Is writing an original novel really more difficult than a fanfiction?

[LEGENDGOD1]

Original is like making a blueprint that you can innovate and edit without any worries since your making something out of nothing. The drawback is that while you can create from scratch, you don't have any guide nor direction as to where it goes or how it would function.

Fanfiction is basically just a blueprint with a guide, you can flesh out and even edit but you'll face some drawbacks such as running into mistakes that crumbles the entire structure or running into some problems if you get too creative with how you edit the blueprint.

nevertheless its still appealing and satisfying to write original story isn't it?

 

[Goodmann]

If using a main character feels too much like a straitjacket, consider the 'week after' -- the BBEG has been defeated at his or her lair. What happens to the rest of the minions? Are they regrouping in another city on the other side of the continent, where they were already getting entrenched? Who was second in command, was he/she even worse/psychotic? That's one side. Now, who will your hero or heroine be, how did they wind up fighting the local BBEG minions? Maybe a spellsword instead of a hammer hero, or even a squishy wizard type; build your own, using that world's system and/or magic predefined. Perhaps synch timelines so that your Second City fight is defeating another head of the hydra just as the original storyline happens (which would explain why the original hero never shows -- he's busy!).

 

[Paul__Michaels]

It depends.

If you are looking to grow an audience, then I think fanfics is the way to go. But take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I've never written a fanfic, so I can't 100% give you my accurate account of how it will go. But from all the fanfics I have read you can grab an existing audience quickly. But maintaining that audience is the challenge if you don't use or understand the existing source material. If you diverge from the characters too much without giving a good reason for them to, then they will leave you as quick as they came to see your work.

For the original story wise, it is far more easier to create. You get to make the rules, the characters, and the stakes as you see fit without running into pre-existing boundaries that the original creator set up. But creating an original story has the weakness of drawing an audience. The exceptions to this rule is if you follow a popular trend, or a little blind luck. Plus you need a good title and cover to draw people in. If you are creating your own work you need to have the mindset that this story is for you and you alone. If folk find it then that's a bonus.

Anyway, that's what happened to me. My first novel followed a popular trend and caught an audience on SH, Wattpad, and A little on RR (but I hate the owners and moderation teams on RR.) And I'm lucky to have this hobby pay for itself.

At the end of the day, I prefer creating original stories over fanfics, but I might do one in the future to pull in an established audience to check out my other works. It's a double edged sword.

Always, I don't know if this helped or not.

 

[JECU]

Writing an original novel is infinitely harder, it's not even a question you should ask. Moreover, apart from actually writing, you should also promote your own story, which certain fandoms have already done for you. Overall, writing fanfiction is an easy mode.

You're write about that... Plus when you write the original... You gotta design a characters, world/universe, abilities/skills, plot, Friends & Enemies plus you gotta check your word count and proof read your work. Let's not go to promote

Writing Fanfics is easy because you know the story and characters... Fanfic is just What if...?

 

[Valmond]

Imagine that you're a bard in ancient Greece. You, your goat, and even your three-year-old son know about The Iliad. The OG, the myth, the legend, and the stuff that gets repeated again and again and again. Hell, that's your job as a bard: to sing about Achilles' wrath for the 360th time. The crowds are bored. You’re bored. Even Achilles is probably bored, wherever he is, rolling his eyes in Elysium. But here’s the thing: you still sing it. Because how you sing it matters.

You embellish. You riff. You add a scandalous twist where Hector’s helmet falls off and reveals he's actually wearing socks with sandals. The crowd loves it. Not because it’s new, but because you made the old feel alive again. That’s fanfiction—dancing with a well-known partner, but not stepping on their feet.

Now, imagine instead that you don’t sing The Iliad. You sing your own epic. No Achilles, no Troy, no gods causing chaos to mess things up. Just your own heroes, your own world, your own rules. You’re not just a bard now. You’re Prometheus with a lyre. You’ve created something from scratch, and nobody cares because you're not great enough.

All ecause persuasion is survival. Invention—or creation—may be divine, but people won’t listen unless your tune is as catchy as the war in Troy. That’s the brutal beauty of originality: it demands excellence not just in creation, but in persuasion. You must persuade your audience into caring.

Yes, fanfiction is hard. You’re constrained by canon, burdened by the readers who would scream “He wouldn't say that” if you veer off the canon even just slightly without justification. At least you'll have readers from the preexisting base that are starved for the interpretation of the canon, in your way. The fanfiction exists to scratch an itch, and if it fails to do, it fails to matter.

Anyway, original work? That’s triple hard. No preexisting world. No myths. Just you, trying to convince a jaded crowd that your new tale is worth their ears. Unless you're great Muse, you'll not make your story so interesting that you'll overcome the triple effort needed besides of effort that is needed for creation. Creation isn't enough; persuasion is survival.

—> To emphasize something.

Preexisting Base:

This is what makes writing FanFiction a lot easier, you’re essentially riding off the back of another’s success.

