Original story - Completely original, or based on real events?

[Michael92]

Now that we've got our suggestion through (*high five Vilvake!*), I wanted to raise a topic dedicated to original stories (or OF if you'd like). I've personally been writing FF here on the base since 2010, but I've never been able to fully complete my ongoing FF, rendering me unable to start out on the idea I have for an original story, an idea that I've had for ages and that I already wrote and shelved the first chapter of almost two years ago (an idea I'm saving for my "older days as a writer on the base," perhaps an idea to retire with). As time has gone by, I've stumbled across a lot of original work here on the base beside the daily FanFictions you see, so my question as a topic is this... What defines an original fiction? Does the whole universe and the characters have to be made up on your own (Lord of the Rings, etc), can it be placed in an already existing formula, but put ages before or after, or does this still count as a FF (I'm not entirely sure, but I do believe Roku's 6th great Ninja War falls under this term, as it's within the Naruto verse, but everything seems to be original regarding characters and story)? And can it be based upon real life events like the World Wars, and still be called an original fiction (for most people, this would be a dumb question, as FF is related to fiction, like books, movies, games, manga, anime and so forth, or does it?)...

What are pros and cons writing an Original Fiction compared to a FanFiction on a place like NB, in a forum where the typical FF term thrives? A place where the "one chapter at a time" formula is the only existing one (unlike real books), unless you decide to write a short movie (like Roku's Bleach Movie)?

Sure, if you write a FF, you have already existing foundations to base your story on, and if you're very limited with your work, you may not need to create own characters either, and only "worry" about nailing the already existing one's persona right, but with OF however, a whole new challenge appears, as not only do you need to create the characters, but the universe (so to speak) as well. As to quote my good friends Kuroi Honoo & Escorpiius, this is what they had to say about the difference in difficulty between writing FFs and doing something original, something which I found interest in;

First of all, congratulations on creating an original FF as I think they're the most difficult.

Well, adaptation and original FFs both got their own difficulties. But I get your point - given that I had to work harder to make readers connect to my characters as they're original ones.

Yes take it from me-when I did Helvetes/Infernal Rebirth, I couldn’t imagine how much more difficult it was than doing a FF based on a pre-existing work.

It's when writing Chapter 2, that I started facing difficulties. Writing with original characters and story, is not more difficult, but it's a pace killer. I wrote ultra-slowly and with sluggish pace compared to my 6thHDC.
But again, thanks for the compliments

So give me your own thoughts on the matter, and whether you think the FF > OF power level on the base will change with time as more and more people realize it's perhaps more fun to do your own stories, and do you believe OF should be solely done with your own thoughts, or is it okay to base it on real life events? What do you prefer reading, FF or OF? What do you think is the best to both write and read? All thoughts matters! ;D

 

[AllomnisymbolsparttwoT]

I like both, its always best to add Real Life influences in it sometimes NOT ALL THE TIME just some, so there could atlest be some canon and legit in the story for example

theres stories about uchiha clan members survivng but no explaination of HOW they survive withOUT getting itachi or tobidara's attention. and being trained by danzo, blah blah and walking around freely in konoha, thats BS. there needs to be some canon to the story and danzo aint training no uchiha :I

 

[Lili-Chwan]

I voted for original fanfiction, but, truth be told, what I prefer to read in the base is work based on the RP section, with characters based on existing members. I like reading in the world of Naruto, but as long as it is about people in NB, I love it (especially if I'm in there). I think it makes our stay in this forum much richer,it gives us different views on events and even on ourselves and our characters. This is my favorite to see on the base. Dunno if it counts as Original Fiction. My absolute favorite is Scorps' work, and The Tales of Wesobi are great. I'm reading and enjoying really much Reborn's recent work, though it is not getting the recognition he deserves, and of course Roku's works, any of them (Even Bleach related) are awesome.

Also something that might be walking the line of FF and OF, is the type of FF I like to write about. I like to explore different prospects of the Ninja World in the Narutoverse. I like Kirigakure and the Land of Water, so my FF is about that, I'm creating new characters and new stories, but I'd like them to fictionally tie in with some loopholes in the Naruto, or simply stuff left unanswered, or deemed irrelevant. Like, for instants, I wanted to give an origin story to how the 2nd Hokage's unique Oily body came to be, so I created an Hozuki character and showed how she developed that power.

In essence, I like reading some bios of the RP and other background stories, as well as stories that tie in with them, or merely have NB members there. Those are my preferred in the base.


