![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethOr that should be, why I theoretically write, because really, very low output into actual readable story so far.
Original fic means I make up the characters, and the basic rules of the universe they live in, and the worlds they live on, and basically the whole RPG setting and multiple character sheets for everyone up to and including the throwaway NPCs, before I settle down to attempt to put words in a coherent sequence colloquially known as a 'story'.
Fanfic means that the world, characters, basic rules et al already exist. While I can devote a lot of time to understanding the nuance, there is an actual audience for every stage of my analysis. If I come up with a deep long thought about Giles or Oz, and I post it, at least one other person in the world is likely to read it and go 'hmmm', thereby enriching the universe that little bit.
On the other hand there is nothing quite so boring as hearing the ins and outs of RPG style worldbuilding from the average gamer, and I am really quite a lot below average in many respects, so it would be worse.
Fanfic means my thoughts and essays and detail orientation actually has an audience that willingly reads it, rather than, for instance, hears me witter on about it while trapped by virtue of being in the same car as me. Original fic doesn't have that until the finished story stage. Which I don't always actually reach, often having satisfied myself about whatever question first prompted me to start figuring stuff long before word reached page.
Fanfic also has a larger audience once I manage the tricky story stage. I've had more hits and far more feedback for a Buffy fic I put up this month than I've had in more than ten years on a piece of (really very teenage, I am aware) original fic I wrote when I was 15. Which I hope has a lot to do with my improvement as a writer since then, but it also has to do with pre-existing audience.
Fanfic can be just as 'original' as the other kind, because it can still be stories only that author could tell, told in a unique fashion.
And since I spend all my time thinking about my fandoms anyway, if I tried to also make up a whole new universe, I'd have to somehow make space in all that and manage to *not* think about BtVS or Ats. For extended periods of time. I kind of don't have the knack of that any more unless I'm thinking just as hard about one of my other fandoms. And even then, usually there end up being comparisons.
Original fic means I make up the characters, and the basic rules of the universe they live in, and the worlds they live on, and basically the whole RPG setting and multiple character sheets for everyone up to and including the throwaway NPCs, before I settle down to attempt to put words in a coherent sequence colloquially known as a 'story'.
Fanfic means that the world, characters, basic rules et al already exist. While I can devote a lot of time to understanding the nuance, there is an actual audience for every stage of my analysis. If I come up with a deep long thought about Giles or Oz, and I post it, at least one other person in the world is likely to read it and go 'hmmm', thereby enriching the universe that little bit.
On the other hand there is nothing quite so boring as hearing the ins and outs of RPG style worldbuilding from the average gamer, and I am really quite a lot below average in many respects, so it would be worse.
Fanfic means my thoughts and essays and detail orientation actually has an audience that willingly reads it, rather than, for instance, hears me witter on about it while trapped by virtue of being in the same car as me. Original fic doesn't have that until the finished story stage. Which I don't always actually reach, often having satisfied myself about whatever question first prompted me to start figuring stuff long before word reached page.
Fanfic also has a larger audience once I manage the tricky story stage. I've had more hits and far more feedback for a Buffy fic I put up this month than I've had in more than ten years on a piece of (really very teenage, I am aware) original fic I wrote when I was 15. Which I hope has a lot to do with my improvement as a writer since then, but it also has to do with pre-existing audience.
Fanfic can be just as 'original' as the other kind, because it can still be stories only that author could tell, told in a unique fashion.
And since I spend all my time thinking about my fandoms anyway, if I tried to also make up a whole new universe, I'd have to somehow make space in all that and manage to *not* think about BtVS or Ats. For extended periods of time. I kind of don't have the knack of that any more unless I'm thinking just as hard about one of my other fandoms. And even then, usually there end up being comparisons.