The foggiest and perhaps the most difficult aspect of writing fanfiction is that of conceiving an original and interesting plot. Some writers seem to regard plot as secondary, but in doing so they are mistaken: the plot is the skeleton of a story, and while correct grammar and believable characterization are essential to good fiction, neither of these will salvage a plot that is ultimately stale or boring. Every story, of course, is different (or should be), and on that account it's hard to determine what exactly defines an intriguing story line. A useful device, however, is to view fanfiction as a type of experiment. Like any experiment, it needs only the smallest variable to produce amazing and unexpected results; the best plots often spring from the simplest ideas.

As you probably know from science class, an experiment consists of two things: a control and a variable. The student sets these up and then observes them, remarking the way they diverge. In the case of Les Miserables fanfiction, Victor Hugo's book (or Boublil and Schonberg's musical, if you prefer) is the control. To invent a plot, the fanfic writer needs only to add one variable: perhaps Eponine has a child, or Marius' father lives, or Jean Valjean finds Petit Gervais in Paris, or a desperate Musichetta turns up at the barricades. Any little change will do.

Add one variable, and then watch what happens. Write it down.

Imagine that you were to change the story so that Valjean never met the Bishop of Digne--there would be no silver candlesticks, no adopting Cosette, no rescuing Marius. The entire story would be different, yet all the characters would remain; Javert, Marius, Les Amis, the Patron Minette, the Thenardiers, and probably even Cosette would still end up in Paris by 1832. Who knows what might happen?

You don't have to change the characters to write Les Miserables fanfiction; in fact, many readers prefer seeing Hugo's characters just as they are in the book, only in different circumstances, forced to make different decisions. However, a change of characterization is also a perfectly legitimate variable. How, for instance, would events have played out if Javert had been hydrophobic? if Mabeuf had been impious? if Feuilly had been gay? What if Grantaire had been a believer, or Combeferre a skeptic?

Such questions can only be answered by fanfiction. That's why it exists: to show the readers what might have been. In pursuit of understanding Hugo's characters absolutely and in light of all their faults and misfortunes, the writer tests every aspect of their natures, every circumstance, every possibility.

When writers see their work as an experiment and an observation of Hugo's already brilliant inventions rather than a place to play out their own ideals and fantasies (read: Mary Sue-isms), fanfiction becomes a viable medium, not only enjoyable, but justifiable, interesting, penetrating, and productive. We all have a lot to learn from Les Miserables and from Victor Hugo--that's why we read him. But why do we read fanfiction? Why do we write it?

Perhaps because we also have something to learn from ourselves.

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