Is it fanfiction without an existing cast and setting?

[starbreaker]

I was going to blog about this, but I thought it might be a worthwhile forum topic instead. What do you call work that doesn't use the cast and setting of an existing work, but was inspired by that work and heavily influenced by it? Is it still fanfiction, or just pastiche?

[Memory]

Even if it's dull or repetitive I would still call it an original work, in the end nothing is new under the sun and a lot of histories share similar concepts, its foolish to think that one can create something 100% original.

As an example, I love Tolkien's writings but it hardly has any ground-breaking and innovative concepts but it still is an excellent body of work. The same concept and plot can be presented in many different forms and narratives.

[Bede]

I would just call that "regular art". Nothing in all of artistic history is original, after all! For example, my OCs' story is inspired by a lot of things (Good Omens, Nomnomnami's visual novels, Pinky and Pepper Forever, etc) but it's still my own.

I think that if there is an active effort to copy or imitate a singular work, then 'pastiche' would be a good word for it, though.

[grovyle]

Yeah same, I don't know what I'd call it but I'd consider it original fiction. If it's close enough to the source it can be a retelling (think sticking with the themes and story for the most part, and overall having one of your characters as a stand-in for one of its characters), but I don't think that's what you're talking about. But yeah nothing original exists anywhere and that's good and I love disecting stories when I know what inspired them because you can see the threads tying the two together and that's SO satisfying.

[strawberry]

i love this question. it's very much so a "grandfathers axe" thing to me - if you had your grandfathers ax, replaced the head of the axe, and then eventually replace the handle of the axe, is it still your grandfathers ax? if you remove the original inspiration and change around the settings and characters, is it still a fanfiction? i never read it so i don't know how accurate this is, but i remember hearing that 50 Shades of Grey series was originally a twilight fanfiction that the author published using different names.

I love disecting stories when I know what inspired them because you can see the threads tying the two together and that's SO satisfying.

oh my god, isn't it just the best? it's so beautiful to piece everything together and see the expansion of art that happens when two or more ideas and inspirations combine! that's what art is all about to me, the creations that happen when someone is inspired by another's creation. it never ends, and it's so beautiful!

[bugholder's epiphany]

I dunno if you'd call it fanfiction, but I can see it at minimum being considered a tribute, at most being considered a work heavily inspired by the love of the original thing. (Guess that's just a Pastiche with extra steps lol but anyway)

There's a post i recall seeing on cohost talking about House Of Leaves and myhouse.wad, the latter of which was heavily inspired by the former. I think that's relevant here, methinks:
https://cohost.org/highimpactsex/post/1610077-preliminary-thoughts

[Memory]

It's not fanfiction, it's just an original piece of writing inspired by something else.