What is fanfiction?

To be frank here, some people think that the line between who knows what fanfiction is or isn't is easily drawn between those who are a part of the fanfiction community and those who are not. Truth of the matter though is that I've found such lines are not as simple as one may think. I've come across quite a few people who think they know what fanfiction is, but in reality they don't know what it is at all. In part I think this stems from certain misconceptions floating around, but in other cases it is because the individual has a habit of staying in their little corner of the net and is oblivious to what goes on outside of it. Thus they end up forming ideas based on their limited knowledge.

Fanfiction is any form of derivative fiction based on another writers work. Some people may notice here that I don't use the word “fan” anywhere in the definition I just gave, which brings me to the first misconception people have about fanfiction... that fanfiction is always written by fans. Believe it or not the word “fan” isn't in the word “fan” fiction because fanfiction is always written by fans but because this is far from true. The word “fan” is used because most fanfiction is written by fans.

I've come across people who bulk at the idea that someone who isn't a fan would write a fanfiction piece so now I need to explain how it is possible. There is a particular type of fanfic called hatefic or spitefic. This type of fanfic can be written by both fans and non-fans alike and involves deconstruction of the work. Satirical works that poke fun of a series fall under this category. The more poorly written the original work is, the more likely it is to have works deconstructing the original work. Satire I might add... true satire... is one of the few types of fanfic exempt from copyright laws.

This isn't the only type of fanfiction that is written by non-fans. I've seen a few fanfic writers write stories for fandoms they are not fans of simply because one of their friends or a family member is a fan of said series and they received a request for a very specific fanfic. In the publishing industry there are writers who continue the writers work. Some of these writers aren't fans at all. Some do so because it is a way to earn a living and others do it because it is believe it or not an honor to continue a series of a writer who has passed on. This is particularly true if you were picked because your writing style closely mimics the original writers style.

Another thing people will notice about the definition I gave is that said definition doesn't include RPF. Some people may even be thinking along the lines... but it stands for “real person fanfiction”. Some people will be rolling their eyes when they read that last part because they know it stands “real person fiction”, but the thing is I've honestly seen someone refer to RPF as being “real person fanfiction” and not “real person fiction”.

I'm going to make a bold statement here and outright say that RPF actually isn't fanfiction under most circumstances and shouldn't be called fanfiction under most circumstances. I'm also wish to make it clear that me saying that the majority of RPF as not being fanfiction is actually not an insult, but I'll get into that more in the part I cover RPF specifically. My reasons for covering it is because while I don't feel the vast majority should be labeled as fanfiction I still feel it is important to cover in my introduction to fanfiction.

RPF isn't the only work that doesn't fall under the definition of fanfiction though. Fanfiction does not cover works that are simply inspired by a particular fandom. For a work that is inspired by another work to be called fanfiction it needs to actually be derivative of said work. If it is not, then it is actually original fiction disguised as fanfiction. This may be confusing to some people, so I'll give some examples of what I mean by non-derivative works inspired by another work.

Let's say you have a story where a boy or girl goes to a wizarding school. The first thing that likely pops into a persons head is that this story has to be a Harry Potter fanfic. This assumption though is based on the idea that wizarding schools are unique to the world of Harry Potter, when it is not. For example, a precursor work to Harry Potter is Worst Witch. Actually... here is a brief list of works that includes wizarding schools of some kind.

Worst Witch (1974)

Wizard's Hall (1991)

Harry Potter (1997)

Children of the Red King (2002)

Negima! Master Negi Magi (2003)

The Familiar of Zero (2004)

Happiness! (2005)

Magical schools aren't the only thing stories can have in common. Here is a brief list of works that contain Shinigami in them.

YuYu Hakusho (1990)

Bleach (2001)

Full Moon o Sagashite (2002)

Death Note (2003)

Ballad of a Shinigami (2003)

Soul Eater (2004)

Kyouran Kazouku Nikki (2005)

Fairy Tail (2006)

Cashern Sins (2008)

The list includes a wide range of Shinigami types as well. Another example is mutant powers as accur in the marvel universe. Outside of the Marvel universe we have Gauken Alice, Darker then Black as well as Tiger and Bunny just for a couple of examples. There is also the type of game that occurs in Battle Royal as well as Hunger Games. It is believe it or not a very popular plotline over in Japan for Anime and Manga.

The point I'm trying to make is that having a basic idea in your story doesn't make your story fanfiction. Basic ideas aren't copyrightable, which is why you can have stories that share quite a few similarities with each other. To be honest as well, if it was just basic ideas that made something a fanfic then we would have to label Hunger Games, Eragon and many other works as fanfiction when they are not. I mean, aren't the people who wrote them fans of the work that inspired them to write these stories.

