Fan fiction

Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. Characters and props from more than one media work may also be incorporated into a single fanfiction (known as crossovers). It should be noted that in the pre-1965 era, the term fan fiction was used in science fiction fandom to designate science fiction written by members of fandom and published in fanzines, as opposed to fiction that was professionally published. This usage is now obsolete.

History

Modern fan fiction traces its modern roots back to Star Trek fandom which in turn inherited many of its practices from science fiction fandom. The first known published fanzine in modern fan fiction is Spockanalia, published in 1967. This community gave us many traditions that are still in place today, including the concept of Mary Sues, crossovers, zine culture and public feedback.

Other fandoms were active in the same period as Star Trek. One such fandom was The Man from U.N.C.L.E. However, these fandoms did not have a heavy influence on the global fan fiction community until later when there was a more widespread distribution of such fan fiction; early on, most of it was distributed as individual stories to friends and family. These fandoms did not really expand into a more recognized fan fiction community until they published their first fanzines. In the case of Man from U.N.C.L.E., this did not happen until 1976 with the publication of a Man from U.N.C.L.E. story in Warped Space.

Fan fiction has come to the fore, especially since the rise of the Internet, where it flourishes despite the possibility that it infringes the copyright of the film, book, TV show, or other media on which it is based. The Internet has widened the scope considerably, allowing many more people than previously possible to share and critique fanfiction - and people of a far more unpredictable audience, including the authors of the original works on which the fan-fiction is based. Archives of stories have grown in the web environment, some like FanFiction.Net have hundreds of thousands of stories - all carefully organised and freely available. The web has also encouraged events like annual awards, competitions and even conferences all based around fanfiction.

Major genres of fan fiction include those based on: Japanese anime/manga series; the book series Animorphs by K. A. Applegate, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series; J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings; science fiction serials (both on television and in film); other serial television (dramatic and even comedic); American cartoon series, such as Daria, and both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Popular television series which have inspired fanfic include Star Trek, The X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even video games, such as the Final Fantasy and Street Fighter series, have become sources. It is also relevant to consider the formalised shared universe where the originating author actively encourages others to contribute to the development of the whole. The most consistent and long-running has been H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos which has seen both professional and fan contributions for more than fifty years.

Some writers of essays about fan fiction (usually writers of fan fiction themselves) suggest that fan fiction is simply a new incarnation of amateur storytelling: amateur storytellers are still making up new stories about their favorite characters for "amateur," uncritical audiences, but now those characters are Draco Malfoy and Sailor Moon instead of Brer Rabbit and Hercules. That some cultures now view such storytelling as unusual and possibly illegal, and that professional storytellers now have much higher status and control, are considered inessential by proponents of the viewpoint. They consider modern fan fiction to be similar to a garage band: not quite a contribution to professional literature or music (although certainly a reflection of it), but a creative, devoted method of enjoyment.

Legal aspects

According to current U.S. copyright, copyright owners have the right to control or restrict the publishing of "derivative works" based on their material, though they do not receive ownership of those works. The owner of the original work (film, TV show, etc.) therefore may have some legal power over fan fiction, though the laws as written do not address the issue directly.

Since American copyright law specifically protects parody, and also includes a provision that the specifically protected categories are not necessarily the only protected categories, fan fiction remains in a legal gray area. But even without an official ruling on the legality of fan fiction, the owners of intellectual property can exert a great deal of influence of fans. For instance, a cease and desist letter from an entity with deep pockets exerts a great deal of influence on a single person who can scarcely afford legal representation. Conversely, the bad publicity and ill will generated by attacking one's own fan base can give even a large corporation second thoughts about conducting a legal campaign against fan writers.

It must also be noted that, separate from copyright issues, many characters in American television and film productions are also registered trademarks of the producing company. However, this only requires that fan fiction producers make certain that their work cannot be confused with the trademark holder, and does not claim to be endorsed or produced by them; it does not ban the use of a character any more than the registered trademark status of Coca-Cola prohibits its mention here. Most authors avoid legal trouble by including short disclaimers at the beginnings of stories or chapters.

