Fan fiction—that is, fiction that uses an existing universe created by another author and expands (or pirates) it—has literally been around for centuries. Consider the “infancy gospels,” later texts that explored the life of the infant Christ and other figures in the original gospels.
But right now, we are living in an unprecedented era of devoted—even rabid—fandom, where the dedication of a few can actually bring a dead series back from the brink (Firefly), can rocket a first-time author to the top of the bestseller lists and keep her there (Twilight, Harry Potter), and can even influence the source story as it unfolds (Babylon 5, Undeclared). The power of the fan is only now being realized—and fan fiction is on the front lines of that power.
It’s a subtle revolution, one that’s mostly occurring online, which is why we’ve put together this introduction to the world of fan fiction:
A (very) brief history of fan fiction
For as long as people have been dreaming up characters, fans have been dreaming up ways to create new situations for them to try on, copyright laws be damned. The various sources for the Epic of Gilgamesh seem to indicate that later generations were adding and adapting the tales on their own, and literary history is littered with other examples: Unauthorized “sequels” to Don Quixote, fan-penned tales set in Alice’s Wonderland, even early-20th century stories creating new adventures for Sherlock Holmes and his trusty Watson.
But it’s been two 20th century developments that have led to a burgeoning on a grand scale. The first was Star Trek. One of the most beloved of created universes, the original series has given fans enough material to create their own versions of events and stories for decades. In the late 1960s and ‘70s, fans began to share their stories with one another through fanzines, the first of which was called Spockanalia and sent through that thing that came before the Internet, the postal system. The second most important thing was the Internet itself. Without the Internet, its immediacy and its democratic underpinnings, fan fiction would hardly exist in the force that it does today.
If you’re interested in a more academic take on fanfic, check out the work of Dr. Henry Jenkins, director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program and the author of one of the first books written about the phenomenon of fan fiction. Jenkins contextualizes fan fiction, placing it within an evolving “participatory culture,” where media interacts with consumers on a much more personal and reciprocal level. But moving on…
A practical fanfic primer
There is a vast amount of fan fiction currently circulating around the internet: FanFiction.net and FictionAlley.org both have millions of members and millions of entries, ranging from short poems inspired by Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty series to full, novel-length explorations of Harry’s life if he’d never gone to Hogwarts. Then there are the sites for individual universes: Harry Potter, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stargate, and many more.
But before you go trolling for fanfic, there are a few things to note: First, due to the sometimes violent or sexual nature of some fanfic, many sites come with a rating system. Fanfic sites police themselves, adhering to a standard that is an amalgamation of existing entertainment ratings systems and that can differ between sites. What’s G on one site can be K on another, PG-13 can be T, R can be M, NC-17 can be MA—but be sure to check the rating before reading any story, just so you know what you’re in for.
And second, like any community, the community of fan fiction comes with its own language. Here are just a few of the terms: “Beta” refers to fellow fanfic readers and writers who will act as editors of a story; “canon” is the universe as created by the original author or authors (note that what is considered “canonical” can actually change as the original story develops over time or should the originator wish); “fanon” generally means facts or conditions that are not explicit in the canon but are accepted by the majority of the fandom. Going a bit deeper, there’s “Mary Sue,” a critical fanfic term for a character who is the embodiment of the author’s wish fulfillment fantasy, for whom everything tends to work out; “shipper” is a fanfic writer who writes a certain romantic pairing, say Hermione and Draco; and then there’s “slash,” the somewhat controversial fanfic exploration of homoerotic and sometimes outright pornographic pairings of two male characters (more on that here, in the context of Harry Potter).
Famous fan fiction writers
For the record, fanfic isn’t just pale teenagers whiling away their waking hours hunched over the computer and tapping out torrid Harry/Draco romance stories or unauthorized future installments of the Twilight saga: Famous authors, too, have dabbled in other writers’ universes. In the years after Alice in Wonderland was written, for example, famous authors such as Frances Hodges Burnett (The Little Princess and The Secret Garden), and E. Nesbit (Five Children and It), thought they’d take a hand in re-writing or revising the now classic and classically trippy text.
