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Paula Marie Celine Manliclic Molina

English 12 R09

Fanfiction as a Form of Literature and Proposals for its Improvement

Defining Fanfiction

Fanfiction, by its very definition, is fiction written by fans and are meant to be read by

fellow fans. Fanfiction is a product of the excessive love of fans for a particular book, movie or

television show, otherwise known as a fandom. Normally, “fics” or fanfics are stories

continuing, retelling, expounding or completely changing the plots of their particular fandoms.

To both the readers and writers of fanfiction, it is an extension of the stories that they cannot

seem to get enough of. Fanfiction helps an author to focus solely on the quality of their work,

giving them the freedom they need rather than having the stress of creating something that has

not been created before (Jessop 31). There are fanfictions out there that are just downright weird

(stories like the love between Draco Malfoy and the giant squid come to mind) but the point of

fanfiction is to bring stories to its readers that the originals simple could not.

There are ten types of fanfiction. Recontextualization (storylines that were not included in

the original text), Timeline Expansion (prequels or sequels), Refocalization (stories about

characters that weren’t discussed in length in the original text), Moral Realignment (a change in

the view of who is the hero and villain), Genre Shift (changing the genres of the original text),

Crossover (placing the character of one story into the world of another) , Character Dislocation

(a radical change in personality and history of a character), Personalization (placing of the

author inside his/her story), Emotional Intensification (focusing on extremely emotional

moments) and Eroticization (inserting romantic and sexual elements in the original text) or

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“slash” fiction. (McCudden, 19.) Here we see how broad the fanfiction world is. Each type of

fanfiction has sub-types that have sub-sub-types and it goes on and on. The creativity of authors

is limitless as well. Certain authors can come up with stories for each type of fanfiction.

A Brief History

Fanfiction has been around for a surprisingly long time. The earliest being Charlotte

Bronte, author of Jane Eyre, and her siblings’ fantasy adventures about Arthur Wellesly the first

duke of Wellington as well as his two sons. Technology plays an important role in the history of

fanfiction. What used to be printed on fanzines (fan magazines) turned to electronic fan texts.

Soon, carefully maintained archives were created for the ease of the readers (Santilli, 42.).

Today, there is a staggering amount of fanfiction resting safely in the Internet. Fanfiction.net

holds the largest number of fanfics than any other fanfiction website today. With technology

advancing at an incredible pace, the world of fanfiction became available on podcasts of sites

like portkey.org and mugglenet.com. The fact that fanfiction can now be heard is a testament to

how important technology is in improving the world of fanfiction.

In the earlier years, fanfiction writers felt the need to hide their stories due to copyright

issues. These issues are still being debated on up to this day. Fanfics are made and posted daily

and the number of readers and writers applying on fanfiction websites grow everyday.

Fanfiction Isn’t ‘Mainstream’

Despite its long history and current popularity, fanfiction still isn’t considered as a part of

mainstream media. There is hardly ever any mention of fanfiction in the news, on the radio and

even on websites like Facebook. Lev Grossman’s article “How Harry Potter Became The Boy

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Who Lived Forever” in TIME Magazine was one of the first mentions of fanfiction in the

mainstream media. Grossman mentions in his article that “Right now fan fiction is still the

cultural equivalent of dark matter: it's largely invisible to the mainstream, but at the same time,

it's unbelievably massive.” (para 4.). Although fanfiction is more popular now than it was five

years ago, there are still a lot of people who have no clue as to what fanfiction is. Majority of

these people belong to the older generation. Those whose internet skills are only bound to

Facebook, Yahoo! Mail and Google and fail to see what else the internet has to offer. Since

fanfiction is mostly made and read by tweens, teenagers and the occasional adults, it is

understandable that fanfiction still remains in the dark.

The Beauty of Fanfiction

Becca Schaffner explains that fanfiction is a dream come true for librarians and teachers. It

is a community that never stops talking, thinking about and sharing books (615.). In high school,

teachers always complain that students don’t spend enough time reading books. In fanfiction,

however, teenagers spend countless hours reading stories that contain more than a hundred

chapters and see it as a productive way of using their time. Fanfiction, for its history and growing

popularity, should be considered as a form of literature in this day and age but it should,

however, change some of its guidelines with regards to whomever can read and access fanfiction

sites as well as improve its application requirements for authors and betas (fanfiction editors).

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Defining Literature

Without primary knowledge about a fandom, it would be difficult to analyze fanfiction.