Also, fan writers argue that their work does not cost the owner of the source material any income, and often acts as free promotion, while fan writers themselves earn no profit. Legally, copyright (and trademark) infringement can still occur even when the infringers do not profit; however, the non-profit nature of fan fiction is important legally, because it limits or eliminates the damages that a court could find and also makes possible some defense against claims of infringement under copyright fair use.

Most major studios and production companies tolerate fan fiction, and some even encourage it. Paramount, for example, has allowed the production of two series of Star Trek fan fiction anthologies, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a series of seven anthologies of fan fiction selected by contest, and Bantam's Star Trek: The New Voyages which followed Bantam's Star Trek Lives by reprinting stories from various fanzines.

A noted exception is Lucasfilm, which has threatened or sued many sites precisely because of their non-commercial nature. Strangely, though, the company encourages fan-produced films, and once made available a small library of sound effects.

Most writers and producers do not read fan fiction, somewhat ironically, for fear that they might be accused of stealing a fan's ideas. But many encourage it: J. K. Rowling, for instance, says she loves fan fiction of all kinds, though she is troubled by the proliferation of adult-themed Harry Potter stories. Douglas Adams also reportedly appreciated fan fiction based on his works, to the extent that some would say that there are scenes in So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish that seem to be inspired by fan fiction.

Noteworthy in regard to acceptance of fan fiction is Eric Flint, who has set up a formal site for the submission of fan fiction into his canon in the 1632 series at Baen's Bar (http://bar.baen.com) and has to date published five issues of the Grantville Gazette featuring fan fiction and fan-non-fiction alongside his original work. Flint contends that this allows the expansion of the alternate history universe into something approaching the complexity of reality.

Also noteworthy is the series of Darkover anthologies published by Marion Zimmer Bradley, beginning in 1980 consisting largely of fan fiction extended into her canon. The author eventually discontinued these after a skirmish with a fan, which cost Marion Zimmer Bradley a book. This incident led to the crack down or zero tolerance on the part of a number of professional authors, including Andre Norton, David Weber and Mercedes Lackey. Some producers would implement similar constraints. One example is jms from Babylon 5. His demand that Babylon 5 fan fiction be clearly labeled or kept off the net confined most of the Babylon 5 fan fiction community to mailing lists. The repercussions of this incident are still being felt to date.

Anne Rice stands at the other end of the scale, aggressively preventing any fan fiction of any of her characters (mostly those from her famous Interview with the Vampire book) or anything to do with any of her books. Other authors do this, they claim, in order to protect their intellectual copyright, and prevent any dilution, saturation and distortion of the universes and people portrayed in their works.

One curious case is that of Larry Niven's Known Space universe. In an author's note in The Ringworld Engineers, Niven stated that he was finished writing stories in this universe, and that "[i]f you want more Known Space stories, you'll have to write them yourself." Internet writer Elf Sternberg took him up on that offer, penning a parody in which members of Niven's hyper-masculine Kzin species engage in gay sex and BDSM. [1] (http://www.drizzle.com/~elf/other/The_Only_Fair_Game.html) Niven responded by denouncing Sternberg's story in the introduction to a later volume and issuing a cease-and-desist for copyright violation. To date, Sternberg holds that the story is constitutionally protected parody [2] (http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/6eadf6478c3e30dd?dmode=source), while Niven maintains that it is a copyright violation (but has not legally pursued the matter further). [3] (http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/10/167206&mode=thread&tid=134&tid=192)

In Russia, where copyright laws have been lax at best, it is not uncommon to see fan fiction based on the work of popular authors published in book form. Sergey Lukyanenko, a popular science fiction author, went as far as to incorporate some fan fiction based on his stories into official canon (with permission of the writers of the said fan fiction).

In the United States, tie-in novels have the curious status of officially sanctioned, for-profit fan fiction. Series from Star Trek to Buffy the Vampire Slayer have numerous books that exist outside the canonical world of the series, much like fan fiction, but which have the official sanction of the show's creators. The refusal by Paramount Pictures (owners of the Trek franchise) to allow printed adventures to be considered part of the canon has led many fans to consider the books to be fan fiction despite their legal and licensed status. The official Star Wars book series is part of the continuity of the Star Wars universe, and cannot strictly be considered fan fiction, either.

In Japan the writing and even sale of fan fiction (especially in the form of doujinshi) is totally legal, and in many cases encouraged. It is looked on, more often than not, as a form of advertising, a similar attitude to that developed by many sectors of the recording industry toward tape trading.

