A Taxonomy of Fan Fiction Alfred Correira, incorporating comments from Vince Seifert Category 1: "Original flavor" fanfic: a story written assuming that everything in an anime (or manga, but I'll use "anime" to cover both) as originally written actually happened, and where the writer attempts to maintain the "look and feel" of the original series by maintaining characterization and situations (if characters grow or mature, then they do so in a manner consistent with their "original nature"). I see three subcategories: Subcategory 1: "Continuation" fanfic: the story picks up from where the anime left off and tells a new story. Subcategory 2: the story fills in something in the timeline of the anime that was not fleshed out in the original. Subcategory 3: "side story" (this term is used in the industry in Japan): a story that happens "within the timeline" of the anime, but is not germane to the primary narrative structure of the anime. The writer develops (fleshes out) an existing bit player in the anime, giving that character, in effect, a new persona (since the character really didn't have one to begin with). Category 2: "Alternative World" (alt) fanfic: all or part of an anime is "retold" or "extended" after tweaking an existing premise in the story. One common variant of this (in the Ranma 1/2 universe) is to create stories that take place instead of Vol. 37/38 of the manga. Category 3: "Crossover" fanfic: multiple anime are comingled in a new story or a retelling of a previous story with different characters playing the parts. "Crossover" generally means characters from one anime interacting with characters from another anime, in either's setting/situation. I see two subcategories: Subcategory 1: "standard crossover" fanfic: two or more anime's worth of characters are dumped into the reality of one of the anime, or earth at some historical time (present or otherwise). Subcategory 2: "fusion" fanfic: characters from one anime are dumped into the reality of another anime or earth at some historical time, no interaction with that other anime's characters, but especially when they take on the roles of the other anime's characters. Category 4: "Insertion" fanfic: a character of the writer's creation is inserted into the reality of the anime. I see three subcategories: Subcategory 1: "self insertion" (SI) fanfic: the writer inserts his/her avatar into the anime. Subcategory 2: the writer inserts new character(s) into the anime. Stories in each of these categories can also be qualified based on the "flavor" of the story. These qualifies include: "dark" (typically involves death or anguish of characters), "angsty" (in which characters worry about their lives more than is in character :), "lime" (in which sexual activity is suggested but not depicted), and "lemon" (sexual activity depicted in detail), and WAFF (a story that leaves the reader with a warm and fuzzy feeling after reading it) Metatdata: ;;; $Id: taxonomy.txt 1.4 2004/03/21 22:46:42 alfred Exp alfred $ ;;; Local Variables: ;;; fill-column: 70 ;;; End: