Fan fiction orfanfiction, also known asfan fic,fanfic,fic orFF, isfiction typically written in anamateur capacity byfans as a form offan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, anexisting work of fiction. The author usescopyrighted characters, settings, or otherintellectual properties from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing and can retain the original characters and settings, add their own, or both. Fan fiction ranges in length from a few sentences to novel-length and can be based on fictional and non-fictional media, includingnovels,movies,comics,television shows,musical groups,cartoons,anime andmanga, andvideo games.
Fan fiction is rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's creator or publisher or professionally published. It mayinfringe on the original author's copyright, depending on the jurisdiction and on legal questions, such as whether or not it qualifies as "fair use" (seeLegal issues with fan fiction). The attitudes of authors andcopyright owners of original works towards fan fiction have ranged from encouragement to indifference or disapproval, and they have occasionally responded with legal action.
The term came into use in the 20th century ascopyright laws began to distinguish between stories using established characters that were authorized by the copyright holder and those that were not.[1]
Fan fiction is defined by being related to its subject'scanonicalfictional universe, either staying within those boundaries but not being part of the canon, or being set in analternative universe.[2] Thus, what is considered "fanon" is separate from canon. Fan fiction is often written and published among fans, and as such does not usually cater to readers without knowledge of the original media.
The termfan fiction has been used in print as early as 1938; in the earliest known citations, it refers to amateur-writtenscience fiction, as opposed to "pro fiction".[3][4] The term also appears in the 1944Fancyclopedia, an encyclopaedia offandomjargon, in which it is defined as "fiction about fans, or sometimes about pros, and occasionally bringing in some famous characters from [science fiction] stories". It also mentions that the term is "sometimes improperly used to mean fan science fiction; that is, ordinaryfantasy published in afan magazine".[4][5]
Before the adoption of copyright in the modern sense, it was common for authors to copy characters or plots from other works. For instance,Shakespeare's playsRomeo and Juliet,Much Ado About Nothing,Othello,As You Like It andThe Winter's Tale were based on recent works by other authors of the time.[6]
In 1614,Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda wrote a sequel toMiguel de Cervantes'sDon Quixote before he had finished and published his own second volume.
There is a debate within the fanfiction community as to whether or notDante Alighieri'sInferno can be consideredself-insert fanfiction of theBible.[citation needed]
Among 19th-century literature that has been subject to depictions not authorized by the original author includeBram Stoker'sDracula's depiction in the translated adaptationPowers of Darkness.[7] The works ofJane Austen remain among the most popular works for unauthorized adaptations,[8] with a notable example ofJane Austen fan fiction beingOld Friends and New Fancies. Many unauthorized stories ofSherlock Holmes byArthur Conan Doyle have been created, includingThe Adventure of the Two Collaborators byJ. M. Barrie.[9] Other notable works includeThe Space Machine andMorlock Night, respectively based onThe War of the Worlds andThe Time Machine byH. G. Wells;A New Alice in the Old Wonderland, based onAlice's Adventures in Wonderland byLewis Carroll; andWide Sargasso Sea, based onJane Eyre byCharlotte Brontë.[10]
The modern phenomenon of fan fiction as an expression offandom and fan interaction was popularized and defined by theStar Trek fandom and itsfanzines, which were published in the 1960s.[11] The firstStar Trek fanzine,Spockanalia (1967), contained some fan fiction; many others followed its example.[12]: 1 These fanzines were produced using offset printing andmimeography and mailed to other fans or sold atscience fiction conventions for a small fee to cover the cost of production. Unlike other aspects of fandom, women were the primary authors of fan fiction; 83% ofStar Trek fan fiction authors were female by 1970, and 90% by 1973.[13] One scholar states that fan fiction "fill[s] the need of a mostly female audience for fictional narratives that expand the boundary of the official source products offered on the television and movie screen."[14]
Fan fiction has become more popular and widespread since the advent of the Internet. According to one estimate, fan fiction comprises one-third of all book-related content on the Internet.[15] In addition to traditional fanzines and conventions,Usenet newsgroups andelectronic mailing lists were established for fan fiction and fan discussion. Online, searchable archives of fan fiction were also created, with these archives initially being non-commercial hand-tended and specific to a fandom or topic. These archives were followed by non-commercial automated databases. In 1998, the non-profit siteFanFiction.Net was launched, which allowed anyone to upload content in any fandom.[16] The ability to self-publish fan fiction in an easily accessible archive that did not require insider knowledge to join, as well as the ability to review stories directly on the site, led the site to quickly gain popularity.[17]A popular example of modern fan fiction isE. L. James'sFifty Shades of Grey, which was originally written as fan fiction for theTwilight series and featured Bella and Edward. To avoid copyright infringement, James changed the characters' names to Ana and Christian for the purposes of her novels,[18] a practice known as 'pulling-to-publish'.[19]Anna Todd's 2013 fan fictionAfter, about the boy bandOne Direction, secured a book and movie deal with renamed characters in 2014.[20][21] A movie adaptation,After, was released on April 12, 2019.
