{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/primefanfiction","webpackCompilationHash":"e5e838ea24a94317ab29","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"headline":"Rewriting the Narrative","author":"Anna Dai-Liu","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.fanfiction/IMG_2703-18f07b5e10c656e57b9c42e1f606f96c.jpg","covercred":"Nicolas Greamo and Helen Juwon Park","coveralt":"Photo illustration of an individual writing on paper.","articleType":"article","updated":"","content":[{"type":"text","value":"\"Star Wars\" is the gateway to a lot of things: galaxies far, far away, for instance, or perhaps the death machines of masked dictators or the jangling music of space cantinas."},{"type":"text","value":"But in 1998, \"Star Wars\" was the gateway to stories on the internet well beyond what Meghan Fitzmartin knew could even exist."},{"type":"text","value":"Growing up in a devoutly religious household in Florida, \"Star Wars\" was one of the few pieces of media that Fitzmartin’s parents allowed her to watch. And when her parents purchased their first computer, young Fitzmartin stumbled across the earliest versions of what is now Fanfiction.net."},{"type":"text","value":"\"I remember when we got the internet, and I was very sheltered. I wasn’t really allowed to watch a lot of things. ... If I did find something, I wanted as much as that one thing that I could possibly consume,\" she said. \"I came to fan fiction and fandom because of wanting more of the stories and the characters that I loved.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Since Fitzmartin’s first encounters with the medium over a quarter century ago, fan fiction – broadly defined as explorative fiction based on existing media or characters – has seen a rise in popularity, with self-publishing platform Wattpad alone having more than 90 million users. The writing style has also developed a distinct community. A user-run survey of a fraction of the more than 7.6 million users of Archive of Our Own – also known as AO3 – found that 81.4% of respondents identified as LGBTQ+ and 77.7% reported having some type of disability or health condition."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"I came to fan fiction and fandom because of wanting more of the stories and the characters that I loved.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"While fan fiction has long existed as a way to fill in the gaps of a narrative, that desire is exacerbated for writers whose marginalized identities lack representation on the screen or in writing. Fan fiction in its very nature, writers said, provides a unique way to insert pieces of themselves into the worlds they love – and it’s become more than a passion for some, launching the careers of some screenwriters and novelists as fan fiction adaptations begin to top Netflix charts and bestseller lists. This community has also generated a reflective body of work; an overwhelming majority of the platform’s most popular \"ships,\" or pairings, are not straight."},{"type":"text","value":"But fan fiction largely remains a \"cringe\" topic, with people immediately jumping to stereotypes of romance and overly obsessed fans. That attitude has endured, despite how common the interests of fan fiction might actually be: How many people have imagined an alternate ending to a TV show? Or imagined themselves living in the universe of their favorite book? That, oftentimes, seems to be how fan fiction starts, even before people know what the word \"fan fiction\" even means."},{"type":"text","value":"Or at least, that was the case for then-fifth-grader Valarie Vong."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo illustration of an individual sitting in a library aisle and writing in a notebook.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.fanfiction/IMG_2710-f4f5dc5fcaa207167621c671fe80fac2.png\",\"credit\":\"Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff and Helen Juwon Park/Illustrations Director\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"My friends and I were really obsessed with this book series called ‘The Lunar Chronicles,’\" they said. \"I didn't even know this was called fanfic at the time, but ... when we finished it, we were like, ‘Oh my god, let's write stories about what their kids would be like.’\""},{"type":"text","value":"So the tweens started writing together on a shared Google Doc, Vong said, with each person crafting a chapter in turn. They wrote about every detail they could imagine, from the colors of the kids’ clothes to who would fall in love with each other later on."},{"type":"text","value":"Now-second-year bioengineering student Vong may no longer be writing about cyborgs and plagues, but they said their interest in fan fiction – particularly K-pop fan fiction – has endured. A friend introduced them to the band Stray Kids and a few BTS songs in 2017, and from there the floodgates opened. Vong immersed themselves in BTS x reader stories and discovered a community enamored with bad boy/good girl romances and mafia alternate universes – a few of the common tropes and universe-building techniques in a fan fiction writer’s toolbox."},{"type":"text","value":"AO3, established in 2008, is now one of the most popular fan fiction sites among users including Vong. But before that, there was Fitzmartin’s beloved Fanfiction.net, created in 1998 by a group of UCLA students. At that time, even the words \"fan fiction\" felt taboo to say, Fitzmartin said, adding that she didn’t start talking about her experiences until around 2016. But those fears didn’t stop her from reading and writing fan fiction. To this day, there’s certain tropes she sticks by – \"I would never not be into kidnapping\" – while others, such as lost babies in the woods, seem to have fizzled out."