The attitude of copyright holders toward incorporating fan fiction into the canon varies. It is generally the case that the writers hired for a television or movie are under strict orders not to read fan fiction out of fear that doing so will cause the copyright holder to be sued later for infringement. However, some copyright holders such as the case of the BBC and Doctor Who have mechanisms to allow for unsolicited submissions of stories into the official canon, and it is also the case that the writers of canon stories have sometimes been recruited from fan fiction writers.

Types of Fanfiction

Dojinshi

Japanese manga fan fiction, an entire class unto themselves, are known as dōjinshi.

Mary Sue

Some fanfiction falls into the category of Mary Sue fantasies, in which a new "flawless" character enters the story and goes on to upstage the established characters. Often the Mary Sue represents an idealized author character. A Mary Sue can also be a character who, as well as being idealised, also becomes the character upon whom the central character in canon becomes dependent. While the Mary Sue style of writing has some fans, it's generally frowned upon. The male form is 'Gary Stu', 'Larry Stu', or 'Marty Stu'.

Self-Insert

A sub-genre of fiction in which an author pens himself or herself into the fiction as an author character. According to detractors, the author becomes a Mary Sue: flawless, omnipotent, and unable to make mistakes. In some stories, however, an author will make himself or herself more subject to human flaw.

Crossover

Another fan fiction sub-genre is the crossover story where characters of different media franchises interact. An example would be the human refugee fleet led by the Battlestar Galactica finding and entering the territory of Star Trek's United Federation of Planets and learning that not only does Earth exist, but it is a charter member of this interstellar political entity and so is potentially a more formidable enemy of the Cylons than they ever hoped. In fan fiction of animated series, one of the more popular crossover situations is a combination of Pokémon and Digimon. This is common because both series are anime cartoons, and their main characters are groups of children.

Song-Fic

Yet another sub-genre is commonly known as the song-fic. This is a story, often a one-shot (a fanfic with only one chapter), where the lyrics to a song, or sometimes a poem, are included in the body of the writing, and in someway are connected to the story. For example, characters may be performing the actions described in the song, or going through the emotions described in the song. The lyrics may be used to reveal a depth to the character, or explain complex emotions. Other times it is used merely to set the general mood for the fanfiction story.

Het

"Het" classifies a story which has as its main focus a relationship ("ship") between two characters of different genders. The expression is derived from the word "heterosexual" and is used in contrast to slash fiction and gen. Het varies from innocent romance to explicit erotica.

Slash

A "slash" story has as its main focus a relationship ("ship") between characters of the same gender. The expression comes from the use of the "/" symbol to designate Kirk/Spock romance from friendship fic (which used an ampersand "&") in the very early days of Star Trek fanzines. Stories with male/male parings are the most common. "Femmeslash" designates more stories centered on a lesbian relationship, though some female fan writers now prefer the term "Saffic" (from 'Sapphic' and 'Fiction') for their romantic or erotic fiction. Slash fiction varies from innocent romance to explicit erotica.

In anime and manga slash fictions, there are specialized terminologies in common use, often brought into English from Japanese language. The terms shōnen-ai and yaoi refer to male/male slash fictions, and shōjo-ai and yuri refer to femslash fiction, Shonen-ai/Shojo-ai refers properly to romantic relationships and yaoi/yuri refers to more sexual relationships.

Lemon and lime

Explicit sex stories are known as lemon. Lime is a moderated version of the lemon, sexual but not necessarily explicit.

Virtual seasons

Since television is responsible for a large part of fanfiction, it's no surprise that people have also written virtual seasons on their favorite shows. In this instance, multiple fanfiction writers will usually come together to produce a compilation of original fanfiction stories. Often, these writers and enthusiasts will elect among themselves producers, head writers, editors, and other traditional roles to aid in the coordination of the virtual season's material, direction, and continuity.

Alternative universe

If a fanfiction story at some point completely changes the original's canonical storyline or premise (such as killing-off the main character, changing characters' motives or alliances, changing the setting, and so forth), it is known as an alternative universe fan fiction, or 'AU' for short. "Minor changes" to character personalities are not considered an alternate universe; instead these changes are called out of character, or 'OoC' fanfiction. Generally, to be considered an alternative universe story, the change must be extremely improbable to ever happen within the canon.

