At the beginning of February,

But first things first, do you know what fanfiction is? As I have found, there are one of three reactions: YES! (And I write/read fanfiction rabidly), yeah (I know what it is, but I don’t read it, and sometimes it turns into ‘ew, you write fanfiction?!?!?!?!), no??? (What the heck is this word you have said, and is it of the English language?).

Fanfiction is works based on and within a trademarked world, not of your creation or that you have obtained approval to write fiction for profit. Most people associate fanfiction with movies, television shows, comics, manga, etc. A limited amount of fanfiction is written within the “real world” and featuring celebrities.

Often, fanfiction is associated with teenagers writing cringe self-insert (and often labeled ‘Mary Sue’) characters (I have my own thoughts on that sentiment). Especially 20-30 years ago (dating myself), fanfiction was considered the dregs of writing. Something done in basements and hidden away. Even in the publishing world, back then, it was frowned upon to let people know that you had written or even published fanfiction online, and publishers would ask you to remove everything.

During the panel, Alexis Craig, Lisa Freitag, Cecilia Tan, Gwen and I discussed this history and the recent shift within maybe the last 10 years in the publishing industry’s mind.

Fanfiction has become mainstream in multiple ways. Firstly, with the rise of the internet and social media, fandom spaces have exploded. Fans have safer places to interact and ways to interact more fully than the limited commenting features in early fanfic sites. We also have more central websites (fanfiction.net and Archive of our Own, shortened to AO3) which have compiled fanfic and added tagging, easy labels for what fandom and other filtering capabilities.

And these properties understand, now especially, the impact that fanfiction and fandom spaces have on the longevity of a property. Fanart and fanfiction offer a few things, but the key ones are free promotion and keeping a property in its fans’ minds.

Promotion is key for anything. Think of how often we are bombarded by advertising (on our phones in games or YouTube ads, billboards, commercials, on almost any website). But for a television show to get it for free because someone draws fanart or writes a story about their favorite characters and someone who is not currently watching that show stumbles on it? That’s utterly fantastic! Word of mouth is honestly one of the most tried and true ways to get knowledge out there (social media just does it faster than finding a friend and telling them).

As the rise of streaming has brought us whole seasons of television shows at once to binge, the longevity of people talking about a show has diminished (for example, how long after you binge a show do you talk about it at the proverbial water cooler versus a weekly show that is on for 12-24 weeks in a year and talking about the single episode each week for… well 12-24 weeks?). Fanfiction helps maintain the longevity of the conversation surrounding a show.

So, where am I going with this? We talked in the panel about how, previously, there was a stigma (and to some extent, there still is) surrounding fanfiction writers. But as certain kinds of television and movies once thought a geek haven have become mainstream, fanfiction/fanart has as well. Fanfiction is known to help boost a fanbase and keep the fanbase engaged even long after a show has ended (take a look at the Danny Phantom fandom and it’s yearly Ectober, phanimay, Phic Phight and other events, or even look at years after Bones ended, my short fanfic still gets reads!). These fandom events truly keep the love of a property going, but further, some are so well organized and free (all work is done on a volunteer basis) that it is shocking in contrast to the lack of engagement and interaction a professional writer gets from any sort of paid entry contest. (Phic Phight could be it’s own blog post)

But even more telling, many authors have gotten to where they are from writing fanfic. I notoriously have talked on previous platforms about starting to write fanfiction first. Fanfic was a way to enter the storytelling world without the fear of creating everything from scratch. With fanfic, characters, settings, and relationships are established (whether you use them or not). Fanfic allows a writer to focus on the plot. And then ease into other design aspects of storytelling.

As we discussed, fanfic communities are so welcoming, and many of us on the panel found more support and learned more about the craft of writing and what works than even getting a mast’s in writing.

But fandom, fan spaces, and fanfiction are becoming increasingly mainstream, as seen by authors on this panel openly talking about writing fanfiction and the benefits we have gotten from it.

Since many authors started out writing fanfic, many (INCLUDING ME) took aspects of one of their fanfics and reworked them into original fiction to publish and sell.

A classic modern example is Ali Hazelwood’s “Love Hypothesis,” which was based on a Reylo fanfic Hazelwood had written (Reylo being a fanfic shipping Rey with Kylo Ren in the recent Star Wars Trilogy).

There are many examples of modern fiction, many romance-based, that were based initially on fanfiction that the author wrote. And what’s new is that publishers embrace that. They have moved away from the sentiment that authors should remove themselves from the fanfic world because fanfic is considered more mainstream, and also… many of these fanfic authors already have a following on fanfiction platforms. So, they have a built-in fanbase that liked the original work and will probably like the new one as well.

Fanfiction as a professional writer has become increasingly more popular and less stigmatized, as it should. Fandom spaces afford an opportunity to writers. To hone their craft in a relaxed and engaged as well as supportive space.

For those that take their fanfiction seriously, it can be the gateway to learning how to set a schedule of release, or finish a long form project without the fear of contract deadlines and making an editor mad. It can also offer ways to learn about your writing and plotting in a different light. Personally, I learned that my crafted characters, early on, were considered well rounded and that they fit in as if part of canon already. There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into crafting a story, a character, a setting… and putting it all together. As anyone learning a new skill or craft knows, doing so under duress of a deadline does not not always produce the best work, but will produce work… and stress. Many professional writers on the panel, myself included, mentioned that fanfiction is where we still go to rest, recharge, and sometimes rediscover our love for writing away from the stress of monetizing what can feel like every aspect of our lives.

Did I plug fanfiction enough? Was there more I could have said that is awesome about fanfiction? Probably. But, I’ll leave it there with items we discussed on our panel.

Feel free to drop in the comments if you are a fanfic writer, how has it helped you grow? Or why do you write fanfic?

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Shutdown Syntax News

Shameless Plug! Shutdown Syntax Chapter 4 comes out this Friday, February 28th!

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