},{"type":"text","value":"And just as tropes have evolved, so have the platforms that people use. After Fanfiction.net removed all NC-17 content from the site, Fitzmartin said users moved her old work to AO3."},{"type":"text","value":"As the locations and culture of fandom have changed, so has public perception of the community. Consciousness of the extensive reach of fan fiction has only increased in recent years with mainstream adaptations of fan fiction. The movie \"After\" is sourced from a Harry Styles fan fiction. More infamously, \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" started as fan fiction of \"Twilight.\" While it’s cool to see more people – and markets – being interested in the work of fan fiction writers, those works are just the tip of the iceberg, Fitzmartin said."},{"type":"text","value":"\"If this is your gateway into knowing there is more out there for you, that there is more to this, great,\" she said. \"(But) I don't always like that it (these adaptations) is portraying fan fiction as being poorly written, because not all of it is.\""},{"type":"text","value":"But fan fiction and fandom don’t always get such an idyllic treatment."},{"type":"text","value":"Mainstream cultural prejudices against men with colorful hair and makeup, often labeled as \"girly,\" turned Vong away from K-pop for years. Negative stereotypes about furries, or people interested in anthropomorphic animals, similarly kept fourth-year linguistics and psychology transfer student Vahe Deverian away from the furry fandom."},{"type":"text","value":"Deverian – the author of a yet-unpublished novel, \"Recollections,\" and an editor of the online visual novel \"Promises to Keep\" – first delved into the furry fandom with a YouTube video during his senior year of high school. He soon joined a Discord server, discovering a largely queer community he wanted to be a part of."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Most queer people I had met at that point weren't my crowd,\" he said. \"It was there (the furry community) that I was able to actually meet nerds that liked what I liked and understood the experiences I had.\""},{"type":"text","value":"During his time in community college, he committed an hour each day to writing his novel. Although the protagonist doesn’t share his snow leopard fursona – a personified animal alter ego – Deverian, who is gay and has autism, said the issues the protagonist faces parallel the ones he experienced growing up, such as navigating a disability and sibling relationships."},{"type":"text","value":"Fan fiction readers from marginalized communities similarly seek works that reflect who they are. Vong, who identifies as asexual, said fan fiction has allowed them to see themselves in media that typically isn’t explicit about how its characters may identify."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"That speaks to the power of the imagination and of people's real creativity – to imagine fuller, thicker, richer worlds than are sometimes given to us by the culture industry.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"Luffy in ‘One Piece’ – he's only interested in fighting and food and his friends. And to me, that kind of feels like someone who's coded as maybe aromantic, because Luffy has never really expressed a romantic interest,\" they said. \"I've really loved it when I find fanfics where they'll have a tag like ‘asexual Luffy’ or ‘aromantic Luffy,’ and it makes me feel like, ‘Oh my God. I saw some of myself in Luffy, and someone validated what I saw.’\""},{"type":"text","value":"This relationship between fan fiction writing and identity has become a subject of academic study. UC Irvine professors Jonathan Alexander and Rebecca Black published a 2019 article examining representations of autism in \"Harry Potter\" fan fiction, finding that authors were transforming the world’s built-in magic into representations of neurodivergence."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Fans are able to pull out of the story really interesting connections or possibilities that sometimes aren't there, or aren’t originally there or weren't intended to be there,\" said Alexander, a professor of English. \"That speaks to the power of the imagination and of people's real creativity – to imagine fuller, thicker, richer worlds than are sometimes given to us by the culture industry.\""},{"type":"text","value":"But such research, like its source material, has not always been taken seriously. Black – a professor of informatics who began writing \"Lord of the Rings\" fan fiction out of dissatisfaction with its ending – recalled senior faculty suggesting that she change research topics, despite the positive feedback she received from the fandom community about her work."},{"type":"text","value":"The academic landscape has since become more accepting of fan culture research, she said. Her work has expanded to include how language learners use fan fiction as a way to improve their English."},{"type":"text","value":"\"We have this whole new crop of scholars that are doing research on fandom ... not just because they're passionate about the fandoms, but they're passionate about the things that fans are doing,\" she said."},{"type":"text","value":"As interest in fan fiction has increased, however, that attention has also generated increased scrutiny – including within fandoms themselves. For example: Is it ethical to write fan fiction about real people? One Direction fans became infamous for stories such as \"Kidnapped by One Direction\" and \"My mom sold me to One Direction.