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There is so much talk these days about Fanfiction. People either love it or hate it. I notice that the younger audience can't get enough of reading a writing it. I run a Facebook page for 13-20-year-old girls, and it's their favorite genre. However, I noticed that the more adult crowed seem to hate it. Most people over the age of thirty seem to think it is a genre based on ripping off other authors. What are your thoughts?

Hi Elle. I belonged to Old Fandom, back in the days when we printed and posted zines around the world (and were much lesser known about, I believe). My fandoms were SF TV; I read and wrote fanfic, and have a cupboard of treasured zines from the 80s-90s.

And, you know, to my mind, it's why I slipped into indie publishing like a fish to water. Like indie, we did it for ourselves, and like indie, we valued a freedom of creativity not found in prof. You can add, if you want, like indie there was a lot of trash. But there was treasure.

If I can Riff a bit on Elle's question, I'm curious too not just in who likes to read Fan Fic, but WHY.

My theory, if I can put it at the front of the discussion, is that reading has migrated from something to savor into something to consume. We plow through our favorite novel series because we're anxious to know what happens, we want to see who dies, who gets married, what the new mystery that gets solved is. And when we reach the end we go "heh. now what?" So we look to fan fiction to keep those stories going with characters we know and love.

I love to read fan fic, and I used to write it myself. What mostly drew me to fan fic was that it explored relationships and topics that were only hinted at in my favourite TV shows / books / movies, that were just an afterthought, a possibility there. In fan fic it became real. If there was a pairing I liked on a TV show / book / movie but it just wasn't happening there, then I would search the internet and find everything I was craving. It's wonderful. I don't read as much fan fic anymore now (simply because I try to use my spare time for writing ;-) ), but I still think it's a wonderful thing. It gives small fandoms free publicity, it connects fans.
I love that some fan fic was written about my own work. Nothing makes me happier, and nothing is a bigger compliment to a writer, I think. Imagine - you created characters other people find so interesting that they want to write about them. I think it's a brilliant thing.

So in my experience, fan fic isn't just about reaching the end of a story and wanting more. It's about exploring different sides of characters, and create new pairings the author probably never even thought about. Fan fic fills in the gaps.

I've written several novels worth of Doctor Who fan fiction, from silly 'outside continuity' adventures to a full-on novelising of the Time War. Exploring the cracks between adventures, and writing the stories I'd love to see in the show, basically.

Having said all that, I don't write much fanfic any more. I want to build a writing-based career, and while I've made some great friends through fandom, it's not going to help me get a novel written.

Having said all that, I don't write much fanfic any more. I want to build a writing-based career, and while I've made some great friends through fandom, it's not going to help me get a novel written.

Au Contraire mon ami...

Fan fiction can be very much seen as a way of spending time as a cover band, which while it's not doing original work, can get you a following/ help/ etc.

while I've made some great friends through fandom, it's not going to help me get a novel written.

Well, I'm in the over 30 crowd, so there you have it. I'm not fond of it. It just seems to lack originality.

To be fair, I did read some fan fiction in my late teens and even then, I thought it was alright at best.

However, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. This is a "personal preference" thing for me. I think it should be out there for people that do enjoy reading/writing it. Clearly there's an audience for it.

Honestly I have never been fond of fan fiction. I just don't really see the point. Ok, maybe I'm weird... lol

I'm 43, so I suppose I am proving your point - I've never cared much for fan fiction.

But I have deliberately immersed myself in some Jane Austen fan fic recently based solely on my obsession with all things Jane. Some is ho-hum, some is ok, and some is just plain atrocious. I have yet to find any that I am whole-heartedly devoted to, but its been fun exploring it all the same.

Still, I'm becoming bored of it and will probably give it up for my preferred authors again soon.

How would you classify the "Play by Email/ Writing groups" set in various worlds?

For a while I particpated in a "Game" on Live Journal where people would write as a character, not nessecairly in a Live Journal way, but in an "excerpt from a Jane Austin novel from that character's point of view" way. It was quite fun, and we had some really well done scenes.

Does that classify as a form of fan fic? Or is that just people poking around?

I used to read a lot of fan fiction and I wrote some too. I tend to think of it as being more for younger audiences since it really is a great way to express your creativity in a generally positive environment. You are working on telling new stories with old characters and are judged with how well you match the new story with the expectations readers have for the old characters. I don't really read it anymore, but I used to love reading and writing it.

Great topic, Elle. Personally, I have never read any fan fiction. I know some people who have and have really liked it, but I don't feel that I could enjoy it. For example, I thought the Harry Potter books were incredible and very well written. I couldn't imagine anyone being able to pull that off except J.K. Rowling. I'm not knocking the people that do it, it's just not my thing. The same goes for cover bands and movie remakes. It may be good and it may be entertaining, but it's not the same. It's not what I fell in love with.

I confess I find some fan fic interesting. I'm not an avid reader of it --- in fact, I haven't read any in a couple years. But it's interesting to skim a bunch of different stories to see what they all have in common. Doing this often uncovers visceral truths about the appeal of the characters/setting they are using.

Well... I gave up. I'm writing fan fic now as practice for bigger stuff. I think part of what finally pushed me over was Grafton's confession of how many books she had to write before she had one worthy of publication.

By writing fan fic you remove the temptation to push it out as a finished sale-able product and instead it remains just practice work.

I used to love writing fan fiction, and occasionally reading some too. Nowadays, I steer away from it. I don't have anything against it, but when I read a bit of it, I always have that feeling that it's not real. What I mean is that the only "true" story is what the actual author writes.

Anyone else feel like that?

Exactly Lena, that's how I feel about it. Fan fiction is not the real story.

How is it not real?

