(no subject)

so a thing about fanfic is, the canon already exists and it is reasonable (generally speaking) to expect the fanfic's audience to be familiar with it

(the bigger, more multimedia, and/or more self-contradictory–slash–retconned the canon is—obvious examples include Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything that's ever had a DC or Marvel character in—the less reasonable that expectation gets; that's beside the point I'm after right now)

so like if my Miraculous Ladybug fanfic has the lines "You have so many other great qualities! I'm just in charge of the humor department", I can reasonably expect people to recognize that's dialogue from season three

and if the character addressed in that bit of dialogue remembers dreaming that the speaking character said that, it is therefore not unreasonable of me to expect that my audience will know the scene being referred to happened, and therefore that they will realize something is Up

or, with a less specific canon referent, if my Miraculous Ladybug fanfic refers to a character as having dark hair and a facial scar and wearing a single earring, I can reasonably expect my audience to know that the character is ordinarily blond and has no scars and does not as a rule wear any number of earrings

this is one way I can get the audience wondering: why the mismatch? what changed between the canon and this fanfic? what else might the characters observe that's out of place? what else might they believe that isn't true?

(spoilers for story 1: it is not that canon was all a dream, but my leads were definitely under that impression for a while. story 2 is still in progress, so the above is all the spoilers you're gonna get. 😛)

…

you know what trick doesn't work with a standalone original-fiction novel?

.

Encyclopedia Brown pulled it off over and over again, but Encyclopedia Brown and other one-minute mysteries rely on audience knowledge in other ways, and that audience knowledge may not be universal

like, I remember one such story, the way our investigating character knew somebody (a model, I think) was lying about having just gotten out of the shower? she started filing her nails or something while answering these questions about her whereabouts for like the past half hour, and apparently Everyone Knows (or at least professional pretty people all know) not to file their nails right after showering because it damages the nail

which is something I only know because I read that one-minute mystery

and like, even if I could assume my audience has basic scientific literacy and a number of common historical and literary points of reference?

you know what the audience for a standalone created-world fantasy novel won't share with its characters?