Have you ever transferred a story from one concept to another?

[Sid87]

I couldn't think of a better way to word this in the Title.

Have you had an idea for, say, an original story that you altered around to write a fanfiction about? Or maybe you had an idea for a fanfiction story that you altered to be an original story? Or maybe an idea that you thought of for one fandom and then switched out to do a fanfiction for another fandom?

If so, how did it work for you? Did it port over successfully, or did you find you were trying to essentially squeeze a square peg into a round hole? What were the biggest challenges you faced in altering your story? Did you keep the story mostly the same and just shoe-horn in the new elements, or were there sweeping changes?

I ask because I was considering my next story after Brothers' Bond to be a port of an original idea I've been working with for more than a decade into a pokemon fanfiction. I have had a huge writer's block until I started writing my story here, and I thought that maybe if I stayed in the realm of pokemon fiction a bit longer, that might eliminate the block and help me get this story written in some format or another. I was hoping to get some advice on directions from which I might tackle this task.

 

[Ememew]

Sorta - in my case they were both original stories. I had an idea for a story back in high school that didn't end up going anywhere at the time because I could never figure out what sort of villains would be in the story. Recently I revived the characters from that old idea into a new story idea I had. It's still not going fast because I'm not sure on the villains' motives in the new one either, but otherwise the two ideas are merging well in my head. Ah, reoccurring problems are fun . . .

I can't remember having done the same with fanfics/original fics or different fandoms, but I think it could work.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Eh... guess you can say I kinda do (but it's not like Fifty Shades of Grey that's for sure). I sometimes think about it if the idea feels original enough. Most of the time, though, if I come up with original characters for a fan fic I'd like to write, over time when I've developed said-character enough, I come up with a new story just for that one specific character or two, because they can work individually on their own. But if I was to turn a fan fic into an original story, like say I do it with Forsaken, I would have to go back and really change a lot of it, and I think it's very likely it would also change the story as well since some of the plot points use things from the Pokémon fandom that wouldn't work in an original story (even if I change names). If it was a different fandom, maybe, but as Pokémon is a different universe altogether, it wouldn't work.

So I think it just depends. Either way, you will have to manually change and alter things around a lot, which can take just as much time as it did to write the fan fic, and lots of careful planning to hide the fact it was a fan fic. It's not as easy as it sounds.

 

[Ememew]

Er, Kutie Pie, I think he's talking about turning an original concept into a Pokemon story, not the other way around.

 

[Kutie Pie]

No, it's both ways. I read it correctly:

Have you had an idea for, say, an original story that you altered around to write a fanfiction about? Or maybe you had an idea for a fanfiction story that you altered to be an original story? Or maybe an idea that you thought of for one fandom and then switched out to do a fanfiction for another fandom?

And you answered fine, so... XD. Even then, he wondered next if it worked for us, but since I didn't really have that issue, I just gave a "what if" scenario. But the whole question reminded me of Fifty Shades of Grey anyway, which did such a thing, though it failed miserably at doing it right. I was kinda starting to get into a rant about that XD, which is why I gave such a scenario because it's what I would do if I was to go down that route.

 

[Sid87]

Well, the reason I mentioned it was because I'm personally thinking of turning an original story into a Pokemon-based story--so that would be most helpful--but I did say in the OP that it could be either direction (or even just taking one fandom and turning it into another fandom story). Either way, the process by which the story was changed and remolded is still helpful.

Edit: Sorry, KP, you got to the point first, but this was in regards to Ememew's concern about my OP.

 

[SnoringFrog]

I've done this a couple of times, actually. Well, maybe one and a half. Both times I started with a Pokemon fanfic and ended up with an non-pokemon story. The first time was with my story Traveler. All it took for me to change it from Pokemon to non-pokemon was to use more detailed description instead of standard attack names (like "confuse ray" or "dream eater"), and I also completely removed a Growlithe from the story instead of trying to replace it with a normal dog. I feel like this one worked pretty well, and if you want to personally check out the difference, just take a look at the link to Traveler in my sig and then fine Traveler over at my DeviantArt account. The one here is the Pokemon version, the one on DA is the non-Pokemon one.

The second time was a bit different. The fic never directly mentions anything about pokemon, but when writing it I specifically used the idea of a pokeball and of a certain pokemon. However, if you read the story without knowing it was about pokemon, you might not even recognize that's what it was intended to be. But when you know you're reading a pokemon fic, it becomes a lot easier to see the allusions to a pokeball and to the particular pokemon I used in the story. (This is all about my story Tomur, if you feel like checking it out.) In the end, I feel like I should change it more to be able to truly call it an original fic, simply because of how much it relies on the idea of a pokeball (which I think I could exchange with a prison or some sort) and the pokemon I used (that would be the hard part to fix), but as it stands, it does ok as an original piece.

 

[Sid87]

I think my idea is going to need a bit more changing than that.

The original idea is a fantasy story set in a post-post-apocalyptic world (as in, there WAS a kind of apocalypse, but society has long-since rebuilt, though technology is not what it had been before). It's about a young man who just reaches adulthood and has always been raised in privilege and groomed for an important role in society (basically as one of the privileged class' protectors/enforces) until he starts seeing that he does not agree with the society he was raised in and sets out on his own with the strange item that is his birthright (obviously, there's a lot more to it than that, but it's a quick summary). Out in the world, ever since the apocalypse, there are mystical and mythological forces: reanimated dead, werewolves, monsters, etc. The protagonist has to navigate the world to fulfill his destiny. It's planned out in my head as 5-6 book novel series.

Now, I was thinking that writing a version of this as a fanfic might help motivate me to at least get some format of it complete. But just how much should I change, is my problem.

 

[SnoringFrog]

Changing from original to a Pokemon fanfic seems like it just gives you the excuse to give everyone violent pets, lol. There may be some room for you to utilize some aspects of Pokemon to explain the big disaster that happened, or have them factor in with that "strange item" somehow. Since your original idea probably had people fighting entirely on their own, and Pokemon usually has people fighting solely using pokemon, perhaps you could switch things up and have people more directly fighting one another (or the other creatures you've mentioned) with their pokemon. Also, I suppose you'd have to consider the ramifications of less technology and what that would mean for pokeballs and capturing pokemon as well.

From what you explained of the idea, I can't see anything that sounds like it would have to change to accomodate pokemon. It's just a matter of deciding how much you want to tweak, because they seem like they'll fit in fairly well.

 

[Ememew]

Not knowing the (probably spoilerific) details about the "strange item" I can only suggest that the item might be incorporated into a Pokemon fic as a legendary artifact (like the Red Orb or Tidal Bell). You could make the apocalyptic event something that happened because an evil team won way back when (i.e. Team Aqua managed to flood the planet and by the time the story proper starts, the waters have returned to their usual levels and people have rebuilt).

Otherwise, you could make Pokemon themselves the "monsters," etc. that resulted from the event (the undead you mentioned could be reanimated as Ghost-types, for example).

/my two cents

 

[Sid87]

Changing from original to a Pokemon fanfic seems like it just gives you the excuse to give everyone violent pets, lol. There may be some room for you to utilize some aspects of Pokemon to explain the big disaster that happened, or have them factor in with that "strange item" somehow. Since your original idea probably had people fighting entirely on their own, and Pokemon usually has people fighting solely using pokemon, perhaps you could switch things up and have people more directly fighting one another (or the other creatures you've mentioned) with their pokemon. Also, I suppose you'd have to consider the ramifications of less technology and what that would mean for pokeballs and capturing pokemon as well.

From what you explained of the idea, I can't see anything that sounds like it would have to change to accomodate pokemon. It's just a matter of deciding how much you want to tweak, because they seem like they'll fit in fairly well.

Not knowing the (probably spoilerific) details about the "strange item" I can only suggest that the item might be incorporated into a Pokemon fic as a legendary artifact (like the Red Orb or Tidal Bell). You could make the apocalyptic event something that happened because an evil team won way back when (i.e. Team Aqua managed to flood the planet and by the time the story proper starts, the waters have returned to their usual levels and people have rebuilt). Otherwise, you could make Pokemon themselves the "monsters," etc) that resulted from the event (the undead you mentioned could be reanimated as Ghost-types, for example).

/my two cents

I didn't want this topic to become exclusively about my potential story (mostly because I didn't want it to get shuttled off to the Fic Ideas thread [LOL], but also because I thought it could be helpful to anyone who just generally wants to take an idea they've had and find an effective way to port that into a brand new kind of story), but I guess I can discuss these replies.

Those are some good ideas you both gave; they would involve me more radically changing the story than I was originally imagining, but that's okay! That's why I asked the question. It's a lot of stuff I can mull over while finishing up my current story. Thanks!

 

[SnoringFrog]

Well, in general, I feel like inserting Pokemon into an original story is probably easier than removing them from a fanfic. Most fanfics probably use a traditional battle in them at some point, and the only non-pokemon analogue for something like that is something like dog/cockfights, which seem a lot worse than having creatures that don't really exist beating the crap out of each other for fun. Also, I don't think there's really a good way to reduce the various evil teams (the ones I know at least, haven't played Gen IV/V games) to something that's not just a blatant rip-off, so that would require major retweaking. Then there are various other pokemon elements that might be a bit of pain to convert as well, but I feel like the battles are probably the hardest thing to handle well.

 

[jireh the provider]

in all honesty, I am also doing it with my 2 latest stories. My original story, "Feli Chronicles: Vitandes" , and my PMD fanfic story "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Nomad Seekers".

I'd say that if you are converting your original story into something that you are very familiar with, it could be challenging but achievable. Depends on the story elements. If on more than 2, it is a whopping challenge. A fanfic to an original story would be easier than the other one.

On personal Examples:
a. My original story of "Feli Chronicles" was an inspiration of specific genres and video games:
-Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
-The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword
-Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon
-Kingdom Hearts 2

Since you are converting a fanfic/s into an original story, it will be easy since you don't have to get everything from that fanfic source. But another good thin to play experimentation would be mending 2 or more stories. A warning in advance, you need to analyze the overall experimentation altogether to get the right story concoction. If you read my chapter 3 of Feli chronicles here on serebiiforums, I played fanfic gameplay blending, mixing The mysterious story of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and the sacred symbolism of Legend of Zelda. Thus, I came up with a personally crafted symbol.

b. On my "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Nomad Seekers", I find it challenging if I'm going to convert some characters into the similar aesthetics and/or personalities of my Original story.