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Fan fiction is a broadly defined term for fiction about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creators. Fan fiction usually describes works which are uncommissioned by the owner of the work, and not professionally published. Fan fiction is defined against original fiction, which exists with its own discrete universe, and against canon works within the universe. Most fan fiction writers assume that their readers have knowledge of the canon universe their works are based in.
One of the broadest definitions of fan fiction is simply unauthorized written work based on a published one. In this interpretation, works such as the books of the Biblical Apocrypha are used as an early example of fan fiction. Fan fiction is also seen by many as a modern equivalent of the oral literature tradition of shared stories. In this view, retellings of fairy tales can be considered fan fiction. In both of these views, Virgil's Aeneid would be fan fiction based on Homer's Iliad, and Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead would be fan fiction based on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
There is some debate over whether or not published novels based on an original work, such Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Star Wars, can be considered fan fiction. Some view them as a form of fan fiction because they were not written by the original creator, most especially when they are 'unofficial' or not considered part of canon by the work's fandom; however, debate rages on due to the fact that unlike most other modern works accepted as 'fan fiction', they are written for profit and published professionally. Also borderline on the issue are fan contributions to shared universes created by authors or a group of authors for anyone to add to, developing a whole fictional universe. A famous example of this is H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, which has seen both professional and fan contributions over more than fifty years.
Before about 1965, the term fan fiction was used in science fiction fandom to designate original amateur works of science fiction published in science fiction fanzines, as opposed to fiction which was professionally published. This usage is now obsolete. For the purpose of this article, 'fan fiction' will be used in its current modern context, to refer works deliberately based on a particular original work, usually without the original creator's expressed permission and usually not (legally) published professionally for profit.
History
Fan fiction as it is understood now began perhaps as early as the turn of the 19th century with parodies and revisions of Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland by authors including Frances Hodgson Burnett and E. Nesbit. There were also several fan-authored versions of Sherlock Holmes stories. In the 1920s and 30s fans of Jane Austen wrote stories based on her characters and published them in fanzines.
The phenomenon of fan fiction as part of fandom and fan interaction was popularized through the Star Trek fandom and fanzines published in the 1960s. The first Star Trek fanzine, Spockanalia, was published in 1967 and contained some fan fiction. The first commercial photocopying machine had been invented in 1959, and this technology made it significantly easier for fans to distribute material.
The 1970s saw an expansion of fan fiction distribution and further laid the foundations of the modern subculture surrounding the genre. Grup, the first Star Trek fanzine oriented toward adult fan fiction, was first published in 1972. File Transfer Protocol was also created, allowing for a hosting of early fan fiction archives, and in 1973 Paula Smith identified and named the original character trope Mary Sue in Star Trek fan fiction, giving rise to a term that became so ubiquitous in the modern fan fiction community that it has now begun to earn a foothold in the wider English lexicon. Additionally, in 1974 Grup #3 published "A Fragment Out of Time," the first known "slash" story to be published in a fanzine, although there is speculation that the Kirk/Spock story "Ring of Soshern" was distributed privately in Britain earlier than that.
In 1975 "slash" fan fiction, and fan fiction in general, were recognized academically in a Grup article by D. Marchant and the book Star Trek Lives!, edited by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston.
The late 1970s also saw the creation of more Star Trek fanzines as well as fan fiction for other fandoms, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Space 1999 and Star Wars. This time also saw the first fanzine convention in Japan and the creation of Star Trek fan clubs in Australia. In 1977, the publishers of the Star Trek fanzine Dreadnought Explorations received a Cease and Desist order from Paramount, however, the case was dropped when Paramount realized that the fanzine was not a professional publication.
Both Listproc and Usenet were invented in 1980, allowing public Internet-based gatherings of fans, and wider distribution of fan fiction; the internet as a whole would later become the most widely-used method of publication of fan fiction.
In 1981 Lucasfilms Ltd. sent out a letter to several fanzine publishers asserting Lucasfilm's copyright to all Star Wars characters and insisting that no fanzine publish pornography. The letter also alluded to possible legal action that could be taken against fanzines that did comply. Later that year, the director and legal counsel of the Official Star Wars Fan Club sent fanzine publishers a set of official guidelines. Lucasfilms supported fan publications contingent on them upholding these guidelines.
Gopher protocol was invented in 1991, and hosted some early fan fiction archives. But it has since been replaced by the World Wide Web, which was created a year later.
1992 also saw the publication of Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins. The text explores the nature of fan interaction with canon sources and the advent of fan fiction, slash fan fiction and the culture of fandom. Henry Jenkins has said, "Fanfiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by folk." His work has had a strong influence on the academic study of fan fiction, and also has lent to the view of fandom and fan fiction as analogous to the oral folk tradition.
