Can a fanfic be rewritten for publication?

I cannibalized a fanfic for a novel I wrote. I took some of the major plot elements and a few key scenes I really liked. I was a little worried about doing this, but by the time I got finished with the novel, it had morphed into an entirely new entity, so I feel fine about selling it.

On the other hand, I have removed all instances of the fanfic from the internet because I don't ever want any legal problems. If you can do this, I'd say you're fine. If you can't do this, you're probably stuck.

Sure you can. It'll be the hardest writing you ever do, but you can. It's hard because to truly remove all the vestiges of the fanfiction, you're really going to have to work at it, and will probably end up recrafting most if not all of it.

Is it worth it? Depends on your viewpoint.

Mine took 10 years to drag fully out of fanfiction. (It was a novel, not a short.)

But my agent loved it and it's sitting with an editor at a good publishing house now. So, for me, yeah, I'm glad I did it. (I'll never do it AGAIN, mind you. )

In terms of simply rewriting it, I'd guess, probably not.

If, OTOH, you discover through fanfic that you enjoy "stories about powerful women in dangerous situations," or "stories about broken families struggling to come together," or "magical realism with a dash of romance," etc., that's fabulous direction for you to take.

JeanneTGC said:

So, for me, yeah, I'm glad I did it. (I'll never do it AGAIN, mind you. )

Click to expand...

Ditto here. Waaaaaay harder than I thought it would be.

Fanfic plots tend to be tied tightly into the universe they're in and reusing anything outside that universe would require extensive work anyway. If you can rework it to the point where a group of diehard fans of the fanfic universe don't recognize it's origins you'll be okay.

It depends a lot on whether the source material takes place in our world or someplace very different and easily identifiable. It's relatively easy to change the characters, diddle the plot, and move the setting to completely dissociate the result from the source material when you're dealing with the ordinary world, but far harder to do it well in an otherworldly setting.

For instance, a sequel to "Speed" could be easily disguised, but a sequel to "The Matrix" series would be devilishly hard.

Maryn, who thinks Keanu is cute (and thinks his acting is not)

I've been debating the merit of cannibalizing a novel-length serial fanfic I wrote many years ago. It relies heavily on original supporting characters, and most of the important plot points have little to do with series canon. It's a fun story (at least, I think so), but with so many other new, original novel ideas brewing in my head, this one always ends up on the back burner.

So yes, it can be done. Just ask yourself if it's worth the trouble, or if it wouldn't be better to expend your energies on something brand new.

Sure. Don't see why not. I've got one on the shelf that I fully intend to rewrite with new characters. But mine is set in the real world. If you have trademarked/copyrighted elements to the story, they'll have to change as well. It might be that the work can't stand alone after removal of them. But if it can, go for it!

I happen to know of several mainstream and ebook novels that began as a fanfic. Generally you could only spot it if you knew in advance what fandom it used to be in--some traces of the 'character type' tend to remain.

veinglory said:

I happen to know of several mainstream and ebook novels that began as a fanfic. Generally you could only spot it if you knew in advance what fandom it used to be in--some traces of the 'character type' tend to remain.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's almost the fun -- spotting the "did this come from" aspects. (But then, I'm strange, so maybe this is only fun for me. )

I say that now. Two years ago, I was still too busy cursing at the WIP to think of it in terms of "fun".

But, I think one of the things mentioned by ChaosTitan -- the reason I wanted to "save" the fanfic was that I'd created a huge number of rich, supporting characters, and I didn't want to lose them. I removed any and all of the "real" characters from the fandom and started fresh. (Started fresh NINE TIMES, but, still, fresh. Okay. Fresh-ish.)

My opinion would be that if your story centered solely around the real characters from the fandom, you'd have an almost impossible task, not only in altering the story, but altering it in such a way that it would be publishable. But, if those supporting characters are whining and crying at you, saying they deserve to live, darnitall, and you're up for the long and winding road that lies before you, go for it. Worst case is you'll learn a LOT about writing along the way. And there's nothing wasted in that effort.

