Featured: Writing in an Alternate Universe

In fanfiction, nearly anything is possible. You can take a much-loved storyline and create your own spin off of it, or you can create your own characters and run with it. Thanks to the wide scope of creativity fanfiction creates, Alternative Universe (more commonly known as AU) fanfiction was born. In Mibba’s story section, you can find hundreds upon thousands of AU fanfiction throughout almost every single fandom!

What Is AU Fanfiction?

AU fanfiction, simply put, is fanfiction in which the original and well known — canonical — storyline of the original media is changed in some way. This can be a small change or a dramatic change — for example, having your favourite band as cops or adding a new love interest into a storyline for your favourite book. Anything that changes the canonical facts of a story would be considered AU. So if you want to write a Harry Potter story where Harry doesn’t marry Ginny, but chooses someone else then that’s an Alternative Universe fanfiction piece!

Original Fiction or Fanfiction?

Although many AU pieces take a completely new cast of characters, or maybe place characters from a different piece of media into new surroundings, any piece that uses story lines, characters or settings that you have not created yourself would be a piece of fanfiction. The simplest way to think about it is that if your piece contains something created by another author and not yourself, it should probably be categorised as fanfiction.

Sometimes, pieces originally written as AU fanfiction become less and less like the original media. If you find that your original plan to keep it in a specified fandom doesn’t stay and your piece begins to contain settings, people and plots that are of your own making and not of someone else’s, you would be better to mark it as original fiction.

To Keep or Not to Keep? How to Stay Within the Fandom Limits

The good thing about AU fiction is that it allows the writer creativity over the idea originally set out by the media. However, it can be beneficial to keep certain aspects of the original story lines, or to keep that one character ‘in character’ throughout, mainly from the perspective of the reader. As many people are used to the original story line, or know the members of the band you’re writing about well, it always pays to keep something familiar in there for the reader to discover. For instance, have your favourite band as vampires or werewolves but remember to keep their personalities as they are normally. Not only will this entice readers and fans in, but it will make it easier to write as a fanfiction and not an original fiction with famous names plastered on it!

Another thing to avoid is changing vital parts of the story and not explaining them. For instance, you couldn’t have Harry Potter’s background changing to have his parents stay alive and keep his vendetta against Lord Voldemort exactly as it is in the books as the two are inextricably linked. However, if you were to have a new reason for his hatred and the fight as a whole, then you could use that to explain the link between the two characters. This can often cause confusion when writing though, so make sure you keep all of your details consistent when changing main story plots or characters!

Back to Basics

Although writing a piece of Alternative Universe fanfiction can seem daunting, don’t let it be! Go back to the basics of writing and plan out your story. Think about what characters you’re using. Are they the characters from the original media or characters you have created yourself? How do you want to portray them? Are the characters you’re using from the original media staying the same, or are there vital changes to note?

Similarly, ask yourself the same about the plotline. Smooth out any inconsistencies in your own plot line before you start and have a basic plan of where you want the story to go, just as you would when writing normal fanfiction or original fiction. AU fanfiction may make things a little more complicated, but if you make sure that you plan well ahead then there shouldn’t be a problem!

If you’re looking to further explore a pre-created world that you love dearly, then Alternative Universe fanfiction can be the way ahead! As long as you remember to correctly categorise, tie up any loose ends if you’re changing anything major and plan as you would a normal story, then you can definitely write something yourself. As with everything in writing, the only limit is your imagination!

Special thanks to silent hearts., l'ange de versailles and Goddess_Of_Muse for editing!