Fan fiction (noun)
: Stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet.
Yes. I admit it. I read fan fiction.
I know I’m old enough to be over this phase, but I just can’t help myself when picking out a new book.
As an English major, it’s not the most professional thing to say when someone asks me what my favorite genre to read is. But it’s the truth.
I’m sick of having to lie to my teachers and peers when they ask me what I read in my free time. I think I should be able to tell them, “I’m so glad you asked. I’m neck deep in a fabulous Dramione (the ship name for Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter) fan fiction right now.” That sounds like a productive and valuable conversation that we could have.
But I could never say that. I would be looked at like I have two heads. “Your FAVORITE genre, as someone who is going to school for English, is fan fiction?” That’s the response I would get. Their response would go from surprise to confusion to condescension.
I’m not talking about the short, little Wattpad stories that take me an hour to finish. The books that I pick up, or rather pick out from the online selection, are more well-developed stories that just so happen to use characters and universes that already exist.
Currently, I am re-reading a story that uses the Harry Potter Universe and the characters Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. This is a fully thought-out book that has a word count of about 370,000 words. That’s more than all 7 Narnia books combined.
In this story, the author combines two already existing fictional universes: that of Harry Potter, written by J. K. Rowling, and that of The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood.
I know it’s a weird concept to try to think, but the author, senlinyu on AO3, pulls it together in a dark, intriguing way that pulls you in from the first chapter.
This is not a children’s book. It is not intended for the original audience of the Harry Potter series, but as a fan, it captures my attention and has a grip on me that maybe other books wouldn’t.
One of the things that makes fan fiction so easy for me to read is that I’m already invested in the characters and worlds they live in. I already know that I will sympathize with the lonesome bad boy, Draco, and identify with the nerdy, awkward Hermione.
This type of reading is something that I can just slip into without having to drag open the first page. It’s a nice break from all the reading I’m assigned to do for my many English classes.
I think I have grown past the stage where I feel shame about what I am reading. If I enjoy it, I should be able to read it without having the pressure of it being thought of as stupid.
I mean there have been many examples of published novels starting off as fan fiction. The Fifty Shades books started out as a twisted story about Edward and Bella from Twilight and the After series was a Harry Styles/One Direction fan fiction. While these are not the best pieces of literature to ever grace the shelves of Barnes and Noble, no one questions their place on the shelves as published works.
Media has been drawing inspiration from pre-existing pieces of literature for ages. The movie 10 Things I Hate About You was a retelling of the Shakespeare play “The Taming of the Shrew”, the movie Clueless was a retelling of Jane Austen’s “Emma”, and The Lion King was loosely based on “Hamlet”.
How is it that these stories bring in aspects from already thought-out fiction and are not criticized like fan fiction?
Maybe because some of it is graphic (with both sex and gore sometimes) or maybe it’s because it is popular among young girls, and they can’t have anything.
Despite these criticisms, fan fiction will always have a place on my reading list.
If anyone needs any recs to get started on their fan fiction journey, just let me know!