The author’s fandom influences their works. (Chandler-Olcott, Mahas. 558.) There is a reason

why fanfiction is called as such. It was written by and meant for fans. This gives the impression

that if you are not a fan of whatever show/movie/book/anime the author is writing about, do not

read it. It will be difficult for a non-fan to understand a story filled with terms from that

particular “fandom” and characters they’ve never seen before and therefore cannot relate to.

“‘Fanfiction’ has taken its place as one of the ways that writers of all ages can express

their ideas and imaginative leanings in creative writing.” (Jessop. 29.) It is a place where authors

evolve through time and effort. Some even make it all the way and become published writers like

Cassandra Clare (author of the Mortal Instruments series) and E.L. James (author of the Fifty

Shades Trilogy) who started off as humble fanfiction writers. Sites like fanfiction.net or

fanfiction libraries are venues for authors to share and comment on each other’s works.

(Andersen. 106.) Fanfiction.net and similar websites (portkey.org, quizilla.com, etc.) provide

ways for authors to better their skills. By posting their stories here, they offer themselves up to

every type of criticism. This results to a surge in confidence, helping them write more stories or

an urge to better themselves in order to get better reviews the next time they post their fanfiction.

“As in folklore, the base of the story remains, but every telling reflects the teller. The

urges behind both are the same: to respond, to express, and to give.” (Schaffner. 616.). This is

the beauty in fanfiction. Readers don’t have any qualms in opening a fic because they know that

the plot is essentially what they crave for and this gives authors an easy way of showing off their

chops. Certain fanfics may have the same plot but the way each of them are told is undeniably

different (unless, of course, they are being plagiarized from another fanfiction author).

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Fanfiction writers don’t write for money. It’s simply for the satisfaction of putting up

your story online. These are the outspoken fans who can’t have enough of what they already

have. They know the culture of whatever fandom they are into, it speaks to them. And they talk

back. (Grossman. “How Harry Potter Became The Boy Who Lived Forever”.) The feeling when

someone gives a positive review of your fanfic is amazing. There is the happiness from the fact

that you made others happy, there’s pride in knowing that some people are awed at your writing

skills and relief that no one hates the story that you worked so hard on. The reviewer is different

from a beta-reader. Reviewers provide the author a comment on the story as a whole rather than

in pieces or chunks and hardly ever state errors in grammar and spelling. (Black. 126.). Not all

fanfiction writers request for a beta (a fanfiction editor.) Most fanfiction writers are confident

with their grammar and spelling, which are what betas normally fix. Reviewers state what the

writer has to work on as a whole rather than work on specifics which s/he can work on by

her/himself. This is why one sees author’s notes like “Please review” or “Reviews are like

cookies to me”, etc. Reviews motivate writers to continue doing what they’re doing or fixing up

their mistakes with regards to the plot and characterization to better themselves for the benefit of

their readers.

The awe that the writer feels when s/he receives a review along with the sheer love for

writing is what drives fanfiction authors to continue doing what they do. Because of this,

fanfiction should be considered as a type of literature. By its very definition, ‘literature’ is the

production of writing and this is exactly what fanfiction writers do, they produce writings.

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Fanfiction does not comply with the stereotypes for literature and the majority refuse to

see it as such. (Schaffner. 613.) Being relatively new to the world of literature, fanfiction has not

yet been able to be understood by the majority. It is different from what we are used to about

reading. These are characters we are familiar with but are acting quite differently from what we

are used to. And that scares the living daylights out of most of us. Reading online rather than

“real” books? Outrageous! Unthinkable! However, the majority must learn to grasp the

inevitability of fanfiction. Readers grow by number every day and hundreds of fanfics are

written every hour. Teenagers can now actually allot several hours for the purposes of pleasure

reading, which in years before, was absolutely surprising.

Fanfiction is not Stealing

Fanfiction writers kept under the radar during the early years of internet for fear

of litigation. Although legal action upon each individual writer is improbable, copyright still

remains an issue. Today, fanfiction writers include disclaimers so that readers know that they do

not profit from their writings. (Jessop. 30.) Disclaimers play a crucial role in the world of

fanfiction. It is unacceptable for a fanfic not to contain one. This is because, fanfiction writers

are very well aware that the characters and certain plotlines in the stories they are creating do not

belong to them. They are simply “borrowing” them. When a published author gives away his/her

blood, sweat and tears in the form of his/her book, it is giving the people who will read it a

starting point because truthfully, books are just one part of the whole story. There are holes here

and there, unexplained characters, settings or events and people should be allowed to “play” with

these holes.