Nowadays, it’s kind of cool to admit you write fan fiction—Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries, came clean recently and admitted she wrote fan fiction based on Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern world. Naomi Novik, author of the acclaimed Temeraire series, said that she started out writing fan fiction. She’s also the head of the Organization of Transformative Works, which seeks to promote the legality of fan fiction and other fan works.
Fan fiction damns the man
Because fan fiction takes its bones, so to speak, from an existing work owned and copyrighted by another creator, it can legally be considered a “derivative work”—and under copyright and intellectual property laws, that’s a bit of a no-no. (Parody, by the way, is an entirely different issue and is protected from prosecution under copyright laws.) Most fan fiction writers believe that if they write fan fiction without the intent to profit from it, then they and their work are protected; to that end, many stories come with a disclaimer indicating that the characters in it belong to the original author and that the story was written with no intent to profit.
Not exactly. While damages sought from copyright infringement rest on whether or not the fiction seeks to profit from the work and how much, the originator of the copyright protected work can still sue, or at least, fire off cease and desist letters.
Whether or not they do so often sits with the original creator’s feelings toward fan fiction. Some creators encourage fanfic: J.K. Rowling, for one, has given her blessing to fanfic writers, saying that she was “flattered” people would want to write stories based on the world she’s created. Last year, Britney Spears even launched a fan fiction contest, calling on fans to write stories based on songs chosen from her latest album, The Circus. The winner of the contest would see their story turned into a digitally animated film.
Other authors and creators, however, have taken a dim view of fanfic: Anne Rice, author of the Interview With a Vampire series, famously frowned on stories based on her universe, requesting that online fanfic archives remove any works based on her worlds. (This is somewhat hypocritical, given that you could argue Rice is herself a fan fiction writer: Her most recent books are fictional expansions of the Gospels, exploring the life of Jesus Christ.)
Most situations that reach the lawsuit stage arise when a fanfic author has sought to publish his or her work and therefore, to make a profit from it. Last year, for example, lawyers for J.D. Salinger, the Catcher in the Rye author who passed away last month, filed suit against an author writing a sequel to Salinger’s most famous book. The alleged sequel, called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, featured a character named “Mr. C,” an elderly escapee from a retirement home bearing a striking resemblance to Rye’s Holden Caulfield.
Because of fan fiction’s questionable legal status, fanfic sites have to be somewhat careful how they go about things. For example, FictionAlley.org is one of the major fanfic sites and as such, costs money to run. In order to keep it going for the hundreds of thousands of users, it is now a registered 501©3 tax-exempt charitable organization and subsists on donations from its users.
There’s been some commotion in the fan fiction community after one author, who goes by the name of LadySybilla, insisted that it was her right as a fan to publish her work of fan fiction. LadySybilla sought to publish and sell Russet Noon, a “tribute sequel” to the fourth book of the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn. She and her publisher, AV Paranormal, even went so far as to offer copies of the book on eBay. But after realizing that fighting the forces of publisher Little, Brown would be a losing battle, she gave refunds to everyone who tried to by the book and instead, is putting the book out a chapter at a time online. AV Paranormal has also said that the book will be released for free in a physical copy.
The publisher argued Russet Noon was taking a stand for the little guy, releasing a statement practically quivering with righteous indignation: “Every universe or, to put it in more commercial terms, franchise, feeds off our fantasies, dreams and hard earned dollars. When we give life to a universe, when we become its fans and financial supporters, we become the human batteries that keep its matrix alive… Authors write fan fiction and sell it all the time. They just change the identities of the characters to protect themselves from lawsuits. Unfortunately, when an author is honest about their unconventional views about fanfiction, they get called a ‘thief’ and their ethical values come under attack. The only problem with this self-righteous, judgmental thinking is: How can you steal something that’s already yours?”