But, for example, One Piece, I absolutely love Fanfiction over Original works. I like Alternate Universes, I like shipping, I like everything, as long as it has the canon characters. I never liked Naruto FF all that much, it's not something I enjoy, but I love reading One Piece FF. Some works I read on a ff based forum include many Zoro-Sanji and Zoro-Nami shippings, and I just absolutely love StarkBlack xD (My guilty pleasure)

So, for One Piece, I like FF, for Naruto (And Roku's Bleach, but I'm sure I'd love to see other Universes with our member's characters in them), I like OF.


Purely Original Fiction, it really depends on the author. I read if they link them to me, and I can even like them, but I'm not searching for it. I don't open the FF section to read an Original Work. I'm following Senses Axiom because the premise intrigued me, and I even started reading Omnom's work, but not much of an avid fan.

 

[Michael92]

I like both, its always best to add Real Life influences in it sometimes NOT ALL THE TIME just some, so there could atlest be some canon and legit in the story for example

theres stories about uchiha clan members survivng but no explaination of HOW they survive withOUT getting itachi or tobidara's attention. and being trained by danzo, blah blah and walking around freely in konoha, thats BS. there needs to be some canon to the story and danzo aint training no uchiha :I

Yeah well, if you have it based on something, you might refer to things that have happened in real life, maybe even alter the history (like having Germany win the war, etc), which is always a fun idea to play with in my opinion.

I voted for original fanfiction, but, truth be told, what I prefer to read in the base is work based on the RP section, with characters based on existing members. I like reading in the world of Naruto, but as long as it is about people in NB, I love it (especially if I'm in there). I think it makes our stay in this forum much richer,it gives us different views on events and even on ourselves and our characters. This is my favorite to see on the base. Dunno if it counts as Original Fiction. My absolute favorite is Scorps' work, and The Tales of Wesobi are great. I'm reading and enjoying really much Reborn's recent work, though it is not getting the recognition he deserves, and of course Roku's works, any of them (Even Bleach related) are awesome.

Also something that might be walking the line of FF and OF, is the type of FF I like to write about. I like to explore different prospects of the Ninja World in the Narutoverse. I like Kirigakure and the Land of Water, so my FF is about that, I'm creating new characters and new stories, but I'd like them to fictionally tie in with some loopholes in the Naruto, or simply stuff left unanswered, or deemed irrelevant. Like, for instants, I wanted to give an origin story to how the 2nd Hokage's unique Oily body came to be, so I created an Hozuki character and showed how she developed that power.

In essence, I like reading some bios of the RP and other background stories, as well as stories that tie in with them, or merely have NB members there. Those are my preferred in the base.


But, for example, One Piece, I absolutely love Fanfiction over Original works. I like Alternate Universes, I like shipping, I like everything, as long as it has the canon characters. I never liked Naruto FF all that much, it's not something I enjoy, but I love reading One Piece FF. Some works I read on a ff based forum include many Zoro-Sanji and Zoro-Nami shippings, and I just absolutely love StarkBlack xD (My guilty pleasure)

So, for One Piece, I like FF, for Naruto (And Roku's Bleach, but I'm sure I'd love to see other Universes with our member's characters in them), I like OF.


Purely Original Fiction, it really depends on the author. I read if they link them to me, and I can even like them, but I'm not searching for it. I don't open the FF section to read an Original Work. I'm following Senses Axiom because the premise intrigued me, and I even started reading Omnom's work, but not much of an avid fan.

I think this falls under option three, where you like both, and you don't mind having a mix of both. It really depends on the story I suppose, as Roku's 6thNW FF has a lot of NB members name too, but is still able to maintain it serious and realistic so to say, and then we have original FFs (serious or not) that also choose to have names from members. So yeah, I might say that this goes as a mix between both if you had to choose from the poll, but in general, the poll was just to see whether there was a major difference between those two terms (this of course depends on how many votes it gets, as 10 votes ain't gonna say much, eh? xD).

Yeah, that's why I asked in the opening post if Roku's FF could be regarded as an original work due to it being way into the future, only basing itself on an already existing system of Naruto (ninja ranks, powers, etc), but without any of the same characters or the same story. With your FF for example, I would like to say that it's at least 75 % Original, with the last 25 % being based upon the Ninja system, abilities and clan(s) (taken from Naruto).

I see, well this is why I wanted this to be more than just a poll, but a "healthy" discussion on our preferences and what we like, and how that reflects off compared to the general opinion on the base.

 

[Chakra Wizard]

Way to kick it off, man=D

For me, I like to think that all FF's are still "original" in a sense, since these are our own plots and what not, but I guess it depends on how much of the original universe you use, like your example with Roku, or an example I'll give to you: Steins;Gate. It's in the same universe as Chaos;Head, but the characters, plot, general setting, etc., are completely new. That alone, I think would classify it as an original work.