There has always been a debate about whether or not fanfiction violates the copyright

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laws because this has always been an issue. This argument regarding whether or not fanfiction

should be seen as "stealing" continues on to this day. Published writers are asked for their

opinions on fanfiction of their works. Fay Jessop continues to tackle this concern in her article

Exploring Fandom: Teaching Narrative Writing Through Fanfiction:

In fact, many published writers are unaware of or indifferent to fanfiction as a genre, and

some seem amused by the practice. JK Rowling is reported to have been ‘flattered people

want to write their own stories’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3753001.stm)

based on her characters, and, given that the Harry Potter category of fanfiction.net now

runs to nearly half a million stories, such endorsement must come as a relief to the site’s

maintainers. However, there are those who would prefer the whole phenomenon to just

slink quietly away. Ann Rice makes plain on her official website that ‘I do not allow

fanfiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about

fanfiction with my characters.’ (http://www.annerice.com/ReaderInteraction-

MessagesToFans.html)

However, published writers should be happy that people make fanfics about their books. If

people didn’t then it means your book didn’t really touch the hearts of the people who read them.

Fanfics show how much readers understood the original text, how much they were able to relate

to the characters and to the problems these characters were facing.

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What Fanfiction Needs To Improve On

Becca Schaffner explains in her article In Defense of Fanfiction that fanfiction is

different, it’s uncontrolled and not traditional and that it should remain as it is (para. 4-5). The

idea of fanfiction in itself should remain as it is. Pure, unadulterated joy from writings about

stories one knows and loves. There are aspects of fanfiction, however, that must be changed.

And fast. It is unsettling to know that 12-year-old kids can easily access stories that contain

scenes about sex, rape, violence, etc. These fanfics are known as M fics. In sites like

fanfiction.net, one only needs to learn how to use a site and you can read any story that takes

your fancy. Stricter guidelines should be implemented about who can read certain stories so that

the younger generation doesn't grow up too fast.

One cannot deny that fan fiction contains sex. And a lot of it. It’s being human. Some

authors can’t help but romantically, erotically or pornographically pair up characters they want to

be together (Grossman. “How Harry Potter Became The Boy Who Lived Forever”.). This is

probably the reason why there are so many people who dismiss fanfiction as written

pornography. Yes, there’s sex scenes in a lot of fanfiction but that’s not just the focus of it. Like

life itself, sex is just a fleeting moment in the grand plot scheme that one calls “your life”.

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The world of fanfiction is not perfect. Children shouldn’t read certain works. The ratings

and content warnings are there for a reason. It’s almost developmental. As you grow older, the

type of fanfiction you read is more mature and more difficult to understand and authors know

what type of audience their stories are suited for (Schaffner. 617.). Having been an active

member in the fanfiction community for almost five years, I can definitely attest to the

imperfection of fanfiction. There’s writing that’s just downright atrocious and reviewers that

embody the word “rude”. And although rating and content warnings are there, some people seem

to be blind and just trudge on despite the fact that they are twelve-years-old and aren’t supposed

to be reading these fanfics. Fanfiction sites are known for their ease in navigation and

accessibility and therefore make it easier for children to access materials that they shouldn’t read

at such a young age. Currently, all you need to have is the ability to read at a fifth grade level as

well as an e-mail address and you can basically access any story archived in fanfiction.net

without the administrators ever knowing whether or not you’re under-aged. With this being said,

better security measures must be taken in these websites to see and control the users they have.

Fanfiction is about the respect and love of the fans towards the original works and so,

when the writing no longer follows this respect and love, it loses the essence of fanfiction

completely. The pride in fanfiction is that it is an extension of the original story and by losing

this idea, fanfiction opens itself up to the insults that others throw at it.

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“ Beta-reader is the fanfiction term for a proofreader. Beta-readers are an integral part of

the online fanfiction community.”(Black. 125.). Beta readers are basically editors in the

fanfiction world. They are hired by fellow authors to proofread their works (fix spelling,

grammar, etc.). What makes them different, however, is that they also comment on the story

itself, whether or not the characters are acting like they should or if the plot is downright terrible.

It must be noted as well that not all fanfic writers acquire betas and not all of them can become

betas as well. In sites like fanfiction.net betas must be a registered member for at least 1 month

or more, have published at least 5 stories on the site OR have published entries totaling at least

6000 words and finally, accurately complete both the Profile and Preferences part of this beta

section. This being said, not all beta’s are reliable. Just because someone has written at least five

stories or have a story having at least 6000 words does not mean that s/he can accurately check

your grammar and spelling, nor does it mean that s/he knows the fandom enough to comment on

your story. The administrators themselves should personally see whether or not an author is

competent enough to become a beta. They must read the applicants voice and judge for

themselves if said applicant is able to discern what a plausible and respectable way of retelling

an original work is from something that is garbage.

