Fanfiction is creative writing relating to a popular story (books, movies, TV shows, manga, anime, etc.) written by fans of that work for other fans. Occasionally someone who is not a fan will make a parody, and that is also a kind of fanfiction, but most fanfiction is written by genuine fans.
Fanfiction comes in many different genres and with different relations to canon (that is, the official original book, movie, etc.), but a few of the most important are the missing moments, the alternate ending, the alternate universe, different point of view, and crossover fics.
One of my favourite websites, tvtropes.org, has an in-depth explanation, analysis, and exploration into the nature of fanfiction and also a list of the tropes ("are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations"-tvtropes homepage) associated with it.
There are both positive and negative sides to fanfiction, both reading it and writing it.
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| Fan art of fanfiction |
- Fanfiction can make you love the originals even more. It can be fascinating to see how other people view your favourite stories and characters. Sometimes when I read Narnia fanfiction, I'll come across a great portrayal of Edmund. I've liked Edmund for years, but you can find some lovely portrayals of his character and possible interactions with his siblings, subjects, Aslan, and fellow students at school. The fandom has made me love Edmund even more. My favourite Narnia fanfictions--Black Dwarves, Blue River by Elecktrum, and Finding Narnia: Aftermath by FyreFlyte (even though it's not finished)
- Fanfiction can also lead you to loving new stories and characters that you hadn't considered before. It can be fascinating to come to know somebody's interpretation and thoughts on a character you've never paid much attention to. Fanfiction is what lead me to watch the anime of the manga/anime series Bleach. The best things about Bleach are the settings and the characters. The plot isn't quite as interesting, especially after the first arc or so. But a great setup and a great, attractive, and extensive cast of characters is a perfect bait for fanfiction. I believe I first stumbled across a crossover story of Harry Potter and Bleach on the favourites list of one of my favourite authors (Vathara). That particular story never made its way onto my favourites list, but it was enough to get me curious about Bleach, and soon I'd watched much of the anime and read several very enjoyable fanfics. Since there are so many characters, I had only a few that I'd paid extensive attention to, but there are other fans who love some of the other characters. For example it was because of fanfiction stories that I decided that Ukitake Juushiro was made of awesome (mostly the Meifu's Gate series), and that Ise Nanao would have made a much more competent villain. Most of these day-in-the-limelight types of stories don't make it into my favourites collection, so I don't remember them quite so well, and I don't have so many to recommend, but they have had a significant affect on my perceptions and enjoyment of the original story.
- There are even fics that are kind of educational. These tend to be my favourites. Some authors obviously do their research, and their stories are full of psychoanalysis, realistic world-building and world-shaping, historical background, sometimes a historical background they've created for their interpretation of the canon analogous to real-world events, or somewhat subtly discuss philosophy. Some of the fics for Bleach use Japanese words, and then provide translations at the bottom.
Negative points against reading fanfiction:
- It's addictive. Seriously. Fanfiction.net has an enormous selection (over 600,000 for just Harry Potter; 67,000 for Bleach; and 29,000 for Star Wars . . . and while those are some of the most popular fandoms there are a heck of a lot of others). That's an awful lot of free entertainment. Also, at least in my case, every story that I read requires a certain amount of emotional investment before I can really care about that set of characters and their difficulties. With fanfiction, you already know at least some version of most of the characters (there are sometimes OCs--original characters--but I rarely care much about them beyond their relation to the canon characters) so the emotional investment is much smaller for a comparable amount of emotional satisfaction. This is actually one of my favourite things about fanfiction, but the problem with it is that it's difficult to stop reading and get on to doing other things like homework.
- Much of it is poorly written. Fanfiction is written almost entirely by amateurs, and it usually shows. There are authors who are really good, and even some who are in the process of getting their own original books published, but the majority or fanfic writers seem to be pre-teens or teenagers who just want to write.
- Some of it is worse than poorly written. Some of it is basically porn. Usually things that sketchy are marked M, and don't come up when you are just browsing through the fanfiction for a work. Not that all fics marked M are for sexual reasons, some of it is for lots of really strong language or a lot of violence. There are also some fics with a lower rating that probably ought to be rated higher. Things to watch out for--anything labeled "lime," "lemon," or really anything citrus, "slash," "shonen-ai," "yaoi," and "yuri." I'm not exactly sure what all of those mean myself (don't want to either) but the general meaning is that the story is overtly sexual or homosexual.
Positive points for writing fanfiction:
- Fanfiction can be a good way of practicing your writing skills. Usually you can get more feedback on your story that way since fanfic readers know better what they're getting when they click on your story. The Star Wars and Narnia fandoms are particularly good places for getting feedback. Also, you don't have to come up with a character from scratch, since you're borrowing the core characteristics and looks of the original character for your own purposes. Keeping the character in character is good practice for creating your own. The benefits of a pre-created setting are pretty similar, and it's nice to be able to practice balancing describing the setting and actions with dialogue.
Negative points against writing fanfiction:
- You might not ever get over using the familiar settings and characters as crutches to your own writing. Since the reader comes to the story with their own ideas of what's going on already in their head, it can be easy to be sloppy. Probably a lot of the grammar, spelling, and background and cultural mistakes aren't dealt with and improved on because of Sloppiness due to a lack of stringent criticism.
- I have an account on Fanfiction.net, and one brief story that may someday be continued posted for the Narnia fandom. There's a list of my favourite fics and authors on my account, but just so you know most of them are very long, fascinating, and highly distracting.
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