#'a real book with regular real book structure' you people would eat her alive

[biracy]

Tbh I disagree with the idea that fanfiction by default translates badly into quote unquote "real books" "because no worldbuilding." 1) I think it's untrue and disingenuous to portray fanfiction as a medium inherently lacking worldbuilding, plenty of fic authors really enjoy worldbuilding and character development and, especially if they're writing an AU fic, can put so much work into worldbuilding and character development that the fic effectively stands on its own apart from the original work entirely (whether or not the author continuing to consider it fanfiction is a crutch is debatable, not the point), and 2) I think it's untrue and disingenuous to portray "real books" (i.e. a book that has gone through whatever op thinks is an acceptable standard of traditional publishing) as a medium inherently requiring worldbuilding to be worth reading/to be "complete." If I'm being perfectly honest I just don't think a lot of you actually read a lot of "real books" if you think that a book introducing a character or characters with very little preamble before getting to what people call "the good stuff" is inherently a flaw. Common story structures are not a rule every author is bound to following, and many more experimental and/or greatly influential books play with story structure, worldbuilding (which tbh isn't that important if ur not writing fantasy or sci-fi, u guys DO know there are genres besides fantasy and sci-fi, right?), developing characters in like, the Tumblr writing advice sense where "developed" means "has a backstory", etc. Especially if a book is a mainly a character piece, a lot of rules about "story structure" kinda go out the window. I also think a statement like "fics that have had their serial numbers filed off are stories, but not books" means absolutely nothing, it just relies on a reader's preexisting ideas about the inherent virtue of "books" when compared to "stories", ignoring the systems in place that often separate "books" from "just stories" AND the fact that short stories, vignettes, etc. are absolutely acceptable forms in which to write fiction. Of course this isn't to say that books that started off as fanfiction CAN'T have structural problems, a lot of fiction (fan- or otherwise) that was originally published serially online as the author was writing it can have structural and pacing issues where chapters don't really feel connected, threads start but don't lead anywhere, etc., but like always it's not really a problem unique to fanfiction and also the way people are going about it is just so hollow and performatively intellectual. In My Opinion