Fanfiction

One of the staples of joining a fandom

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that you don’t talk about fanfiction outside of fandom.

That was the unspoken rule when I first entered fandom spaces twenty years ago. No one wants to be made fun of or ridiculed because of something they love. For well over a decade, I followed that as a hard rule. I only told people I truly felt I could trust, and even then, I’d still feel the need to hide it.

Now, I’m on several social media platforms talking about fanfiction I’m writing. If you’d told me I’d be making videos about my fanfiction ten years ago, I’d have thought you’d lost your mind. Now, I have some friends and family who don’t know I write fanfiction and talk to me about the fanfiction they’re reading. Sometimes, they think I’ll be shocked by things they’ve read. If you’re like me and have been in fanfiction spaces for far too long, I’m sure you giggled there, too.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

People have a lot of opinions about fanfiction and the people who make and consume it. The pandemic seemingly helped to make fanfiction a little more mainstream. Of cours,e that has caused some problems as well. The people who are newer to fandom spaces sometimes haven’t taken the time to learn the etiquette around it. Things like tearing an author apart in the comments are a fic are bad. Or the most egregious is that people are binding and selling fanfiction, which is illegal and threatens are ability to even be able to write and read fanfiction.

Please, for the love of god, stop fucking selling fanfiction. I’m begging.

Regardless of where fanfiction is currently in the lexicon it remains a tool for people to let out their creative side and build a community. For some, it’s a tool that they are also using, and they have dreams of one day putting out original work. For others, they have no grand aspirations they simply love a world, and it’s a new sandbox that they are able to play in. Some people will never write but will consume millions of words in a particular sandbox.

Fandom has always been about building a community. Fanfiction is one of the tried and true ways that we find and connect with others who find joy in the same things that we do. Community, now more than ever, is something that we all need. Go out and find the people who love things the way you do, make connections, and find joy in the things that are considered silly.

People tend to have a lot of thoughts and feelings when it comes to fanfiction. For me, it will always be near and dear to me. It has gotten me through some of the worst parts of my life over the past twenty years. And given the climate that we currently live in, I think we could all use a few more things that provide us with an escape.