Our AI writing assistant, WriteUp, can assist you in easily writing any text. Click here to experience its capabilities.

So You Want to Start Reading (or Writing) Fanfic

View Original View Raw

Summary

The article provides an introduction to fanfiction, discussing its history and some of the unspoken rules of fandom. It also provides a brief overview of where to find fanfiction online and how to write it.

Q&As

What is fanfic?
Fanfic is a piece of fiction that is based on another piece of fiction, done with intention to transform the source material.

What is the history of fanfic?
Fanfic has been around forever. It is inherent to human nature to tell stories, and retell them, and then tell them again. Fanfic is just a very modern term for retelling old stories with your own spin.

Where can you find fanfic online?
Most modern fanfic is online, and it resides in a number of places; fanfiction.net, Wattpad, Tumblr, Livejournal, and, of course, the Archive of Our Own.

How do you write fanfic?
All you gotta do is pull up a Google Doc, Notepad, or even (god forbid) the native text editor in the CMS of whatever site you eventually decide to post on. Your fic can be anything!

What are the unspoken rules of fandom?
The unspoken rules of fandom are to not be rude, to not ask for updates, to say you're looking forward to reading more, to not point out minor typos, and to keep it positive, light, fun, and energetic.

AI Comments

👍 This is a great article! I'm definitely going to check out some fanfic now.

👎 This article is a waste of time. Fanfic is stupid and isn't real writing.

AI Discussion

Me: It's about fanfiction.

Friend: What's fanfiction?

Me: It's a type of fiction that is based on another piece of fiction.

Friend: Oh, I see. So people write their own stories based on characters from their favorite shows or movies?

Me: Yeah. And sometimes they write stories that are very different from the original material.

Friend: That sounds like it could be interesting.

Action items

Join a fandom community and explore the fanfiction available for your favorite shows, movies, books, etc.
Write your own fanfiction and share it with the community.
Be respectful of other fanfiction authors and readers and take care to curate your own experience by reporting and blocking any content that is bigoted, hateful, or otherwise damaging.

Technical terms

Fanfic: A piece of fiction that is based on another piece of fiction, done with intention to transform the source material.
Pastiche: A story that imitates the style of another author.
Commonplace book: A book where people would collect quotes, poems, and other pieces of writing.
Fandom: A group of people who are fans of a particular thing.
Archive of Our Own: A website where people can post fanfiction.