Stories that involve a new kid/group of kids (either original or from a completely different series) coming to Carrie's school and befriending her are fairly common. These new kids usually help her with her growing psychic powers and manage to prevent or limit the Prom Massacre as a result.
Heck, just stories that give Carrie a happy ending are popular to write.
Carrie living at the end is a popular plot in fanfiction, usually with Sue helping her through her trauma post prom. Some even take it a step further and make it so she never kills anyone and instead turns to Sue for comfort.
Sue taking Carrie to prom instead of Tommy is very popular in fanfiction, especially Sue/Carrie romance stories.
Holmes meets Famous Historical Figure, or becomes involved in a historical event/situation which the author has a particular interest in so they can infodump all their obsessive knowledge onto the reader. "Holmes tackles the Jack the Ripper case", in particular, has been done several times, to the point where people unfamiliar with the original books might think it was a real Sherlock Holmes story.
Many, many Holmes fanfics, pastiches and other derivative works start with either a note saying the manuscript was recently discovered locked in an old trunk or cupboard, or a foreword from Watson explaining that the case couldn’t be made public until now. These setups are used in both amateur and professional stories, and by both fans and outsiders to the canon. The second is even found in The House of Silk, a novel commissioned by the Conan Doyle Estate!
Its fandom is really into Gender Bender, particularly of Harry, in an attempt to offset- or at least explore- his sexist tendencies in the early days of the series. (Pairing Female!Harry with Marcone is optional but frequently done, as Harry is heterosexual in canon.)
A massive trend is the Sex-Kitten!Winter-Knight!Harry, taking place in some amorphous time after Harry's become the Winter Knight. They, similarly, offset or explore Harry's canon attitudes on sex (i.e., not having sex with a new partner while still trying to save an old one, not having sex with monsters trying to eat or manipulate you, and not having sex with minors), which parts of the fandom see as repressed or, at times misogynistic.
Some fics ignore the end of Changes and subsequently "Ghost Story". This is less due to dislike of the events therein, and more about the fact that Changes basically obliterated the Status Quo, so it's hard to tell where the story is going to go after Ghost Story.
The premise of the series — genetically-engineered bird people on the run from a Nebulous Evil Organization — has become popular AU fodder, usually in the form of replacing the Flock and Itex/the School with the respective heroes and villains of a different series.
"Girl in the Glade" is a common genre in this fandom. A female OC is sent to Group A's Glade, even though canon clearly states that all WICKED's female subjects apart from Teresa were assigned to Group B and would have been sent to that Group's Glade.
Fics in which Newt is revealed to have survived after Thomas shot him also show up from time to time. These stories often involve him being cured of the Flare.
Half-blood goes to camp. Half-blood gets amazing powers. Half-blood saves world. Simmer for five minutes. Serves thousands.
Probably lifted straight from other fandoms, the demigods/Olympians read through any of the book series or watch the movie. Normally involves a contrived setup.
Annabeth goes to Goode High stories are a subgenre of another increasingly prevalent subgenre of High School AU. The latter of which goes through great pains to fiddle with the ages of everyone so it isn't as creepy when normally-10-year-old Nico is in love with 15-but-actually-22-or-so Thalia.
Crossovers with the The Kane Chronicles are quite common as well, even before it became a canon thing.
Another common plot is having Percy inexplicably kicked out of/leaving camp for any number of reasons, then joining Chaos for revenge.
Several fics write the stories of demigod children whose godly parent isn't part of the Olympian gods. What would a child of Nemesis, goddess of revenge, be like? A child of Hypnos, god of sleep and dreams? A child of Hecate, goddess of magic? It helps that the sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus does focus more on the other gods and shows what exactly they and their kids are capable of.
Fics that focus on demigods that should otherwise not exist (Also known as 'Children of Artemis, Hera, or Hestia') are not hard to find. Of them Children of Artemis fics are the most common (likely a result of her higher popularity and quite possibly fans having an idea of what sort of powers such a demigod would have), of which Broken Bow is the most famous and highly regarded.