Well, as has been pointed out, it depends. I did a piece of fanfic for a game a couple of years ago that I later cannibalized to use the character as a secondary character in a novel. The thing is what I wrote was "backstory" since they had left out any backstory for the game character. It had no relation to anything that was in the actual plot in the game. I could stick it into my completely different world and it worked quite well. I think it would be very, very difficult even for someone pretty knowledgeable to pick it out. It just happened that I really liked what I'd written and it made a good subplot for my novel.

But if your fanfic stuck closely to the plot of whatever world it is, that would be a whole lot harder.

veinglory said:

I happen to know of several mainstream and ebook novels that began as a fanfic. Generally you could only spot it if you knew in advance what fandom it used to be in--some traces of the 'character type' tend to remain.

Click to expand...

Can you give some examples?

A lot of fanfic is done as uber--taken from the original chars and settings and plopped into somewhere else. You may still have the blonde hunk hero and the kickass brunette heroine but now they've changed sexes, hair color, attributes, professions, time lines, etc. Presto chang, new story!

I don't think it's so much a case of "can" as whether you "should"... I like to think that I've improved since my fanfic days (although I have been known to bash out a drabble or two here and there still!) and thus going back to my older works and trying to "translate" them forward would probably be a bad idea.

But... if you can make it work, why not?

Maryn said:

For instance, a sequel to "Speed" could be easily disguised, but a sequel to "The Matrix" series would be devilishly hard.

Click to expand...

JeanneTGC said:

But, I think one of the things mentioned by ChaosTitan -- the reason I wanted to "save" the fanfic was that I'd created a huge number of rich, supporting characters, and I didn't want to lose them. I removed any and all of the "real" characters from the fandom and started fresh. (Started fresh NINE TIMES, but, still, fresh. Okay. Fresh-ish.)

Click to expand...

Ok, it's time for me to throw in my 2c - I've never actually been that cagey about the origins of my work.

I wrote a Matrix fanfic back in 2003, banged it out in a couple of days, and killed the OC at the end (but then turned chicken and brought her back to life because I liked her).

Went away and wrote some more crappy LoTR fics.

Wanted to write another story with said OC. Then another, then another. When I looked up two years later, I had three seasons, two co-authors, a small cult and a couple of pieces of fanfic of the series.

At this point I figured I should probably write something original, and began that very painful process of tearing out the original stuff and rewriting the original story.

I cringe at novel versions 1-5 now. I'd managed to introduce some neat new concepts (and a city that I one day hope I'll be able to use again), but it was still too recognisable. Versions 6-9 introduced a few of the elements that I still use now (though those few have been greatly expanded upon).

Around version 10 I think I had lost my mind.

I was totally stuck on these characters (mainly because the OC - now MC - lived in my brain and would poke it with something sharp every time I thought about writing something else).

At this time I had a really, really bad argument about my writing with my boyfriend (now fiancé) about writing and I quit for a long time. I started writing again, but was really nervous, and figured it was a good point to try something new.

A couple of weeks later it was NaNo 2006 and I started writing a story that had been rattling around in my head. It was supposed to be a standalone story that I could get a fresh perspective and go back to what I really wanted to write.

About 10k in, I discovered something...I liked the universe I was writing. I really liked it. I stopped writing my NaNo and started doing some worldbuilding, and discovered I could write everything that I really wanted to keep into this new world. It was a bolt out of the blue, and it felt really good.

Started two more versions. Another couple of false starts.

Then I finally started writing what I thought would be the final version, everything was falling into place, but it still felt a little weak.

Then I got my laptop.

I don't know what it is about River, maybe she has some inherent magic, but the very first thing I wrote on her turned into my first chapter (a small edit for length and Dorian's peeping-tom-ness), but it was good. Then I banged out more, and I had my start.

It was real, it was good.

I finally don't feel like a fanboy any more, I feel like what I'm writing is my own.

I turned cyberpunk into urban fantasy, gave it a real-world location and set it in the present, but somehow, it still has the essence of the story I wrote five years ago.

(Bizarrely, even though it's urban fantasy, and quite blatant about it, I've had someone liken it to Neuromancer...).

A while ago, I wrote a rather lengthy fanfic to a video game - 73,000 words. Now, at the time, video games weren't all that sophisticated. So in the process of writing this story, I tarted up the background a lot. Character histories, settings, situations, enemies, and conflicts came forth from this idea. By the time the concept ran out of gas, I discovered that I'd gone so far from the original game concept that all I had to do was change the names to have a completely original story. The game had been more of a trigger than a setting.