Continuation

Continuation is when fanfiction is created after a series has finished, with the series being a television series (series finale), a cinematic trilogy, a series novel, and so forth (although the series' spin offs and other franchises may continue). The continuation fanfiction then creates tangential storylines with the characters, or may elaborate on perceived incomplete storylines from the discontinued canon of the series.

Real person fiction

Real person fiction is a type of fanfiction written about real people such as actors, politicians, athletes and musicians. FanFiction.Net was once the largest archive of this subgenre on the internet. On September 12, 2002, they enacted a policy change which eliminated most real person fiction from the site. The site still accepts real person fiction in several categories including the Christian Bible, Diary of Anne Frank and Celebrity Deathmatch. As a result of FanFiction.Net's policy changes, several different tools were used by the fannish community to archive real person fiction. These sites include FanDomination.Net, LiveJournal, Soup Fiction, AdultFanFiction.Net, EFanFiction.Net and FanWorks.Org.

Original fanfiction

It is worth noting that there is no such thing as an "original fanfic." The term is a misnomer that is sometimes applied to completely original works published online. It is inaccurate, however, because the work is not intentionally based on any previously existing story and is therefore not fanfiction. Not all amateur fiction is fan fiction, regardless of the fact that the popular site FanFiction.Net once had a section of original works (which has since been moved to Fictionpress.com). Among anime/manga fans, "original fanfic" is used to refer to an original work that borrows heavily from anime/manga themes and plot devices, and is often set in Japan, with the characters having Japanese names.

Fanfic as pastiche

There is also fan fiction in the form of independent, fan-produced pastiches and parodies of established works, including film and video. One of the best known is Troops, a parody of the reality television show Cops starring Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers on patrol. Another lesser known film is Batman: Dead End, by Sandy Collora. It's small, but creates an interesting scenario between Batman and the Joker, not to mention a crossover with two of the most unlikely series ever.

Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Rice Burroughs both have fan fiction pastiche communities. This tradition comes from the establishment of literary societies, dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. These societies attracted both professional and fan writers. They practice a semi-professional level of publication of fan fiction of a higher literary nature, both in print quality, community expectations and orientation.

Hateful "fanfic"

Occasionally one may see stories in fanfic sites that do not fit the normal definition of fan fiction because they are not written by people who are fans of their subject matter; rather, they are written to ridicule the subject by somebody who dislikes the characters featured in the story. The act of ridiculing or mocking the a story's characters is often called "bashing". There does not seem to be an established term for such stories. An example would be a Lizzie McGuire fanfic story that has as its description "Why Lizzie is a Dumb Blonde".

A variant on this is the "Anti-Fic", where the character(s) that the author dislikes are killed and/or maimed. While character death is often a part or of Fanfic, sub-genre in an Anti-Fic the deaths exist only so the author can express their dislike of the characters.

Webseries

There are also fan-made webseries such as Red Vs Blue. Based on the Halo and Halo 2 video game series, it chronicles the encounters of two groups of soldiers, the Reds and the Blues. This series has won several awards and is popular on the internet.

Extending the canon

Some invented facts or situations are used so frequently in fan fiction, that despite not being part of the original product, they are seen by fans as part of the canon. This is sometimes described as fanon.

MSTings

MSTings (Sometimes called MiSTings) are fanfics of Mystery Science Theater 3000. They're not fanfics in the usual sense due to the nature of the show they are based on. The simplified premise of the show is a man and some homemade robots trapped in a satellite watch a bad movie sent to them by a mad scientist who tries to take over the world. We would see the silhouettes of the satellite inhabitants watch the movie and they would make comments over it. For MSTings, instead of bad movies the source is generally bad fan fiction though other kinds of text have been used such as rants taken off USENET or e-mail spam. The jokes are generally pop cultural references but some are jokes that are known as "observational riffs" which are riffs that point out the flaws of the fanfic such as bad continuity, poor spelling and grammar and a number of other things that are wrong with the MSTed fic. It is preferred though that the majority of the jokes are lines that don't harp on the shortcomings of the fanfic.