Writers for the fandom, specifically Maedhros/Fingon shippers, are practically obligated to write hurt/comfort fic based on Fingon's rescue of Maedhros from Thangorodrim. In all fairness, it's pretty much the last moment in the book for them which isn't utterly tragic.
Stories set during the years when Maedhros was Lord of Himring before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears are very common, usually involving a visit by Fingon on political business.
If you happen to be a fanfic writer for The Children of Húrin, it's almost obligatory to compose a Beleg/Túrin hurt/comfort fic at some point in your career. Somewhat justified, though, with canon lines like this one:
Then at the egging of Androg they left Beleg tied to a tree without food or water... but he said no more to them. When two days and nights had passed in this way they had grown angry and fearful, and most were now ready to slay the Elf. As night drew down they were all gathered about him, and Ulrad brought a brand... but at that moment Túrin returned... and he saw the haggard face of Beleg in the light of the brand. Then he was stricken as with a shaft, and tears long unshed filled his eyes... "Beleg, Beleg!", he cried... at once he cut the bonds from his friend, and Beleg fell forward into his arms... At first he gave heed only to Beleg, and tended him with what skill he had.
Fics featuring Faramir or Legolas being abused by their respective fathers are ridiculously common.
Highly popular (so popular that it's lampshaded in nearly every fic involving it) are the 'hunting trip gone wrong' fics. Usually they involve a younger Aragorn and Legolas (who are generally accepted to have known each other before the Council of Elrond), with occasionally Elrohir and Elladan added in, going on some hunting trip or another, being attacked by orcs/spiders/assassins/humans/wolves/anything that can do anybody harm, and being incapacitated enough to not be able to return to Rivendell in a timely fashion. Not that all of these fics are bad by any means, most are actually quite well written, but they do tend to be highly common.
Legomances were nearly ubiquitous in the early/mid 2000s, where Legolas was paired with an original female character (or sometimes an out-of-character Éowyn or Arwen). Arranged marriages were a common plot point, and the girl was sometimes - though not always - a Tenth Walker. She's almost always shown as being a good fighter regardless of her actual role in society, was always an elf, and often got into a Slap-Slap-Kiss style of relationship with Legolas before actually falling in love.
Aragorn/Legolas stories that either vilified or completely ignored Arwen were incredibly popular and can still be found on fanfiction sites. Often this involved MPreg or dealing with the prejudices of their families.
Many fanfics are Patchwork Fics, using characterizations of characters from the books in a movie setting, or characters from the movies in a book setting.
Many, many fics find a way for Thorin, Fili, and Kili to surive the final battle. Those that don't often involve reunions in Valinor or reincarnation to bring the characters and their love interests back together.
A subset of these fics then has The Hobbit cast having to deal with the One Ring before or along with the LotR characters and events.
Fics with characters from another fandom put in Lyra's world of the trilogy, not necessarily involving any characters from the trilogy, so that the author can demonstrate what shapes they think the characters' daemons would be, overlooking the fact that traveling to that dimension will not necessarily cause your daemon to manifest, but being born there will, so it only works as a whole-cloth Alternate Universe. Not the same as Common Crossover, because any fandom can be plugged into this scenario.
The fandom itself is full of Fix Fics about getting Lyra and Will back together again some years after their parting, often through some fourth magical item that the story is named after.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe fics will generally either have a fifth member, always a girl, joining the original Pevensies or else meeting them once they arrive, where she aids or betrays them regarding the White Witch and Aslan, or else she meets Peter or Edmund during the Golden Age. She may be a fifth sibling, a cousin, a friend, or even a transplant from the 21st century, but it's always a girl.
There is also more than enough Susan/Caspian and Lucy/Caspian Shipping to fill two fleets.
Common plot is for Keladry of Mindelan (who became the first female knight after Alanna) to be kicked out after her probation year as a page and follows her life from there.
It has an awful lot of 'Random OC who may or may not be a Self-Insert ends up getting reaped'. Some better writers will play with this by not having the character actually win, but as there are only two possible plot permutations the entire thing ends up horrifically overused.
