What Do You Look For In A Fanfic Story?

[Zeebop]

Not everybody likes fanfic stories, and not everyone has a specific fandom they're interested in - but is there any particular aspect of fandom that you like? Are you a fan of smutty-but-realistic-to-the-original characters, or over-the-top-sex-scenes, or degradation and embarrassment or...what? There are plenty of fanfic out there of all stripes, so no judgement with regard to kinks.

I'm particularly interested in how you think fanfic should play out on a CHYOA level - what kind of interaction are you as the reader hoping to see? What kind of decisions do you want input on?

 

[Warden-Yarn15]

At the very least, the fanfic should stick close to the original source material as much as possible. I don't expect writers to closely replicate the writing of the source material or be forced to rewrite the entire story of their sources.

However, deviation from the personality of the source material does bug me quite a bit. While yes I do tolerate them if the story is good enough or if the author attempts to replicate it from time to time. Or as insertnamehere puts it:

• Lack of self-awareness. They just don't realise how far they're deviating from the source material. I've known people (usually young) who would have never even considered writing an original work, instead layering on 'AU's and 'OOC's and ! tags until they've unrecognisably warped someone else's ideas into their own. Take away the fanfic label and you'd never see the connection. This mindset might be partially due to other online communities where it's nearly taboo to write completely original ideas.
• Audience. They want to write something similar to X franchise, but they know X has a thriving fanfic community here. As such, they choose to capitalise on it, hoping nobody realises that their knowledge of the source material is basically nonexistent. As above, it might also be that fanfic simply gets more attention on wherever they're publishing.
• Appearance. If you forsake a character's personality, what are you left with? Some writers might use this as a crude shorthand for describing their own characters, especially when they personally have a strong physical attraction to the source character. There's actually several stories on CHYOA about, specifically, androids designed to look like certain characters without their personalities.

There is a certain craft in trying to emulate characterisations, or, if you're so inclined, even the author's writing style. In that regard, the actual writing process might actually be more difficult in fanfic than in original works, though the burden of character and world building is gone.

Honestly speaking, I've completely lost my train of thought while writing this. All I want is a fanfic story where the character isn't a complete cumdump for everything they come across honestly.

Humiliation, defeat, torture, that's fine. But when you're just using the face of a character as a basis for your story, count me out.

 

[JWtts]

I'm probably the exception rather than the norm, at least from what I see pop-up a lot on CHYOA (both for fanfic and other stories), but I'm more of a fan of the smutty-but-realistic stories. But no offense to those who read/write the over-the-top, mind control, nude, body morphing, etc. type stories.

I know CHYOA is all about interaction, but for me I enjoy stories with a nice mix of story/character development and sex. If it's all random sex with fandom character's face, then I don't find that appealing. On the other-side, if it's 20-30 chapters of fandom character drinking tea and flirting with 1 sex scene buried among the threads, then I'd rather read/watch the original source material and then take a Pornhub break or something. Or as @Warden-Yarn15 said:

All I want is a fanfic story where the character isn't a complete cumdump for everything they come across...

That said, I'm currently working on a fanfic and am ashamed to admit [ <-- my ashamed face] I'm doing a bit of audience chasing with the chosen fandom. I'm also "breaking" some rules in making it an AU story with original characters, but my story is more about the universe and settings rather than the main/popular characters, though I've planned for some fan-service... because fandom.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

Not everybody likes fanfic stories, and not everyone has a specific fandom they're interested in - but is there any particular aspect of fandom that you like? Are you a fan of smutty-but-realistic-to-the-original characters, or over-the-top-sex-scenes, or degradation and embarrassment or...what? There are plenty of fanfic out there of all stripes, so no judgement with regard to kinks.

I'm particularly interested in how you think fanfic should play out on a CHYOA level - what kind of interaction are you as the reader hoping to see? What kind of decisions do you want input on?

I do not look out for fanfiction actively, once in a while though I come across something that intrigues me about and old franchise or read/watch something new that literally begs to be subverted into erotica and look around to see if anyone has done it yet.

