contrary to popular belief.

For example, writing a story where one or more characters are gender bent simply involves changing the characters gender. A story where a character doesn't die though requires the writer to come up with a logical explanation as to why the character survived. These explanations don't just help out with the willing suspense of disbelief, but also help to add something unique, as different writers will come up with different ideas, though some will come up with the same idea. For situational AUs, the thing which needs to change is the place.

A few people however try shoving multiple AU types into one fic. For example, a writer may try doing a gender bent and high school AU in the same fic, but the question arises as to why the writer would do something like this. Why does the story need to have more than one base AU element? Some writers are able to write and pull off such a complex AU, but more often than not these AUs end up coming across as original fiction rather than fanfic, for the story no longer feels like it is derived from the original canon material.

What would or would not change because of the AU idea?

This question may seem the same as the previous one, but it is not. The first question involves getting the idea to work, but this one involves the repercussions from said theory, and what would change. It also involves figuring out what wouldn't change. If something shouldn't change because of the idea one is working with, then it should not change within one's story. It doesn't matter how much a writer wants to change the idea, it should not change.

For example, when people change the gender of Harry from male to female, they like to give Harry more feminine traits. One such trait is to make Harriet, as many of these stories like to call her, into a book work despite the environment Harry grew up in not actually being the type to foster a love of reading in a child. In other words, if Harry didn't get a love of reading before, he should not have one now.

However, other things will change because of gender, like the expectations placed on the person due to gender stereotypes. The act of pushing the gender stereotypes onto a growing individual will in fact shape who they become as a person. Some may try to argue nature over nurture here, but genetically the only real difference between men and women is the role they take in regards to making babies, and the physical attributes associated with this.

In a situational AU, what changes is the roles a character takes on, but not the initial relationships between the characters. Sure, for ship purposes one can take a pairing that didn't exist and make it work, but siblings will always be siblings unless one is talking of an AU where one explores them not being siblings. Friends at the start of canon should be friends at the start of the AU, etc.

How does cause and effect work for the idea?

For a story where a character who dies suddenly lives, the plot will end up changing with what's known as cause and effect, but the same thing goes for taking a character away. Sometimes the cause and effect are minimal, but other times drastic. Thus a writer needs to be able to ask themselves questions regarding cause and effect. Writing whether one is writing an AU or not though will be hard if the writer does not understand how cause and effect works. For each cause there are an infinite number of possible effects, but also an infinite number of impossible ones.

For example, let's say our cause is a guy kissing a girl. Possible effects include the guy getting slapped, the girl blushing, to getting a kiss in return. Impossible effects include the girl getting pregnant because of the kiss, unless one is talking about a crackfic, and then in these cases the guy can be the one who gets pregnant. Crackfic though takes an absurd impossibility and runs with it, making it somehow believable. To do so isn't easy, and takes a certain knack. Add to this, most stories won't call for the crackfic genre to be used.