This will always make it much easier to write, since a significant portion of the work has been done for you.

Building a base is the hardest thing to do, it took me about half a decade to get where I am.

On top of the base, you got the type of world, characters, etc, done for you.

This is another time consuming task that has been finished.

So, on top of the base. You don’t really need to draw them into the characters, world, etc.

With all that out of the way, you can just begin writing.

Original:

You are starting from nothing.

—> Characters—> None.
—> Setting—> None.
—> World—> None.
—> Themes—> None.
—> Structure—> None.
—> Goals—> None.
—> Traits—> None.
—> Powers—> None.
—> Audience—> None.

You get the point, you’re starting from nothing. You have to build from scratch, and even when you do build, you gotta do a lot of work to bring in an audience.

An audience just doesn’t fly in. You might get lucky and hit it, but that is very unlikely. It will more than likely be with countless hours of commitment. Possibly years before you build up a small steady following.

Then after all of that, if you somehow establish yourself. From there it should be a self reinforcing thing.

—————————————

This should answer a bit.

 

[Zagaroth]

Personally, I find original works easier to write. Aside from keeping in character, it is harder to keep track of how-the-world-works lore in someone else's setting. An AU caused by a new event is fine, but the mechanics of how the world works (magical interactions and such) should remain the same.

In an original work, I know the rules because I wrote them. I know the characters better, because they are my characters.

Once you have a jumping off point, writing original content is easy. At least, if you are a panster/grower.

 

[Iassus-Rudera]

I do not believe either is easier than the other, they require different skillsets. Having written both fanfiction and original works I believe I can weigh in on the issue far better than most.

Despite that, this thread is long enough that an established author, someone with marvelous prose and a number of people hoping to make this explanation easy have already covered the subject. So I will attempt to be brief.

Writing Fanfiction is not an exercise in creativity to the same extent that writing an original fiction might be. Neither is it particularly helpful should you want to learn how to market your own ideas. It is instead an exercise in research, 'development' and controlling a community. You have to know the source material intimately. I do not mean just the books. I mean the entire lore. There is always someone who writes theories, some obscure comment the author made in an interview or meet and greet. Not to mention all that is available for public perusal on Fandom. All of that must be at least hinted at in a competent Fanfiction. Then there are the systems. You have to extrapolate how you can interpret them given a dataset of a handful of interactions. That is not creative work(at least not to the same degree as making a magic system might be) it is something akin to statistics and probability. For example: if X power interacted with water explosively, would it do so with other liquids? If it does so, would that be a problem in their daily life? Did the author address this in the original work? If no, how could you address it in your own?

Then there is the original community of a work. Often you are writing a fanfiction because you did not like the direction a certain fiction took. Perhaps it was a waste of what you though had potential or perhaps it was simply a decision the author made that forced you to put the book down(Such as triggering content or a trope you despise.). Others will have the same opinion and you can find like minded individuals should you write a Fanfiction. Not everyone will agree however. You are not borrowing the author's entire fanbase, just the fanbase that agrees with you. Then, you are creating a community of like minded individuals from that commonality. It is akin to these threads. We all discuss because we are all authors, fanfictions are simply that discussion given form. It is more akin to an argument than a creative exercise.

Meanwhile writing original fiction is entirely based on your own creativity. No one has discussed the topic before(if you've done the correct research or have original ideas) so you do not have an established conversation. You are starting it. That conversation will be hidden among many others that are being had in any particular 'room'(be that ScribbleHub, RR or otherwise) Unless someone is particularly interested in the topic, it can feel rude to barge into another's conversation. You have no like minds here, you have to create them.

Then there are the technical aspects. Creating a world, magic system and characters requires time. Fanfictions also have this planning but it is more of an exercise in research. What characters already exist and how can they be portrayed? You have been given a perfect example to work with. As an original author, there are no examples bar tropes or anything in the public domain. You are working off a much more vague set of directions. For some(I believe they are called pantsers) this is easier. They prefer the lack of structure because that is how their creative ideas flow. For others however this can be incredibly difficult. If I asked you for your opinion on cheese you would likely be able to give me a straight answer almost immediately. IF I asked you what you would do to change cheese, you would have to think about what you know about cheese. If I were to ask you to make something similar to cheese without the dairy content, that would be a specialised field of expertise that you may not have access to in that moment. That may sound like it is more difficult but it is not. It just requires a different form of experience.

We are used to changing things to fit our perceptions of them and we do so every day. But to create something new, we have to force our brains to think in a way they are often not used to. This is the creation of original fiction. It is an underused skill that not many develop and that is why it seems more difficult. If you knew nothing about cheese you would not be able to tell me how you would change it so you would have to go out and buy cheese. That requires a different set of skills than creating a new type of cheese. I'm not sure if this metaphor has gone too far but I believe you get the point.

