Fanfics are often written in character to a certain extent ... Goes off of well known facts from the original media, something that everyone that's reading the fanfic will most likely know. There is no need for a very deep explanation in the fanfic itself and it usually feels normal and not lacking. Nothing wrong with using the source material for ex. Why is LanWanji's favourite animal rabbit ? Why might he be reluctant to peruse a relationship ( I'm just naming MDZS stuff cuz I read those fanfics ) There's often people saying that the fanfic is better than the original ( usually for at least 70k+ works with development and decent / good writing ) Does that mean that fanfic authors are cheating ? The characters might be in a different setting but a lot of the original remains and is often a " it's so obvious so I do not need to explain " is not explained and would be a huge flaw in a original story Edit : I think that there's a misunderstanding, fanfic can be well developed and written just think that objectively knowing nothing about the original source .. most of the time ff authors leave gapping holes of prior novel knowledge behind them
I always thought of it as the fanfic authors creating stories out of other stories so basically like inspiration ykwim? But that puts things in a whole new perspective damn.
not really, its just different style of writing. Western novels have very slow plot but really detailed scenes and characters while Asian novels are very quick paced. Fanfic is where there is 0 exposition and there's a ton of assumptions made.
If the fanfic were to be a original story I wouldn't be as acclaimed and celebrated A ton of assumptions and plot holes from someone that knows nothing ...
Is it cheating when an author writes a second book in a series, and then it doesn't go over everything that the first book already explained? That's basically the same situation. Either way, you can assume that the reader is already familiar with what came before and don't need to retell the entire story or repeat all the character development (in fact, some readers will hate it if you do that), because you're writing a continuation/addition that's meant to work together with what's already written, not something completely standalone.
Is it cheating when authors make a ton of biblical references? Is historical fiction cheating? How about stories based on fairy tales? How about nonfiction for advanced topics that assumes a knowledge of the basics? As I read more Chinese novels, a lot of them make assumptions that the reader is familiar with the genre. Xianxia novels often don't explain much about the fantasy aspects, because readers are expected to know how it works. I don't think there is a "cheating" in writing. If the writing is your own, and people want to read it, then it's good writing. Unless people want to read it just to understand why you went on a killing spree, but uh....
This reads like anecdotal evidence and additionally strikingly resembles circular reasoning. Fanfiction with enough words, paced development and good writing makes a good work because any work with enough words, paced development and good writing makes a good work. You essentially ruled out every fanfic that does not meet this requirement. I cannot come up with any situation where a reasonable person would intentionally read fanfiction before reading the canonical work(s) the fanfiction is derived from. Agreed. Throughout human history, works of art have always retained a transformative aspect due to interpretation and subjectivity. Older stories have been modified, sampled from and revised to fit the tastes of the author who plans to spell a new creation.
People often say that fanfic was better than the original but removen the original out of existence and look at the fanfic objectively. I do not consider those things on the same level genre and holes , an story with missing elements that your not going to find anywhere, if fanfic was the original story .. there is no generalization of all historical cn bl ML do not like pursuing relationships because their mom did not marry their dad willingly but ti save her own life ... There's a difference, your not gonna find that info anywhere. Again if the fanfic was a original story ,there's no original to base on.
I think I understand what you're saying. Sometimes giving the exposition and backstory is difficult to do in an interesting way, so fanfiction writers have a head start on the author because they can focus on the more interesting details of the plot and assume the reader already knows the boring details. It might be true that the fanfiction writer wouldn't be able to come up with a more interesting way to share that information than the original author did, but it might also be true that the fanfiction writer would have a more interesting way to share that information. The fact is that the story they want to tell, and the audience they want to share it with, already has that information. Explaining it again, rather than being "good writing", might actually make the writing more boring to their intended audience. If you read Shakespeare, he relies heavily on Greek and Roman myth. We will never know if his poetry would be better or worse if he were writing for an audience that is not familiar with mythology and thus left out those illusions. What we do know is that if you don't know about mythology, it's hard to understand Shakespeare. We also can't tell a reader that they can't enjoy Shakespeare more than mythology, or mythology more than Shakespeare. Taste in fiction is originally subjective, so what matters is how the reader feels about it. Something coming first, or being an inspiration for something else, doesn't inherently make it better. In nonfiction, the reverse is often true - a scientist will inspire the next generation of science, which is an improvement on what was once believed. I think that's one of the beauties of writing - it can inspire stories that the original writer could never dream of.