On May 22, 2013, online retailerAmazon launched a new publishing service,Kindle Worlds, which allowed fan fiction of certain licensed media properties to be sold in theKindle Store, with terms including 35% of net sales for works of 10,000 words or more and 20% for short fiction ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 words. However, this arrangement included restrictions on content, copyright violations, poor document formatting, and use of misleading titles.[22] Amazon shut down Kindle Worlds in August 2018.[23]
A similar trend began inJapan in the 1960s and 1970s, asdoujinshi,independently publishedmanga and novels, were published bydoujin circles, with many being based on existingmanga,anime, andvideo game franchises.Manga artists such asShotaro Ishinomori andFujiko Fujio formeddoujin groups, such as Fujio's New Manga Party (新漫画党,Shin Manga-tō). At the time, artists useddoujin groups to make their debut as professional artists. This changed in the following decades, asdoujinshi became more popular anddoujin groups formed in groups such as school clubs. This culminated in 1975 with theComiket, a convention in Tokyo that helped to establish the fandom.
A 2010 study found that 75.2% of account holders onFanFiction.Net allowed the website to disclose their location and that 57% of accounts originated from theUnited States, followed by 9.2% created in theUnited Kingdom, 5.6% inCanada, and 4% inAustralia.[24] A 2020 study ofArchive Of Our Own users[25] found that of the surveyed profiles that stated a nationality, 59.7% were located in North America, 16.1% in Great Britain and an additional 10% in Mainland Europe, 6.3% in Oceania, 2.8% in Scandinavia, 2.2% in Asia, 1.8% in South America and the Caribbean, and 0.2% in the Middle East. The study did not include profiles written in Chinese, Greek, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, or Turkish.[25]
A 2020 study of Harry Potter fan fiction writers onArchive of Our Own (AO3) found that of the users who disclosed their gender in their profiles, 50.4% were female orfemme-leaning and 13.4% were male or masc-leaning. 11% of users weretransgender, 21% identified asnonbinary,genderfluid, and/orgenderqueer, and an additional 3.9% stated that they identified asagender or genderless.[25]
The study also found that fan fiction writers tend to be in their early to mid-20s. Of these writers, 56.7% were university students and young adults, 21.3% were 30 years or older, 19.8% were teenagers, and 0.2% were of retirement age.[25]
Unlike many fan fiction communities that trend female in participation,Fimfiction (the largest repository forMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan fiction) has a predominantly male audience.[26]
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In addition to the "regular"list of genres, there are some genres particularly associated with fan fiction. These genres can overlap and include:
Stories with anangst-ridden mood that focus on a character or characters who are brooding, sorrowful, or in anguish.
Stories that feature characters set in a universe other than their canonical one.[27] There are several types of alternative universe: it may make dramatic changes to the setting, such as a "fantasy AU" that places characters from a non-fantasy canon in a world of magic; change characterization, which is often referred to as someone being "out of character" (OOC) rather than a proper AU; or change major plot events to suit the author's purposes, such as in afix-it fic.[28]
Stories that feature characters in a world, often very similar to canon, wheresoulmates are real. Common mechanics include a person having their soulmate's name written on their skin at birth or a specific change that occurs when two soulmates see or touch each other for the first time. The most common trope in this genre is a character being convinced that they do not have, want, or deserve a soulmate, only to be proven wrong as they fall in love.
Stories in which a character is sent back in time to get a second chance while having knowledge of the original plot. It is also called "Peggy Sue" after the moviePeggy Sue Got Married, in which this scenario happens to the titular character. "Groundhog Day", named afterthe film, is a variation of this trope in which time travel happens repeatedly, usually until the time traveler "gets it right".
Stories that feature characters, items, or locations from multiple fandoms. Another type of crossover is "fusion fic", in which the two universes are merged into one.
Stories that are darker or more depressing than the original, often done in contrast to them. This is sometimes done with media that is intended to be light-hearted or for children. Darkfic can also refer to content that is "intentionally disturbing", such as physical or emotional violence or abuse. However, not all stories tagged as "dark" are considered to be a darkfic.
