Imagine for a moment that you find yourself in the possession of a very strange device.

It resembles an ordinary laptop computer, but upon activating only displays several small windows to be filled with text. These include such things as Source, Language, Length, Points of Departure and several others.

You eventually realize that this device is a machine used for generating fanfiction.

For example, you could choose the Source as "Harry Potter Series", the Language as English and in the Points of Departure you could write as many changes as you'd want.

Such as: "Harry is sorted to Slytherin" or "Voldemort is female" or "Neville is the Boy-Who-Lived".

When all the needed windows are filled out, the button "Write" would be pressed and the device would magically create a complete and extremely well written story.

Ignoring for a moment the dilemma that this story would not be in fact created by you, what things would you type in?

How would you use this device knowing that it cannot create original settings and only creates fanfiction even if it is of high quality?

Myself, I would at first try to see the results of generating the more common PODs such as Time Travel, Slytherin Harry or Harry in Durmstrang before moving on to more detailed and complicated scenarios. I'd probably try to paste in some of the Plot Bunnies I've created just to see what comes out.

Basically, what this thread amounts to is me asking: "If you could magically generate any fanfiction you want, without limits, what would it be?"

 

Harry/Draco, Harry/Snape and Harry/Tom.

There aren't enough fics like that.

 

I don't see how this is much different from the plot bunny thread, tbh.

 

In all seriousness I would probably put in concepts I've been dying to see, and plot bunnies.

A nBSG/Ghost in the Shell crossover for example.

 

If it's universally extremely well written, no matter what is put in, I'd go for the single most outlandish piece of writing I could imagine. Something like...

Hermaphrodite!Voldemort/Moody High School crossover with Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Notable scenes must include an imaginary bunny rabbit named Derek and an inflatable, orange, boomerang that has freeze rays attached. The overall theme of the story would be an allegory relating to the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.

 

Plot Bunnies Doc

I have a few ideas not in that Doc, but that's most of them.

 

Ron Weasley is the CHIMP-Who-Lived. I'd like to see an extremely well written story of that.

 

A principally canon-compliant Tom Riddle backstory/origins fic, exploring the world of Grindelwald and Voldemort in greater detail/depth. Followed quickly by something similar for Dumbledore. Those are the areas I don't think have been explored well in fan fiction.

 

Interesting question. I've just recently started writing fanfiction, so usually when I get an idea, I file it away as something I'd like to potentially write someday - that is, I wouldn't want to give up my ideas to some machine, I want to write them myself.

However, I did have one idea that I know I'll never have the time/dedication for, and seems perfect for this idea of "snap your fingers and instantly generate a piece of long, well-written fanfiction."

So, bear with me:

Harry Potter / The Wheel of Time crossover.

The basic idea would be that, by combining the worlds, you'd take the best literary parts of each. Wheel of Time has an incredibly rich setting and plot, but some weak characters and cringe-worthy romance/gender relations. Harry Potter has a story that's very compelling in the moment, but as many fics have pointed out, doesn't hang together all that well upon detailed inspection. It also has very strong characters.

The setup would be that several HP characters, post-DH, find a Portal Stone and activate it accidentally and Something Goes Wrong, etc. They "wake up" in the bodies of WoT characters. In the beginning (you'd start off at the beginning of Eye of the World), they act and think like the WoT characters, but they keep having dreams/flashbacks of "past lives" (their HP characters), remembering each other, slowly coming to realize that something's going on.

They'd have to find each other (some of them would be spread out quite a lot), figure out the landscape, and possibly solve that whole Dark One problem. They wouldn't be able to use magic straight off, but the White Tower has this collection of ter'angreal, and some of them happen to be quite wandlike...

The character swaps would be as follows:

Rand al'Thor - Harry Potter
Perrin Aybara - Ron Weasley
Egwene al'Vere - Hermione Granger

(Mat remains Mat, because he's too awesome to replace. The first arc of the book would be those three fleeing the Two Rivers with Moiraine, slowly remembering who they are, keeping that information to themselves, trying to find the others, figure out if they can find some wands, figure out why they're being chased, etc.)