\" Vong argues that these narratives can be read as stories whose characters happen to share names with real people – if you don’t like it, filter it out and move on."},{"type":"text","value":"Adding to the ethical debate is the assumption that fan fiction is inherently sexual. Tumblr user destinationtoast conducted a survey of the ratings of AO3 works published since 2009 and found that about 30% of works on the platform contained smut, or sexually explicit content. But regardless, Fitzmartin said NSFW content isn’t the dominant portion of fan fiction."},{"type":"text","value":"More importantly, sexual content is not an inherently bad thing – in fact, reading it can be transformative or educational, she added. For Fitzmartin, fan fiction was one of the earliest exposures she had to sex outside her conservative home setting."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Coming from a very purity culture background, we didn't talk about sex a lot in my house,\" she said. \"Fanfic was absolutely my sex education – for better or worse, whatever, but it was.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Like writing about any identity or experience, writing about sex can help people better understand themselves through fan fiction characters. Screenwriter and MFA alumnus Catherine Wignall conducted a survey of fan fiction readers on Tumblr and found that the majority of respondents, who were women, were consuming fan fiction about gay men."},{"type":"text","value":"Among these results, some expressed concern about potential fetishization of gay men. But one user’s answer particularly struck Wignall: Because women’s bodies are often sexualized in violent ways, writing fiction through the perspectives of men, who are not taught that same guilt, provided a way to explore sexuality without internalized shame, they said."},{"type":"text","value":"That vilification of women – particularly teenage girls – extends to the general disdain for fan fiction as a whole, said Wignall, who wrote fan fiction throughout her undergraduate years."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"Fanfic was absolutely my sex education – for better or worse, whatever, but it was.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"It is transformative work,\" she said. \"Now that it's become the domain of young women, teen girls – we as a society can be really sniffy and snobby towards what teen girls like.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Beyond sexism, the divide between \"high\" and \"popular\" literature reflects an arbitrary line between narratives that – in the end – are all just stories of other stories, Alexander said. Wignall points to a few examples: \"Wicked\" spins off \"The Wizard of Oz,\" but John Milton’s \"Paradise Lost\" or Dante’s \"Inferno\" could equally be seen as fan fiction about the Bible."},{"type":"text","value":"\"These are all stories that people are telling. And they may be telling them in different ways, maybe using different forms – but they’re still stories that are circulating that people want, in some way, to make their own,\" he said."},{"type":"text","value":"Despite this, industries have been built around \"popular\" fiction highlighting established, mainstream genres. Deverian is currently trying to get his novel published by one of a handful of houses that specialize in furry writing – an industry he said is surprisingly competitive. For screenwriter Fitzmartin, who wrote two episodes of \"Supernatural,\" she sees her work as just another form of fan fiction – tapping into prewritten characters and personalities and taking them in the next direction."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo illustration of an individual typing on a computer with illustrations covering their face.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.fanfiction/IMG_2711-d6f9aa72c5d90f6899c7a863ad0164c1.png\",\"credit\":\"Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff and Helen Juwon Park/Illustrations Director\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Nevertheless, attitudes toward fan fiction and fandoms have changed, writers said. It’s not perfect, Deverian warned – when it comes to furries, for example, people still get uncomfortably touchy and try to pull on the fursuits’ tails. But he, as well as Fitzmartin and Vong, emphasized just how big fandom can become, not just online but in person. Deverian and his friends have just started the Furries at UCLA club, and they’ve been wearing their fursuits on campus occasionally to get more visibility."},{"type":"text","value":"For Fitzmartin, she has even met some fans in person whom she first connected with online. Vong has been to Comic-Con with their friends and tells them about their recent fan fiction reads. The internet didn’t create fandoms, but it did augment communities that have long existed, Black said."},{"type":"text","value":"But, Vong emphasized, fandoms shouldn’t have to be mainstream to be cool. They added that they hope people become less judgmental about fandoms, popular or not."},{"type":"text","value":"Like fandom, fan fiction does not need to be cool to be valued, Wignall said. Although fan fiction can be an important way for people to explore and understand themselves, she said that doesn’t mean it can’t be a beautiful thing in and of itself."},{"type":"text","value":"\"I don't think it has to have value. I think you can enjoy something just because you enjoy it,\" Wignall said. \"There's something for everyone in fandom. You just have to find your own way of connecting.\""}]}},"pageContext":{"isCreatedByStatefulCreatePages":false,"term":"fall24","slug":"prime.fanfiction"}}}