Writing Tips and Reviews

How Much do you have to explain in Fan Fictions?

Okay, so, I'm not getting into the whole thing about fan fiction and the several million ways to do it. You've got the line for line retelling with some changes (my personal least favorite), the one-shots, the crossovers, the alternate universes, the full-length novels that have their own story with the characters (my personal favorite), and whatever else is out there.

There's a saying, "don't assume your reader knows everything". And even though fan fiction can get away with not introducing the world and characters, it still needs development.

-Not enough-

The tricky part about fanfictions is that they should entertain both fans of the series and people who have never heard of the series before.

-Going by the script

This one I don't like. What's the point of rewriting the story when people can just see the original? Tell me because I don't know.

Don't be Disney remakes, don't bank on nostalgia to have an emotional impact or to make people connect the dots so you don't have to. Imagine a death scene in a game, we spent almost the whole game with that character, learned about them, and grew to love them. Then they died tragically. Now let's put that into fan fiction and skip all that development beforehand, we are going to say they met, say they had a close relationship, then kill one of them.

How emotional is that? Well, to players of the game, it might be emotional or piss them off to see the death handled so poorly. For new people, they're not going to know what happened and move on. This was my problem in Crimson Covered Roses, there was a bank on nostalgia so nothing had to be explained and fans would still have an emotional reaction. To someone like me, who doesn't know the series, I felt nothing. Well, no, I felt sorry for the readers because they had to see a character they like go missing in the most boring way possible.

-New story same cast

It depends on where you want to start, if you go from the beginning, then treat it like no one knows anything. If it starts from the middle, summarize what happened before then go wild.

My Fate X Ladybug fan fictions start whenever they want because Ladybug has no strict timeline. Fate Merveille is only hinted to occur in the third season due to Star Train being brought up and Lila expelling Marinette. Miraculous Lostbelt takes place in summer and I don't care, that one is more Fate than it is Ladybug.

ToZ the World Beyond takes place after the game, we are told this by the characters remembering their past journey. After that, I tell whatever story I want.

In both cases, I do a short explanation of who the characters are, what's happening, and go from there. I treat the story like normal, I make new relationships between characters, new scenes, and have a different plot than the original. Because I don't want to repeat what the original did, I have my take on events and completely new events to differ my work from others.

-Too much-

-Going by the script

I don't do this personally, so all I can say is don't add more than what was already there.

-New story same cast

Don't explain the entirety of the original story, why bother making a new story when you just wrote the Wikia summary for the original? Give a short overview and point out important moments that connect to the fan fiction. 

-Right amount-

-Going by the script

Copy and paste the script and add new stuff, that's literally what this type of fan fiction is and I hate it. I got nothing.

-New story same cast

Again, a short overview and point out important parts. Everything else is up to you. You can mention events from the original story and sometimes replicate them with your twist to them.

-Conclusion-

Don't bank on nostalgia to fill in the blanks to a scene you're repeating from the original story and don't give the reader an entire chapter of summarization. Keep it short, because the focus should be the story you're telling, not theirs.