Min Farshaw - Luna Lovegood

(their first stop, Baerlon, nets them one more companion. Fans of "Seer Luna" rejoice; now she's got some actual powers to back that up. Min's personality goes from fiery to flighty.)

Elayne Trakand - Ginny Weasley
Galad Damodred - Neville Longbottom

(their next stop, Caemlyn, completes the party. Ginny slips perfectly into her role as a sarcastic, temperamental, spoiled princess. Neville has some problems, as Galad is stiff and incredibly fond of rules, but he'll take the high-octane swordsmanship and the fact that he's the most handsome man on the planet. [Also, side plot: Neville Longbottom gets ALL THE WOMEN])

Now let's throw a few curveballs at Our Heroes:

Mazrim Taim - Draco Malfoy
Alviarin - Rita Skeeter (this one is a bit out of left field, but considering Alviarin is a high-ranking Black sister in the Tower, and considering how much gossip, rumors, and insinuations affect the political landscape of the tower, she could cause some pretty huge problems.)
Mattin Stepaneos, King of Illian - Vernon Dursley (ruh-roh)

(Huge stumbling blocks for Our Heroes assuming these three start upsetting the apple cart.)

And, just because of my own personal preferences, I'll throw in one more, because, dammit, I want to see some actual plausible non-retarded romance in WoT:

Berelain sur Paendrag Tanreal - Fleur Delacour

Anyway, that's the idea. If I could push a button and get a well-written version of this, I'd do it. It's too grand in scope for me to attempt myself, and you'd have to have Rowling's knack for characterization and Jordan's head for juggling multiple plot threads to pull this off. And even if you were a minimalist about it and had a good editor, I can't see this ending up being less than 2 million words.

I would totally read all 2 million of them, though.

 

So Ron as the Unseen University's Librarian?

 

The ideas are all kinds of awesome, but...

All of my wat

 

It's a right crime that the White Wizard was not continued. It had such promise and Voldemort-centered stories rarely do so it would be a gem.

And I haven't even read the Dresden series and yet I was immediately drawn in to the plot.

 

I loved that one. Book!Hermione / diary!Riddle is one of the more original HP ideas I've ever heard. You could go all kinds of places with it. There are ways to make it serious and dark, and there are ways to make it a completely ridiculous crackfic.

 

I am a fan fiction machine.
...too bad I'm a broken one. :facepalm

Orangutan, naturally.


If I had such a machine, I'd probably start off with a story you're not going to see (done well, or at all) outside this scenario.

lol, Harry Potter/Daria crossover.

 

A Discworld/Harry Potter crossover?

...I would read that.

 

For a HP fic, I'd try to use mainly broad strokes rather than micromanaging the details. Hmm, how about a fic that spans all seven books which features a female Harry who is morally grey and if she has a romance it doesn't come out of nowhere in book six and get zero development.

Otherwise, I'd use it on fandoms that have less stories than HP. The Legend of Dragoon, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Game of Thrones: Not So Dark Edition all sound like fandoms I'd like to create some stories for.

 

It would be a crossover epic tale of fate and destiny reaching through time and different lifes, starting with the Elder Things descending to Earth, through adventures of Conan, Harry Potter and finally to the Ninth World of Numenera and Heat Death of Universe. All the time dealing with Nyarlathoteps Final Gambit and his plans for this universe and the one to come.

Spoiler

After Heat Death of Universe Nyarlathotep tosses all other Cthulhu Mythos critters beyond the Creation, creates the Outer Gates and sets himself as the Almighty. Dresden Files roll in.

 

I'd leave all the fields apart from the source, language as blank. I'd be curious to see if it improves the source material.

 

Crossover: All

Yes, that's right. A crossover with every single piece of literature, film and TV in history. All in one fic.

 

I think the laptop would explode trying to make that good.