Fan fiction has become increasingly more popular and widespread since the advent of the World Wide Web. Many archives were created that hosted specific sorts of stories, or stories for specific fandoms, and in 1998 FanFiction.Net came online. At the time of its initial creation, it accepted any sort of writing, original or fan fiction, though it has since seperated its original fiction section to FictionPress and banned several subgenres, included explicitly sexual stories (referred to as "NC-17" before the Motion Picture Association of America chose to enforce its ownership of the MPAA ratings system), Real person fiction and stories featuring song lyrics (the latter two in order to avoid legal problems, including copyright infringement for unauthorized use of copyright lyrics). This ability to self-publish fan fiction at a common archive, and the ability to review the stories directly on the site, became very popular quite quickly. FanFiction.net now hosts literally millions of stories in dozens of languages, including more than 250,000 Harry Potter stories, and its status as the single largest, most wide-ranging, and most popular fan fiction archive online is indisputable.
LiveJournal was founded in 1999. This played a large part in the move away from mailing lists to blogs as a means for fan communication and the sharing of fan fiction; although much fan fiction today is published to FanFiction.net and similar archives, it would be impossible to tell if more or less fan fiction today is posted directly to LiveJournal and other blogging services than to fan fiction-specific archives.
For a more detailed timeline of fan fiction see Fanfic Symposium.
Common subgenres of fan fiction
Subgenres based on relationship to canon
Alternative universe
An alternative universe or alternate universe (AU) story is one that makes major changes to the canonical storyline or premise, such as killing off the main character, changing characters' motives or alliances or, most commonly, changing the setting. Generally, to be considered an alternative universe story, the change must be something that would be extremely unlikely to happen in canon, or must be contradicted by new canon information that was not released when the story was first written. For example, in the Harry Potter universe, a story about Cedric Diggory's adult life written after the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which Cedric dies before reaching adulthood.
Crossover
Another fan fiction subgenre is the crossover story, in which either characters from one story exist in (or are transported to) another pre-existing story's world, or more commonly, characters from two or more stories interact. An example would be the human refugee fleet led by the Battlestar Galactica finding and entering the territory of Star Trek
MST
MSTings (sometimes called MiSTings) are commentaries on fan fiction stories, written in the style of the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). In MST3K, a man and some homemade robots trapped on a spaceship watch bad movies and make humorous comments about them. For written MSTings, bad fan fiction is used.
Generally speaking, MSTers follow a code of conduct, though some places such as Fandomination.net and Project A.F.T.E.R. have MSTings which clearly violate these "rules." One of the least respected rules is that MSTing authors should always obtain permission from the author(s) of the fanfics that they are MSTing.
Although MSTings originated as MST3K fanfics, some people have used the MSTing format with an original cast or the cast of the canon the original fan fiction is based on, instead of the MST3K characters.
It should be noted that FanFiction.net, among other archives, has banned the posting of MSTs, commonly citing that they include writing that is not the work of the author of the MST.
Pastiche
Fan fiction also exists in the form of independent, fan-produced pastiches and parodies of established works, including fan-produced film and video. The first such parody was 1978's Hardware Wars. One of the best known is Troops, a parody of the reality television show Cops, depicting Star Wars Imperial stormtroopers on patrol.Sherlock Holmes, the Cthulhu Mythos and several of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fantasy series have fan fiction pastiche communities. This tradition comes from the establishment of literary societies, dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. These societies attracted both professional and fan writers. They practice a semi-professional level of publication of fan fiction of a specifically sophisticated literary nature, both in print quality and community expectations. Star Trek fans quickly developed a pastiche community around the Kraith series, which began appearing in fanzines in 1967 and had about thirty contributors. Probably the best-known example of such a community as of 2006 would be the followers of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series.
Virtual seasons
The virtual season is usually a collaborative effort to produce a compilation of fan stories or scripts portraying episodes of an entire season for a television program – usually one that has been cancelled or is no longer producing new episodes. Often, these writers will elect members of their group to be the imaginary producers, head writers, editors, and other traditional roles to aid in the coordination of the virtual season's material, direction, and continuity. Every effort is made to reproduce and carry on the details of the program as professionally as possible. The most dedicated of these teams sometimes produce fan films such as Star Trek, New Voyages.
