Testing the waters: a Fan Fic challenge next year?

[AchtungNight]

StillStunned, we can always work on this together if you want. You need a co-editor to handle the volume of entries, or you need someone to do everything, I gotcha either way. You can tell Laurel that.

I personally enjoy writing fanfics where everything happens mostly the same as in the original story, just with a bit of extra smut. Example- anyone who watches the film Home Room will probably notice Erika Christensen has a lesbian kiss in one scene. IRL, it was just acting, no big deal. But in a pornographer’s parallel reality (my story Passion 3), the kiss sparks bisexual desire in her and she has to find a way to indulge it. All my stories come from similar premises. Some of them even might happen to a similar degree for all we know. Why might Seelah and Arue hook up after their Pathfinder adventures concluded? What if Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley got lustful after posing nude together for Vanity Fair and hooked up as a result? That sort of thing. Never trying to subvert the original narrative, just twisting it a bit.

And yeah, that Phineas & Ferb episode is great.

 

[Duleigh]

I love writing in The Gate universe - it's a fantasy land for Otakus: Elves, kitty girls, bunny girls, birdy girls, wervyn, dragons, and the Japanese Self Defense Force with F-4Js, cobra, apache, and chinook helecopters and C-17s, tanks, APCs and machine guns to fight roman era armies.

 

[THBGato]

I'm not sure what's happening but I'm in

Well you know how I borrowed Jessica very briefly? Well, I also borrowed one of Red's characters (Luz) in the same story. I then later used some of Prose's character (Mor and Susie). Meanwhile, both HelenL and DawnDuckie have borrowed some of mine, which means all of those stories effectively exist in a shared Universe...

 

[StillStunned]

StillStunned, we can always work on this together if you want. You need a co-editor to handle the volume of entries, or you need someone to do everything, I gotcha either way. You can tell Laurel that.

Thanks for the offer! There's no editing involved. It's mostly PR: generating awareness of the event on a regular basis during the months leading up to the event, and keeping the support thread on the first page in the AH while the event is live.

I'll see how it goes during the months ahead. If I feel the energy levels dropping, I'll come knocking!

 

[AchtungNight]

Works for me, thx.

 

[dirk2024]

Question, if we were to use another author's characters, wouldn't we need to include a bio of some sort to describe them and why the reader should care (including a link to the story we're borrowing from)? Most potential readers might not be aware of the characters we choose to use.

 

[StillStunned]

Question, if we were to use another author's characters, wouldn't we need to include a bio of some sort to describe them and why the reader should care (including a link to the story we're borrowing from)? Most potential readers might not be aware of the characters we choose to use.

I think it would be the author's responsibility to make it clear to the reader what the source material is, and why they're writing fan fic about it. There's a risk that readers will wonder what sets it apart from a shared universe. You'd have to emphasise your reasons for writing something that the original author never would.

 

[dirk2024]

I think it would be the author's responsibility to make it clear to the reader what the source material is, and why they're writing fan fic about it. There's a risk that readers will wonder what sets it apart from a shared universe. You'd have to emphasise your reasons for writing something that the original author never would.

So, we would need to ask the original author about that, while we are asking for permission to use their characters.

 

[StillStunned]

So, we would need to ask the original author about that, while we are asking for permission to use their characters.

I meant "never would" in the sense of putting your own twist on their characters or world. Making it clear that your story isn't canon.

But yes, if you want to use a Lit author's stories as the basis for your fan fic, I'd recommend close communication throughout the process.

Disclaimer: this is only how I see it, at this point in time. Laurel might have other ideas. Other writers might have other opinions on their stories being fan-ficked.

 

[AchtungNight]

I think it would be the author's responsibility to make it clear to the reader what the source material is, and why they're writing fan fic about it. There's a risk that readers will wonder what sets it apart from a shared universe. You'd have to emphasise your reasons for writing something that the original author never would.

