Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2024: Week 2

Case fic (also spelled casefic) or case story is a genre of fanfiction with a focus on solving a given mystery or case. The term is also sometimes used as an umbrella term for any plot-heavy story, including genres such as mission fic or monster of the week. It may also be used to distinguish plot-heavy stories from genres such as relationship stories, character studies, porn without plot, and curtainfic.

Case fics commonly utilize a two-plot structure, with a primary plot focusing on the mystery or case, and a subplot that focuses on character's interpersonal relationships. The structure of case fics often mirrors plot structures found in police procedurals, buddy cop shows, and medical dramas.

Case fics may be different in tone to the source material, and often add additional plot elements not present in the original work, such as explicit sex, slash, or supernatural occurrences.

Some fandoms use specific terms to describe case fics, such as "case file" or "X-File" in The X-Files fandom.