There is a code of conduct (http://www.svamcentral.org/ewic/docs/MSTing-FAQ.txt) that MSTers follow; though at some places such as Fandomination.net (http://fandomination.net/) have MSTings which clearly violate these rules. One of the biggest is that MSTing authors should always get permission from the author(s) of the fanfics that they're MSTing.

Although MSTings originated as MST3K fanfics some people have used the MSTing format with an original cast instead of the MST3K characters. Mystery Octagon Theater (http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/mot.html), ImproFicRoast (http://indiemadnesse.sandwich.net/ifroast/ifroast.htm) and Elmer Studios (http://www.elmerstudios.com/) are some of the more well know writers of Non-Standard MSTings, as they are called.

Fan fiction timelines

Slash timeline

1968: The "Ring of Shoshern" was circulating privately in Great Britain. While it would not be published until 1989 by Alien Brothers, it may have originally been written as early as 1969 or 1970.Source (http://www.beyonddreamspress.com/history.htmlink)
1970: Slash has begun to show up on the scene, in underground, distributed by hand stories. While these stories were not published in the Star Trek community for another four years, Henry Jenkins notes that the Star Trek fan fiction community initially greeted this material with stiff resistance. It would take many years before this material was viewed as broadly acceptable in the Star Trek community, with some fen going out of their way in an attempt to marginalize this material by sending copies to various actors whose characters were being portrayed as gay. In one case, a fan sent a piece of slash to William Shatner hoping the actor would crack down on the material. According to several sources, the author consulted his lawyer who told him to let it go as it would do more harm than good to go after it.
1970 to 1975: Henry Jenkins cited this period in the early 1970s as having a slash fan fiction community with 90% female composition. This trend of females being the large majority of slash readers and writers would continue well up until the present time.
1974: "A Fragment Out Of Time" is the first known Star Trek slash to be published in fanzine. The author was Diane Marchant. The vignette was published in Grup #3. The language was highly coded and didn't refer to Spock and Kirk by name but rather referred to them as he and him.
1975: In "Halkan Council," D. Marchant published an essay about Star Trek Kirk/Spock slash. The first public discussion of this essay occurred in the Star Trek letterzine, ""Grup" #4." as a reaction to the essay written by D. Marchant.
1975: Star Trek Lives!, editted and written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston, was published. This book contained a chapter at the end of the book which examines Star Trek fan fiction and the Kirk/Spock relationship in fan fiction. This book is important because that last chapter helped formed a lot of the modern thought on slash fan fiction communities. Scholars still cite this source today.
1976: According to the National Library of Australia, the Star Trek Action Committee was formed as a Star Trek Club. This Star Trek Club held its first meeting in April. Members included Susan Clarke, Julie Townsend and Edwina Harvey. This fanclub would publish the Star Trek adult fanzine, containing both het and slash, Beyond Antares.
1976: In June, "Alternative: Epilog to Orion" is written by G. Downes and published in a fanzine. It was the second piece of Kirk/Spock slash to appear.
1978: Thrust was the first Star Trek anthology fanzine published to contain only Kirk/Spock slash.
1980: Slash was discussed at a panel at Media West.
1980: The Starsky and Hutch community in England veers into the land of slash. This happened

when “Forever Autumn” was published in March. According to Langley and K. S. Boyd, this type of content later caused a disruption in the community as members worried about the reaction of the actors, networks and producers to this material if fen were to publish slash zines. They feared that those parties would acquire these materials and begin a crackdown to prevent the proliferation of this material.

1980 to 1984: The Professionals (a UK spy TV show starring Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins) fan community starts up as a primarily slash based community.
1980: Led Zeppelin fan fiction was circulating in fanzines. The early zines used the names Tris and Alex instead of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. This material was being circulated with an awareness on the part of the parties involved and was slashy in nature.
1981: Slash was being discussed in the Star Trek fan fiction community, as was to how people preferred to view the

Kirk-Spock-Bones relationship. Verba cited a survey which said most people preferred to see that relationship as a friendship.

1984: Archives from net.startrek during that period show that discussion of

slash, referenced as K&S instead of the current convention of K/S to refer to the Kirk/Spock relationship, was happening on the group, along with advertisements for various Star Trek fanzines.