We don’t necessarily need to write based on another Lit author’s material. Just use something popular enough it’s well known to prospective readers while making clear what you’re writing isn’t canon to the base work. Examples from my own stories-

- What if Uhura put on a sex show on the Star Trek Enterprise?

- What if Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got marriage counseling from an unorthodox Scientologist slash psychologist with bisexual tendencies?

- What if a gamer got the chance to enter the Metal Gear Solid universe and have a threesome with Meryl & Sniper Wolf?

All these stories should be known enough to readers that they don’t need to be fully recounted in the text but one can still pull off an interesting story with them. At least, I think I did. Other authors can do similar things.

 

[SkyBubble]

I know, Fan Fic & Celebrities is pretty much a dead category. I complain about SF&F often enough, but I've just looked at the FF&C story list, and it's a graveyard.

But we enjoy a challenge, don't we? And look what happened to Reviews & Essays when we did WIWAW. So in spite of all the misgivings... Would it work? Would there be any interest from writers, let alone readers?

I think it would be a great opportunity to try something different in a category most of us rarely venture into. A chance to write all those cheesy Luke and Leia fantasies, and Ross, Rachel and Monica, and perhaps something involving Velma, or Geralt of Rivia - or both of them together! Or to explore the shared past that Shagrat and Gorbag hint at in the tunnels below the Tower of Cirith Ungol, or the "true" love story of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, or what would have happened between Will and Angie if Single Parents had ever had a S3, or whether Avon and Servalan ever got together to rule the galaxy...

If this happens, it would likely be in September next year.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Retching sounds of disgust?

I have numerous stories there.

 

[DawnDuckie]

Now that I would be interested in! (@HelenL @redgarters @SugarStorm @DawnDuckie @proseinagarden a chance to expand our accidental shared universe?)

Yep, that will be fun! I'm in. The last couple days I've been thinking how to incorporate The Lantern Room and Hannah into something next. So whether this turns into an actual event/contest/challenge or not, I very much want to participate in a shared story universe collaboration thing - what ever that is.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Question, if we were to use another author's characters, wouldn't we need to include a bio of some sort to describe them and why the reader should care (including a link to the story we're borrowing from)? Most potential readers might not be aware of the characters we choose to use.

We have an Event for this already .

I think this ought to be stories that would fit in C&FF, not LitCon 2.0.

 

[ICantLeafYou]

I'm down for it. I originally started as a smutty fanfic writer at 18yo and kept that up for nearly a decade.

 

[SkyBubble]

And fan fic of other Literoticans sounds great, but I wonder whether it should be a separate challenge.

As @EmilyMiller was saying, I think that's kind of the point of @FreyaGersemi's challenge.

 

[Eisenloewe]

I know, Fan Fic & Celebrities is pretty much a dead category. I complain about SF&F often enough, but I've just looked at the FF&C story list, and it's a graveyard.

But we enjoy a challenge, don't we? And look what happened to Reviews & Essays when we did WIWAW. So in spite of all the misgivings... Would it work? Would there be any interest from writers, let alone readers? ...

If this happens, it would likely be in September next year.

I would be very likely to submit an entry for an author challenge like this. I posted a lot on another well-known fanfiction site back in the day (and, in fact, my first story on this site grew from various brainstormed snippets for a Wheel of Time fanfic that never saw the light of day on that site).

September of next year might conflict with Halloween writing but I would try to do both.

Make it interesting by restricting the fanfic to existing Lit stories. Those who want to participate will need to pick a story they want to fanfic and, of course, obtain permission from the author.
It would make things fun and would give new life to some stories, but also make us read each other's stuff more.

Just a thought.

I have a thought for just such a work (though I'm not sure about obtaining permission from the author because he hasn't been active on this site for a long time now, not even sure I could reach him).

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I just want to say that I'm glad so many people seemed to like my idea. Once again, it's SS's show, and I am not going to push my idea forward any more than I already did, but I'd also like to make one potentially useful point.

