#that I shouldn’t write a parsby fic where John and lee go to Will’s graduation in will’s world

[creepyleech]

Fanfic Scale of Canon Compliance

This has been living rent free in my head all day. Enjoy my musings.

01 The Writer Room: These are fics that pick up from where canon left off. Fics that continue a story, or fics that change a very specific scene (eg: a character death). They usually have the same overall mood and genre of the source material. Eg: Fix-Its, Canon-compliant continuations, a fake episode (eg: you write a Star Trek alien-of-week fic).

02 The Tweak: This is a fic where everything is canon except a major canon event happened differently. Eg: “Harry is raised by Sirius instead of the Dursleys” “Sherlock, but John never runs into Mike in the park” “Star Trek AOS, but the Vulcans never joined the federation.”

03 The Sandbox: Fics that are faithful to the canon material but switch the genre. These fics are 100% set in the canon universe, they follow canon rules, are mostly canon-compliant and overall feel like canon, but the story being told is unrelated to the genre. Eg: you write a Lord of the Rings fic where we follow the hobbits post-canon in the shire, but the entire fic is about a fall festival and has nothing to do with the war or the ring. this type of fic is usually to explore a) world building or b) interpersonal relationships

04 The Bomb Drop: This type of fic leaves the world and its rules mostly intact, except that it has a major event which is the center of the plot. This event is either impossible, or very unlikely to happen given the established rules of the universe. Eg: “Character A’s children from the future show up in current timeline.” “Character A and B travel to a new universe and meet their alternate selves.” “Fandom X, but there’s a zombie apocalypse.” “Character A wakes up as the opposite gender.”

05 The Sprinkle of Spice: The universe is mostly the same as canon and so is the mood, except something fundamental has been added/changed about the universe. Eg: People have soulmates, omegaverse, everyone is werewolves/vampires etc, people have magic, etc.

06 The Alternate Universe: Characters have been completely transported into another universe. If canon was set in medieval times, the fic might be set in modern times. Usually characters retain similar dynamics (eg: if our heroes were a group, they would be co-workers now). The fic can be set in the same time/world, so long as the lore is completely different (aka, an Avengers AU can still be set in 2012 New York, but none of them are superheroes, and there are no powers). The plot might reflect canon, but this is not necessary (aka, an XMen AU where Magneto is a militant immigration advocate, and Prof X is a moderate, trying to find common ground). Eg: coffee shop AUs, high school AUs, band AUs, etc.

07 The Publisher is Calling: This fic is an AU (like 06), but the characters are so out of character, that they essentially are different people. This is (whether intentionally or not) an original work that masquerades as a fic. Eg: if someone wrote a high school, no powers, Harry Potter AU where Harry is a blushing nerd and Draco is a scruffy skater boy.