"Dead Dove Do Not Eat", sometimes abbreviated as DDDNE, is a sub-category of darkfic. It began as anAO3 tag in 2015, intended to warn people that the story contained dark themes without explicitly condemning them; because the dark themes were tagged, it served to reinforce readers' attention to them. Since 2015, it has evolved into its own tag, usually meaning that readers should take any other tagged dark themes more seriously than they otherwise would.
This term is in reference to the TV sitcomArrested Development, in which a character opens a bag that says "Dead Dove" on the outside only to discover that within it is a dead dove. The character then remarks "I don't know what I expected." This is used to illustrate that fanfictions tagged with this tag should be reviewed carefully, as the other tags should be taken seriously by the reader before reading.[citation needed]
Stories that rewrite canonical events that the author disliked or otherwise wanted to "fix", such as major plot holes or a tragic event or ending; for instance, an alternate universe where "everyone lives". Fix-it fics that focus on correcting flaws in the original work are also known as a "rebuild fic", named after theRebuild of Evangelion series. If it focuses heavily on critical thinking skills and deductive reasoning, it can be considered a "rationalist rewrite", as popularized byHarry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
Stories designed to be light-hearted and romantic.[29] Another term for this genre is WAFF, which is short for "warm and fuzzy feelings".
Stories in which a character is put through a traumatic experience in order to be comforted.[30] The climax of these stories is usually when one character witnesses another character's suffering and alleviates it. Another type of hurt/comfort is whump, which focuses on the character's suffering, sometimes to the exclusion of comfort; excessive whump may also be considered darkfic.[31]
Stories in which a version of the author is transported to the fictional world that the fan fiction is based on, which are oftenwritten in the first person. Self-insert fanfiction is often compared toMary Sue characters. Some researchers argue that self-insert characters can be found in literature from the 19th century and earlier.[32] There are several types of self-inserts, including: "y/n" (short for [insert] your name"), "xReader", and "imagines".[33][34] Several of these subgenres are unique to specific platforms.[34]
Stories based on an existing fan work. On Archive of Our Own, this type of recursive fan fiction is called a "remix".[35]
Stories which are interspersed with the lyrics of a relevant song.[36][37] The term is a combination of "song" and "fiction"; as such, it is also referred to as "songfiction". Since many song lyrics are undercopyright, whether songfics are a violation of copyright law is a subject of debate. Some fan fiction sites, such as FanFiction.Net, have prevented authors from posting songfics with lyrics from songs that are not in thepublic domain.[38]
In an essay inMusic, Sound, and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer,University of Sydney professorCatherine Driscoll commented that the genre was "one of the least distinguished modes of fan production" and that "within fan fiction excessive attachment to or foregrounding of popular music is itself dismissed as immature and derivative".[39]
Uberfic is a form of alternative universe in which characters physically resemble and share personality traits with their canon counterparts, but have new names and backgrounds in a different setting. The term originated in theXena: Warrior Princess fandom[40] and was inspired by the episode "The Xena Scrolls", which featured 1940s-era descendants of the characters Xena, Gabrielle, and Joxer, who are played by their respective actors, on an archaeological dig in anIndiana Jonespastiche. As the concept of the uberfic can be adapted into original fiction, many uberfic authors, such as Melissa Good,Radclyffe, andLori L. Lake, have legally published theirXena uberfic as originallesbian literature.
Also abbreviated as A/N, author's notes are typically found directly before the beginning or after the end of a fan fiction or its chapters, but can be written at any point in the story and are used to convey direct messages from the author to the reader regarding it.[41]
Also known as a beta. Someone whoedits orproofreads someone else's fan fiction.[42]
The original story. This refers to anything related to the original source, including the plot, setting, and characters.[43]
Disclaimers are author's notes which typically inform readers about who deserves credit for the original source material,[44] and often containing pseudo-legal language disavowing any intent ofcopyright infringement or alluding tofair use. Such disclaimers have no legal effect, as intent does not change whether a derivative work is a fair use or an infringement.[45] Disclaimers have fallen out of use since Archive of Our Own's rise in popularity.
Adrabble is a piece of writing that is exactly 100 words long,[29] although it is commonly used to refer to any short fan fiction.
Afandom is a group of fans of a work of fiction who dedicate their time and energy to their interest.Fan labor, such as fan fiction, is written by fans as a way to express their creativity and love for the original work.
A person who is an enthusiastic member of one or more fandoms. The term fangirling/fanboying refers to when a person is excited about a fandom.
A portmanteau of fan and canon. It is an "unofficial canon" idea that is widely accepted to be true among fans,[46] but is neither confirmed nor officially endorsed by the original author or source creator, preventing it from being considered canon. Fanon can refer to an interpretation of the original work or details within it.