There's plenty of Alternate Universe Fics that ask "What if Rue/Thresh/Cato/Clove/Foxface/Marvel/Glimmer/Boy From District 7/etc. had won?" and explore the rest of the trilogy from that character's point of view (or take the events post 74th Hunger Games in a completely different direction).
There's the "Submit-Your-Own-Tribute" story, in which an author rounds up 24 characters submitted by other THG fans and writes them into the Games.
"Seventy-five Victors" fics also show up from time to time. These involve the author writing seventy-five one-shots, one for each victor, in chronological order from the First to the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. note The Seventy-fourth Games had two victors. The Seventy-fifth Games were cut short with six tributes still alive, but none of them were declared victor. The history of the Hunger Games is often used as a framing device for these fics.
The Quarter Quells note one-off rule changes introduced every twenty-five Hunger Games form the basis for a number of fics. These come in four types: fics about the unnamed victor of the Twenty-fifth Games, fics about Haymitch's experiences in the Fiftieth Games, fics in which the twist in the Seventy-fifth Games differs from canon, and fics set in a version of Panem where the Games (and therefore the Quells) have continued past the Seventy-fifth Games.
A lot of Darkest Powers fanfiction features werewolf Derek and necromancer Chloe realizing that they are mates. In canon, the only mention of them being mates was made by Liam, who was taunting them. Also, in the main series, the werewolves do have mates... but it's nothing as huge, compelling, or life-changing as it's often made out to be in DP fanfics. Rather, the only time it's treated as a somewhat big thing is in Personal Demon, when Karl attempts to explain to Hope that the reason he left her is because he was terrified by how completely attracted to her he was (and still is).
Goosebumps: Slappy becomes human and ends up having sex with his current owner.
A common plot in this fandom is "The Socials jump a random female OC, leaving her beaten and unconscious in the vacant lot. One of the greasers finds the girl, takes her to the Curtis household to heal her, falls in love with her, drama ensues."
The gender-flipped version of the previous plot is also prevalent, "One of the greasers is badly beaten after a rumble and a random female OC finds them and nurses them back to health."
You have fics where a girl helps give Darry a life outside of work/Help Sodapop get over Sandy/Help Ponyboy find love after Cherry Valance/becoming a nurturing mother figure for Johnny/"tame" Dally and lead him to the path of good citizenship/Keep Two-Bit in a steady relationship/Make Steve feel like a better person inside.
Fics that go "What if the Curtis' had a sister? How would that have affected the book?"
Girls from the future getting transported into the past (May or may not involve getting sucked into the book/the movie) or the boys getting transported in the future.
A Soc girl who is nicer, prettier, and more understanding to greasers than Cherry, who thinks the feud between socs and greasers is pointless, and single-handedly brings down the segregation between the two classes.
The fandom is extremely fond of modern AU fics, generally focused on Les Amis as some sort of political activist group, and often turning the ridiculous amounts of Ho Yay in the source material into canon relationships (Enjolras/Grantaire being by far the most popular, followed by Jehan/Courfeyrac).
Post-Barricade fics dealing with the survival of one or more of les Amis (besides Marius) are common in non-modern fics as well. Most fics for the fandom also focus on les Amis to the exclusion of the older characters, and stories involving Fantine, Valjean, or Javert that don't involve the latter two in a relationship are extremely rare.
Fics that spare Eponine are very common, and typically take two forms: either she's paired with Marius, sometimes but not always with a corresponding bitchification for Cosette, or she platonically moves in with Marius and Cosette and is paired with one of Les Amis who also survived. These fics also have a tendency to kill off Eponine's much less important sister Azelma instead of her.
There is a lot of (usually Valjean/Javert) fic where Javert survives his suicide attempt (often because Valjean prevents it or pulls him out of the river) and then has to figure out how to live with his change of heart/worldview instead.
Modern AU writers are fond of making Cosette and Enjolras into siblings. It's especially popular in Valjean/Javert fics, probably because the idea of Javert acting as a father figure to Enjolras is hilarious.