If fanfic’s murky legal status is worrying to its writers, it’s not enough to keep them from writing it or from championing it. Supporters of fan fiction, such as the Organization for Transformative Works, claim that not for profit fan fiction should be considered “transformative” and come under fair use exemptions from copyright prosecution.
Authorized “fan fiction”
But there is fan fiction that does make it out to the for-profit world, like the source-sanctioned novel explorations of popular shows and movies, such as Star Trek (William Shatner even got into that racket), Star Wars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
But it’s not only the sci-fi and fantasy franchises that have seen authorized fan fiction. Despite the fact she’s been dead since 1817, Jane Austen’s Regency England universe continues to make it onto the printed page with astonishing regularity. Because Austen’s works lie primarily in the public domain and her characters are not trademarked, anyone can access her characters and use them however they wish (Mr. Darcy’s Diary, Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride, Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters).
In cases where copyright or trademark restrictions still apply, published stories that use famous characters often have authorization from (or have paid licensing fees to) the estate of the original author. Sherlock Holmes, for example, is a figure who has been adapted and adopted by other authors, with permission: Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution explores an aging Holmes, while mystery writer Laurie King’s Mary Russell series pairs the famous sleuth with a new female partner who later becomes his wife. Margaret Mitchell’s opus, Gone With the Wind, was followed up many years later by the much maligned Scarlett, the authorized sequel, and then Rhett Butler’s People, also authorized by the Mitchell estate, and also a sequel (the unauthorized The Wind Done Gone, which told the story from the perspective of Scarlett’s half-black half-sister, was ruled by the US Court of Appeals to be a parody).
Fan films
While much of fan fiction lives in the world of words, film has proven just as inspirational a medium to fans. And now, ever-improving uploading speeds on the Internet and increased access to filmmaking and special effects equipment means that more fan fiction can and will become fan film.
Star Trek has inspired several would-be filmmakers to produce new narratives based in the existing universe, including a very polished web-based production that relied on green screen effects to recreate the bridge of The Next Generation Enterprise called Hidden Frontier. That program lasted seven seasons on the Internet and was entirely produced, directed, written and filmed from fan/producer Robert Caves’ spare bedroom. The makers of Hidden Frontier have now gone on to produce two other series, Star Trek: Odyssey and Star Trek: The Helena Chronicles. The shows have attracted a significant fan following, which contributes to the shows’ production through donations of time, in kind and money.
That there’s simply more fan film out there means that some—definitely not all—are of a higher quality. And that’s getting the notice of the general public, not just folks in the fandoms. Since 2003, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, a shot-by-shot labor of love that recreates Steven Spielberg’s seminal action film and took seven years to make, has enjoyed tons of press and screenings at theatres and film festivals across the world. In 2008, the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida, issued its first-ever call for fan film submissions, and, in a very meta moment, Son of Rambow, the highly acclaimed 2007 film about two boys in the English countryside making their own film inspired by First Blood, may be one of the first films about fan film.
Some creator companies, like Paramount has with the Star Trek iterations, have simply ignored the existence of fan film, as long as the producers and actors don’t use it to make money. LucasFilm, on the other hand, encourages fan films and even partners with online AtomFilms to hold the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge, allowing the use of footage from the original films in mash-ups, the use of the action figures, and the liberal production of parodies (The Eyes of Darth Tater is a notable example of the latter). Winners of that contest have had their films screened at Cannes—and while a number of terrible non-fan films have been shown at Cannes, we may be able to take it as a sign that fan film is growing up.
Where doesn’t fanfic go?
Virtually any franchise, any universe is open to fan fiction—so yes, California Dreams, that bland early ‘90s teen sitcom from the Peter Engel school of entertainment, has its own fanfic. If you can watch it, read it, or play it, you can write fanfic about it: Jake and Elwood, aka the Blue Brothers; The Saddle Club; Girl, Interrupted (which is weird primarily because the source work there is a memoir); the histories of Herodotus; The Summer of My German Soldier; The Kite Runner; The Witch of Blackbird Pond; Polar Express; Quills; The Adventures of Lavaboy and Sharkgirl; Daria; Golden Girls; Gomer Pyle, USMC; Hogan’s Heroes; I Dream of Jeannie; and even high school marching bands are their own genre in the fanfic universe.