1985: The term, slash, is used for the first time in the fanzine "Night Tonight, Spock."
1986: One of the first pieces of femmeslash was published this year. It appeared in the Women’s List 2. The story was a Star Trek story where Saavik went into pon far and started a relationship with a female Romulan physican. The story was written by Ouida Crozier.
1987: Based on analysis of Datazine by Verba, slash was beginning to occupy a large part of the Star Trek community. Datazine 48 listed 47 non-Kirk/Spock zines compared to 30 Kirk/Spock zines. Verba did another analysis Universal Translator. She found 144 non-Kirk/Spock fanzines compared to 58 Kirk/Spock fanzines.
1989: In the Eroica fan fiction community, Caged Flight 1: Le Coq d'Or was written by BT. It was slash. Sequels were published in 1992, 1993 and 1994. It was some of the earliest fan fiction written in this community.
1990: Slash appeared on-line this year in one of the first references to be found. This reference happened on Usenet in the Star Trek community. The reference was found in rec.arts.startrek’s FAQ.
1993: First slash mailing list created, run from a private list-serv on the East Coast. It was called "Virgule" (a reference to the / symbol) and membership was limited to women. It remained active through the 1990s, until more fandom specific slash mailing lists on Egroups and Yahoogroups became popular.
1995: Seven slash stories were posted to alt.tv.x-files.creative.
1996: On April 16, Michael Demcio's "Rhyme and Reason," premieres as the first Rescue Ranger fan fiction on Usenet. It was the first novel-length Ranger story, and the first story to explore the possibilities of the Chip/Gadget relationship, the first to provide real character development for any of the characters.
1996: Bambi was published. This was a slash zine about the Guns N Roses member, Slash.
1996: The X-Files fan fiction community begins to become more Mulder/Scully Romance centered and the subgenre being a dominant force in the organization of the community. At the same time that this is happening, the slash component, largely marginalized and kept separate from the bigger archives and alt.tv.x-files.creative, begins to form and grow. On July 31, Brenda Antrim's "Krychek" was the first piece of Mulder/Krycek slash, and between October and December, the Mulder/Krycek Romantics Association and the Mulder/Skinner Slash Society were created. These three events would be very influential in the X-Files slash fan fiction community.
1997: In December, slash reaches a critical mass in the X-Files fan fiction community.
1997: alt.fan.disney.afternoon discusses the merits of a Chip/Gadget relationship. This discussion leads to bitterness on both sides of the argument.
1998: On March 12, Sofie Werkers founded the Rareslash mailing list.
1998: On Alt.Startrek.Creative.Erotica.Moderated, related dialogue involves the issue of if slash and het need to be rated differently.
1998: The term, chick with a dick, enters fannish usage through the site God Awful Trek Fic. The term, used deragoatoryly, refered to male characters being written effiminately in male/male pairings in order to put traditional male/female gender roles on the same sex pairing.
1999: In September, Least Expected, the first Lord of the Rings slash archive, was founded.
1999: On May 19, the Master and Apprentice archive was founded at http://www.sockiipress.org/ma/index.html . Currently, this archive is the largest archive of Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon on the Internet with over 2,400 stories archived. This archive was also important in that it seems to have set the trend of writing stories based on media BEFORE the media hits the public.
1999: “Letters over the Sea,” one of the first pieces of slash published to the Internet and one of the more influential stories in the Lord of the Rings slash community, was published. It featured the Sam/Frodo pairing and was written by Gytha and Prembone.
2000: ER Realms of Slash was founded.
2000: RS-X, the Rare Slash Real Person Fic mailing list, was founded by Sofie Werkes.
2000: Citizens Against Bad Slash was around and giving awards in various communities along with promoting dialogue on how to write good slash.
2000: Willtara, a mailing list, was founded on January 30 of this year. It was created for the discussion of and posting of fan fiction realted to the female/female slash pairing of Willow/Tara.
2000: On February 3, the hpslash mailing list was founded.
2000: In October, JayJay proposed the idea for the Snape Slash Fleet on the snapeslash mailing list.
2000: On November 2, the snapeslash mailing list was created.
2000: In December, the Snape Slash Fleet was founded. The Fleet connected seven sites for seven different Snape slash pairings. These sites and their pairings were: Black and Silver: Severus/Malfoys, Slug & Jiggers Apothecary: the Snape/Rareslash Ship site, King of Cups, Knave of Pentacles: Severus/Neville, Moonshadow: Severus/Remus, The Headmaster's Study: Severus/Albus, Thin Line: Severus/Sirius, Walking the Plank: Severus/Harry and The Snape/Weasleys Archive.
2001: The Blink 182 slash fan fiction community based at FanFiction.Net was producing early and influential works in the community. Among these works are Advantages of Alcohol, Letters After Death, In my Room, Defying Gravity, and Deafening.
2001: On July 28, the BibleSlash mailing list was created.
2001: On March 25, the hpslash community was founded on LiveJournal.
2002: On June 1, Armchair_slash, a mailing list for Harry/Draco fan fiction discussion, was founded.
2002: In November, the harry_potter_slash mailing list was founded. This list saw its volume peak in December of 2004.
2002: On December 12, the harrypottermpreg mailing list was founded. This community’s volume peaked around March/April of 2004.
2002: On May 15, slashpuppets was founded. It was one of the first, possibly the first, LotR RPS role playing community.
2003: XanderZone, a mailing list, was founded on March 17 of this year. It was created for the discussion and posting of Xander related fan fiction. Slash fic was and is not tolerated on the list.
2003: In January, the first Harry Potter slash zine was published.
2003: On March 17, the LiveJournal community hp_girlslash was founded.
2003: A search for “Harry Potter slash” on Google resulted in over 70,000 pages.
2004: On February 2, Blink_Slash, a Live Journal Blink 182 slash community, was founded.
2004: On July 24, matag, a Live Journal Blink 182 slash community, was founded.
2005: In March, SkyHawke, an automated fan fiction archive with a large Harry Potter user base, banned all fan fiction with chan, that is fan fiction featuring minors engaged in sex acts, from their site in response to a legal situation in Australia that made this material illegal.

