# Alternate Universe Alternate Universe, usually shortened to AU, is a fan fiction sub-genre where writers keep familiar characters but rewrite key parts of the original canon to explore what-if scenarios. It has roots in mid-century sci-fi fanzines[2] and became a standard category label after online archives like Fanfiction.net launched in 1998[5]. ## Overview An AU story takes an existing cast from a book, show, film, or game and drops them into a rewritten setup, with the classic pitch being a what-if scenario such as a modern-day Pride and Prejudice or Pikachu on steroids[3]. Changes range from small tweaks, like keeping a dead character alive, to full genre swaps such as a fantasy cast rewritten as coworkers at a coffee shop. Jane Austen's readers have been reworking her Regency plots into new settings for well over a century[1]. The tradition of writing AU stories predates the modern internet by decades. Fanlore, the fan-culture wiki, tracks AU-style writing back through the 1920s, when reimagined stories were already appearing in printed zines[2]. Sequels and retellings kept showing up in fan-focused publications long before AU became a standard category tag online. ## How It Spread Online fan fiction archives put AU on a much bigger stage. Fanfiction.net launched in October 1998 and gave writers a central site to post work across every fandom, with Alternate Universe being one of the standard category tags used to sort stories[5]. Franchise-specific hubs followed, including Harry Potter Fan Fiction, The Force for Star Wars stories, and TrekFanFiction.net for ongoing Trek work[4]. The phrase moved into wider internet slang slowly. Urban Dictionary did not add an entry for Alternate Universe until 2003, and the top user-submitted definitions treated it as a joke rather than a fan fiction term[6]. By that point AU was already deeply established inside fan communities, but the acronym was mostly opaque to outsiders. ## How to Use An AU is built around one change to the source material, whether that's a different setting, a surviving character, or a swapped genre, with the rest of the plot following from that single shift. Writers typically flag the twist in the story tags so readers on major archives like Fanfiction.net can filter for it[5]. Fandom-specific sites organize stories by both fandom and premise, making it easier to find a particular AU sub-type[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Alternate Universe? Alternate Universe, usually shortened to AU, is a fan fiction sub-genre where writers keep the original characters but change key parts of the source canon to explore what-if scenarios[3]. ### Where did Alternate Universe come from? Reimagined fan writing traces back to Jane Austen readers in the 1850s[1], and AU took shape as a modern fandom category with 1960s Star Trek zines like Spockanalia, first published in 1967[2]. ### What does Alternate Universe mean? In fan fiction, an AU is a story that takes an existing cast and drops them into a rewritten canon, from small tweaks like a character surviving a death scene to full genre swaps such as a coffee-shop reboot of a fantasy cast[3]. ### How do you use Alternate Universe? Writers pick one change to the original story, keep the cast intact, then tag the twist so readers on archives like Fanfiction.net can filter for the AU category they want[5]. ### Is Alternate Universe still popular? AU is a core category on major fan fiction archives, with fandom-specific sites like TrekFanFiction.net dedicated to hosting stories in the format[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/pers27.html]() 2. [https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alternate_Universe]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alternate-universe]() 4. [https://trekfanfiction.net/]() 5. [https://www.fanfiction.net]() 6. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Alternate%20Universe]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/alternate-universe Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library