Many fanfics have Cersei give birth to one of Robert's children (in canon she aborted the only pregnancy from him). Said child ends up becoming all the good that is missing from Joffrey - and either fights his brother for the throne (which Robert bequeaths to him instead of Joffrey) or ends up inheriting the crown when Joffrey dies. This non-existent character even has their own nickname, "The Black Prince/ss," to contrast with their siblings' golden coloring. As it's in reference to their hair color and they'll typically be kindhearted, both Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good are in full effect.
Popular are fics where Sandor and Sansa aren't separated during the Battle of Blackwater. Either he chooses to stay or Sansa flees from King's Landing with him.
There's marriage law, Westerosi style: Joffrey (usually it's Joffrey because he doesn't need it to make sense) orders Sandor to marry Sansa. The fanfic where it doesn'tworkout has yet to be written.
A fanfic describing the Babies Ever After for Sandor and Sansa? There’s a good chance it also includes a wooden knight that all the kids share.
Wedding bed deadline for Tyrion and Sansa. As in, "get her with child by the end of this month/week/day". Either Tyrion does it and it’s a Tyrion/Sansa fanfic, or he annuls the marriage and Jaime or Tywin steps in.
AUs where Robb married either Margaery Tyrell, Roslin Frey, or an OC instead of Jeyne Westerling.
Common plot is 'houseswap' AUs, where characters are born into houses other than their canon ones. Sometimes this is a fullblown 'for want of a nail' scenario, sometimes it just makes shipping easier.
There are many fics detailing Robert's Rebellion, the events leading up to it, and/or the immediate aftermath.
A very popular plot idea is that the Others succeed in bringing the Long Night and destroying the world, so certain characters (usually one or more of the Starks, though other major characters are sometimes used) are sent back in time by the Old Gods/the Three Eyed Raven/the Lord of Light/etc in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
Fans are frequently willing to fix all or at least part of the Red Wedding, usually to spare various characters. Other common themes seem to be speeding up Daenerys' storyline, giving Joffrey a different and more satisfying death, and having the dragons be more tame than they act in canon.
There are three common 'better North' fandom plots for making the North in a better place than it started in canon. Most common to least there is sparing Domeric Bolton from his canon death (which gives the Boltons a heir who is not Ramsay by desperation, offers Sansa a Northern match, and keeps Roose playing nice for the marriage possibilities), rebuilding Moat Cailin, and building a canal across the North (usually with an accompanying recreation of a Northern Fleet). There are less common tropes to this concept and sometimes there will be subversions (at times Domeric won't be the perfect gentleman that Roose and Barbery speak of in canon, for example), but in general if the North is in a more solid place than in canon you can expect to see at least two of these plots in place.
There are quite a lot of fics out there in which the Data Integration Thought Entity decides to punish Yuki for gaining emotions by deleting her — never mind that the Entity would gain nothing from this and it knows exactly what the consequences would be for itself if it tried — in order for Kyon to go berserk, tell Haruhi that he is John Smith and the other Brigade members are aliens, time travelers and espers, so that Haruhi can become aware of her Reality Warper powers so that the two of them can go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in Showy Invincible Hero fashion, rescuing Yuki along the way. If the fanfic writer happens to ship Kyon/Yuki, then it is practically obligatory for them to use this plot at least once, as it is a popular way to get Haruhi out of the picture without resorting to Die for Our Ship.
After Disappearance, it was not all that uncommon to see some fanfics about what life had been like had Kyon stayed in the world Yuki had made to give everyone a normal life. This will almost always involve Kyon/Yuki in some way, shape, or form. The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is basically an official version of this kind of plot.
In the Japaneseerotic doujinshi community, stories about Haruhi suddenly deciding to make an AV staring the club members themselves are rather popular, as shown in this image◊.
There are a number of Looking for Alaska fics in which, as Miles theorizes in-universe, the title character's death turns out to be her latest and most intricate prank.
