Subcategories in GW fiction
Why write fan fiction? Why not original texsts? One good reason is that you are excused from creating the characters and the setting. In GW, you don't have to even write their names! Add code numbers, and the readers instantly know what you are talking about. Ah, you have a series's worth of characterisation and internet's worth of emotions!
When the number of fics on the certain series grows, the concept of intertextualism emerges. You start to think certain things as facts, never mind that they actually have rather questionable base in the series.
Heero drinks coffee,
Wufei and Quatre drank tea.
Sally Po can conveniently be called in a medical emergency.
Duo is good with children.
Emotional problems will be reflected on their eating habits.
The fics and the facts are no longer connected to the source, but eachother!
(Yeah, sure, why not?)
When you are ready to admit that wether or not the fic is considered good or not has nothing to do with its relationship with the realism of the actual series, the fun begins! Hell, if you have no problem with the "fact" that all of the five boys are gay, you can't start nagging when one of them is a girl or something!
Now we have the freedom to write almost anything! Well, anything, as our boys stay remotely in character, that is... And now to the subgenres!
I have tried to list here all of the subgenres I know in the GW fiction. Later I will add a link to a story. If you want to add a category or suggest a story, write me!
Yaoi
Who first thought of they being gay anyway? You can find the hints in the series if you are really looking them, but *really*? Why not? It would be so god damn nice to have them as gays, so lets play/pretend/believe they are.
Sex!
Sex in the fic. A fic about sex. A fic that Is sex.
Sex without the fic. When I years ago got hooked in fiction, I read it in school, and every time somebody asked what I was reading, my answer was "Porn". Of course they thought it was a joke... Majority of these are better than the avarage teen magazine sex fantasy.
Pairings
You want to write a pairing that hasn't done yet? Don't bother. They have ALL been done. I wouldn't mind a couple more of 4x5 though...
hurt/comfort
This is a classic. Someone is hurt and other comforts. Usually this is connected to rape stories, but not allways. Angst ensues. Oh, and then there is paralysis and blindnes and mental ilnes... Requires at least a semi-happy ending, othervice the reader feels betrayed.
AUs in general
Anything goes. Want to try cross-over? You have this great story idea but it has nothing to do with the series? How about some role playing: Quatre is a sultan and he needs new blood in his harem... This could be continued on and on: Whorefics, 1990's, what if's...
Songfics, videofics, vignettes.
IMHO, writers way getting away with it without a plot. But sometimes, emotions can be more important than mere plot.
Total institutions
Prisons, boarding schools, military, mental institutions, refugee camps... Many fics are situated in enviroments that try to strip the individualism out of them any means necessary. I personally am a big fan of these fics.
crossdressing
The usual story: some of the boys must infiltrate in girlschool. Great stories for those obsessed on how *beautiful* the boys are.
gender bender
One of more of the boys is, *surprise!*, a girl! This causes, of course, problems...
Hidden scenes
these are the only fics that are supposed to be as close as possible to the series. They are really challencing to write. Not very popular genre in animefiction, though.
nekos
This idea is stolen straight from the dojinshi: Some of the boys are kitten( of bunny or monkey..)-hybrids, and as cute as they get. (shudder)
chibis
Yet more stranger than the on above: Somebody is transformed to a overly cute big-eyed small... Thing. (fairy? midget? a living doll? *running away screaming*)
children
Somebody has a child, or is a child, or have to deal with a child. The child is usually *so* loved. Maybe because I never did play with dolls or that I actually had rather good childhood, but I can't understand exactly what fantasies are these stories supposed to fulfill. But the topic naturally transfers to...
male pregnancy
Oh fun! Somebody carries a child. Can be happy, can be angsty. Some writer got the idea first in the X-files fiction, if I remember right. Either you hate it or love it.
vampires
a AU subcategory witch deserves to be mentioned separately. It's like the undefined medevial/fantasy/dungeons and dragons-setting, where everybody knows the rules already.
childhood
Can be devided in two categories: "What Was Their Childhood Like?", usually starring Duo, and "What Would Their Children Be Like?", starring original characters. The writer can release her Inner Freud.
Magical powers
Can appear with vampirism. Dragons, were-animals and Shinigami FX (tm) are also common.
adaptations
Read a good book? Comic? Watch a movie? Something happen to you? Or you just can't reach that original idea? Fear not, the cure is here: make an adaption! Just don't forget to mention the source.
death
Somebody dies. Sorrow. Angst. Tears. Redemption. And remember to warn me beforehand.
What then?
My favourite subgenre. Okay, the war is over. What then? Get married, join the preventers, get depressed? All of you talented writers, please write me fic that deals with the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Pretty please? ^_^
Okay... But So What?!
This rant only scrached the surface of the new fables of the 2000's. The whole idea is that in fan fiction, the series is only the base, the source to pour from. Okay, I admit that it's whole lot easier to write fics than original, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Before, there was only Black and White, either you were a professional writer or nothing at all. You couldn't even mention writing as a serious hobby. Text was worth nothing if nobody read it, and for that, it needed to be published. But in the age of the net and the fanzines, say welcome to the GRAY writing. We write because it's fun. If somebody else can read it, great. If the public doesn't like it, fine. I am my own master.
More to come...