In the Philippine Context

There is no shortage of young writers here in the Philippines, in Fanfiction.net alone,

there are thousands of Filipino authors under the age of 21 and as a way of moulding these

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fanfiction writers into becoming better ones, we may use fanfiction. Teachers could ask the

students to write a short one-shot fanfic about their favourite fandom as a project or a homework.

And while majority of the fanfics are ones that are globally popular like Harry Potter and The

Hunger Games, Filipino fandoms like Encantadia and Mulawin have also found their way into

the world of fanfiction.

The Pros of Fanfiction

“Fanfiction writing also helped develop and solidify relationships with various friends,

online or otherwise.” (Chandler-Olcott, Mahas. 560.) Fandoms and in relation to them, fanfiction

creates relationships unlike any other. There is a unique joy in talking to someone about

something you are particularly passionate about and internet helps aid this. Today, teenagers can

make friends from all over the world by meeting online and talking about their particular

fandoms. What makes fan fiction unique is that it’s a very diverse world. Name any race,

religion, age, sex, etc. and you’ll find it lurking in the fanfiction world (Grossman. “How Harry

Potter Became The Boy Who Lived Forever”). Through fanfiction and fandoms, fans have met

fellow fans they wouldn’t have under normal circumstances. The fanfiction world doesn’t give

importance to the color of one’s skin or whatever God it is that you believe in if you do in fact

believe in a God. As long as you are under the fandom, you are a friend.

Fanfiction is where authors are at their freest. They are unbound from any rules

whatsoever. They no longer have difficulty in coming up with a story from scratch. In this world,

characters from published writers, movies or television shows can be whatever you can imagine

them to be. They can do whatever the writer thinks they ought to be doing. It’s thinking outside

of the box at its finest.

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The Cons of Fanfiction

Fanfiction is ruled by what is called as ‘canon’. Canon is the dictator. It gives the laws to

what you think you’re supposed to follow. Initially, it looks like it has an iron grip but you’d be

surprised at how creative authors can be that they can break the rules but still remain under

canon (Grossman. “How Harry Potter Became the Boy Who Lived Forever”.). To the majority of

the people in the fanfiction community, canon is something to be frowned upon. It is seen as

something that only the close-minded readers follow and so the majority decide to break it or

play around with it. The majority follow “fanon” which is basically canon for fans, here they are

happy with the result of the pairings (or “ships” as they call them) or the plotlines of the story.

Fanfiction is always associated with the terms ‘copyright’ and ‘theft’ because it is

assumed that fanfiction steals the ideas of published writers when in actuality, it is simply fans

playing with stories and trying to make their marks as authors. Fanfiction still isn’t known in the

mainstream society nor is it considered as a form of literature even though it fulfils the

requirements for literature.

Finally, the world of fanfiction, although diverse and ideally perfect, has much to

improve on with regards to who is able to write as well as read the stories in its online archives.

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Works Cited List

Andersen, N. “Media Literacy’s Gifts to Literature Study.” English Teaching: Practice and

Critique. 9.1 (2010): 106. Print.

Black, R. “Access and affiliation: The Literacy and Composition Practices of English-language

Learners in an Online Fanfiction Community.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 49.2

(2005): 125-126. Print.

Black, R. “Convergence and Divergence, Informal Learning in Online Fanfiction Communities

and Formal Writing Pedagogy.” Mirror Images: Popular Culture and Education. Ed. Bekerman,

Burbules, Giroux, Silberman-Keller. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc, 2008. 135. Print.

Chandler-Olcott, Mahas. “Adolescents’ Anime-inspired “fanfictions”: An exploration of

Multiliteracies.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 46.7 (2003): 558 & 560. Print.

Grossman, L. “How Harry Potter Became The Boy Who Lived Forever” TIME Magazine. 27,

July (2011). Web.

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Jessop, F. “Exploring Fandom: Teaching Narrative Writing Through Fanfiction.” English Drama

Media. October Issue (2010) 29-31. Print.

McCudden, M. Degrees of Fandom: Authenticity & Hierarchy in the Age of Media Convergence.

Diss. 19. University of Kansas, 2011.

Santilli, N. “Online Publishing: (Anime) Fan Fiction and Identity.” Journal of Digital Research

and Publishing. 3.1 (2010) 42. Print.

Schaffner, B. “In Defense of Fanfiction.” The Horn Book Magazine. November/December Issue

(2009): 613-617. Print.