Subgenres based on character relationships
Alternate pairing and "shipping"
In fan fiction communities, pairing refers exclusively to romantic or erotic involvement; never to mere friendship or team involvement. An alternate pairing story centers on a relationship between characters who are not involved nor seen as involved in canon. Many fandoms have set "canon" pairings based on strong hints in the original story, though fandoms tend refer to pairings as "canon pairings" more often when characters have actually had a stated attraction or involvement (kissing, confessions of feelings, sexual relations, etc.) in canon. A canon containing many changing relationships (such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives, or any number of soap operas) is more apt to generate fan fiction with alternate pairings. Fans often refer to romantic or sexual relationships as a "ship" and people who are in favor of two particular characters pairing up are referred to as "shippers."
Lemon and Lime
Explicit sex stories in general, especially in anime fan fiction, are known as lemon, a term which comes from a Japanese slang term meaning "sexy" that itself derives from an early pornographic cartoon series called "Cream Lemon." The term lime denotes a story that has sexual themes but is not necessarily explicit. "Lemon" stories without much plot other than sex are also referred to as smutfics or as PWPs ("Porn Without Plot" or "Plot? What Plot?"). These terms are also sometimes used to describe original amateur fiction that is published online.Slash and het
Slash is, depending on one's preferred definition: a subgenre of romance fan fiction which exclusively deals in homosexual or male homosexual relationships; a subgenre of Alternate Pairing that addresses a relationship between characters of the same gender, especially males; or the same thing as an Alternate Pairing. The expression comes from the late 1970s, when the "/" symbol began to be used to designate a romantic relationship between Star Trek characters, especially between James T. Kirk and Spock. In the Star Trek fandom, 'slash' still currently tends to refer to any non-canon ship (including heterosexual ones), although in most other fandoms, the meaning has morphed into referring specifically to same-sex or even, frequently, to exclusively male same-sex pairings.Stories with male homosexual pairings are the most common. Lesbian relationships are often referred to as "femslash" or "femmeslash" to distinguish them from the male/male pairing stories, though some fans prefer to use the term "Saffic" (a portmanteau of "Sapphic" and "fiction"). Fans of Japanese manga or anime tend to use the Japanese terms relating to the subgenres, referring to male homosexual pairings as yaoi or shōnen-ai and lesbian pairings as yuri or shôjo-ai. The former term for each typically represents the more sexually explicit stories, while the latter generally represents more romance-centered stories, though they are occasionally used interchangeably.
"Het" is the opposite of "slash" (by most of the term's definitions), classifying a romance and/or sexually explicit story which has as its main focus a heterosexual relationship.
Other subgenres
Real person fiction
Real person fiction, often abbreviated "RPF", is written about real people such as actors, politicians, athletes and musicians. For instance, because of the many rumours about Lauren Graham and Scott Patterson starring in Gilmore Girls, some fans choose to write stories about these two actors rather than their characters on the show.
There are some people who disagree on whether or not RPF is genuine 'fan fiction', though this largely depends on one's definition of the term 'fan fiction'.
Formats of fan fiction
There are three usual distinctions of fan fiction based on length, which are common to most fan fiction archives. Chaptered "fic" is written in a similar manner to traditional serial stories, with each chapter released separately as it is finished. Chapters may take anything from a day to several months to be updated and often remind readers of their place in the story with each new installment. Most archives allow to authors to upload individual chapters sequentially under a single title with a main link to the first chapter, and each chapter easily linked to via a drop down menu.
These stories are a form of webserial, although that term is not common in fan fiction circles. They are often described as ‘epics’ or ‘series.’ Until they are finished, they are referred to as Works in Progress (WsiP or WIPs). On message boards and mailing lists, where the chapters are not easily consolidated, the chapter is usually marked as a number of the total chapters expected: 2/4, or 13/?. Authors will also often leave a link in each part to previous parts for readers who may not have seen the previous chapters updated.
Single-chapter stories of any length are called usually refereed to as one-shots. Stories with two chapters are sometimes called two-shots, although this can also refer to a one-shot and its sequel. There are various terms for different lengths and they are sometimes used interchangeably. These include "flashfic" for stories under 500 words, and short-short for stories between 500 and 1000 words. The term "ficlet" is also commonly used for stories under approximately 1000 words. A piece of fan fiction is usually considered ‘long’ if it over 1000 words, although it can still be considered a short story up to about 20,000 words in terms of professional publishing, and a novella or novelette can describe a story between 20,000 and 40,000 words.Rana Eros, When Size Matters, www.trickster.prg/symposium/symp162.html
A drabble is traditionally a story exactly 100 words in length. In fan fiction writing circles, many fandoms have a drabble community which sets a weekly prompt for authors to use in a drabble. A prompt can be a theme such as ‘faith’ or ‘mothers,’ a specific situation such as ‘someone is bleeding,’ an object, a line of poetry, an instruction such as ‘only dialogue,’ or ‘from the point of view of a minor character,’ etc. Some authors also regularly ask their friends to give them a prompt, or a specific pairing for them to write a story from. The resulting stories are more and more often referred to as drabbles, and the meaning has extended in some places to include anything that is less than 500 words.
