Fanfiction is defines as "fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction," and while the authors may be amateur at the craft, the work is often far from it. There is an ongoing debate in many fandoms, really every fandom, about whether fan-written works and stories (more commonly known as “fanfiction” or “fanfic”) should be considered true literature. Many websites, from Wattpad to Ao3, are devoted to providing access to fanfiction. These sites vary in publicity (Ao3 requires an invitation to create an account) and general quality of writing. On pretty much every fanfic site, you can find works with the potential to become true published novels next to 100-word stories of absolute nonsense.
Now, I know many people who read a lot of fanfic, and I also know many people who would rather die than read some random story about characters from an already-known franchise. Most of the people who do enjoy reading it are often on the side of it being considered “real literature,” believing many of the works are not only long enough but also well-written enough to be published. The ladder, however, is the people who often argue the side of fanfic being unoriginal and “obsessive,” with the belief that it’s almost always poorly written. While these people are occasionally correct, they often aren’t and base their arguments on “crack fics”.
Fanfictions that are made with the purpose of being absurd and all-around “bad” are often referred to as “crack fics”. These works are typically created due to a bet, or simply wanting to make something funny and unserious. Using these types of fics as evidence of poor quality isn't honest as they are written to be poor quality. If the fics are bad that means the author has done their job and they aren’t good examples as opposed to truly gross or bad fics.
While there are fics that are meant to be bad, there is still some simply bad fan fiction. Usually written by 11-year-old girls about random celebrities they like, these fics are almost always painful to read. They’re typically sickeningly cringe and are simply poorly written, with run-ons and sentences that make little to no sense. However, these fics are often made for other young girls, not people looking to read a truly flushed-out story. Though these works make for a better argument in the fact that fanfic is inherently bad, they are rarely what people talk about when they argue for fanfiction being true literature.
What people are typically speaking of when they talk about “good” fanfiction, are the full stories with hundreds of thousands of words. There are many fics that Etsy creators have even begun to bind into physical books. These stories can be the same length as fully published novels, sometimes the length of a full series. “All the Young Dudes” by MsKingBean on Ao3 is 188 chapters and bound copies are sold by many Etsy shops. It’s undeniably well-written and is one of the founding bricks for the “Marauders” fandom, a fandom that wouldn’t exist without fanfics.
Many fandoms, actually, are completely founded on fanfiction. Characters that might not exist normally or only have very minor background roles can be given new life with the extensive character building that many fic authors do. There are countless OCs (original characters) that have been created to aid in stories and are then accepted as a widely favored character.
These fics are often even the quality of a published novel. Scene building and character profiles are often extensive enough to be categorized as professional, even if they were written on someone's phone in a dark bedroom. These fanfictions will have conflict, resolution, and growth, similar to the traditional way of writing novels.
While these works are often without original characters, the personalities, settings, and stories are vastly altered and should be considered as at least mostly, original works. These fics are often beautiful and completely worth reading.
Anyway thanks for coming to my TED Talk I guess (this was a really weird thing to rant about, sorry y’all) 🫥
I am so glad you've decided to cover this topic as it's definitely a controversy many do not entirely contemplate. I wholly agree that while most may consider fanfiction as a silly means to fantasize, some fanfiction authors have truly written nuanced works easily comparable to their published counterparts. I like that you give All the Young Dudes as an example (hehe I recommended it to u in the first place), as I believe the relationships depicted in the fanfiction may be considered even better than those in the original work by JK Rowling.
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