Bridge to Terabithia fandom has an entire fandom-specific genre, LDD, short for "Leslie Doesn't Die." While over half the fics (including the vast majority of multi-chapter stories) in this fandom are of this genre, the exact reason Leslie doesn't die varies from simply being rescued to faking her death to her body never being found (easy to do, as neither Jess nor the reader/viewer ever sees it) to Terabithia being Real After All and being used to restore her by magic. It's also an unwritten rule that Leslie would grow up mindblowingly gorgeous, probably inspired by AnnaSophia Robb, who played her in The Film of the Book, doing just that.
Worm is one of the most popular subjects for fanfiction on certain websites, to the point where Space Battles has an entire forum exclusively for it. However, it also has a reputation as one of the most Grimdark stories in fiction (deserved or not) and many accuse it of Too Bleak, Stopped Caring. As a result, one will find that nearly all of these include one or (almost as frequently) both of the following elements: giving Taylor a different, usually-but-not-always more traditionally heroic, powerset (referred to as alt-power fics) and attempts at making the infamously Crapsack WorldLighter and Softer; the latter usually as a result of the former.
Said stories also rarely have her joining the Undersiders as in canon, with her either joining the Wards or becoming an independent hero/villain/vigilante being the most common (though Lisa at least usually manages to become a major character anyway).
Amy Dallon/Panacea also tends to receive a lot of Adaptational Heroism from fanfic authors, toning down or outright removing her darker traits, such as her Black-and-White Insanity and Stalker with a Crush feelings towards her foster-sister. Whether you feel this reaches Draco in Leather Pants territory depends greatly on how you feel about her canon counterpart.
Villains who were an Invincible Villain or Karma Houdini in canon (and there are many), such as Heartbreaker or the E88 are frequent targets for Break the Haughty, and usually first on the chopping block.
The in-universe web forum PHO is often given multiple interludes (in canon it only had one full interlude in the main story), and is often used as a Greek Chorus that provides running commentary on the plot.
Crossover fics are also extremely commonly blended with the other two: i.e. giving Taylor a powerset from a different fictional universe. Ring-Maker, A Skittering Heart and Worm: More Than Meets the Eye are all examples of this.
Many fanfics give the main character a different set of powers. This is often used as an Obvious Crossover Method.
What if Taylor joined the Wards?
After the canon story ends, Taylor tries to settle down and live a normal life, only for epic adventures to drag her back into vigilantism. These stories usually involve Taylor reclaiming her old powers or somehow getting new ones.
Power-swaps are common enough in superhero fanfic, but with Word of God that a given Shard will grant different powers to different people, Shard-swaps have become this fandom's take on that. Or even just giving a character different powers from their canon shard by changing their trigger event.
There's an entire cottage industry of fics about Charlie repeating the Golden Ticket contest decades after taking over the factory.
Another popular plot sees Grandpa Joe get replaced by a female relative of Charlie (usually his older sister) as the adult who takes Charlie to the chocolate factory; she and Willy Wonka promptly fall in love. The majority of these fanfics are specifically of the 2005 movie version, where Wonka is played by resident Mr. FanserviceJohnny Depp. However, there are plenty of these that are based off of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. In these fics, it's also common to have the female protagonist to be a honorary family member or an aunt, so as to lessen the age gap between her and Wilder's Wonka.
A common staple of the fics of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory will be that Bill, the owner of the candy shop Charlie buys the Wonka bar from, is longtime friends with Wonka. It's also incredibly common that in fics where a female relative of Charlie joins him on the tour, she works for Bill at the candy shop.
It's very common, especially in fics based on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, to call out Grandpa Joe for being a bad influence on Charlie.
Fan works about The Divine Comedy generally involve creating a new canto where Dante and Virgil enter a new circle to meet modern figures guilty of sins Dante overlooked. Examples include "Canto 16.5"'s take on indifference, the condemnation of pretentiousness found in "A New Bolgia," and the shocking contents of "The Missing Canto."
A common plot point in Alternate Universe Fics is Tom being freed partway through the series and helping the Animorphs.