* * * * *
So let’s hear it—have you ever read (or written) any fan fiction? What did we leave out that’s worth mentioning?
Comments (42)
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Great article! I’m a high school English teacher, and for years I’ve offered my students an extra credit opportunity to write fan fiction. Students have turned in stories about an adult Huck Finn and a young Nick Carraway, and one took a look at Lennie (of ‘Of Mice and Men’) adjusting to life in Heaven.
No ‘California Dreams,’ however.
posted by Tom on 2-8-2010 at 4:22 pm
I’ve written fanfic on the wonderful game series _Thief_. I’d actually like to write a “legit” novelization of it–anyone know of an in?
I’m an English professor too–I never thought of assigning fanfic! What a great idea!
posted by Jenn on 2-8-2010 at 4:29 pm
Wonderful article!!
posted by kimmy on 2-8-2010 at 4:31 pm
In late middle and early high school, I wrote fanfiction for “The X-Files”. That occured toward the end of the series, so before everything went to hell (read: when david duchovny left the show) and when all the main characters were still interesting and healthy. I had a fantastic time doing it and loved the community of other writers. Great article!
posted by OkieMelissa on 2-8-2010 at 4:37 pm
“Nowadays, it’s kind of cool to admit you write fan fiction”
Actually, it’s not…
posted by Dagger on 2-8-2010 at 4:46 pm
I’ve read (and written a little) more fanfic than I’d actually like to admit, in fandoms that are anything but cool:
-Backstreet Boys
-Hanson
-Harry Potter
(Most of this all several years ago).
I love the idea of fanfic because it gives young writers the chance to hone storylines, dialogue and writing style without having to also create a world, develop characters, etc. Doing it all at once can be overwhelming, but borrowing a world that someone else has already created can be a great entry into writing..
Fanfic writers — keep it up!
posted by Lindsey on 2-8-2010 at 5:01 pm
I’ve seen (haven’t read) Shakespeare fanfic. I think it may fall under Rule 34
posted by MLD on 2-8-2010 at 5:01 pm
I’ve written a ton of fanfic… it’s how I got started as a teenager. I wasn’t brave enough to strike out on my own, but through fanfiction I discovered a way to practice my skills while having fun. I ended up getting help and advice from dozens of older, more experienced writers.
I now write original novels, and I don’t think it ever would have happened had I not written fanfiction first.
posted by Kessie on 2-8-2010 at 5:11 pm
Dude, slash is about as controversial as cottage cheese.
posted by Sharlene on 2-8-2010 at 5:21 pm
I am currently following a couple of works-in-progress that are ostensibly inspired by the Twilight fandom. I maintain, however, that if you changed the characters’ names and a few geographic details, a reader would never be able to identify the stories as something Twilight related.
I’m reading them because I enjoy the writing styles of the authors and I like the idea of reading a serial. It’s an exercise in patience for me to wait weeks and sometimes even months to read a new installment!
posted by Miss Moneypenny on 2-8-2010 at 5:21 pm
Good article, although I have to admit I was disappointed not to see femslash mentioned in the primer.
posted by akte on 2-8-2010 at 5:40 pm
I’ve written fanfiction, but I always write it as an expansion of the world, not just a way to screw with characters I’m not creative enough to think up. I hate the fanfiction that is just wish fulfillment, with the “Mary Sue” characters, especially when the fanfiction is badly written.
posted by Akuekue on 2-8-2010 at 5:51 pm
I’ve never written fan fiction, but I often write my own lyrics to my favorite songs, and it puts me in sort of the same situation. Here I have this song I wrote…non-parody, but I couldn’t profit from it because it isn’t mine. Are there others like me out there? Do they have their own website?
