In Defence Of Fan Fiction

Fan Fiction has divided both the writing community and publishing industry. Fan Fiction has been a thing for years and has been supported and endorsed by millions. There’s also many who dislike it and feel it’s inferior to literature classics. The rule of the thumb is as long as you’re not profiting off fan fiction, you are good to go.

In the past, a lot of people seemed sceptical about fan fiction. I think many are scared of being accused of plagiarism and stealing other people’s ideas. When Hunger Games came out, many accused the author of ripping off Battle Royale when the author had no idea about Battle Royale until she published the book. Battle Royal and Hunger Games are two Very different stories. All ideas, inspirations and stories all link back to us, history, what we’ve seen and what we enjoy. Which makes you wonder is there really such a thing as originality.

There’s a lot of myths behind fan fiction. Many believe that most of it is just romantic and homoerotic lemons written by sex-deprived teenagers for sex-deprived teenagers. Whilst in some cases this might be true, there are also plenty of fics that involve great character studies, explore different concepts or what ifs. Some fan ficos can be just as good as the original material.

There’s a stigma that says that fan fiction isn’t real writing and back in the day there was lots of authors writing disclaimers because they were scared of being sued. Once fanfiction authors were given a book deal by a traditional publisher, they kissed goodbye to all their fan fics.

Overtime, I think that stigma has died down. Lots of authors with published works started out on fan fiction and it wouldn’t surprise me if there are published authors who have written fan fiction under fancy pen names.

I truly believe that fan fiction saved the book industry. Millions of aspiring and professional writers are also avid readers themselves. Reading and writing often goes hand in hand.

Across all writing platforms I have written for, my work has been read over 2 million times. I would say about 80% of it is through fan fiction. Before, fan fiction writers had the same limits as indie authors with publishing works online being their only way to gain an audience. Now writers can have their words live beyond a website. You can have it on paperback or an e-book, a hardback or even an audiobook. If you have the money and the resources, you can take it even higher.

I started writing fan fics online when I was 14. I was inspired by other fics that I read and decided I wanted to write fics like them too. Despite the grey areas in fan fiction, I’m glad I did it. It helped me gain an audience, friends and useful network. I learned new words and extended my vocabulary.

I personally didn’t like the 50 Shades trilogy or the After series, however, I appreciate the fact that they became a gateway for readers into other books. One of my oldguilty pleasures is reading the Chinese web novel, Bringing The Nation’s Husband Home. Whilst it feels like your typical romantic fan fic, it has gone on to become a manga and a TV series. After, which started off as a One Direction fan fic is now a movie series. Wattpad being able to get their most popular teen books turned into movies is a force that is attracting a lot more people to write and publish online.

In a digital age where anything can be downloaded or ordered on app, there is sentimental quality in the physical objects. Hence the reason why so many readers love their paperbacks and hardcovers.

Imagine you wrote a book that people loved so much that they started writing about them. For me, that would be a really big compliment if people wrote fan fics about my work. For me, it would make me feel that I succeeded as a writer.

Any attempt to cancel fan fiction will interupt the flow and inspiration of other writers. I would not have the skills or the confidence to write on Vocal, or any other writing platform without dipping my toes in fan fiction. I would not have the motivation to constantly create new stories without it. Without the opportunities fan fiction has created for us, there would not be so many indie authors out there.

I had my first one star review for a book. The reader complained the book was too short and that she thought it was a children’s story written by a child. She didn’t like it so she wanted her money back. If she actually read the product descriptio, she would known how many pages it was and straight away that it was satire so it didn’t bother me that much.

Had I have not experienced first-hand the flames and trolls of fandoms it would have been a different story. Writing fan fiction gave me a thick skin for the long rants, sporks and death threats I received over the years. I don’t get them anymore, but some fandoms and small groups are very clicky.

Out there amongst the fan fic writers of today are the bestselling authors of tomorrow.