If SS decides to go for the regular fanfic challenge, then our stories HAVE to go in Celebrities&FanFic, which is a low traffic category. Some even called it a wasteland.
But if we went with my idea instead, then we would obviously need to obtain the author's permission, but our stories would be able to go into any category we choose.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I just want to say that I'm glad so many people seemed to like my idea. Once again, it's SS's show, and I am not going to push my idea forward any more than I already did, but I'd also like to make one potentially useful point.

If SS decides to go for the regular fanfic challenge, then our stories HAVE to go in Celebrities&FanFic, which is a low traffic category. Some even called it a wasteland.
But if we went with my idea instead, then we would obviously need to obtain the author's permission, but our stories would be able to go into any category we choose.

We already have an event like this. You are undermining that event by continuing to focus on this. There is scope within LitCon to write any sort of story with other people’s characters, it just requires some creativity, I’ve done it.

There is an established owner - @FreyaGersemi - there’s an established approach. Everything is in place. I don’t know why we would need to duplicate it.

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...or-challenge-official-support-thread.1642536/

Suggestion: if for some reason you feel LitCon is too limiting, talk to Frey about your ideas for expanding it. Don’t invent something new, which was never @StillStunned’s intent.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

We already have an event like this. You are undermining that event by continuing to focus on this. There is scope within LitCon to write any sort of story with other people’s characters, it just requires some creativity, I’ve done it.

There is an established owner - @FreyaGersemi - there’s an established approach. Everything is in place. I don’t know why we would need to duplicate it.

Suggestion: if for some reason you feel LitCon is too limiting, talk to Frey about your ideas for expanding it. Don’t invent something new, which was never @StillStunned’s intent.

Freya's event is much narrower in scope. It's all happening at a conference, which significantly limits where we can go with our stories. It's a nice and fun idea, of course, but quite different from what I proposed.

By the way, I can't read minds, so when I proposed it, I couldn't have known whether SS would like the idea, no? Also, SS seemed to have just a general outline of the idea, not a fully defined event, and that's why he made this thread. See his original post. He had explicitly asked for thoughts and ideas.

I'm not undermining anything, by the way. From what I've seen in reactions, I see that some people liked my idea, and I also haven't seen SS rejecting my idea or stating a decisive "This is how the event is going to be."

So, unless you actually read SS's mind and saw something beyond what he actually said in this thread, let's tone down the hostility and continue discussing, okay?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Freya's event is much narrower in scope. It's all happening at a conference, which significantly limits where we can go with our stories. It's a nice and fun idea, of course, but quite different from what I proposed.

By the way, I can't read minds, so when I proposed it, I couldn't have known whether SS would like the idea, no? Also, SS seemed to have just a general outline of the idea, not a fully defined event, and that's why he made this thread. See his original post. He had explicitly asked for thoughts and ideas.

I'm not undermining anything, by the way. From what I've seen in reactions, I see that some people liked my idea, and I also haven't seen SS rejecting my idea or stating a decisive "This is how the event is going to be."

So, unless you actually read SS's mind and saw something beyond what he actually said in this thread, let's tone down the hostility and continue discussing, okay?

It’s clearly undermining the other event. Not my problem if you can’t see that. But do whatever you want if it’s important to you for some reason.

 

[Eisenloewe]

It’s clearly undermining the other event. Not my problem if you can’t see that. But do whatever you want if it’s important to you for some reason.

So I hadn't even heard of that other event, but I checked your link, and I think what @AwkwardlySet is describing is a little different. I don't think I would write what I have in mind for LitCon.

In particular, the story and setting I would have in mind if we were doing FF of Lit works only is The Sky Kingdom by @Red24797, which has a well-developed epic fantasy setting (not just people in all their dynastic intrigue but places, political systems, significant artifacts, etc.) that would be part of the point of writing this FF. I wouldn't just want to borrow his characters for a convention in Paris, even if I could have them arrive on one of his skyships and even if I rather think many of those characters would enjoy Paris to the fullest.