Hanahaki disease is a fictional disease that is used as a trope in fanworks. This disease takes form in the growing of flowers from one party in a pairing when they are not in a requited relationship with them. This can be with knowledge of having interest in said party or without knowledge.
A fan's personal interpretation of canon, such as the backstory of a character or the nature of relationships between characters.[46] It can be drawn from subtext present in the canon, but cannot directly contradict it. If other fans share this interpretation, it can become fanon.
AMary Sue, also known as MS, is a term which editors and writers credit as originating inStar Trek fan fiction and later becoming part of the mainstream. In early fan fiction, a common plot was a minor member of the USSEnterprise's crew saving the life of Kirk or Spock, often being rewarded with a sexual relationship as a result. The term "Mary Sue", which originated in a parody of stories in thewish fulfillment genre, often refers to an idealized or overpowered character who lacks flaws and is often seen as a representation of the author.[47]
An abbreviation of the term "one true pairing", referring to a person's favorite ship.[46] OT3, OT4, and so on is the term used for apolyamorous OTP.[46]
A standalone piece of writing, as opposed to a multichapter work.[48]
Stories about real people, usually celebrities, rather than fictional characters. The bookAfter byAnna Todd, later adapted into a film ofthe same name, was originally a real person fan fiction aboutOne Direction memberHarry Styles.
Shipping is a variant ofromance that focuses on exploring a relationship between two or more characters from the original fandom(s). It has several fandom-specific subgenres, including slash, which focuses on homosexual pairings, andfemslash, which is similar but instead focuses on lesbian pairings. The term "shipping" can also refer to a fan who is heavily invested in a relationship between two characters. Writers of fan fiction often use the genre to explore homosexual pairings for popular characters who are not in, or not specified to be in, homosexual relationships in canon.[49] A subcategory of shipping, "curtainfic", which depicts romantic couples in mundane domestic situations such as picking out curtains, was once used but has somewhat fallen out of use.
Also known as porn orerotica. Sexually explicit or pornographic fan fiction, which can be a part of a story or the entire story. Historically, the terms "lemon", or explicit pornography, and "lime", sexually suggestive works, were euphemisms used to refer to explicit material.[48] These terms were once common in the 2000s, but fell out of use before becoming popular again in December 2018 due to thecensorship of adult content onTumblr, as it allowed writers to circumvent "explicit terminologies" that could get their work flagged by platforms like Tumblr while still being able to tag their work as explicit.
Trigger warnings are used to warn people of content in fan fiction that could be harmful or "triggering" for those who have dealt with traumatic situations, allowing them to prepare for or avoid certain content. Sometimes, content warning (CW) is used, either instead of or in addition to a trigger warning.
Trigger warnings are usually used when the subject matter of a work deals with issues such as drug abuse, mental illness, abuse, or extreme violence. Archive of Our Own has codified a system of common warnings into its coretags,[50] requiring authors to either disclose or explicitly choose not to disclose if their work contains graphic violence, major character death, rape, or underage sex.
Reviews can be posted by both anonymous and registered users on most sites, which are often programmed to notify the author of new feedback. This makes them a common way for readers and authors to communicate online, as well as to help authors improve their writing throughconstructive criticism.[51][unreliable source?] Occasionally, unmoderated review systems are abused forflaming,spam, ortrolling; to prevent this, an author can either disable or enable anonymous reviews, depending on their preference. Fan fiction has also been shown to improve literacy by allowing authors to have a wider audience for their works and encouraging people to write.[52]
Other ways that members of a fandom can participate in their community include gift exchanges and fic exchanges. A gift exchange is an organized challenge in which participants create fan fiction for other participants. They may research what the user receiving their gift enjoys or submissions may include a "letter" explaining what the recipient wants or does not want.[53]
There is ongoing debate about to what extent fan fiction is permitted under contemporarycopyright law.