I mean, it's true, fan fiction works, in part, because the writer is basing the story in an established fictional universe, often using established characters. It becomes a tale of "What if" and "what happens next" rather than a 100% truly originally crafted tale.

But, let's set that aside, and focus on what makes it "real" or "true".

Is it that, say Rowlings creates her world for Harry Potter and therefore only she can tell the "True" story within that world? That if someone reads it and says "I want to write about an adventure that forced its way into Harry's lap after graduation" it's not the a "real" story because it came from a new source?

Or is it that it could conflict with someone else? I'm working on, to shamelessly promote and make full disclosure, a Fan Fic based in the Harry Potter 1930's. So far it's almost all original characters, the notable exception being a first year Tom Riddle. Is the story less "true" because my version of events might conflict with someone elses and then you'd have two different sets of events that are supposed to have happened concurrently?

I'm quite curious....

Maybe not so much that it's not real, but that it's not canon.

I fell in love, and out of it, with Star Wars fan fiction back in the 1990's. I started to enjoy it quite a bit, but I started to lose track of which stories fed into other stories. It muddled my view of the characters. It's not too unlike trying to be a comic book fan these days.

That's why I rarely read it anymore, and when I do, it's usually from a specific reason or author.

Rob, I would think what you're doing is more of a real story than when someone takes all the original characters and goes from there. Why, simple because it's not their characters or their story to tell. I mean what you describe sounds less like what I'd call fan fiction but a linking of stories, if that makes sense to anyone other than me.. lol

It makes sense, Nora :p

I think the part that makes it not true to me is that an author has a certain vision for his/her story. That includes the past, the present, the future, the people that inhabit that world, the things that are possible and not possible.

Take Harry Potter for example. If someone wrote a fan-fic about Harry's future where he divorces Ginny and then uses a spell to summon 500 dragons to destroy London... well, that doesn't seem right, does it? This is of course a very extreme example, but I have read fan-fic where the writer comes up with things that don't seem plausible for the world/character that the author initially created.

I've also read some where a fan-fic writer comes up with a story that would take place post-book, and then the author writes an actual sequel, and the ideas clash. Which one is true there? I mean hey, if the fan-fic is better than what the author came up with, awesome! It's just a matter of personal opinion in the end.

In a way, I think fan-fic really honors the author of the original work. How great that people are so inspired to write about it :) At the same time, you are taking the author's ideas (world, characters, events). Where does it cross that true/untrue line? I think that's just another matter of personal opinion and a per-story based one.

Rob, what you're doing sounds very interesting! Does it conflict with JKR's ideas? How much do we know about the HP world of the 1930s? I honestly can't remember how much was mentioned about that time in the HP books...

Thank you to all for the insight. I really was curious, though I admit that sometimes asking what people intended can come off snarky.

For my work I wanted to be true to the world of JKR as possible, however there are some problems. First the dates shift around a lot in the 40's as to who is where when. Before the 7th book, the best estimates put McGonnagall as an older student during the time that Tom Riddle attended Hogworts, and did the same for Hagrid and the opening of the Chamber of secrets. Then with the release of Pottermore even more information came out and shifted a bunch of dates around from what people had figured out before.

For me, I ended up creating a fictional author note that tries to explain away any inconsistencies as the result of me writing the book based on personal accounts, so I have some reason that it doesn't match "canon" when it doesn't.

I still read fanfic, years later, though these days, only the terrific stuff that does original things with the material, or that's way better than what you ever got on tv.

I used to be obsessed with reading fan fiction mostly for the crack pairings. Lol I'm kind of still am. But, I don't read it as much as I used to. It's still fun to see how people use another's characters' though.

Honestly, I think people and even a few authors need to realize that fan fiction is just that...a fan writing about their favorite characters. It has nothing to do with ripping on someone's story.

I would be really flattered if someone wrote fan fiction for my characters. It's really fun to see people make a character a bit OOC or something like that.

So, what I'm saying is I have no problem with fan fiction at all. ^___^ I kind of like it.

Racquel wrote: "...I would be really flattered if someone wrote fan fiction for my characters...."

Oh me too! I'd know I'd gotten into their hearts - and I'd wallow in the fic, whether excellent, bad or indifferent.

I really can't stand fanfiction! Most fanfic writers either ruin the book/movie/musician for me do I just steer clear!

I enjoy fanfiction. I mean, there are of course some terrible fanfics out there, but the awesome ones, the ones that make you remember why you loved the fandom in the first place, make it worth all the terrible ones. To use a Doctor Who quote here where it will be exaggerated by myself, "One may tolerate a world full of demons for the sake of one angel"--"One may tolerate a site full of terrible fics for the sake of a one amazing fic."

I personally dislike reading fan fictions because I have not found much in the way of good quality. I also feel it is a misuse of good characters. Do thse writers think they can improve on work alrady done? If the characters were created to go through thse often horrific situations these crumy writers put them thrugh, wouldnt the original creator have thought of it? Just my 9 cents lol.

Elle wrote: "There is so much talk these days about Fanfiction. People either love it or hate it. I notice that the younger audience can't get enough of reading a writing it. I run a Facebook page for 13-20-yea..."

hello, You certainly are not weird, I revile fan fiction with every ounce of my personage. The only good hting about it is in the case of TV, it helps fill in some blanks for me because I am totally blind. For example, it helps me to read descriptions of characters, their facial expresions etc that are missed by me.Nora aka Diva wrote: "Honestly I have never been fond of fan fiction. I just don't really see the point. Ok, maybe I'm weird... lol"

yes, I most certainly do feel as you do. Lena wrote: "I used to love writing fan fiction, and occasionally reading some too. Nowadays, I steer away from it. I don't have anything against it, but when I read a bit of it, I always have that feeling that..."