Carla Speed McNeil once related the story of a young writer she'd spoken with who had spent months writing fanfiction of this rather silly children's TV program. He'd spent so long embroidering the history and background, including new settings, clans, backstories and influences that he had something that was ten times greater than its humble origin. When she asked why he didn't simply detach it from its humble inspiration and make it his own, he was horrified, not wanting to cheapen the original show by "ripping it off."

Go figure some people.

Ben_G

Write fanfic for your own series...then there's never a problem.

Ben_G said:

A while ago, I wrote a rather lengthy fanfic to a video game - 73,000 words. Now, at the time, video games weren't all that sophisticated. So in the process of writing this story, I tarted up the background a lot. Character histories, settings, situations, enemies, and conflicts came forth from this idea. By the time the concept ran out of gas, I discovered that I'd gone so far from the original game concept that all I had to do was change the names to have a completely original story. The game had been more of a trigger than a setting.

Click to expand...

I did that, too. My thing was a text-based game from the 1980's. When I was a kid, I would imagine all sorts of scenarios that would take place with a few of the characters. I invented personalities for them as they didn't have any personalities, or even ages or much of a physical description in the game itself. So everything was mine to imagine.

Truthfully, I barely played the game. My brother was the game addict. I just liked the character names, and having to imagine a land of my own. Over years and years, I built up a whole new world out of a little text adventure game. It sustained me through hated childhood obligations like swim classes.

I didn't write any of it at the time, except the character charts themselves. But when I first tried to write a serious novel, I turned to that world. It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the original game by this stage. I only had to change the character names.

It's my trunk novel. Actually, a trunk trilogy. I may haul it out again one day.

Sheryl Nantus said:

I don't think it's so much a case of "can" as whether you "should"... I like to think that I've improved since my fanfic days (although I have been known to bash out a drabble or two here and there still!) and thus going back to my older works and trying to "translate" them forward would probably be a bad idea.

But... if you can make it work, why not?

Click to expand...

Why not Indeed? It gives you an excellent chance to fix up the errors in your earlier work and might actually show you stuff about your writing you haven't noticed yet.

Ha. I am also a confessed ficker. I found it a good way to warm up. I did it my way, half parody and off-center. Then I realized that I had an Original Character who would never leave me. Though he can be difficult at times, he's been very nice about things like having his name changed and gently admonishing me when I screw up details in his real biography.

Erm...lol...no, I wouldn't rewrite the original, but I grabbed characters and plot elements wholesale. And I am going to eradicate the fics by and by. They are only on my own website now, I had them taken out of the forum they were posted in for other reasons. Let my own fans eat cake, I say.

I've cannibalised a load of ideas. I had a 'fanfic' period for about a year and a half when I was just totally out of ideas for original fic (I'd been writing the same fantasy series for years, when it was rejected I was a bit bleh and didn't know where to look for something else to try). Actually it was a fanfic that prodded me back into original writing again - I had this idea but it felt too good to be a fanfic (I know that might sound conceited, sorry). I took it, ran with it, and got a whole new fantasy story from it, which no one has spotted as being derived ultimately from the other universe.

As for rewriting a fanfic totally, I've never done that, although I did cut part of a Dr Who one and turned it into an original short story - thing with Dr Who was that it involved a lot of original world building, so even if I take out the canon elements, I'm still left with a load of situations and plots that stand alone. It needs edited for quality but then so does my original fiction.

If you are creating original characters for fanfic and plunking them in someone else's world, take them out! You can do so much more with them in your own world.

It's tough, but it can be done. I highly recommend that you do it and set your original writing free (don't I, Jeanne!).

myscribe said:

If you are creating original characters for fanfic and plunking them in someone else's world, take them out! You can do so much more with them in your own world.

It's tough, but it can be done. I highly recommend that you do it and set your original writing free (don't I, Jeanne!).

Click to expand...

LOL, yes. And it was good advice 10 years ago just like it is now.

It's painful to pull it out of fanfiction. It's easier to start from scratch, in your own worlds with all your own characters.

But, again, I learned a LOT about writing in the process. I still have the scars...