Many fics envisioned what would happen if Crayak restored David's morphing power, just as Ellimist had done for Tobias. Notably, these cropped up before #48 The Return, and continued since that book hinted at an alliance between the two but never actually followed through.
A Christmas Carol fanfics tend to revolve around freeing Jacob Marley of his chains or setting Scrooge up with Belle after his reformation, usually by having her husband die. Other common fics have Scrooge/Marley as a pairing, in life or after death.
The fandom has an enormous count of stories about Elizabeth accepting Darcy’s first proposal, usually because (1) he suddenly kisses her after the proposal (usually in fanfics based on the 2005 film where it almost happens) and she forgets all reason, (2), sometimes overlapping with (1), they're caught in what looks like a compromising position and her reputation will be Defiled Forever if she doesn't marry him, or (3) the Bennets’ financial situation is even more dire than in canon (with, for instance, Mr. Bennet being dangerously ill), and Elizabeth decides to save her family from poverty.
Plots in which Elizabeth is elevated to something closer to Darcy's status are also very common, either thanks to an unexpected inheritance or because Elizabeth married a peer prior to the start of the story. In the latter case she's inevitably widowed at some point to clear the field for Darcy's suit.
There is a sizeable amount of Amnesiac Lover stories where either Elizabeth or Darcy loses their memory while well into the marriage.
The series has "booksical" fanfics. This mixes the book canon with the musical. One of the most common attributes of a booksical work is keeping Nessarose The Fundamentalist like in the books, but changing her disability from armless to wheelchair-bound like in the play.
AUs where Elphaba survives and is reunited with Glinda.
Stories that explore Glinda and Elphaba's relationship during their trip to the Emerald City.
Turtle Heart is Nessarose's biological father. Oftentimes, Elphaba knows this (or at least guesses it), but not Nessa or their brother Shell. The original book keeps it ambiguous who Nessarose's biological father is, but the third book reveals that it is Frexspar after all.
Lord of the Flies has "one girl" stories, where a single girl ends up on the island with all the boys and inevitably becomes the center of attention. Often, this ages up the characters so that pairing them together (usually sexually) is less squicky.
Many Dystopian Oz works revolve around an alternate outcome to the original book: what exactly happens to Oz now that Dorothy killed two leaders in a short period? The answer is chaos and civil war. This also often leave a power vacuum open for more dictators.
The Wizard, Glinda, and on occasion even Dorothy being evil is often a staple of Dystopian Oz fic. It helps that the former two can be interpreted as morally ambiguous even in the original books.
AUs where Dorothy didn't return to Oz in the third book. She doesn't return until years later.
Related to this, these stories will often have Oz facing some kind of crisis, and Dorothy's former friends bring her back to Oz from Kansas because they think she’s the only one who can help them, for whatever reason. While a common plot in Oz adaptations this never happened in any of the books. These will usually disregard the sequels, or at the very least incorporate a few elements from them. (See for example Dorothy of Oz by Roger S. Baum, Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz, among many others; in fact Return to Oz managed to use something like this despite being based on the books.)
Another common variation; Dorothy never returns to Oz, but her daughter or granddaughter does return to Oz many decades later, where she will be mistaken for Dorothy (it’s nearly always a female; one notable aversion was in Philip Farmer’s A Barnstormer in Oz where the main character is Dorothy’s son). They may or may not know they’re related to the real Dorothy Gale, and often the first story will be known in-universe as just a fictional book that the main protagonist never knew really happened. These adaptations always act as if there were no book sequels; due both to the general public’s unfamiliarity with them, and the fact that in canon, Dorothy moves to Oz permanently in the 6th book, which stops her aging and makes it impossible for her to even have offspring.
Dorothy Gale was a real person in our world, who L. Frank Baum met and interviewed, using her stories about Oz as the basis for his books. Whether or not Oz actually is real in stories with this plot element may vary (see Was for example), but if it is real it may be a Dystopian Oz that Baum toned down for children. It can be combined with many other stock fan plots.