Fanfiction writers are akin to social extroverts in the writign world, making their decisions based on how they would affect others and learning about them in turn. Original writers are introverts(Or their equivalent) constantly within their own heads and listening less to the opinions of those around them, focusing on personal development.

If I am on a less creative day, I write fanfiction because my brain may not be creatively fueled that day but I still have my logical faculties. If I am creative, I write original fiction. I suggest you think similarly. Are you more of a structured person(Do you schedule your days? Perhaps you have a routine you follow or you prefer an organised room?) or are you a pantser(Someone who just goes with the flow. You put anything anywhere but always know where it is, your days seem to go the same but you never plan it that way. You're good at thinking on your feet and only plan minimally.) Or are you a bit of both like me. I recommend trying both and seeing which works for you. If you are good at fanfiction but struggling with original stories, I suggest you write more extensive outlines and see if that helps. If you struggle with fanfiction but find original fictions much easier then I recommend you look less into the lore. Just go with what feels right. Even if it's wrong and the story develops differently from how the original author intended, that's how some original fictions get started. Beginning with the intention of writing a fanfic can often create some interesting original novels.

I said I would be brief. I was not. This is unforutunately normal for me. Those of you who do not prefer long-winded text such as this I will write a TLDR:

Fanfiction - Not a creative exercise, focused more on research, controlling communities and interpretation. Better for structured thinkers.

ORiginal works - Very creatively intensive, largely improvised, better for those who think on their feet or pantsers.

REcommendation - Try both. If Fanfics are easier, try writing more extensive outlines. If originals are easier, don't worry about what the author already has in place too much. Take the idea you had and run with it. See where it leads and if it sparks a conversation.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

An original is more difficult. Anyone who says otherwise is coping.

 

[soupsabaw]

To me, writing my own stories is so much easier than writing fanfiction. Before I started writing my own stuff, I wrote fanfiction for probably a good decade. I would never publish any of it until I was certain enough that I had everyone written in character. One time, a friend asked me to write them a fanfic for a ship they liked. It wasn't one I knew, so I ended up reading other fics and reading their entire wiki page to get an idea. I didn't want to write them out of character. It's one of my biggest peeves.

When it came to writing my own stories, there was none of that. There was no hesitation, and there was no being scared I was doing something wrong. I'm the author and this is my story. I can do whatever I want. I can say whatever I want and no one can tell me otherwise. It's so fun and thrilling! Honestly, creating your own stories is such a power move. Writing fanfiction involves needing prior knowledge and dedication, meanwhile, writing your own stories doesn't. You create what the story is about and you manage your dedication.

That only applies to coming up with ideas and inspiration though. The action of writing, the style, your form and your tone---all of it I have a different opinion of.

I'm all for writing fanfiction. I would not be where I am in writing if it wasn't for it. It's a great way for young inspiring authors to practice writing. In my opinion, it's like using a stencil: there's already characters and a world existing, and all you have to do it drag your pencil along the lines and create something. You have characters, setting, and lore already created for you. As you throw them into alternate universes, you can slowly work on creating your own things by putting them in different universes and playing around with it. Then you can try writing your own stuff after you get the hang of it. Beautiful concept.

All in all, I think people should write fanfiction as a form of practice, but there's nothing wrong with writing your own work as a form of practice as well. I simply have a biased opinion toward it because it truly helped me develop as a writer. Your problem really isn't bad at all. Actually, it speaks more of your creativity. You want to be free, then be free! Don't follow what any other author has created. Write your heart out of your own stuff.

 

[Rezcore]

Fanfics are a hazard. You have a structured world with predefined rules to play with. They make great writing practice. But the rules begin to constrict your ability to explore.

 

[JayMark]

Anyway, original work? That’s triple hard. No preexisting world. No myths. Just you, trying to convince a jaded crowd that your new tale is worth their ears. Unless you're great Muse, you'll not make your story so interesting that you'll overcome the triple effort needed besides of effort that is needed for creation. Creation isn't enough; persuasion is survival.

This is the boulder that I choose to catch or be crushed by.

 

[TheMagicOfArt]

I am asking this question because I have tried multiple times to write fanfics, yet give up every single time.

The thing I am having the most trouble with is keeping the existing character’s personality and action consistent with their canon counterpart, and I can never seem to do a good job at it.

I always have the feeling that my interpretation of a character is flawed, and the original author has a different intent in mind that I am misunderstanding. In other words, I just feel like the character I am writing and their original character are two completely different person, at which point, I consider that a failure and give up.

Meanwhile, original characters doesn’t seem to have that problem? Since it’s a blank slate, I can fill it in however I want in a logical manner, without worrying about clashing with a different mind that is the original author.

the problem is more common than you think but we have to remember that what was the point of writing the fanfiction in the first place no one actually wants a exact copy of the original and if they wanted it they read the original so it does matter how you write the character as long it is not a 360 turn from the original but you can still do it because writing is subjective