When you’re reading a book, watching a movie or tv show, have you ever imagined being part of the story? For example, wondering which protagonist could be your love interest, or what it would be like to bring a character into real life, creating imaginary scenarios with them? Or driving into real life’s perspective, have you imagined what it feels like to be in a romantic relationship with your favorite actor or singer?
If you’ve never done that, you don’t know what is waiting for you!
What exactly is Fanfiction?
Even if you have never imagined yourself being part of a well known story, I bet that a different ending for that one tv show, movie or book that has a special place in your heart came across your thoughts. For example, in “Gossip Girl”, Serena should’ve ended with Nate, not Dan. From “Gilmore Girls”, Rory should’ve married Logan, instead of becoming his mistress. And maybe Andy from “The Devil Wears Prada” shouldn’t have quit Runway.
We all imagine things like that, and this is called “fan fiction”, which is basically fictional stories created by fans based on characters, universes or people that already exist from books, films, series, and celebrities; when the viewer decides to become an author and adapt new stories with the original characters.
And what begins as a story imagined by a fan can evolve into something much bigger, reaching thousands or even millions of people, since many fans choose to write and publish these new stories for others to read and engage with.
fanfiction through history
Nowadays, fanfiction platforms like Wattpad or Archive of Our Own (AO3) are a big deal, but this practice didn’t originate with them. In the 1960s, Star Trek fans recreated narratives and published them in homemade magazines known as “fanzines”, distributing them at science fiction conventions. Today, it has grown into something far greater — a vast universe of stories that transit from these platforms to bookstore shelves and, in some cases, even become movies.
Besides, the peak of fanfiction popularity occurred in 2020, since during the pandemic many Harry Potter fans created “DracoTok”, featuring many fanfics about the character Draco Malfoy, either recorded in POV format or written on Wattpad. This trend wasn’t limited to Harry Potter, and franchises like Marvel also experienced their own fanfiction “boom” during that period.
One of the most famous examples that follows the “fanfic to novel to movie” path is “After” by Anna Todd. The original plot was a piece of fanfiction featuring Harry Styles, she originally posted it on Wattpad, and the story became such a hit on the platform that it was rewritten as a book and subsequently adapted into a film.
Another recent example is “Alchemised” by SenLinYu. The book began as a “Harry Potter” fanfic pairing Hermione and Draco in a story that blended the original universe with The Handmaid’s Tale”; it is now a hit, ranking as the seventh best-selling book at the Intrínseca stand during the São Paulo Book Biennial.
“The Love Hypothesis” and “Fifty Shades of Grey”, inspired by “Star Wars” and “Twilight”, respectively, follows the same path: they started as fanfiction before becoming successes in print and screen.
How Fanfics are changing the way books are being written
The fanfiction phenomenon became so significant that authors began incorporating various literary characteristics of the genre, such as the use of “tropes” into their own books.
Contemporary romance writers like Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, and Christina Lauren have embraced these familiar storytelling devices, incorporating them into narratives that resonate with readers.
Tropes are narrative devices that help drive the story forward — examples of tropes includes “enemies-to-lovers,” “fake dating,” and “age gap” —. Many authors now establish these tropes from the outset and feature them in their book synopses, and consequently, readers seek out stories not merely for the plot itself, but for the specific elements they offer, that being a practice that originated in the world of fanfiction.
For example, in Beach Read, Emily Henry explores the popular “enemies-to-lovers” trope, in which two characters who initially dislike each other gradually develop romantic feelings.
Another trait that has carried over is the appearance of protagonists, increasingly modeled after well-known actors, singers, or characters, such as Nick Stark from “The Do-Over”, whose features recall Jess Mariano from “Gilmore Girls”, or Hayes Campbell from “The Idea of You”, a character inspired by various figures including Prince Harry, Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Fanfictions are not objects anymore they turned into an action
And the universe keeps expanding! Because “fanfic-ing” has become a new verb no longer tied solely to imagining scenarios involving your favorite sagas. Now, it also means envisioning scenarios with real people from your own life. It’s like seeing a very attractive stranger on the street and immediately imagining the perfect romantic
This reality is also present in books, and the best seller author Lynn Painter, who attended 2026’s Bienal do Livro in São Paulo, was questioned during her lecture about how she creates her books’ romantic stories. “I imagine the things I wanted to experience when I was a teenager—thinking about how the boy I liked would confess his feelings for me in a certain way… And now, I put that into my books” — Said the American author.
Fanfics have changed not only literary and film industries, but also the way we build relationships with the fiction we consume. After all, sometimes we just want to leave our own reality and build a new one.
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The article above was edited by Melissa Fernandes de Melo
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