In manga-based fandoms, textual fanfiction and fan produced manga can also come under the term dôjinshi (also sometimes romanized as doujinshi). This is a Japanese term for self-published works, usually manga, novels, fan guides, art collections, or games, often sold in small runs for a minor profit. While most dôjinshi featuring fan fiction is not technically legal under Japanese copyright law, the general practice of most copyright owners is to allow it, on the grounds that it keeps fans interested in the original work and fosters the talent of amateur artists and writers who may choose to go professional, such as CLAMP.
Script, "scriptfic" or screenplay stories are stories that are written in a screenwriting or playwriting format. While most are not written in the style of professional scripts, most do have the basic structure. Scripts are typically written in present tense, as opposed to past-tense of chapter/novel stories. Some archives, such as Fanfiction.net, have a ban on script-format stories, usually categorizing them together with "chatfics", stories in which an instant messaging or chatroom conversation is carried out between characters. Most script-format story writers simply moved their script-format work to another archive or a blog service such as LiveJournal after such bans went into place on their respective favorite archives.
Additional associated terminology
Referring to Characters
Anti-Mary Sue
An anti-Mary Sue (usually shortened to 'anti-Sue' or 'anti Sue') is the product of an author doing everything that he/she can to prevent their characters from becoming a Mary Sue. Normally, an anti-Mary Sue will be physically unattractive, not powerful in the least, hated by most canon characters or else just not interact with them at all, and will most likely be nothing short of an utter and complete failure. Some readers find these characters to be refreshing, being more believable than commonplace Mary Sue. Other readers, however, consider them just as forced and as cliched as traditional Mary Sues.
IC
IC is an acronym which stands for In-Character, and refers to the behavior of (usually canon) characters which seems logical given what is known about them and their previous behavior in canon (see: OOC later in this article).Mary Sue
Mary Sue (Sue for short) is a pejorative term that refers to characters perceived as being badly-characterized and unsympathetic, often written in a cliché manner, who usually dominate the story they appear in, whether through upstaging the established characters, romancing one or more established characters, or having her own story set in the same universe in which she is the star. Mary Sue most often refers to a heavily idealized character, and as such, most argue that characters they perceive as Mary Sues lack any significant or noteworthy flaws, and thus are unrealistic. Most characters labeled as Mary Sues happen to be OCs (see: original character), but some maintain that even established characters (referred to as canon characters or sometimes canons) can be made into a Mary Sue, or that characters in original fiction can be one as well. Many, but not all, Mary Sues are also self-inserts (see: self-insert). The term Mary Sue usually refers specifically to a female character; the male equivalent has a number of designations, among them "Marty Stu", "Harry Lou," "Marty Sam", and "Gary Stu"; most are a variation or wordplay on "Mary Sue", either rhyming with it or including many of the same letters.
OOC
OOC is an acronym for Out of Character. The acronym form of the term may or may not come from the online role-playing community, in which the same acronym is often used to denote comments made while not actually playing the role of a character. However, its usage in fan fiction is different, and closer to the original literary meaning of the term, referring only to the behavior of (usually canon) characters in the story itself regarding whether or not they seem "in-character" (see: IC).Original Character
An Original Character (OC) is a character originated by a fan author, as opposed to being a character who comes from the canon source; the term, especially in acronym form, is typically used by fan fiction writers to refer to characters in their original fiction works as well. The label "OC" includes everyone from bystanders to minor characters to major characters. Almost all characters in original fiction are OCs (save perhaps for historical figures), so the term original character has a completely different contextual meaning depending on whether one is speaking of original or fan fiction.Self-Insert
- ''Main article}|s}}: Author character}
Self-insertion consists of an author writing him- or herself into the story in one role or another. The resulting "character" is usually referred to as a self-insert. The term is often closely associated with Mary Sue, but does not actually exclusively apply to the kinds of characters typically labeled a Mary Sue.
It is a common mistake to confuse the terms 'Mary Sue' and 'self-insert', especially since generally Mary Sues are seen as being the kind of person the author wishes they could be and often are a form of idealized self-insertion (especially in cases in which the character is revealed to have a secret relationship to one or more canon characters, such as being a long-lost relative), but the two terms do have two distinct meanings.
Misc.
