Have you ever written non-canon stories/fanfic of your own published stories?
Why would I do that? (Baffled author is particularly baffled.)
To put your characters in different situations that donât fit the story youâre telling, and see what they do!
Iâm genuinely confused. I write stories. Thatâs my job. Itâs how I make my living. Itâs the only real way Iâve made a living for about 40 years. I do it well enough that people pay money for the stories I write, give me awards and buy the right to transform those stories into film or TV. If I want to write a story based on a published story, I write a story. If I want to put characters into different situations I do. If I write it, itâs canon because I wrote it. (These are my stories. If I write them, itâs canon. If I write a story that follows another story I wrote itâs not fanfic, itâs just fic.) Putting my characters in interesting situations is what I do for a living and for fun. Why would I want to not publish a story I wrote as by me, so that people who might like it could read it?
To translate from fanfic-writer-speak to published-author-speak, they're wondering if you've written anything like Marvel 1602 for worlds and characters that YOU'VE created. Your Marvel 1602 story is technically canon as it is a part of the canonically existing multiverse, but it has no bearing on the 'main' 616-verse. It is canon-adjacent, I suppose.
Basically, they're asking if you've ever come up with stories that are divergent from your original world(s). In other words, stories from your own world that have no effect on your main storyline.
Got it. You mean like the relationship between American Gods and Anansi Boys?
Iâve looked down the comments and reblogs and every second post seems to begin âI think what the original poster was saying wasâŚâ and then they all come up with something different.
I keep remembering Elvis Costello saying âpeople keep asking me what the songs mean. And I say, if I could have said it in different words, I would have written a different songâ.




















