Songfics

From UnknowableWiki

Songfic is a contraction of the words "song" and "fiction". It refers to piece of written fiction that entails the use of lyrics. As a result, the lyrics are supposed to complement the prose, although as readers may be unfamiliar with the song, the intention of the piece may be compromised.

Songfics are generally recognised as a popular sect of the fanfiction subculture. They are also usually fairly short, and almost always one-shots, though can sometimes be part of a series of songfics.

An issue with copyright caused FanFiction.Net to forbid and delete several songfics from the site's servers. Since some may see songfics as a copyright infringement, some sites don't allow them at all. However, since songfics, by definition, are based off of a previously existing song, and as a fanfiction don't make any profit anyway, it's rarely an issue.

There are several ways of formatting a songfic. One of the most popular ways is to simply write the fanfic normally, and insert the lyrics at strategic points within the text. Another way, which is generally viewed as a much better use of the lyrics (since for the first type, the lyrics are rarely indispensable), is to use the lyrics as either dialogue between characters (which can end up sounding awkward), an inner or spoken monologue of a character, or even have a character(s) sing it as part of the fanfic.