AN or A/N
Sometimes an author of a fanfiction will give an A/N or AN, which stands for "author's note(s)". Usually in commentary before and/or after a part of a fan fiction, frequently in each chapter; when used at the beginning of a chapter, they usually include a disclaimer stating that the fan author does not own the original story (and giving the correct, appropriate copyright and/or trademark information) and does not intend to profit from writing the story. Some authors also include "ANs" in parentheses somewhere in the body of the story, though this is generally frowned upon.Canon
- Main article: Canon (fiction)
Canon (derived from the term's usage in the Christian religion and popularized in this context by the Baker Street Irregulars) refers to the "official" source material upon which fan fiction can be based. In recent years, some fandoms have engaged in lengthy debate over what is or is not "canon", usually due to multiple writers in various media creating contradictory source material, such as metaseries like Doctor Who. Many fans have particularly varying levels of faith in the potentially "canonical" nature of novels based on films or television series, or novelizations of films and television episodes, which are generally not written by the person who wrote the script on which they're based, the creator, or even a member of the main writing staff.
It is important to note that something that is regarded as "canon" is regarded as verifiable fact in the given fandom. Details as complex as the laws of physics in a given story universe or as minute as how a character's name is meant to be spelled can be referred to as "canon" details, so long as they are specifically shown or otherwise directly revealed in the source material; this includes character behavior as well, though debate over what can or cannot be considered "canon behavior" is often a bone of contention in any given fandom. On occasion, authors (such as Joss Whedonor JK Rowling[http://www.jkrowling.com) also expand on what is shown in the original story in other media, especially personal websites or blogs. Generally comments on the nature of a story or character directly from the creator are considered statements of "canon".
Fandom
- ''Main article}|s}}: Fandom}
In fan fiction communities, especially online, generally fandom refers to people who enjoy a story or game and actively interact with others who share the same love for the media, or rather, a group (however scattered) of such individuals; the term is a portmanteau of fan and kingdom. The term is often used with possessive pronouns, similar to how one would refer to one's country or religion, reflecting some fans' passionate devotion and personal attachment to certain fandoms; however, many fans who are said to belong to a given fandom might be only slightly more than casually interested.
Fanon
Main article: Fanon
Fanon refers to invented (non-canon or not verified as being canon) facts or situations, especially those which are used frequently in fan fiction so as to become seen by many as an extended part of the canon. An example of a common fanon concept would be Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series having a fondness for leather pants; something frequently seen in fan fiction about him even though in the books, films and games, he has neither worn nor stated a liking for leather pants. It can also sometimes refer to a fact or term from canon which is often adopted by the fandom and subsequently repeated in fan fiction at a frequency not seen in canon (for example, Dr. Robert Chase from House M.D. was referred to as a "wombat" in one episode for being Australian, but the fact is played on constantly in House fan fiction).
Original Fiction
The opposite of fan fiction. Refers to wholly original works of fiction, for example, not based on any preexisting stories that were written by another author (though some accept stories based loosely upon mythology or folklore to be original fiction as well, and such works are rarely referred to as fan fiction, even when highly derivative of the original mythology, such as The Legendary Journeys), especially those which involve purely fictional characters, although some do make an exception for historical fiction featuring figures such as George Washington or Alexander the Great.Reviewing
Unlike traditional print publication, the internet offers the option of giving and receiving instantaneous feedback. As such, most fan fiction archives feature a "Review" system where readers can post comments about the story via form, to what's sometimes referred to as the "review board" (reviews page) of a story. These systems often are programmed to notify the author of new reviews, making them a common way for readers and authors online to communicate directly. Some original fiction archives, such as FanFiction.net's sister site FictionPress, also feature similar communication systems.
Since many such sites do not automatically moderate these systems, frequently the systems are abused and used to send to send flames, spam or trolling messages. For this reason, many such unmoderated systems allow the author the option of receiving only "signed" (non-anonymous) reviews, and many sites that sport such systems feature the suggestion to reviewers that they take the oppurtunity to give the author some constructive criticism, though it should be noted that this does not always stop "trolls" or those who simply disapprove of the work in question from commenting on the story.
Legal issues with fan fiction
References
See also
- Collaborative fiction
- Fanon
- Fandom
- Fan characters
- Fan art
- Fanposter
- FanFiction.Net
- Fanart Central
- Legal issues with fan fiction
- Shared universe
- Webserial
External links
- Fanfiction.net
- The Fan Fiction Glossary
- Fanfic Symposium: History of Fan Fiction
- Fan Fiction FAQ at chillingeffects.org
- Rights to Fan fiction Writing - essay on fan fiction
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"Fan fiction"