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A Basic Overview Of Fanfiction

DEFINITION:

It is a fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, film, etc.

HP FANFICTION:

Fanfiction written in the Harry Potter world which uses characters, events and settings from the Harry Potter books written by Joanne Kathleen Rowling as well as a few additional characters inserted by the author of the fanfiction.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FICTION AND FANFICTION:

Fanfiction is basically a fiction written by a fan and based in an already existing book, fandom, world or universe. And fiction is that original book or film your fanfiction is centered on. Other than this main difference, there is absolutely no other difference when it comes to writing fiction or fanfiction. They are both almost the same thing. And when I say almost, it is because of the following reasons:

1. If you have written Fiction or rather an original story of your own which does not collaborate with any other existing story or concept, you would have realized that it is a slow and exhausting process. For when you are creating a story of your own, you are creating a whole new world, introducing a new array of characters and creating your own scenes and timelines. It is like building everything from a scratch and trust me, it is not easy. In simple words, it's like laying the foundations for a house, then building upon it and then using the appropriate material and also designing and decorating, and as you might have guessed it's a great deal of work.

2. On the other hand, Fanfiction is considered easier than writing fiction because you don't have to come up with all of your material. You are provided a world, a lot of already existing and fully developed characters as well as convenient amount of scenes and events to expand your story on. It is almost like you are told to do the interior designing of an already constructed house. You don't have to bother with laying the foundations or choosing the location for your house, it's just assigned to you and it reduces a considerable amount of hard work for you. 

And these are the two basic reasons which display the main contrast between fiction and fanfiction. Further similarities and differences will be discussed later on in the upcoming lessons.  

TYPES OF FANFICTIONS:

There are many types of fanfictions and when it comes to Harry Potter fanfics, these are the main types:

1. Sequel Fanfics: A sequel fanfic is when you take an already existing book and write the next part for it. For example, you don't like how the Half Blood Prince came out? What can you do? You can write your own sequel fanfic which starts after the Order of the Phoenix. And that is basically how the Cursed Child was born as well, because it is a sequel fanfic for the seventh Harry Potter book.

2. Prequel Fanfics: A prequel fanfic is when you present your own version of what would have happened before the book started. For example, a prequel fanfic can focs on the Marauder days, the Grindelwald war, the Riddle Era and basically anything that took place before the birth of Harry James Potter.

3. Addition/Insertion Fanfics: Personally, I think these are the easiest fanfics to write. An addition fanfic, sometimes also known as a self insert fanfic, is written in the timeline which the original books follow. In Harry Potter series, an addition fanfic is set in the Golden Trio era, the OC is in Harry's year or Ginny's year, the same events take place with just a few minor additions or changes that occur by the introduction of a few OCs.

The reason I believe these are the easiest is because you already have all the material needed for your fanfic, all you have to do is insert your characters and present the story from a different perspective; your perspective.

4. Alternate Universe Fanfics: These are by far my favorite type of fanfictions. Alternate Universe, commonly known as AUs are when the writer explores the limits set by the original author and breaks through the boundaries to come up with an amazingly unique perspective.

In AUs there is permission to change literally every thing existing in the story. For example, a Goblet of Fire AU could be that what if Angelina Johnson was chosen as the Hogwarts Champion instead of Cedric Diggory? 

We will discuss all these types in detail in the upcoming chapters.

GENERAL OPINION ABOUT FANFICTION:

Generally, people think that writing fanfiction is extremely easy and when we tell someone that we are fanfiction authors, we are usually not taken seriously.

When a fanfiction author is asked what type of stories he/she writes and the reply is fanfiction, then chances are that the person who just asked you the question will immediately conclude that you're only writing for fun and this is nothing close to serious writing.

Take my advice and if somebody tells you that you are not a real writer because you write fanfiction, don't take it to heart because that's not the truth. And also, that person deserves a punch on the face.

Even if most of the work is done for you already when you are writing fanfiction there are still many parameters of which you have to take care of such as formation of your own characters and their development, correct alignment of events in your fanfic, collaboration with the original timeline and maintaining the balance between your work and the original work.

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Since this is just a basic overview, I will not go into much details here, but from the next lesson we will be elaborating on all these points I touched up briefly in this chapter.

Hope this book proves to be helpful to you all.

Best of luck and may you prosper well in your writing skills.