Category Archives: Personal

What a lovely day, I’m sweltering; I hope all my lovely readers are well and enjoying the weekend?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a question for you all.

Who reads fan fiction (or fanfic, or just plain fic)?

Hands up if you have or do.

Next question,

Hands up if you’ve ever written fanfic?

And the most important question of all,

Why?

Swear down I’m not judging, I’m just interested. Want to know why? Simple really, I was having a read through Twitter and someone from one of the bands I follow mentioned they were the subject of fanfic. I was torn between laughing, tweeting them to say serves them right for reading fic about themselves (but that might have seemed negative towards fanfic writers) and explaining the warnings and categories used in fan fiction writing.

Here we have a fine example of how my brain works.

This, and the fact that Ellie and I spent an evening at Download explaining to Mark-the-tent-lodger  the concept of fic, and associated abbreviations (do you know your OTP from your BROTP, NC-17 from dub-con?), led me to wonder just how widespread the phenomena is?

I first came across the concept of fanfic about two years ago, before that I didn’t know it existed. Now I know that several of my friends not only read, but also write fanfic. There’s a whole community of writers out there who mainly or only write fan fiction. It’s a fascinating world.

I’m told it’s origins lie in the mists of time, when Star Trek first appeared. Since then this creature has spread into literature, music and films, as well as a huge variety of television shows. Some concern real people and some fictional characters; however all treat them as stock characters in a story. Some even cross over e.g. the other day I read a fic in which the characters of the BBC Sherlock met NBC’s Hannibal. They can be ‘canon’, that is, fit into the existing storyline, or AU, in which anyone can be anywhere, anywhen or anything, provided they stay essentially true to the character.

Fan fiction has it’s own dedicated websites and online forums and groups. Fanfiction.net was the first I ever looked at, when I was reading ‘True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries’ fics. There’s an excellent series called ‘Oh no! Vampire Bill!’ that’s basically 1001 different ways to kill the most irritating character in the TV programme/books. Kept me entertained for days. Then I was directed to certain groups on Live Journal which specialise in real-person fics. The problem with both fanfic.net and live journal is that there is very little editing, although some groups have formatting rules. Also, it isn’t that easy to search at times.

Recently a new website, archiveofourown.org has become the place to find all your fanfic. Specifically designed to provide an easily searchable standard format for new stories, and an archive for older work, it is now becoming quite popular. Fairly regularly one finds links to both the writers’ Live Journal or other website, and AO3 posting of a fic. The tagging system can be awkward at times, but if you have an idea of what you’re looking for it is possible to find fics accurately, as there is a comprehensive search system, and the fics can usually he downloaded in a variety of formats. As well as that, series and chapters are linked together so it’s fairly easy to check for updates.

I don’t know about anyone else but I read fanfic because it’s fun, and a good story is a good story. I’ve read some right stinkers, some that need a bit of work, and some that need professional publishing. Now. Fanfics based on literature and films/television allow fans to immerse themselves in the universe of the originals in a creative way.

I suppose the real difficultly, for me at least, comes when real people are being written about. Yes, it’s fun making up stories about people you admire or inspire you, but how far can it be taken? Personally I feel that if we acknowledge the fics aren’t real, and that the people in them are ‘stock characters’ then it’s acceptable. Fics allow fans to explore fantasies, put their heroes in unreal situations and see what happens. So long as it remains a story and nobody thinks it’s real every thing is fine.

And if you’re daft enough to look for fanfic about yourself, you have been warned; run away quickly for you are heading into dangerous waters.

Generally speaking writers will tag their fics with a variety of codes, which are confusing if you’ve never seen them, but once understand become a second language. They will also tag any possible triggers, since fics quite often deal with mental illness, abuse, self-harm, suicide etc.

Fanfic readers also talk in code. I can’t decide whether the purpose is to unite fans or hide our guilty pleasure. For instance, when asked who you’re OTP is, you are being asked which romantic couple you like the most. The phrase ‘I ship it’ means ‘I love that…’, and abbreviations for romantic pairings can be entertaining.

So, that’s fanfic, I’d be interested to hear other people’s opinions on the subject.

And yes, occasionally I write fic, but I’m not telling you what about or where to find them. That’s between me and my co-conspiritors.

Good evening,

Rose