Love it or hate it, fan fiction is here to stay!
Whether you love it or hate it, fan fiction has grown to become a cult phenomenon. It has come up against controversy and issues of legality due to copy write laws, yet it has become so popular and deeply entrenched in Internet culture that it is far beyond anyone’s control.
Loosely defined, fan fiction is the re-writing of stories using characters and settings from an original piece of work, whether that be a movie, book, comic, TV show even a computer game.
Popular literature inspires people to imagine and in doing so they may find themselves thinking, what if this happened instead? Fan fictions popularity is based on the notion that anyone can create and share their imaginative fantasies. You can create your wildest dreams, you can make Harry Potter fall in love with Draco, and then become pregnant with his child. It is all up to you. The beauty of fan fiction is, you can ‘borrow’ your favorite characters, and make them do whatever your heart desires.
Fan fiction is not a modern day occurrence. In fact similar concepts to it were evident as far as back as the 8th century when re-tellings of the story of King Arthur were spread through Europe. The 19th century saw a influx of fan fiction, as re-writes and parody’s become popular, including novels such as Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes. Modern day fan fiction was cemented with the 1960s Star Trek fanzine (fan magazine) Spockanalia, which heralded a new form of creative writing.
There a few different templates in which a writer can use. Most common is the ‘chaptered fic’, which is a basic style in which the story is updated in chapters. ‘Drabble’ is short scene or idea, which usually lasts one chapter and does not have a plot line. Another common type you may have come across is ’songfic’, in which the writer uses a song as inspiration and writes their piece around the lyrics. A more imaginative concept is the ‘alternative universe’ form, in which the original setting of the story is altered, creating a new setting, or even a ‘crossover’ into a different work of fictions universe. An example of this would be to place Harry Potter in Tolkien’s Middle Earth and creating a story around that.
Fan-fiction has not come without problems, mostly issues of legality and copy write. Some writers, such as Anne Rice and Raymond E Feist have stated forcefully that they do not want any fan fiction written based on their work. Although there is little they can do about it, they must trust their fans to respect their request. Popular sites such as fanfiction.net, give a list of authors who they will not publish pieces on, in accordance with that authors wishes.
However some writers have accepted the culture surrounding their work and give their blessings. Most notable is JK Rowling who stated that she is “flattered” that people want to write about her characters, although is not comfortable with anything that is explicit. However, this cannot be changed, and the amount of Harry Potter smut (artwork and photo manipulation as well as writing) available out there is staggering. Most of this explicit work is that of ’slash’.
Slash is one of the most popular sub-genres of fan fiction. Mostly written by females, it focuses on a romantic or sexual attraction between two male characters that are originally considered heterosexual. The term ’slash’ comes from the slash symbol (/) that is placed between the names of the characters that will be paired in the story. Some of the most popular pairings include; Batman/Robin, James Kirk/Spock, Frodo/Sam, Jack Sparrow/Will Turner and of course, Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy.
Overall, the growth and accumulation of fan fiction expands everyday, with more and more pieces being written and published. I challenge anyone who has not read or written a piece of fan fiction to give it a go. You might find you enjoy it, it may become a hobby for you, you may even find people who love your stories. You can remain completely anonymous, and there are plenty of websites that will publish your stories. So if you have ever thought ‘what if?’ then let those scenarios play out on the Internet for others to enjoy, after all, you have nothing to lose.
Here is a few popular websites for you to enjoy:
General:
www.godawful.net
Harry Potter:
www.portkey.org
LOTR:
I have to admit i love reading LOTR fan fic, i had thought to write one myself, the story was going around in my head at one point, but i realised it was really a waste of time when i wanted to create/write about my own worlds and characters. but fanfic is a good starting point for newbie writers, as it gets their imagination rolling and gives them ideas for their own books, as my own fan fic story (which admittedly did get half written) gave me. 
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