After having pointed out I'm not a fanfiction addict, I'd say if I do read an erotic fanfic, the first and foremost thing I expect from it, is to resolve the submerged sexual tension among the existig characters, be it a canon ship or not.

The second thing is developing existing situations of the original show/novel/whatever that could have easily ended with sex, that is if it wasn't a mainstream product.

The third is to explore in a kinky way the perks of the world in which the franchise is set: there is magic? how does't that mixes with sex? are there specifical sex spells? and so forth.

This is about general erotic fanfic.
I really can't say what type of interaction I would expect though. I think it would really depend on the source material and the type of story.

What I do actually know I wouldn't, and do not in fact, like, are those kind of stories where there's a friggin' John Doe with 2nd person PoV that walks into the chosen fantasy world and proceeds to fuck every single female character, with choices being 'fuck her doggy or missionary'.
That is bad, just plain bad erotic fanfiction.
Everything above that, is a great improvement.

On the other-side, if it's 20-30 chapters of fandom character drinking tea and flirting with 1 sex scene buried among the threads, then I'd rather read/watch the original source material and then take a Pornhub break or something.

This also.
This has driven me off of erotic fanfiction for such a long time. It' still does sometimes.
One thing is to give your erotica a decent plot, a whole another is to go overboard and try to actually write a sequel of you favorite work of fiction.

I mean, I can actually understand that, but please don't try to sell it to me as erotica just because the main characters finally hook up and have a brief vanilla intercourse at chapter 87 and nothing more, geez.

I think most (erotic) fanfiction writers have this wrong conception that they have to be original at all costs but in fact is quite the opposite.
Fanfiction, as I see it, is a fanservice.
Just stick to what's already there, give it a nice kinky touch and voila, job's done!

 

[MidbossMan]

I've written a lot of fanfiction over the past year. I see it as a tradeoff where you get a lot of established personality and setting, but on the other hand, you have to be especially faithful to that setting. I personally love reading a story that seems really faithful to the source characters or setting, but also manages to make things sexual. Oftentimes finding a way to do that believably is a challenge worth respecting!

However...

In both my writing and my reading, sometimes I'll take my time and appreciate a huge buildup and slowly, believably maneuver into a sexual scenario, while other times, I enjoy a quick and dirty hypnosis effect or circumstantial, almost slapstick ENF. I guess what I'm saying is, I enjoy a huge range of material.

Ultimately, whether the story is fast or slow, shallow or deep, I want the characters to seem faithful to source material or at least start that way before some kind of corruption. I think I do a pretty good job of that, but I have been called out on not doing so before.

 

[haileytraynor]

As someone who has not only written a lot of fanfiction here but also have contributed elsewhere on a different name on a less “adult” site, I’d say a good fanfiction can take the original works and give them some sort of fun spin. I guess that’s why I like the Video Game ENP or Cartoon ENP stories. There’s a lot of familiar characters that I can see in a uniquely different scenario from their original works. But I especially love AUs. I love it when you can hear the same familiar story, but with a slight twist whether it be humiliation or erotic or something else. I like doing it on this site especially because there’s a lot I can do here that stuff like Wattpad or Fanfiction.net don’t allow. Although tbf Wattpad is pretty loose already with its rules, but there are some levels that even they don’t like very much.

 

[gene.sis]

I like doing it on this site especially because there’s a lot I can do here that stuff like Wattpad or Fanfiction.net don’t allow.

Wattpad seems to allow explicit sex scenes and depicting nudity involving or in front of minors. (Or at least 16+)
So in that regard, their rules (and most likely their local laws) seem to be less restrictive.

 

[haileytraynor]

Wattpad seems to allow explicit sex scenes and depicting nudity involving or in front of minors. (Or at least 16+)
So in that regard, their rules (and most likely their local laws) seem to be less restrictive.

Wattpad is definitely more forgiving than some of the other mainstream sites. DeviantaArt has become a nightmare with their adult rules. There’s definitely a lot you can get away with on Wattpad.