UFG+users+guide+Valentine


 * __Users Guide to Fanfiction__**

Fanfiction can be a really fun way to retell a story and change it in anyway you choose. Most fanfiction is not written for publication but for the purpose of the writers own enjoyment as well as the enjoyment of other fanfiction fans and are usually posted on the internet in fanfiction forums or blogs. Fanfiction is a form of fiction in which the author takes a piece of fiction already in existence and alters in a variety of ways. The author can make a change in the story that will affect the entire outcome of the story such as leaving one or both of Harry Potter’s parents alive. The author could also take the setting of a story and change that such as putting the characters of Twilight in 18th England. The writer can also write cross over’s in which a character from one piece of fiction finds himself in the universe of another piece of fiction such as Luke Skywalker as a character in War of the Worlds. The options are almost limitless due to the wide variety of literary and media sources. The point of fanfiction is for fun and a creative outlet. The author should stretch his mind when creating fanfiction and tell a story that they think is interesting regardless of if it stays true to the original text or not. It is also a great way for a writer to explore the creative writing craft for the first time because so much of the story and characters are already written for them, they just decide what the characters do and where the story takes place.

==I like the examples you give above, to show the range of fan-fiction. Although it is published for fun, not profit, I would imagine there is a fan-fiction community that follows online postings/ publishings. I wonder if they have norms or if there are norms, such as how much you depart from the original template. For example, the community might object if I made Harry Potter a transvestite burlesque dancer, but would be accepting of Harry as a criminal lawyer. What do you suppose are the limits? And at the other extreme, when does fan-fiction become plagiarism?==