Thoughts About Fan-Fiction

Fan-fiction has a bad name - or, rather, not the reputation it deserves. Yes, a lot of fan-fiction is not up to par with professional publications. But then, that’s only logical. Fan-fiction is written by fans for fans, it’s not meant to be professionally published and, of course, not proofread and edited the way a professional publication is. That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s not worth your time - or that the writers haven’t done a good job story-wise.

First of all, for those of you who haven’t heard of it before, what is fan-fiction?

Every story which makes use of the characters and worlds others have created without their consent (so not stories which are written about shared characters or worlds by several writers) is a fan-fiction story. The “Fifty Shades of Grey” series started its life as a BDSM fan-fiction of “Twilight.” A lot of media out there, from novels over movies and TV series to computer games and beyond, has fan-fiction. If you look long and hard enough, you will find fan-fiction for every piece of media, no matter how little-known it is.

Because of this, some people look down on the writers. Simply using the characters of someone else instead of inventing your own characters and worlds, seems a bit like cheating. However, every writer uncovers new aspects of a character or a world, diving into details which the creators might just have put in without much thought. They deepen the world and the characters.

Fan-fiction is also the birth place of the Mary Sue (see my post about the problem), which is another reason why it has a bad name.

However, let’s talk about fan-fiction as if it just were a way to use creativity and not something you need to damn or defend, okay?

For quite some writers, including me, fan-fiction has been a way into not only writing (I wrote before I discovered fan-fiction), but also into publishing. Places like Fanfiction.net or Wattpad and others are a way to put your own stories out without the hassle of self-publishing or finding a publisher. In addition, you can’t claim characters created by someone else for yourself (unless they’re out of copyright due to age).

The audience at a fan-fiction portal isn’t quite as strict as the audience of a professionally published book. That lies in the nature of things - fan-fiction is done by fans for fans, so less strict editing and proofreading are part of the package. Still, you will usually get reviews which can help you to write better in the future.

I have read fan-fiction which wasn’t much to write home about, but I’ve also read excellent fan-fiction which didn’t have to hide from the original media it was inspired by.

The bigger the mass of fans, the more fan-fiction you will normally find about something. “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” or “Harry Potter” (to throw around a few names) have huge amounts of fan-fiction. A lot of people read the books, watch the movies or TV shows, and write their own versions.

They bring together their favourite ‘ships’ (love relationships between characters, quite often against the official relationships within the original media).

They add characters which they feel were missing (like giving more diversity in race or sexual orientation to very old or conservative original media).

They put a spotlight on side characters or minor characters which are not explored in depth in the original media in question.

They create whole alternate universes (AU) or alternate realities (AR) to explore what could have been.

You can find fan-fictions with an explicitly sexual content (including the ‘slash’ fiction, which is defined by a relationship between two men, and the ‘femslash’ fiction, which does the same for two women). They’re sometimes marked down as ‘lemon’ or ‘lime,’ reviving the old UK tradition of binding sexually explicit material in yellow covers (the first edition of “Dracula” is bound in yellow, too, btw).

Fan-fiction is often consumed by women (according to Fanfiction.net, 80% of their writers and audience are or identify as female) and that might explain the many erotic stories. Women often turn to written erotica and pornography. They consume it, but they also enjoy writing it.

As mentioned, a lot of writers also add characters to the media which they feel are missing. Often, those are characters with a sexual orientation which is not heterosexual or characters who are part of a minority. They expand the universes of the original media by doing so.

On the other side stand those fans who don’t want their beloved media changed. Those who despise everyone who does and are quick to call them ‘Social Justice Warriors’ and worse for it. I still have no idea why they think being a warrior for social justice is something wrong, but they clearly do. As if it would destroy the Force if “Star Wars” included a few gay characters or magic if the world of “Harry Potter” were less white…

But then, all bigger groups of fans also have their ‘ship wars’ - they fight about why this unofficial ‘ship’ is right and that one is completely wrong…

Fan-fiction can be very interesting, there’s quite a number of fan-fiction stories I’ve read over time which were very engaging and kept me hurrying through, even though I had other stuff to do. But you need to be ready to excuse certain weaknesses in grammar, typing, or plot.

That is what a lot of those who look down on fan-fiction make their main complaint. They point out that quite often fan-fiction isn’t written well and full of errors. While this can be true (although quite some fan-fiction writers also have their betas and do a good editing), this isn’t exactly a reason not to read it. Yes, you have to be a little tolerant there (and I’m saying this as a former editor who does her own editing these days and has an eye for errors), but many of the stories will actually reward you for this with a very interesting plot and well-used characters.

Another aspect those who look down on it also seem to forget is this: it’s for free. A publisher or self-publisher preparing a story for publishing will put a lot of work into it. They’ll pay people very well to edit and proofread it. They’ll pay an artist well for the cover, too. There will be many eyes going over the future book. That pays off for the publisher once the book is out and people are paying money to read it. Fan-fiction is not professionally published, it’s out for free on the portals already mentioned. You’re not forced to pay money to publish or consume fan-fiction.

So, yes, you have to kiss quite some frogs to find a prince on the portals. You will probably start to read a few stories and then stop, because they’re not what you’re looking for. You will find stories which have been abandoned right in the middle (since many of the portals allow for publishing in chapters, which means some writers put up chapters as they are done, they don’t wait until all has been written). You will find stories which are, in every aspect from the writing over the plotting right down to the grammar, atrocious. But you will still find your gems in between - and enough of them to make it worth your time and effort.

Fan-fiction usually can’t keep up with professionally published stuff (even though a few stories might), but it’s still a very entertaining way to spend time - and one for free as well. So if you’ve never looked at fan-fiction before, I suggest you Google it and go out and have a look now. You might actually find quite some treasures which will brighten your day.