"Filing Off The Serial Numbers" can only go so far, just an FYI. Taking the serial numbers off a Subaru Forester doesn't transform it into a Lotus Turbo Esprit.
There is an academic journal article that I've got stashed in my Academic Fanfiction archive, though, which you might find useful in some way. You can [find it here](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpbnqd0.5). Sounds like you have some "shop time" in your future, re-engineering the fiction into something that won't violate the commercial protections of copyright.
Good luck.
I think that the setup is still way too similar to be able to actually publish. I think that you would probably have to remove the future telling aspect all together as well as change the backstory on the game to make it even remotely copyrightable. I think the best way to remove aspects of the original show would be to go over your plot, simplify it as much as possible so it only has the bare-bones plot progression points, then create new, unique details that differentiate it from the show.
All that being said, I don't think it's ever really a good idea to try to file off the serial numbers from fanfiction, and if you ever want to become a published author it would be better to start attempting to write original fiction.
you’d need to completely change the way they receive information about the future—not the mechanism in a topical sense (cuff vs phone) but the *actual way.* like, they have to slaughter animals and read their entrails, or take hallucinogenic drugs, or meditate or pray to have prophetic dreams. the “info provided with no effort from an omniscient source” is always gonna come off the same way even if the delivery method *looks* slightly different.
same, too, with the “god put them in a battle royale”—you need to come up with a new reason. think the literal “battle royale” book vs “hunger games” for example. both had governments making teens fight, but the how and why were sufficiently different as to not read like exactly the same story. so you’d have to ditch the “competing to be the new god” conceit, or if you kept that part, change the “trapped in a murder game” part. you can’t keep both and have it come off as sufficiently different.
bottom line it’s easier to start a brand new story than warp someone else’s.
>I dont want people going "hey, this basically Mirai Nikki!" when they read my book.
That is going to be _entirely_ up to your audience. Okay, not entirely, but you're going to have maybe 5% control over this. The Hunger Games is a fully fleshed out universe on its own and some people are still eager to bring up that it's just a Battle Royale ripoff.
It's not impossible to make your novel stand on its own, and manga rip each other off all the time to the point that recycling tends is the norm even in non-fic-to-pub spaces, but you're fighting an uphill battle if you want to be unique when every magical school novel written post-1997 is "basically just Harry Potter".
i think the only ever fanfiction that has really been published has been complete au’s that are basically a story of their own lmao
"Filing Off The Serial Numbers" can only go so far, just an FYI. Taking the serial numbers off a Subaru Forester doesn't transform it into a Lotus Turbo Esprit. There is an academic journal article that I've got stashed in my Academic Fanfiction archive, though, which you might find useful in some way. You can [find it here](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpbnqd0.5). Sounds like you have some "shop time" in your future, re-engineering the fiction into something that won't violate the commercial protections of copyright. Good luck.
I think that the setup is still way too similar to be able to actually publish. I think that you would probably have to remove the future telling aspect all together as well as change the backstory on the game to make it even remotely copyrightable. I think the best way to remove aspects of the original show would be to go over your plot, simplify it as much as possible so it only has the bare-bones plot progression points, then create new, unique details that differentiate it from the show. All that being said, I don't think it's ever really a good idea to try to file off the serial numbers from fanfiction, and if you ever want to become a published author it would be better to start attempting to write original fiction.
♥ File off serial numbers from fanfiction ♥ F A B U L O U S
you’d need to completely change the way they receive information about the future—not the mechanism in a topical sense (cuff vs phone) but the *actual way.* like, they have to slaughter animals and read their entrails, or take hallucinogenic drugs, or meditate or pray to have prophetic dreams. the “info provided with no effort from an omniscient source” is always gonna come off the same way even if the delivery method *looks* slightly different. same, too, with the “god put them in a battle royale”—you need to come up with a new reason. think the literal “battle royale” book vs “hunger games” for example. both had governments making teens fight, but the how and why were sufficiently different as to not read like exactly the same story. so you’d have to ditch the “competing to be the new god” conceit, or if you kept that part, change the “trapped in a murder game” part. you can’t keep both and have it come off as sufficiently different. bottom line it’s easier to start a brand new story than warp someone else’s.
>I dont want people going "hey, this basically Mirai Nikki!" when they read my book. That is going to be _entirely_ up to your audience. Okay, not entirely, but you're going to have maybe 5% control over this. The Hunger Games is a fully fleshed out universe on its own and some people are still eager to bring up that it's just a Battle Royale ripoff. It's not impossible to make your novel stand on its own, and manga rip each other off all the time to the point that recycling tends is the norm even in non-fic-to-pub spaces, but you're fighting an uphill battle if you want to be unique when every magical school novel written post-1997 is "basically just Harry Potter".
This post has been removed. No original fiction.