What is Fan-Fiction?

By Jennifer Lee

For many years now people have found themselves getting so fully entrenched in a world, they feel like they never want to leave it. They think about it all the time and they wonder what would happen if. People have been doing this with Star Trek and Star Wars for many years, spawning numbers of good books. Most recently, fans have done this with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin off Angel or with Harry Potter. It's a craze that creates a whole community of people and helps to keep fans firmly hooked into the worlds they love to visit so often. When fans do this by writing short stories or even novel sized stories, it's called fan-fiction. For those people who are new to the fan-fiction craze, or just want to know more about it, this article will discuss what kind of fan-fiction is out there, how you get involved in fan-fiction, and what you can do to get your name out there and have people reading your fan-fiction.

What kind of fan-fiction is out there? Several. As stated before, there are communities that surround popular television shows or movies and there are many writers that take a stab at J. K. Rowlings' characters in her successful Harry Potter series. But really fan-fiction writers can create fan-fiction off of any world or universe that any book, movie, television show, play, or roleplaying game creates. All you have to do is have an imagination and a firm grasping of the 'rules' of both the world and the characters you'll be using.

So how does one get started in fan-fiction? Well, first you have to pick a world you're very interested in. To use an example, let's pick Star Wars. Now, I've never read the book nor have I written fan-fiction based off of Star Wars, but it's a world that many people know and will possibly make the examples easier.

If you wanted to write fan-fiction about Star Wars, the first thing I would recommend doing is reading the books and making sure you've seen the movies many times. Start to develop some 'what if' scenarios in your mind. You might even put a few to paper, just to get you started.

Next, I would recommend using Goggle or your favorite search engine to find other Star Wars fan-fiction. See what other people are writing about. Read some of what other people consider to be great stories. Find some resource sites that have essays on how to write Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, or your favorite characters. Researching the world you want to write in and the characters you want to use is an important step into seeing what is out there and what will do well. Now, you obviously don't have to write to anyone's standards, nor do you have to do what everyone else is doing, but for those writers who want to seamlessly integrate into the world of Star Wars fan-fiction, this wouldn't be such a bad idea. Also, you might just get a few really good ideas about what kind of fan-fiction you want to write.

After you've researched your story ideas, the best thing to do is to start writing. It is usually accepted to have a header that precedes your actual story. The header should include your story's name, your name as the author, a disclaimer of some sort that says you realize you are borrowing characters and writing in George Lucas' world, a rating from G to NC-17, a short summary, and any notes you want to add. The header might look something like this:

Title: The Newest Hope
Author: Jane Doe
Disclaimer: Not mine. All the characters belong to George Lucas, long may he reign.
Rating: PG-13 (for some language)
Summary: Here is my really cool story.
Author's Notes: This story pretends that Jabba the Hut was never killed.

Any changes you want to make to the world should be put in your author's notes, or else the public will remind you of your "mistakes". So if Luke and the Princess were never related in your story, Han turned out to be celibate, or Chewy could actually speak English but just liked laughing at all the people who assumed he couldn't then you should let your reader know. There are a few purists in any community who will jump on a writer for straying away from what is canon. Canon refers to the material that the creator established about the world. Although fan-fiction would seem to run contrary to what is canon, there are always a few things that some writers like to leave the same, for instance, you might get a few emails from disturbed readers if you paired Luke and his sister up.

After you've written the story, get it proofread. Even if that means you check it over yourself for spelling and grammar, do so. Alternatively, some communities have lists of people who would love to take a look at your story and tell you how you did or offer some constructive criticism for your work. The more people you can get to check over your stuff, the better. You never know what they might find and how they might improve your story!

Now you're ready to post your story someplace. But where? Utilize your newly found sources or your search engine to find places that take submissions for your fiction. Many websites will host writings by other authors or have email lists (such as Yahoo Groups) to allow writers to post their stories. Find these places and start posting your stuff.

Another way you can get your name out there is by creating your own website and posting your stories onto it. If you are at all skilled with HTML, this is always a good idea because it gives your fans one place to go to where you never fail to post all of your fan-fiction. If you have no idea what the difference is between an alink and a vlink, then you probably need to find some place that will provide a site builder. Geocities or Angelfire are very popular places to go where you can point and click your way to a decent looking site. But remember, don't skimp on the quality if you can help it! You want your site to be a reflection of your writing. If the site is poorly organized or hard to navigate you may frustrate your readers before they even make it to your fiction!

So, if you want to write some quality stories based in the world of another or with characters that you didn't create, remember to research your subjects, read what others are putting out, and get your stuff out there!

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