That said, we could just go with the OG idea and have it be a more typical fanfic challenge.

If anything, I think the reason that the FF category here is a graveyard is because more high-traffic FF sites are plenty friendly to NSFW writing already, and of course cater to people with that specific niche interest. So why post on a low-traffic site in which fanfiction is only a niche when you could post on a massive one dedicated entirely to that niche?

 

[EmilyMiller]

And fan fic of other Literoticans sounds great, but I wonder whether it should be a separate challenge. While many of us have read and loved other authors' stories here, I don't think they occupy the same place in our minds as the books, movies and television shows we've read and watched. They also wouldn't resonate the same way with readers, I suspect, although that might be a moot point with the FF&C readership anyway.

And of course there's the added issue of getting the original author's permission. How many discussions have we had about continuing someone else's work? This would fall in the same category.

Funny how my mind-reading aligns with the OP’s published thoughts, isn’t it?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Funny how my mind-reading aligns with the OP’s published thoughts, isn’t it?

Where's the firm rejection of the idea there? He had expressed reservations about my idea right away, but many authors latched onto it.

The whole point of this thread was to feel the AH's pulse about an FF event. And again, as far as I'm concerned, whatever SS decides is fine with me. But stop saying that I'm undermining anything.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Where's the firm rejection of the idea there? He had expressed reservations about my idea right away, but many authors latched onto it.

The whole point of this thread was to feel the AH's pulse about an FF event. And again, as far as I'm concerned, whatever SS decides is fine with me. But stop saying that I'm undermining anything.

I think Freya's event is wonderful, but to be honest it doesn't appeal to me.
There are a few characters I wouldn't mind "borrowing" in another environment though.

There is enough room for both challenges to flourish here. It isn't a zero sum game.

 

[StillStunned]

I just want to say that I'm glad so many people seemed to like my idea. Once again, it's SS's show, and I am not going to push my idea forward any more than I already did, but I'd also like to make one potentially useful point.

If SS decides to go for the regular fanfic challenge, then our stories HAVE to go in Celebrities&FanFic, which is a low traffic category. Some even called it a wasteland.
But if we went with my idea instead, then we would obviously need to obtain the author's permission, but our stories would be able to go into any category we choose.

I'm not going to say "no", because I think it should be an inclusive event, fan fic in the broadest sense. That's really the only way to breathe life into a category that's largely dead here in Lit.

But I'll repeat my caveats:

Anyone fanficking Lit content will have to make sure that the readers understand that it's fan fic. You'll have to get the original author's express consent before playing with their characters and setting. Odds are that most readers won't know the original.

The thing about fan fic, and particularly erotic fan fic, is adding a transgressive element to characters or a world that so many people know. In my OP I mentioned Luke and Leia, and Ross, Rachel and Monica, and Velma, and I'm pretty sure almost everyone immediately knew who they were, and probably had some idea about how the erotic fan fic would play out. Fewer people probably recognised Shagrat and Gorbag, but if they know they're minor Orc characters from The Lord of the Rings they might be tickled by the idea of gay Orc sex in what's a pretty sterile setting.

You don't get that immediate appeal with stories that aren't part of the universal awareness. Not only that, erotic fan fic based on stories that are already erotic won't stand out as clearly from the originals. Just like you can't satirise satire, it's hard to be transgressive in a world that's already transgressive. Readers are likely to just treat the stories as a shared universe.

At the same time, I can see where this idea wouldn't be a perfect fit for the LitCon event. That's for sharing characters, not necessarily telling new stories about them in their original setting.

@FreyaGersemi Would it be an idea to add a "story hour" slot to LitCon? As in, a session where the "guests" tell stories about other writers' characters. Two lines to frame the story-within-a-story, and then just insert the story there.