What do you think of when you think of fanfiction? Do you think of cringy, self-insert One Direction Wattpad fanfiction? Do you think of girls tossing their caramel locks up into a messy bun before putting on their converse? Or do you think of extremely explicit works with kinks you’ve never even heard of?
Fanfiction is all of that and more. While fanfiction became synonymous with the poorly written works, there is so much more to the world of fanfiction than most people know.
For a lot of people, fanfiction is a safe space to write freely and create a community with their similar interests. Even if you’re just reading, it is an easy and accessible way to access your favorite characters in new stories. It is especially dear to the LGBTQ+ community because often, the queer ships are not canon in their favorite works, meaning fanfic writers have to take matters into their own hands. A lot of popular books nowadays originated as fanfiction. For instance, Fifty Shades of Grey began as Twilight fanfiction and The Mortal Instruments began as Harry Potter fanfiction. There is an entire list of published books on Goodreads based on Reylo fanfiction. Fanfiction is entirely entrenched in our culture without people even knowing it.
Fanfiction allows flexibility of enjoyment
@icaruspendragon (TikTok)
As someone who has been reading fanfiction since I was eleven years old, this is my favorite form of fan-created work (other examples being fanart and fan edits). These people have normal lives outside of their online presence and their hobby is reaching people that are beyond imaginable. Anybody can write fanfiction and its accessibility creates a community for anyone to improve their writing skills.
Contrary to popular belief, fanfiction is not a one-dimensional concept of people stealing characters because they are not creative enough to make their own. This is an expansion of their favorite character’s narrative. This is a community in which the stories that don’t get told in the mainstream get to be told. These are stories of healing and mending that the actual writers are unwilling to tell for the sake of plot over character-focused stories.
One TikTok creator dedicates her entire brand to educating and convincing her followers about the importance of fanfiction. In one of her recent videos, she answers the question “What opportunities does fanfiction present?”. She eloquently explains that “fanfiction allows for flexibility of enjoyment” for everyone involved. For one person it could be an escape from normal life, but for others, it could be for representation in literature. It truly does not matter why you want to read fanfiction because every answer is valid.
It is harmful to reduce fanfiction to just stereotypes because it creates shame around the concept. People shouldn’t be shamed for their opinions, especially when people are deriving joy from it and no harm is done to anyone else.
While there may be a bad reputation for fanfiction being cheesy, unimaginative work, overall, the community and reality of these transformative works make it good.