Yo, if you are here you might wanna skip to chapter 1, or 5. Chapter 1 is the beginning of my tail, and will be quite a unique story to experience. Where chapter 5 is my first short story, and when you're done with it you can go back to chapter 1 to understand what's going on.
So you found my book. Thanks for considering it and reading, this chapter will be about some basic information.
What are the various types of books out there? There are four major types. Nonfiction, fiction, and documentary. The rest of the types out there are more of a descriptor than anything else.
So what is a Nonfiction story?
"Nonfiction" refers to literature based on fact. It is the broadest category of literature. The Nonfiction category has many subcategories including biography, business, cooking, health, fitness, pets, crafts, home decorating, languages, travel, home improvement, religion, art and music, history, self-help, true crime, science, humor, etc.
In layman's terms, nonfiction are stories that have happened in our world or have some information that has been proven, for the public to view, such as medical books, or books about how the settlers came to America.
What is a fiction story?
"Fiction" refers to literature created from the imagination. Mysteries, science fiction, romance, fantasy, chick lit, and crime thrillers are all fiction genres. Examples of fiction are Alice in Wonderland, the little mermaid, and Hercules.
Finally, we have the documentary, A documentary is a non-fictional intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record".
The documentary is classified as its own genre because they have to follow very strict guidelines to be considered as such. A documentary can also be used in a fictional setting. An example of this can be seen in video games such as monster hunter world, where when the monsters are captured. The monster is then studied, and new information about it is revealed to help you with the next hunt. The more you hunt the more information you gather. In a fictional setting, a documentary is a lot easier to write as the rules of that world are looser to tell a story than to document everything. An exception to this rule, however, are stories like SCP's which are mainly about documenting fictional anomalies. In this case, documenting is everything.
Next, we need to talk about fanfics. Fanfiction are stories written by everyday fans featuring characters, settings, and plots from their favorite, pre-existing TV, novels, manga, movies, and other media.
Simple and easy to understand, now what if I use let's say a lightsaber from StarWars in my book? Is it considered stealing someone else's idea?
What do I do?
Well in the U.S.A. we have a law called the fair use parody law. Fair use of a copyrighted work is the reproduction of a work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.
When determining whether use of the copyrighted work is indeed fair use, the following factors are to be considered: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
In other words, if you want to get paid, either call an infringement attorney, to check the validity of your work or don't write about lightsabers.
I recommend not mentioning other stories in your story.
I might update this auxiliary chapter so check the title for changes occasionally.