posted by Alison on 2-8-2010 at 6:18 pm
Beatles fan fiction was pretty big starting in the mid-90′s when the Anthology came out to the early 00′s. I wrote a full-length novel, a half-finished sequel, and numerous short stories all about George Harrison. A few girls still write it, but it’s nowhere near the frenzy earlier in the decade.
posted by Amanda Mae on 2-8-2010 at 6:44 pm
You forgot to mention Geraldine Brooks 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning Fiction novel March is basically a derivative of Lousia May Alcott’s Little Women (the story of the absent Mr March in much of the book).
posted by kateydidnt on 2-8-2010 at 7:05 pm
Great article on this subject. I have been a fanficcer for many years and many fandoms and one of the most memorable “authorized” ones of all time was when I wrote a parody of a Star Wars fanfilm, itself a fanfic. I noticed that one of the writers read and enjoyed my parody, but didn’t realize that the person above him who had referred him to the link was the director. A couple of days later, the director emailed me to say that he’d spread the fic to the cast and crew and would, if I could put up with his corrections, let me write authorized fiction for the series. Coolest thing ever.
posted by Ish on 2-8-2010 at 7:23 pm
Alison,
Weird Al comes to mind. I’ve heard he asks politely for permission to parody a song, though I don’t know how much of that is courtesy and how much is legally required. You should see if Dr. Demento has a website with submission rules.
There is also Filk, which is a kind of parody folk song, typically based on a known melody. A coworker of mine (not a lame dodge, honest!) is heavily into Filk and meets regularly with a Filk club.
Finally, there’s Barney. It seems nearly every Barney song rips off an existing tune (which would raise my hackles if I knew what they were). Most likely those tunes are out of copyright.
posted by Bryan on 2-8-2010 at 7:33 pm
Unless I missed it, I notice you don’t mention RPF or RPS (Real Person Fiction; Real Person Slash). I just wondered what your thoughts are on that and the legal boundaries about writing fictional stories about a still-living person. (I have my own thoughts on the ethics of it, but I’d be interested to hear somebody else’s.)
posted by Veronica on 2-8-2010 at 8:32 pm
I have to thank fan fiction myself. I’m not published yet, but I’m trying to be a ‘real’ author.
But I cut my teeth as a teenager on fan fiction (Star Trek). It gave me a chance to explore character and develop skills in a world that was beloved to me, and helped give me the courage to create my own worlds.
‘course that was the early 90s before the net exploded, so the only people who read my fanfic were a few close friends.
posted by Merinda on 2-8-2010 at 8:45 pm
I started writing fan fiction based on anime characters. Probably the closest non-anime character I ever tried to write a fanfic about is Jo March and Teddy Lawrence of Little Women. :p Personally, I find writing fan-fiction a good writing exercise.
posted by Luna on 2-8-2010 at 8:50 pm
One popular form of fanfic is the drabble, a piece of exactly one hundred words (not counting the title). It’s not exclusively a fanfic form, but it’s frequently used by fan writers.
Another is the round-robin, with different authors writing different chapters of the story. The rules and level of organization vary widely, of course.
posted by Aeneas on 2-8-2010 at 8:53 pm
I think another interesting angle to explore would be the communities that form in certain fandoms, especially the bigger ones.
posted by Kelly on 2-8-2010 at 9:11 pm
I’ve read fanfic since I was 11 and written it since I was 13 (I’m 18 now). I write for various fandoms from Scooby Doo to Monster Allergy (an Italian Disney comic book). It’s great fun and practice for original fiction, that’s for sure! ^^
posted by Kady on 2-8-2010 at 10:48 pm
I can definitely attribute a lot of my writing success to what I’ve learned from fanfic. I’ve published only personal essays, one poem and two short stories, but I wrote my most complex stories in the context of fanfiction. I met my best friend because we were both authors on one site, started talking and then noticed we were both students at the same university. It’s also catharsis because I have clinical depression and often, when I can’t stand myself, I escape by being another character. Apparently I channel Valley Girl and college boys very well.
posted by Ish on 2-9-2010 at 12:36 am
I have read fanfiction for more than a decade. I was much more into the Buffy and Angel universes created by Joss Whedon. I read primarily to see story arcs with my favourite characters, alternate universes within an alternate universe.