Some argue that fan fiction does not fall underfair use, as it isderivative work.[54][55] The 2009 ruling byUnited States District Court JudgeDeborah Batts, permanently prohibiting publication in the United States of a book by Fredrik Colting (under the nameJohn David California ), a Swedish writer whose protagonist is a 76-year-old version ofHolden Caulfield ofThe Catcher in the Rye, may be seen as upholding this position regarding publishing fan fiction, as the judge stated, "To the extent Defendants contend that 60 Years and the character of Mr. C direct parodied comment or criticism atCatcher or Holden Caulfield, as opposed to Salinger himself, the Court finds such contentions to be post-hoc rationalizations employed through vague generalizations about the alleged naivety of the original, rather than reasonably perceivable parody."[56]
Others such as theOrganization for Transformative Works (OTW) uphold the legality of non-profit fan fiction under the fair use doctrine, as it is a creative,transformative process.[57] Theterms of service ofArchive of Our Own, a site run by OTW, distinguishes between "transformative" and "non-transformative" fan works, allowing only fan works that they consider transformative and prohibiting verbatim copying of pre-existing fan works or posting adaptations that only make minor modifications to an existing work, such asaudio narrations (podfics),translations, and "conversions" (works in which "the original content is modified slightly to fit a different fandom, ship, character, or format"), without the permission of the copyright holder.[58]
Jamar and Bloom (2014) point out that works of fan fiction vary widely in the amount of copyrightable expression they borrow from their source material, "from works that merely rewrite endings... to those that create whole new stories with new plot lines andnew characters" set in existingfictional universes. They point out that many aspects of fictional worlds may not be copyrightable at all, as copyright only protectsexpression, not ideas.[59] On the other hand, Klapper (2025) claims that even fan works that only borrow the settings "are likely using a significant portion of the original work on a qualitative level."[60]
In 1981,Lucasfilm Ltd. sent out a letter to severalfanzine publishers, asserting Lucasfilm's copyright to allStar Wars characters and insisting that no fanzine publishpornography. The letter also alluded to possible legal action that could be taken against fanzines that did not comply.[61]
The Harry Potter Lexicon is one case where the encyclopedia-like website for theHarry Potter series moved towards publishing and commercializing the Lexicon as a supplementary and complementary source of information to the series. AuthorJ. K. Rowling and her publishers levied a lawsuit against the website creator, Steven Vander Ark, and the publishing company, RDR Books, for a breach of copyright. While the lawsuit did conclude in Vander Ark's favor, the main issue in contention was the majority of the Lexicon copied a majority of the series' material and does not transform enough of the material to be held separately from the series itself.[62] While the HP Lexicon case is an example of Western cultural treatment of fan fiction and copyright law, in China,Harry Potter fan fiction is less addressed in legal conflicts but is used as a cultural and educational tool between Western and Chinese cultures. More specifically, while there are a number of "fake"Harry Potter books in China, most of these books are said to be addressing concepts and issues found in Chinese culture. This transformative usage of Harry Potter in fan fiction is allegedly from the desire to enhance and express value to Chinese tradition and culture.[63]
Some prominent authors have given their blessings to fan fiction, notablyJ. K. Rowling. By 2014, there were already almost 750,000Harry Potter fan stories on the web, ranging from short stories to novel-length tomes.[64] Rowling said she was "flattered" that people wanted to write their own stories based on her fictional characters.[65] Similarly,Stephenie Meyer has put links on her website to fan fiction sites about her characters from theTwilight series.[66] TheFifty Shades trilogy was developed from aTwilight fan fiction originally titledMaster of the Universe and published episodically on fan-fiction websites under the pen name "Snowqueen's Icedragon". The piece featured characters named after Stephenie Meyer's characters inTwilight,Edward Cullen andBella Swan.[67][68]
However, in 2003, a British law firm representing J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. sent a letter to webmasters requesting that adultHarry Potter fan fiction ("stories containing graphically violent and sexual content") be removed from a prominent fan fiction website, citing concerns that children might stumble upon the illicit content. In response, the webmasters from several websites hosting adultHarry Potter fan fiction, among other types of fan fiction, "made claims of 'fair use' and nonprofessional status" to justify their right to continue hosting the adult content.[69]
As an example of changing views on the subject, authorOrson Scott Card (best known for theEnder's Game series) once stated on his website, "to write fiction using my characters is morally identical to moving into my house without invitation and throwing out my family." He changed his mind completely and since has assisted fan fiction contests, arguing to theWall Street Journal that "Every piece of fan fiction is an ad for my book. What kind of idiot would I be to want that to disappear?"[70]
However,Anne Rice consistently and aggressively prevented fan fiction based on any of her fictional characters (mostly those from her famousInterview with the Vampire and its sequels inThe Vampire Chronicles). She, along withAnne McCaffrey (whose stance has been changed by her son, Todd McCaffrey, since her death) andRaymond Feist, asked to have any fiction related to their series removed from FanFiction.Net.[65]George R. R. Martin is also strongly opposed to fan fiction, believing it to be copyright infringement and a bad exercise for aspiring writers.[71][72]Sharon Lee andSteve Miller, creators of theLiaden universe, strongly oppose fan fiction written in their universe, with Lee saying that "Nobody else is going to get it right. This may sound rude and elitist, but honestly, it's not easy for us to get it right sometimes, and we've been living with these characters ... for a very long time."[73]
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