Misleading title New Crowner: 11/21/2011: Cookie Cutter Fic

Many people, upon seeing the title "Cookie Cutter Fic" assume that this is a trope about many fanfics recycling the exact same plot over and over again such that it becomes hard to tell one from another.

However, the trope is ACTUALLY about putting canon characters (or at least people with their names and vague descriptions, as they may not keep much similarity) into a completely different story in order to pass it off as a story for that setting. The resulting stories are the furthest possible thing from "cookie cutter" as far as standard fanfic for that setting goes. (Neville and Draco as a pair of non-magical boy detectives is NOT a standard Harry Potter fanfic premise!)

I would suggest something like "Cut and Paste Fic" (for pasting in the canon characters) or maybe "Find and Replace Fic" (suggesting that you wrote the story with completely different characters, then replaced the names with the characters for the setting you were passing it off as). Either of these would make a LOT more sense than the current setting.

Unless this is actually a preexisting term, I'd be in favor. "Cookie cutter X" to me implies Strictly Formula X, which is pretty much the opposite of this trope.

Also, all the non-fanfic examples are largely if not totally incorrect.

Edit: Fixed the link in the title.

edited 6th Nov '11 1:03:21 PM by nrjxll

Yeah, I think it is pretty unfitting to use the term "cookie cutter" in the name of a trope about fan fiction that does not actually use a strict or standard formula, so I agree with renaming this trope.

Feel free to tell me if you would like a crowner now or if you think that we should wait a bit to see what other people think about this.

"irhgT nm0w tehre might b ea lotof th1nmgs i dont udarstannd, ubt oim ujst goinjg to keepfollowing this pazth i belieove iN !!!!!1 d

I'm not really sure what this name means.

edited 12th Nov '11 1:23:38 PM by MangaManiac

I've considered that it might be a preexisting term - I know very little about the origins of the various 'fic' names - but unless that's the case, I'm all for a rename. We should definitely make a crowner, though - four people does not a consensus make, especially since I think this trope has pretty healthy stats.

Since there's a claim of misuse, with 58 articles and 243 inbounds, anyone up for a wikilink hunt?

No ptitles to worry about here, complete A thru E range, indexes exempt.

Characters abducted from canon to be used in an original fanfic

• Accidental Innuendo
• Alternate Universe Fic (under "contextual reassignment")
• Narm.Anime
• Ask The Tropers
• Callistohime: "Other than the names of some of the characters. It has otherwise no connection to Fire Emblem and might as well be a different story alltogether."
• Chess Piece
• Elsewhere Fic: "Contrast with Cookie Cutter Fic which supposedly does focus on canon characters, but drops almost everthing canon about them."
• Elseworld: "This can add some freshness to a character which allows them to act a different way than normal canon might allow but may also become an excuse to write professional Cookie Cutter Fic of the Recycled In SPACE variety."
• Everything's Wicked With Weasels: "The villainous Arnold in Soulless Shell is a ferret. In the canon, Redwall, ferrets are Always Chaotic Evil - this is about the only point this Cookie Cutter Fic shares with its originating canon."

Fully formulaic ("cookie-cutter") fanfiction

Can't tell, may be trouble

• DarthWiki.Alchemist Jacket Panic (no context)
• Anthropic Principle: "This is why FanFic Headers need to warn for Alternate Universe Fic, and why Cookie Cutter Fic is despised by more discerning Fan Fic readers."
• A Sad Story (no context)
• Ass Pull: "This fic appears to be merely a poorly-written Redwall Cookie Cutter Fic until Chapter Three..."
• FanFic.Black Gloves: "Starts off as an attempt at realistically writing the typical "Normal Girl Goes To Rapture" plot and mutates into a darker beast."
• FanFicRecs.Calvin And Hobbes: "Though most of his work is Dead Fic, and one of his stories is a Cookie Cutter Fic..."
• Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: "Some varieties of Cookie Cutter Fic are this."
• FanFic.Dark Secrets: "The author only occasionally remembers that there's magic in the Potterverse..."
• Deconstruction Fic: "...not as much as it simply ignores [canon] to rewrite the series Cookie Cutter Fic style." Wait, what?
• Expy: "Contrast Cookie Cutter Fic"

edited 12th Nov '11 2:19:03 PM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

When I was talking about misuse, I meant the examples on the page itself - I doubt that this can exist outside of fanfiction, and the examples from other types of work are more likely to be Universal-Adaptor Cast.

Ah, gotcha. Anyone up for documenting which in-page examples are good and bad?

edited 13th Nov '11 4:13:22 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

I'm in favor of the change, it's one that continuously slipped me up in my early days on the wiki.

T Vtropes is NOT Wikipedia, stop trying to make it that. I'm attacking the darkness!

I agree with renaming this. And at 52 wicks, renaming shouldn't be a problem yet.

Crowner hooked as requested.

nrjxll,

This is the only real evidence of the term "cookie cutter fic" being used to mean what the current trope means outside of TV Tropes that I could find after a quick Google search and it seems to based off of TV Tropes' article itself. In contrast, I found a couple other examples of cookie cutter fic being used to mean something else. While I might be missing something, I think it is relatively clear from those examples that "cookie cutter fic" is not used widely in the way that TV Tropes uses it.

edited 15th Nov '11 2:59:31 PM by LouieW

"irhgT nm0w tehre might b ea lotof th1nmgs i dont udarstannd, ubt oim ujst goinjg to keepfollowing this pazth i belieove iN !!!!!1 d

In that case, yeah, this name is pretty much indefensible.

Can the crowner be called now?

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.

I'd say so; there's more than ten votes and 12:1 is a pretty strong consensus.

edited 21st Nov '11 10:31:18 AM by Firebert

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Calling in favor of renaming.

How about Transplant Fic? That isn't in use yet, AFAIK.

A lot of the examples probably fit as well or better under "Recycled Script" (which isn't exclusively for TV or movies any more). Ya think?

Bump for votes

So, essentially a Fusion Fic that fuses canon characters into an original story? I don't think I've heard a name for it in fanfiction circles.

Actually, what really differs it from an Alternate Universe Fic? That the characters don't even resemble their original selves?

Anyhow, my vote's on Transplanted Character Fic. Sounds best.

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

Calling in favour of Transplanted Character Fic.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I've moved the page, discussion and its wicks to Transplanted Character Fic, created a new laconic and Cut Listed the old one. I think we are done here.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Good work. Locking.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick