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“Why don’t you just come up with your own characters and stories? Why do you have to steal someone else’s work?”

I’ve heard the above statements numerous times in criticism of fanfic and fanfic authors. First off, I’d like to point out that there is a lot more to crafting a story than creating characters. You need to be able to come up with an interesting plot line; good dialogue; descriptive writing…these all require imagination and skill, whether you are writing fan fiction or original fiction.

It is also a unique challenge to try to capture another author or creator’s characters in your own work. Does your Harry Potter act and talk like JK Rowling’s? Is your Captain Kirk recognizable as the same character in the Star Trek tv series and movies? A sign of quality fan fiction is often when you can read it and say, “Wow, I can totally picture this happening on screen!” It’s just a different writing skill set than when you write completely original fiction.

Fan fiction is often written because the fans have the imagination to want to take their favorite characters further, or in new directions. They want to imagine “what if” scenarios, if things had happened differently in their favorite book. They want to write continuing adventures after their favorite tv series is cancelled. They want to imagine what would happen if characters from two different science fiction movies crossed paths. These are all expressions of imagination and creativity and should be recognized as such.

Books on Fandom and Fanfiction

Learn more about the culture and history of fan fiction, and fandom culture

  CHECK PRICEEnterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth (Contemporary Ethnography)
This book was one of the first full-length academic studies of fandom and fan-fiction culture – and specifically that of women participants in media fandom. Published in 1991, it ends just as the internet was beginning to take shape as a forum for fannish interaction, however it gives an excellent overview of the “early days” of fanfiction in fanzines, the types of stories being written, and how this fannish culture split off from and developed away from more male-dominated science fiction fandom.    CHECK PRICETextual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (Studies in Culture and Communication)
Jenkins’ 1992 work is considered an excellent study of fannish culture – especially as the author is a self-admitted fan himself! While much of the same ground is covered as in “Enterprising Women”, the viewpoint is a bit different and perhaps more “positive” about certain tropes and genres of fanfic, and why so many enjoy it.    CHECK PRICEFan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays
This 2006 book bridges the gap and shows how fandom culture continued to evolve in the internet age. Now that fanfiction could be shared online in mailing lists, archives, forums and other communities, the entire fanfic culture itself changed in many ways.    CHECK PRICEThe Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context
Sources as diverse as Jane Austen and Blakes 7 can inspire fan fiction…what is the draw and fascination for many? By looking at several different, specific fandoms the author examines fan fiction tropes, definitions, and how fan fiction is a worthy genre of literature in its own right.