OF's give you more creative freedom, hands-down, but that does put pressure on you to make everything fit, make all the characters unique and interesting, keep the plot engaging, and all that. For FF's, at least the ones using canon characters, so long as you don't change their personalities and the things we love about them, you just paste in your own plot and you've got yourself a story. It all depends on what suits you, when it comes down to it.

I love reading OF's far more than I do FF's, but writing, it really depends. I typically have everything laid out, anyways, before I start writing, so the whole "have to make my own universe" thing isn't really too big a difference for me. It depends on how engaging the story is for me. Like right now, I'm working on writing two different stories at once - my Naruto FF and another OF I wanna get out - because they're the ones that I'm having the most fun writing right now. As for how much fun, it all depends on where I'm at in the story. Like right now, the action in my Naruto FF has barely started, so I'm having less fun than I would writing my other story. It all depends, man, it all depends.

 

[Germanicus]

Originals, for reading and writing, are better to me. And they can be based on real events, as long as the author adds a dynamic that wasn't originally present.

Just the idea of a universe which has never existed until one person thought it up and wrote it down...isn't that thrilling by itself? Almost like playing god.

I'll try to write a more detailed response tomorrow.

 

[Michael92]

Way to kick it off, man=D

For me, I like to think that all FF's are still "original" in a sense, since these are our own plots and what not, but I guess it depends on how much of the original universe you use, like your example with Roku, or an example I'll give to you: Steins;Gate. It's in the same universe as Chaos;Head, but the characters, plot, general setting, etc., are completely new. That alone, I think would classify it as an original work.

OF's give you more creative freedom, hands-down, but that does put pressure on you to make everything fit, make all the characters unique and interesting, keep the plot engaging, and all that. For FF's, at least the ones using canon characters, so long as you don't change their personalities and the things we love about them, you just paste in your own plot and you've got yourself a story. It all depends on what suits you, when it comes down to it.

I love reading OF's far more than I do FF's, but writing, it really depends. I typically have everything laid out, anyways, before I start writing, so the whole "have to make my own universe" thing isn't really too big a difference for me. It depends on how engaging the story is for me. Like right now, I'm working on writing two different stories at once - my Naruto FF and another OF I wanna get out - because they're the ones that I'm having the most fun writing right now. As for how much fun, it all depends on where I'm at in the story. Like right now, the action in my Naruto FF has barely started, so I'm having less fun than I would writing my other story. It all depends, man, it all depends.

Yeah, thanks I suppose, haha =p

Great post, and I do like your points, as in the end, it really comes down to how much you put of your "soul" in it to make it work, not whether or not you have to create a new universe or not. For me personally, I think the OF I'll be doing eventually, will be much easier than writing The Legendary Sage of Konoha due to the "freedom" I'll have then, not having to concern myself of an already existing manga to write.

Originals, for reading and writing, are better to me. And they can be based on real events, as long as the author adds a dynamic that wasn't originally present.

Just the idea of a universe which has never existed until one person thought it up and wrote it down...isn't that thrilling by itself? Almost like playing god.

I'll try to write a more detailed response tomorrow.

Yeah, again this really comes down to the creativity of the writer, but flipping the coin, this is often something that is more common to see "more of" in OF than in FFs, as people often plays it "safe" with a FF.

Oh? Not thrilling?? Last time I check, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were very thrilling indeed =p

Okay

 

[Chakra Wizard]

Yeah, thanks I suppose, haha =p

Great post, and I do like your points, as in the end, it really comes down to how much you put of your "soul" in it to make it work, not whether or not you have to create a new universe or not. For me personally, I think the OF I'll be doing eventually, will be much easier than writing The Legendary Sage of Konoha due to the "freedom" I'll have then, not having to concern myself of an already existing manga to write.



Oh? Not thrilling?? Last time I check, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were very thrilling indeed =p

I would sure love to read it one day, man=D

He didn't say it wasn't, man. He didn't say it "isn't that thrilling by itself." He asked us, "isn't that thrilling by itself?" Just goes to show it's not what you say, it's how you say it. XD

 

[Michael92]

I would sure love to read it one day, man=D

He didn't say it wasn't, man. He didn't say it "isn't that thrilling by itself." He asked us, "isn't that thrilling by itself?" Just goes to show it's not what you say, it's how you say it. XD

Hehe If you've read my post in your new thread, you should probably know that I've written the first chapter of that original work, close to two years ago XD

Oh shoot! My bad, guess I didn't really read into that too much... Thanks for correcting me =p

 

[Chakra Wizard]

Hehe If you've read my post in your new thread, you should probably know that I've written the first chapter of that original work, close to two years ago XD

Oh shoot! My bad, guess I didn't really read into that too much... Thanks for correcting me =p

It's all good, man=D

Still like to read it someday, though

 

[Germanicus]

I would sure love to read it one day, man=D

He didn't say it wasn't, man. He didn't say it "isn't that thrilling by itself." He asked us, "isn't that thrilling by itself?" Just goes to show it's not what you say, it's how you say it. XD

The tricky part of english rears its ugly head; so many different meanings from small words. Ah, semantics, how I love them.