Harry Potter timeline

1997: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first Harry Potter book is published in the United Kingdom.
1998: The first Harry Potter book is released in the United States (as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).
1999: On September 4, "Harry Potter and the Man of Unknown" by Gypsy became the first Harry Potter fan fiction posted to FanFiction.Net, what was to become the largest archive of Harry Potter fan fiction on the net.
2000: Harry Potter for Grownups, a mailing list which now has over 14,000 members, was founded.
2000: On July 8, the fourth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released.
2001: On January 5, SugarQuill, the first pairing-specific site in the Harry Potter fandom, was opened.
2001: In March, Harry Potter Author Fic category removed from FanFiction.Net.
2001: On July 22, FictionAlley.Org, a fan fiction archive, opened. It would become one of the most influential Harry Potter fan fiction archives.
2003: On January 13, RestrictedSection, a Harry Potter fan fiction site, received a cease and desist.
2003: www.psa.shadow-wrapped.net received a cease and desist for adult Harry Potter content.
2003: On June 21, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released.

Real Person fan fiction timeline

The following is a timeline of events in the Real Person Fan fiction community:

1970s - 1990s

From 1977 to 1983, Led Zeppelin fan fiction begins to circulate in fanzines. The early zines used the names Tris and Alex instead of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
During the 1980s, some ActorFic involving Paul Darrow (of Blake's 7) existed.
1991 - Duran Duran slash and het fic circulated in fanzines. According to Sidewinder, Duran Duran zine people said that Duran Duran were aware of the fan fiction. Sidewinder also notes that the RPF people at the time did not seem to come from the same community as "traditional fan fiction fans" were coming from.
March, 1993 - The Nifty Archive came on-line. It is well known in fan fiction fandoms as a repository of boy band and celeb erotica.
July 14, 1997 - The first Hanson fan fiction is written and posted to the Internet. It is titled "Hanson & Hugo" and was written by Ghostman 7 productions.
October 15, 1998 - FanFiction.Net enacts a policy forbidding ActorSlash. The Musician and other real person fic categories continue.