Many fanfic authors out there are very talented and commited writers, many publishing stories that would rival, and surpass many published novels.
posted by Illyria on 2-9-2010 at 2:45 am
You should see the CSI, NCIS, and other such sitcom fanfics. There are rabid believers in Nick/Greg ships (CSI) and Gibbs/Dinozzo (NCIS). They are so adamant about some things that I’m sort of surprised that writers for the shows have not succumbed to fans’ whims.
posted by natalie on 2-9-2010 at 3:00 am
Veronica-
You’re right, I didn’t really look at Real Person Fiction — I’m not entirely sure what I think of it, either? I mean, there are arguments to be made that the fans ultimately own a beloved universe or created world; but you can’t really own a person, can you? Morally, it also seems a bit weird — I mean, do you have the right to turn a real human into a story character? But then again, that would be brushing aside the fact that writers have been basically doing just that for virtually all of literary history? And that writing real person fiction could even be considered a brave and original (sort of) literary form?
Legally, it could also come under slander, especially if it ventures into the slash territory. I imagine celebrities tend to turn a blind eye to it, since there’s only so much you can fight.
But how weird would it be to come across a story about yourself, in which you do things and think things that you haven’t done? Would you think you were going mad?
Veronica — hats off to you for a great thought experiment! Anyone else have any thoughts on real person fiction?
linda
posted by linda on 2-9-2010 at 6:08 am
Every developing writer writes fanfic until they are good enough to create their own characters =)
I did when i was younger (pretty bad stuff though)
posted by GH on 2-9-2010 at 7:10 am
I found your analogy of the gospels of Jesus’ childhood (most prominent of those being the gospel of Thomas) to fan fiction rather curious. Is this an indication that you believe that those gospels not included in the Bible to be fiction? Or perhaps indeed you believe the Bible itself to be fiction?
In either case, if that is your view, I do not take issue with it, just a matter of curiosity.
posted by Gordon Daily on 2-9-2010 at 8:03 am
I am a huge reader of Gargoyles and Stargate fanfiction. I prefer the stuff that continues where the original left of, re-imagines the world, or creates a “spin-off” story. Not a big fan of the “alternat univers” and “wish fullfillment” stuff.
I have never written fanfiction myself, but I am what I like to call a “fictional writer” (someone who has a lot of ideas but never gets any of them down) and have some fanfic stories in my head that:
-continue the Gargoyles story
-create a spin-off for Stargate
-re-imagine the Sliders univers
-re-imagine the Brimstone univers
-novelize the original Megaman games
-novelize the Legacy of Kain games
posted by Zed on 2-9-2010 at 8:50 am
I’m on a forum that talks about different things in the Homestar Runner.com universe, and we make a LOT of fanfiction. We have something called the SBEmail Game where people write new Strong Bad E-mails. We have our own version of the Thy Dungeonman game that’s on the website. We even have a Homestar Runner version of Monty Python’s The Holy Grail (twice as much nerdy fanboy!)
posted by Isaac on 2-9-2010 at 8:54 am
I started 2 fanfics, both Hanson. Starting was easy… finishing? Not so much. Terrible writing, lol. Very rambling.
I have actually read my fair share of fanfic… mostly Hanson, and there are two or three that stick out as exceptional. Another universe I dipped my toes in (reading-wise) is Firefly. I read a few, but the only one that stuck in my mind as good writing was one that ‘shipped Jayne and River. Completely weird, but still written well.
This article makes me want to go back and re-read some of the better ones.
posted by Jae on 2-9-2010 at 10:00 am
Sometimes, fan fiction can be more challenging than original fiction, because you have to make sure to get the voices and tone of the original source material correct. It’s arguably more difficult to work with someone else’s character than to just come up with your own.
