How To Write Marvel Fanfiction

What Universe Is This, Again? Asking For A Friend

The joke for the title makes no sense because it's a joke from my person manuscript that I will never share and that's that on that.

So here's the least shocking thing I've said. Any OC fanfiction is, by nature, an Alternate Universe. I don't care how closely to canon you stick, it's not canon because it's fanfiction. So for people to call certain fics AUs and others canon is weird to me. Like, I understand the point, but the words you're looking for are canon-compliant or canon-divergent.

The point of this chapter is to tell you that you're fucking allowed to write canon-divergent fics. More so, I encourage you to. Please.

The trend of fanfictions that follow directly with an MCU movie and change nothing grosses me out so much. It's just not creative. Like, if I wanted to watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I would just fucking watch it. I don't need it retold to me by some character I don't know or care about.

Because here's the problem. In order for the plot to perfectly follow its' course in your fanfiction, your OC has to have no effect on the plot. Which makes your OC a passive character. I'm not going to give you a writing lesson, but basically passive characters are characters who do not affect the plot, instead, the plot affects them. This isn't necessarily a bad character type, but your main character should never ever be passive because it makes them look boring and weak.

And if you shuffle things around so your character does X thing that Y canon character did so that they actually do something, that's just annoying. Don't take away lines and actions from canon characters. It's boring, and I'm sick of seeing y'all do it to Natasha specifically. 

I just don't understand the popularity or draw of these types of fics. They won't deviate from the plot so there's no room for creativity, and the OC is either passive or stealing other character's actions, which in turn makes the other character OOC. You see the problem here? You're basic.

Stop being afraid of writing canon-divergent fics. Seriously. I'd fucking love to see an OC fanfic with a wild and intense different setting and idea. That's what makes fanfiction transformative when you transform the source material. I don't wanna read about your OC if she doesn't do anything interesting. Adding one character to the Avengers can heavily affect the entire dynamic of the team. Play around with that. 

Not to aggressively toot my own horn, but in my fic Lost in the Stars, the OC Raya is Tony's sister who becomes a Winter Soldier. Because of this, the Civil War never happens because Tony wants to protect Raya so Steve and Tony end up working things out. One character's existence massively affected the entire plot of the MCU, and you can do the same thing for any other OC.

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Now I know, I get it. Writing canon-divergence is hard because now you have to think about how everyone is affected by the changes and how that's going to affect later plot points and whatever. But like... common sense does a lot for you. The Avengers don't split up because of the Civil War? They're able to defeat Thanos together and the snap never happens. Canon stuff like Morgan being born and all that can still happen, it just doesn't happen on the same timeline.

Canon is not a rulebook. It's a very loose suggestion book at best. Play with canon. Get creative with it. I promise, your story will be a lot more fun and interesting to read if you give me a new spin on things. Explain any changes you make to canon in your Author's Note if the changes aren't explicit in the fic, but don't be afraid of change.