Stories are usually better when self-contained. However most fanfic stories are basically just Fanservice of going “Hey look! Character you like is in my story! Look!” It’s not really cheating but it is taking a shortcut. There are really very few popular Fanfiction. Those that are popular are usually aimed at entirely different audiences. I wouldn’t say it’s cheating to use someone else’s music in your movie - in fact most movies end up using music designed for entirely different scenarios than the ones they’re played in. Now if you were to argue it’s stealing, then you could definitely find an argument for that.
To answer the title... No, they are not cheating. But to answer this point in particular... It's complicated. To put it simply, fanfics have the benefit of knowing the past, present and future of the novel before they're even written. The fanfic author not only knows the entire plot of the novel, but they also know what parts were poorly delivered, what plot points weren't well-developed and what parts were loved. When a fanfic author writes something that is "better than the original", it's only because the fanfic author already knows what part of the novel was flawed and what were its flaws... The fanfic author has the benefit of hindsight, time, and of public opinion on specific aspects of the story. Essentially, if I were to rewrite my first novel, I know I'd do a much better job than I did back then, because now that the story is completed, I know which parts were flawed and I know how to fix those parts. I know what I'd change on those parts and how to make everything feel better... The fanfic author knows this too, because they already read the entire novel. Are they cheating for having this knowledge? No. But it's also an unfair comparison... Comparing an original work to a work that is trying to re-do what the original did, but better, is... Well, weird, because the one re-doing already knows what they needed to fix, while the original had to create something that was as good as possible without having the benefit of waiting some time to revisit something and fix its problems~
i rarely ever read a fanfic novel. no actually i might never read one before... but ill try to dissect this to the best of my ability. So first, let's define the word fanfic. Definition of a 'Fanfic': what is fanfic? fanfic is when someone created a story in which elements such as characters, magic system, or the world itself, originated from another author's story. Although there may be some slight difference, the elements are almost if not completely identical to the original story. Fanfic's Advantage: because the elements itself came from an already established story, little effort is required to be put in developing the world or the story again. But of course, if the fanfic author wishes for it, they are welcome to alter the elements itself. For example, the magic system can be given a few more features to create a more flavorful and exciting possibilities. unlike the original author who has no one that could tell them that the arc they are writing will receive bad reviews. fanfic author is able to use the original story as a reference to avoid all those mistakes and create a more thoughtful plot and character. Not only that, fanfic's author is able to review the complaint of the readers and change it to suit their needs. therefore, satisfying even more readers. Fanfic's Disadvantage: if the world setting is not properly explained. the market / readers would be severely limited to the scope of the readers who had already read the original story. therefore, the amount of readers can never exceed the amount of readers in the original story. the fanfic are deeply rooted in the original story. this means that fanfic story has a limited range of creativity and can't stray too much from the original story. and in order to break this premise, the fanfic author are required to alter the element's setting severely. and ignoring the possibility of complicating and worsening the story, this makes the boundary between a fanfic and an inspiration blurrier. the fact that it is a fanfic can turn off a substantial amount of readers from even trying it in the first place. My Interpretation: does fanfic author has an advantage over original author? definitely. The fact that fanfic author could simply left so many settings unexplained is a huge advantage. for example, fanfics that are based on a marvel or naruto. Because the amount of audience is simply so large. it mitigates the disadvantages to a minimal damage. However, the main advantage of a fanfic is not exclusive to a fanfic. even original stories can be based on stories/troupes that are clearly established. examples of this are, Xianxia, reincarnation, dungeons, common monsters, system, magic. although not as over as a fanfic. original stories also benefitted massively from these famous troupes. authors are not required to excessively explain how reincarnation work or vividly describe the appearance of a goblin or a troll. naturally, they are welcome to do that, however, most of the time, this happen only because the author has an interesting way to explain this troupe. My Conclusion: Yes, fanfic does have its advantages. but it is not so much to the point that it is unfair to the other original authors. and although fanfics can certainly become a great story, original stories has a much higher potential to reach a higher height than just a 'great' story, a 'masterpiece' might even be around the corner. so don't be discourage fellow original authors. your ceiling is as high as a human's never-ending creativity. it is by no means a bad choice or a suboptimal decision. you simply decided to go for a harder but more rewarding path. and for you fellow fanfic authors. do not think you have chosen the 'easy' path. writing a great story is by no means easy. it is hard. very hard. just because you can ignore some aspects of story creation, does not mean that other aspects of your story will improve by itself. in fact, it was the opposite, unlike original stories that build its aspects from zero. you on the other hand start from an already established number. and rising an already high number to an even higher one is worthy of praise and encouragement.