That said, I think I can attribute my fan fiction tendencies back to middle school assignments where we were required to create an alternate ending to Hitchcock’s The Birds, or change around fairytales. In a way, it’s as though they’re encouraging us to do it.
posted by Penelope on 2-9-2010 at 11:29 am
I’ve been writting fan ficiton for nearly twenty years in a myriad of fandoms’ Lord of the Rings, Phantom of the Opera, Star Trek, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Anite Blake : Vampire Hunter, Harry Potter, Jane Austen, Chronicles of Narnia, Da Vinci Code, etc. I’ve even made up stories about My Little Ponies and Tinkerbell for my nieces as gifts.
Since one of the few fandoms I write in that is public domain is Phantom of the Opera, I am actually in the progress of getting one of my novel-length stories published this year in honor of the 100 anniversay of the original 1910 print by Gaston Leroux.
posted by Rosie on 2-9-2010 at 12:02 pm
I’ve written a few fanfics (and started others), mostly anime-based. Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo!, Ranma 1/2, Dungeons & Dragons (the 1980′s cartoon), and Teen Titans. One was actually a “poemfic” in the style of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” I have a lot of trouble creating new worlds and characters, but I’m a lot better at continuing or adapting existing series.
posted by amaneaux on 2-9-2010 at 12:21 pm
Thanks for the article! I participated in Round Robin Star Trek fan fic years ago but stopped. It is neat to utilize the “universe” and create continuing storylines.
posted by Gina on 2-9-2010 at 3:53 pm
I have written fanfiction, and enjoyed the heck out of it. I consider it practice. I am a freelance writer and get paid for writing. The fanfic I read/write is only for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And while 90% of the fanfiction out there is pretty dismal, the gems that you find are so very, very good that it amazes you that these people aren’t published authors. There are also fan made music videos (known as vidding), which while being a trickier version of the copyright dance, (the music and the source are both liable to get you in trouble) they are still fun to make and watch. And as others have said, slash isn’t very controversial anymore. It’s actually more controversial to admit you like ‘het’ better :p
posted by Fictionisagirl on 2-10-2010 at 11:58 am
I completely agree with this article. Fanfiction has been around ever since the first humans started telling stories. It is true what a previous commenter noted – that much of the fanfic published on the web is quite bad. But there are many authors who put as much time and effort into their fanfic as they would an original work, and those are a delight to read. Regardless of a writer’s reason for writing fanfic, whether it be a tribute to a fandom he or she loves, or experimentation for a future career as an author, I say carry on!
posted by Gargantua on 2-13-2010 at 6:20 pm
There’s quite a bit beyond what you’ve mentioned, but the most important things I would emphasize are the fact that slash can be F/F as well as M/M and the HUGE influence online communities can have. One of the most brilliant things about fanfiction is that it exists in the larger universe of fandom, which means that people can have in depth discussions with others about the morality of Sirius Black, draw on others’ research into what exactly it takes to be a Mountie, or put up a call-to-arms like the recent Help_haiti auction livejournal (where we raised a good bit of money by auctioning off fan fiction, art, goods, and services).
posted by H. Savinien on 2-13-2010 at 7:24 pm
My favorite thing about fanfiction is probably the community. I have made a lifelong friend through FanFiction.Net, and the support of readers is incredible. I’m an aspiring writer, and the things I’ve learned from reviews on my work have made my writing that much stronger. Fanfiction really can be a valuable experience.
posted by Loki on 2-13-2010 at 8:07 pm
Wonderful article! I happen to write fanfiction, myself. I have Power Rangers, Hannah Montann, Hercules, and Danny Phantom fics.
posted by Sara in AL on 2-14-2010 at 3:12 pm
Oh yeah, I was writing fanfiction from the time I was eleven, along with original work. I had never heard the word fanfiction and didn’t have a clue what it was. You can imagine my surprise and excitement when I went online several years later and found millions of kindred spirits.
posted by isobel on 4-22-2010 at 10:58 pm