Ozma and Dorothy aging into adults. Often includes shipping.
Ozma dealing with gender identity issues stemming from growing up as a young boy but being changed into a girl. This of course wasn’t ever dwelled upon when the books were written more than a century ago, but it’s a popular topic for modern fan fiction writers with a Trans Audience Interpretation.
The Wicked Witch of the West returning. She was popularized by the 1939 film, but never reappears in any of the book sequels and is actually a very minor villain in the overall series compared to the Nome King or even Mombi. These are sometimes paired with “Dorothy never returned to Oz” AUs as a catalyst for her friends to try to get her to come back.
Fix Fic to repair the Continuity Snarl caused by Ruth Plumly Thompson, or occasionally L. Frank Baum himself. This is the basis of a large percentage of canon-friendly Oz stories.
Fanfiction of Howl's Moving Castle often strays into Patchwork Fic, commonly mixing the characters and backstory from the book with designs and other aspects from the film.
They're often Patchwork Fics, which is not surprising considering the many media interpretations. By far, the most common versions involve drawing various pieces from the original novel by Gaston Leroux, the backstory rich Susan Kay novel, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. This leads to wildly different takes on the story and characters, depending on the percentages used, and it is considered polite to state in the author's notes which versions are being blended.
The utopian future described by Kir Bulychev is, in fact, a cynical Crapsaccharine World. Alice is either the only good person or has embraced the darkness as well.
Alice meets her 20th-century friends again. She is allowed to visit them, or, in less fluffy settings, they meet when fighting some new galactic evil.
Mansfield Park: For all that the fandom doesn’t have a large internet presence, “Henry never elopes with Maria and marries Fanny” is probably the very favourite fanfic plot for it.
Captive Prince: "Auguste Doesn't Die" AUs are popular, helped by Damen, in the third book, fantasizing about this exact scenario which is followed by fanfics: The battle at Marlas is solved peacefully or doesn't happen, Auguste and Damen become friends (as Laurent mentions they would be likely to be), Damen falls in love with a less antagonistic Laurent, and starts a proper process of courting him.
The Moomins has a story where a girl named Ninny is invisible due to her aunt's abuse, and needs to be made visible again with kindness. Fanworks and AUs where someone else becomes invisible from being troubled are common (Snufkin is a very popular target).
Shen Yuan gets transmigrated into a different character (the most popular choice being an unimportant minor character who still gains Luo Binghe's affections) or canon.
Shen Yuan is sent back in time after one of his canonical deaths and tries to do things differently to get a better ending. Depending on who the fic author ships him with, he might still get together with Luo Binghe or go after a different character like Liu Qingge instead.
A slightly different variant of this plot is Shen Yuan being resurrected after his death in a body with a different appearance from his Shen Qingqiu one and this resulting in a Two-Person Love Triangle between him and Luo Binghe with the latter getting confused as to why he feels inexorably drawn to this mysterious new man in spite of still being in deep mourning over his beloved shizun's death.
Shen Yuan doesn't push Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss, which spares Luo Binghe from becoming hardened by his experiences there but usually comes with the catch of Shen Yuan having to suffer some form of punishment from the System and/or him still having to deal with the problems of his disciple developing unstable demonic powers and facing prejudice and hatred if others ever learn about his demonic heritage.
The original, darker Luo Binghe seen in the Bing-mei vs. Bing-ge extra kidnaps a Shen Yuan or Shen Qingqiu from another universe and tries to force them to give him the kind of love he saw his alternate self get from his Shen Qingqiu. Depending on the fic, this can result in either a twisted Stockholm Syndrome relationship or a happier Love Redeems romance.
The original Shen Qingqiu (aka Shen Jiu) is brought back to life and gets a chance to redeem himself and mend his relationship with Yue Qingyuan. Some of these fics will have the additional complicating factor of Shen Jiu and Shen Qingqiu being forced to share the same body.
Shen Yuan and/or Shang Qinghua are suddenly transported back into their original bodies in modern-day China, usually with their love interests also being transported with them or finding a way to travel to their world.
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