Are there any franchises that you love that you refuse to write fanfiction for?

[Turtletrekker]

Clearly, we all love Star Trek enough to be writing our own stories set in this universe. I've even entertained ideas for Star Wars, Doctor Who, MCU, Bill and Ted and various crossovers thereof.

But are there any stories or franchise playgrounds that love that you refuse to play in for one reason or another? For me, it would be Lord of the Rings. I could not even imagine attempting to write in that world with my amateurish attempts at prose. Perhaps it's because it's a playground that has been largely associated with just one person (and his son) since the very beginning, but trying to add context or new characters into that world? The world created by the man who many consider the greatest author of the 20th century? I wouldn't even know where to begin.

That said, conversely enough, I admire the attempts at expanding that universe (Hobbit expansion, Rings of Power, War of the Rohirrum) that we've seen so far, but I think my reasons for not wanting to touch that universe play into why these attempts haven't really hit home for me.

Anyone else? Does anyone else have a universe that they adore beyond words but wouldn't attempt writing in with a 10-ft pole?

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Lord Of The Rings is a great example for me as well. I'm only a casual fan and I don't want to have the fandom come at me with pitchforks for getting something wrong, lol. Not to mention how endless research would be. That being said, I did once write a Trek AU where Jean-Luc is an Uruk-Hai, but it was just a ficlet and there wasn't much chance of getting any deeper lore wrong.

Ironically I also would never write Dallas fanfic even though I adore the show (it's my favorite show of all time). But all those Texas nuances? Having to ponder whether to write JR with or without his legendary Texas drawl? Those questions are enough for me to stay away from writing fic. (Not to mention the fact that I'm a m/m fic writer and Dallas doesn't exactly have a lot of m/m potential, sadly.)

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I don't think I've refused to write for something, per se, I just haven't gotten sufficiently inspired. When I went to see Puss In Boots:The Last Wish in theaters, I wrote a bunch of short fics inspired by it, but not since. That's what happens for me sometimes; a flurry of ideas and then I leave it.

 

[Deks]

I don't think 'love' for any franchise would stop a person from writing fanfiction about.

I tend to write about the stuff I think I might be able to add to, and if there's sufficiently good reason for me to doing so.

Otherwise, no franchise is really off the table.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I don't think there are any limits.
As long as you love said franchise enough & have passion for writing, somebody out there will have written fan fiction for it.

 

[CaptainCalvinCat]

Ironically I also would never write Dallas fanfic even though I adore the show (it's my favorite show of all time). But all those Texas nuances? Having to ponder whether to write JR with or without his legendary Texas drawl? Those questions are enough for me to stay away from writing fic. (Not to mention the fact that I'm a m/m fic writer and Dallas doesn't exactly have a lot of m/m potential, sadly.)

Writing the texas drawl could be difficult - concerning the M/M-potential... well, I was curious and had a look over at Ao3 and... there are indeed whopping 3 fanfictions, that might be of interest for you. Cliff Barnes / Bobby or Cliff Barnes / J.R.

 

[Trek Writers Room]

For me, the franchise is the setting, but the character is the real reason to write.

As a general rule, I could write in any corner of Star Trek that I genuinely enjoy, whether that is TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, or beyond. But if I am being honest, I am usually drawn less by the banner of the series and more by the people who inhabit it. The franchise gives us the world, the history, the technology, and the moral framework; the characters are what make it matter.

That is why I tend to write for characters first. A strong character can carry meaning across eras, ships, and even very different narrative structures. Someone like Janeway is a good example. She is such a fully realized figure—intelligent, driven, compassionate, disciplined, and capable of making hard choices under impossible circumstances—that she remains compelling even outside the immediate framework of Voyager. If there were a reason to place her into a TNG-era story, or even into one of my own unrelated works, I would not resist that at all. The interest, for me, would be in how her voice, values, and command presence would reshape the story around her.

That is one of Star Trek’s great strengths as a canon: the universe is rich, but it is the characters who give that universe emotional gravity. Picard brings moral clarity, Sisko brings conviction, Janeway brings resolve, Spock brings intellect under tension, and so on. Those qualities are not confined only to the episodes in which they originated. A well-built character can travel, adapt, and still remain unmistakably themselves.

So while I appreciate franchise continuity, setting, and canon, my real loyalty is to character. If the character is strong enough, I can follow them almost anywhere. In that sense, I do not write primarily for the franchise. I write for the person inside it.

 

[DarKush]

I would say no to the question for me. It's just a matter of devoting the time and attention, or a lack of ideas when it comes to other franchises I'm into. The first fan fic I ever wrote was a Batman story years ago, and I've entertained ideas for Star Wars but just haven't committed to them.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

I only fanfic Star Trek. I'm not really interested in fanfic for other franchises. Not so strong as refuse, just not remotely interested.

That said, with the artificial planet of Cun Ling (Episode 13 of Star Trek Hunter), I shoehorned several other franchises into my trekverse not as crossovers, but as fantasy environments built by fictional fans of those franchises who live within my trekverse. So among the 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling, I wrote stories occurring in the cities of Numinor, Pern, Ba Sing Se, and, of course, Trantor.

• There were, of course, no dragons in the City of Pern. No one wanted mechanical dragons flying around and attempts to breed such creatures started out as a failure and ended up as a felony.
• There are no earthbenders in Ba Sing Se, other than statues depicting them.
• Attempts to recruit vulcans to stand in for elves in Numinor were pretty much a failure, but trills were willing to step in. To avoid offending vulcans, they refused to wear prosthetic ears...

Thanks!! rbs