There is a bit more to this though. Some people may think along the lines of “if I use the characters names I've got fanfiction”. The names of characters though aren't copyrightable. Others think, “if I use the basic personality of the character it's fanfiction”. The problem here is that basic character archetypes aren't copyrightable either, nor is how a character looks. It is actually the name of the character, the looks and how their character archetype is used that makes said characters copyrightable.

That may be a confusing for some people though. As I said, fanfiction is derivative work, which means it is based off another work. It isn't based on as in simply “inspired” by another persons work. It is based on as in “it's a continuation” of another persons work. Even a true AU in fanfiction is still a continuation of another persons work. While the work of writing the story is the fanfic writers work, the actual basic world building is done by someone else.

Now that I've answered “what fanfiction is” the question of why people write fanfiction comes up. One of the question writers ask is why would anyone want to write stories based on another writers copyright. To many there is no originality to using another writers world or characters. So... there is a bit more to go into about what fanfiction is.

And the first thing that needs to be brought up I think is the fact not all fanfiction breaks copyright law. There is in reality fanfiction that is published under official means. The type most people are likely to know about is satire. Satire is actually protected under fair use... true satire that is. I wish to make it clear here that a work isn't considered satire if you simply retell the other work using your own characters. Satire actually has to comment on the work being satires for it to constitute fair use and you can't use another persons characters to do satire on a particular subject matter.

Veggie Tales is actually a popular work that does true satire of other works and it is geared towards a young audience but also older people who are going to be familiar with the works satires. Other works though include the Simpsons, Family Guy... you name it. If you're familiar with any of these works you're notice a common theme that runs through the satirical works... comedic humor. Sometimes the comedic humor makes fun of the original work, other times it makes fun of the genre. Or even something else.

This though happens to be the satire that falls under fair use. The other kind doesn't always have the comedic humor. Take a 'Modest Proposal' for example. For those who read it this type of satirical work took a serious subject matter and treated it in a serious manner in an attempt to draw people attention to said subject matter. This type of satire isn't covered under fair use meaning you can't do a cartoon using characters from your favorite fandom satirizing a serious subject and submit it for publication.

The second kind that people are going to be familiar with happens to be fanfiction for works that have fallen out of copyright. One of the most popular works happens to be Pride and Prejudice. Anybody can write a sequel to this series and publish it for profit because said work has fallen out of copyright. Other works include Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. In fact, the Alice in Wonderland 2010 movie, Sherlock, Elementary and Wicked are all examples of published fanfiction people are likely to be familiar with.

There is a third kind though, something the publishing industry calls “tie in novels”. That is what is published over on Amazon Kindle, so if you're thinking it is just another platform to post any fanfiction you want, please think again as it is in reality an extension of the tie in novels the publishing industry is put out. What though is a tie in novel? A tie in novel is an officially sanctioned novel by the copyright holder not created by the original creator.

Tie in novels are popular in both the Star Trek, Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons fandoms. And guess what. Unless they actually contradict existing canon tie in novels are considered to be official canon. Some of the most popular D&D characters were created by the writer R.A. Salvatore. In fact, prior to his introduction of a Drow hero most Dms (dungeon masters) didn't allow campaign members to have characters who were of the “evil” races because there was no such thing as a character of this race aligned to the good or neutral side of things. Right there I probably used quite a bit of lingo people may not understand so I'll simply say his novels ended up having a profound effect on the official canon.

Now... these three types of officially published fanfiction... there is something particular about them in the fact the publishing industry does not actually refer to them as fanfiction. One of the reasons people have the misconception that fanfiction writing isn't a legit form of writing is because fanfiction that is officially published hasn't until recently been called fanfiction. Yes... some people did recognize these things as being fanfiction, but it really wasn't a common thing to see people out right calling it fanfiction.

There is though another reason why people write fanfiction beyond simply being able to officially publish it. Why do people not take their plot idea and create original fiction with it? Simply put, there are just some ideas that are ingrained with the characters someone else created. You know the writer will never create the story based around said idea, or it is simply stuck in your head. It is about creating something because it is stuck in your head.

There are general ideas that can be used regardless of the world, or regardless of the characters. There are though some stories that only fit those characters within the world. This is because the ideas are not your basic, general idea but more complex. They start not with a story idea, but with the original canon. Thus they end up relying a lot on the original canon to work. Take away the original canon and you have a jumbled mess.

The last reason I am going to cover as to why people read and write fanfiction is personal wish fulfillment. This can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. I'm planning on going into more depth about this later on so I'll simply say that a writer whether they write fanfiction or original fiction needs to be aware of reality and not crossing the line into complete escapism. Fiction doesn't mean “not real”, it means “didn't really happen”.