And actually, I wouldn't view ffs as being 'safe'. Mainly because that would have made my ffs safer than when I wrote Absolution and PFI. The ffs didn't really get more attention. And you look at ofs, like Train's Wolfe when he was writing it and Escorpius's Axiom story, which had more attention than several ffs. I would argue that the style itself is more important, and that there isn't really a safe choice.

 

[Chakra Wizard]

The tricky part of english rears its ugly head; so many different meanings from small words. Ah, semantics, how I love them.

And actually, I wouldn't view ffs as being 'safe'. Mainly because that would have made my ffs safer than when I wrote Absolution and PFI. The ffs didn't really get more attention. And you look at ofs, like Train's Wolfe when he was writing it and Escorpius's Axiom story, which had more attention than several ffs. I would argue that the style itself is more important, and that there isn't really a safe choice.

Probably got a point there. I might end up switching my fonts around for my next two OF's and see how things work outxd

 

[Michael92]

The tricky part of english rears its ugly head; so many different meanings from small words. Ah, semantics, how I love them.

And actually, I wouldn't view ffs as being 'safe'. Mainly because that would have made my ffs safer than when I wrote Absolution and PFI. The ffs didn't really get more attention. And you look at ofs, like Train's Wolfe when he was writing it and Escorpius's Axiom story, which had more attention than several ffs. I would argue that the style itself is more important, and that there isn't really a safe choice.

Actually, when I said FF being safe, I was more referring to the fact that new writers often feel like it's easier to start out with, and less ambitious, and because it "feels safe," they also just decided to go at it like that... Safe, not trying to mix things up and applying too much of their own imagination... Personally, I wouldn't say that I play it safe regarding my own FF, rather, I kind of do the opposite, as in, being radical. I've changed and added so much of my own choice, that I wouldn't count my FF as safe at all, as some people might think. Because, in the bigger picture, most "FFs writers" play it safe with their FF, not that they're necessarily "being safe" by choosing to write one. Complicated point, but I'm sure you understand what I'm hinting at.

 

[Seffy]

Personally I love OF's more; as many people know that. To me to come up with everything takes creativity to a whole new level. You're not dealing with a pre-existing story line or anything like that, you write strictly what's on your heart and mind and put it to words in ways other may not be able to.

I won't lie, yeah sure I've written ff's before when I first started writing stories, my start was poetry, but it lost it's appeal quickly. Sure it's fun to have things go the way you want or what not, but it's not the same. To really connect to your own characters as you can see different parts of yourself in them is just amazing!

However working with another person on a ff or of is difficult as well and deserves recognition as well! I never thought I would even try to attempt it as I'm basically a control freak when it comes to writing. Everything has to be a certain way as it flows smoothly, but adding another mind, another soul to it mixes up everything!

Well that's my take on it anyways. :bouncy:

 

[Michael92]

Personally I love OF's more; as many people know that. To me to come up with everything takes creativity to a whole new level. You're not dealing with a pre-existing story line or anything like that, you write strictly what's on your heart and mind and put it to words in ways other may not be able to.

I won't lie, yeah sure I've written ff's before when I first started writing stories, my start was poetry, but it lost it's appeal quickly. Sure it's fun to have things go the way you want or what not, but it's not the same. To really connect to your own characters as you can see different parts of yourself in them is just amazing!

However working with another person on a ff or of is difficult as well and deserves recognition as well! I never thought I would even try to attempt it as I'm basically a control freak when it comes to writing. Everything has to be a certain way as it flows smoothly, but adding another mind, another soul to it mixes up everything!

Well that's my take on it anyways. :bouncy:

Yeah good points, and I think I may agree upon this when I finally continue (I say continue, because I wrote the first chapter two years ago) my OF, but until then, all I can say is that a FF can only be as challenging as you make it to be, and if you don't go all in, you'll never feel like you're writing your own story at all.

 

[~Uzumaki~]

FFs are like playing chess.
OFs are like trying to make your own board game(waaaaaay harder lol)

Considering the best works I've read on the base are mostly OFs, I guess I have to say I prefer them to FFs here.

 

[Michael92]

FFs are like playing chess.
OFs are like trying to make your own board game(waaaaaay harder lol)

Considering the best works I've read on the base are mostly OFs, I guess I have to say I prefer them to FFs here.

You revived it O__o

Lmao, making your own board game xD I prefer chess though, makes those small grey cells work extra hard, lol.