Fan fiction
Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is 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. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from the original creator as a basis for their writing and can retain the original characters and settings, add their own, or both. Fan fiction ranges in length from a few sentences to novel-length and can be based on fictional and non-fictional media, including novels, movies, comics, television shows, musical groups, cartoons, anime and manga, and video games.
Fan fiction is rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's creator or publisher or professionally published. It may infringe on the original author's copyright, depending on the jurisdiction and on legal questions, such as whether or not it qualifies as "fair use". The attitudes of authors and copyright owners of original works towards fan fiction have ranged from encouragement to indifference or disapproval, and they have occasionally responded with legal action.
The term came into use in the 20th century as copyright laws began to distinguish between stories using established characters that were authorized by the copyright holder and those that were not.
Fan fiction is defined by being related to its subject's canonical fictional universe, either staying within those boundaries but not being part of the canon, or being set in an alternative universe. Thus, what is considered "fanon" is separate from canon. Fan fiction is often written and published among fans, and as such does not usually cater to readers without knowledge of the original media.
Definition
The term fan fiction has been used in print as early as 1938; in the earliest known citations, it refers to amateur-written science fiction, as opposed to "pro fiction". The term also appears in the 1944 Fancyclopedia, an encyclopaedia of fandom jargon, in which it is defined as "fiction about fans, or sometimes about pros, and occasionally bringing in some famous characters from stories". It also mentions that the term is "sometimes improperly used to mean fan science fiction; that is, ordinary fantasy published in a fan magazine".History
Before copyright
Before the adoption of copyright in the modern sense, it was common for authors to copy characters or plots from other works. For instance, Shakespeare's plays Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, As You Like It and The Winter's Tale were based on recent works by other authors of the time.In 1614, Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda wrote a sequel to Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote before he had finished and published his own second volume.
There is a debate within the fanfiction community as to whether or not Dante Alighieri's Inferno can be considered self-insert fanfiction of the Bible.
19th century
Among 19th-century literature that has been subject to depictions not authorized by the original author include Bram Stoker's Draculas depiction in the translated adaptation Powers of Darkness. The works of Jane Austen remain among the most popular works for unauthorized adaptations, with a notable example of Jane Austen fan fiction being Old Friends and New Fancies. Many unauthorized stories of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle have been created, including The Adventure of the Two Collaborators by J. M. Barrie. Other notable works include The Space Machine and Morlock Night, respectively based on The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells; A New Alice in the Old Wonderland, based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; and Wide Sargasso Sea, based on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.''Star Trek'' fandom
The modern phenomenon of fan fiction as an expression of fandom and fan interaction was popularized and defined by the Star Trek fandom and its fanzines, which were published in the 1960s. The first Star Trek fanzine, Spockanalia, contained some fan fiction; many others followed its example. These fanzines were produced using offset printing and mimeography and mailed to other fans or sold at science fiction conventions for a small fee to cover the cost of production. Unlike other aspects of fandom, women were the primary authors of fan fiction; 83% of Star Trek fan fiction authors were female by 1970, and 90% by 1973. One scholar states that fan fiction "fill the need of a mostly female audience for fictional narratives that expand the boundary of the official source products offered on the television and movie screen."Internet
Fan fiction has become more popular and widespread since the advent of the Internet. According to one estimate, fan fiction comprises one-third of all book-related content on the Internet. In addition to traditional fanzines and conventions, Usenet newsgroups and electronic mailing lists were established for fan fiction and fan discussion. Online, searchable archives of fan fiction were also created, with these archives initially being non-commercial hand-tended and specific to a fandom or topic. These archives were followed by non-commercial automated databases. In 1998, the non-profit site FanFiction.Net was launched, which allowed anyone to upload content in any fandom. The ability to self-publish fan fiction in an easily accessible archive that did not require insider knowledge to join, as well as the ability to review stories directly on the site, led the site to quickly gain popularity.A popular example of modern fan fiction is E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey, which was originally written as fan fiction for the Twilight series and featured Bella and Edward. To avoid copyright infringement, James changed the characters' names to Ana and Christian for the purposes of her novels, a practice known as 'pulling-to-publish'. Anna Todd's 2013 fan fiction After, about the boy band One Direction, secured a book and movie deal with renamed characters in 2014. A movie adaptation, After, was released on April 12, 2019.
On May 22, 2013, online retailer Amazon launched a new publishing service, Kindle Worlds, which allowed fan fiction of certain licensed media properties to be sold in the Kindle Store, with terms including 35% of net sales for works of 10,000 words or more and 20% for short fiction ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 words. However, this arrangement included restrictions on content, copyright violations, poor document formatting, and use of misleading titles. Amazon shut down Kindle Worlds in August 2018.
Japanese ''doujinshi''
A similar trend began in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, as doujinshi, independently published manga and novels, were published by doujin circles, with many being based on existing manga, anime, and video game franchises. Manga artists such as Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujiko Fujio formed doujin groups, such as Fujio's New Manga Party. At the time, artists used doujin groups to make their debut as professional artists. This changed in the following decades, as doujinshi became more popular and doujin groups formed in groups such as school clubs. This culminated in 1975 with the Comiket, a convention in Tokyo that helped to establish the fandom.Demographics
A 2010 study found that 75.2% of account holders on FanFiction.Net allowed the website to disclose their location and that 57% of accounts originated from the United States, followed by 9.2% created in the United Kingdom, 5.6% in Canada, and 4% in Australia. A 2020 study of Archive Of Our Own users found that of the surveyed profiles that stated a nationality, 59.7% were located in North America, 16.1% in Great Britain and an additional 10% in Mainland Europe, 6.3% in Oceania, 2.8% in Scandinavia, 2.2% in Asia, 1.8% in South America and the Caribbean, and 0.2% in the Middle East. The study did not include profiles written in Chinese, Greek, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, or Turkish.A 2020 study of Harry Potter fan fiction writers on Archive of Our Own found that of the users who disclosed their gender in their profiles, 50.4% were female or femme-leaning and 13.4% were male or masc-leaning. 11% of users were transgender, 21% identified as nonbinary, genderfluid, and/or genderqueer, and an additional 3.9% stated that they identified as agender or genderless.
The study also found that fan fiction writers tend to be in their early to mid-20s. Of these writers, 56.7% were university students and young adults, 21.3% were 30 years or older, 19.8% were teenagers, and 0.2% were of retirement age.
Unlike many fan fiction communities that trend female in participation, Fimfiction has a predominantly male audience.