2000

In January, an influential RPS discussion takes place on Rareslash mailing list, the list run by Sofie Werks. The discussion involved whether or not RPS should be allowed to be posted to the list.
April 7 - Bindlestitch, a mailing list on Due South was created as an RPF-friendly location for the following RPS communities: due South, Hard Core Logo and Last Night.
Between June and November, FFN-Slashers-Unites discussed the ethical implications of Real Person Slash.
In July, alt.fan.david-duchovny debated actorfic, the ethics of it and why people felt compelled to write it.
In December, Puppies in a Box, an NSync fan fiction site, went live. This site was apparently very important in the history of the NSync fan fiction community. The site is now defunct.

2001

July 28 - BibleSlash mailing list was created.
Between December 19 and December 28, the tolkien_slash mailing list on Yahoo! discussed the slashy subtext between the actors in the movie. Subsequently on December 28, LOTR_RPS was created. It was one of the first or the first LotR RPF communities.

2002

May 15 - slashpuppets was founded. It was one of the first, possibly the first, LotR RPS role playing community.
September 12 - FanFiction.Net removes all Real Person Fic from the site and bans all Real Person Fic that does not tie in to other media directly. They remove Musicians as a top level category. During the same period that they ban Real Person Fic, they still allow for RPF in categories like Diaries of Anne Frank, Survivor and Celebrity Death Match.

2003

March, alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative discusses the legalities of actorfic.
April 12, idolslash, one of the most influential American Idol fan fiction communities, was founded on LiveJournal.
May 5 - current_affairs, a LiveJournal community for political slash, was created.
July 23 - AFI_Slash livejournal community was created. It claims to be the first and only community. It should be noted that this community is small and FanDomination.Net has most stories and authors than this community.

2004

Between July and November, political slash went mainstream in the RPF community when John Kerry/John Edwards slash becomes all the rage.
July 6 - johnxjohn, the Kerry/Edwards RPF LiveJournal community, was created.

External links

The Fan Fiction Glossary (http://www.subreality.com/glossary/terms.htm)
Discuss Fan Fiction (http://snarkfest.9.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=18)
Fanfic Symposium: History of Fan Fiction (http://www.trickster.org/symposium/symp173.htm)

Fanfiction for several fandoms

FanFiction.Net (http://www.fanfiction.net/) The biggest fanfiction site on the web. (No adult content allowed)
MediaMiner.Org (http://www.mediaminer.org/)
AdultFanfiction.Net (http://adultfan.nexcess.net/) The biggest R and NC-17 fanfiction site on the web (Warning:Not appropriate for people below 18. May contain sexual explicitness)
FicWad.Com (http://www.ficwad.com/) An archive for many fandoms and original fiction. NC-17 allowed. Innovative story rating and filtering system.
Fandomination.Net (http://www.fandomination.net)
Godawful Fan Fiction (http://www.godawful.net) - The worst fan fiction on the web or your money back.
Fanworks Inc (http://www.fanworks.org)
Fan-Fics 'R' Us (http://www.fan-fics-r-us.com)
Fanfiction Directory (http://www.fanficweb.net/directory/index.html) - A directory for fanfiction websites.
Fanfictionnow.com (http://www.fanfictionnow.com/)
Freedom of Speech fanfiction (http://www.fosff.net/)
Fan Fiction WikiCity (http://novelas.wikicities.com/wiki/Fan_Fiction) - fan fiction in a wiki environment

International Sites (non-English)

Fanfiction Paradies (http://www.fanficparadies.de/) Multifandom, German. All stories are betaread, so maybe suitable for people learning German.
Fanfik.Pl (http://www.fanfikpl.prv.pl/) The biggest Polish fanfiction site (all fics in Polish)

Fanfiction for specific fandoms

Anime

ASMR (Moonromance.net) (http://www.moonromance.net/index.html) for Sailor Moon fanfiction.
The Misfits Fanfiction (http://www.zxdware.net/Misfits) - based on Dragon Ball Z
The Penultimate Ranma Fanfic Index (http://www.rakhal.com/ranmalst.html) - Ranma 1/2 fanfiction
Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction Archive (http://tmffa.com/)

Harry Potter

Harry Potter Fan Fiction (http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com)
FictionAlley (http://www.fictionalley.org/) - Harry Potter fanfiction and discussion.
The Sugar Quill (http://www.sugarquill.com/) - Harry Potter fanfiction and discussion.
La Société des Femmes Dangereuses (http://www.witchfics.org/)
Sycophant Hex (http://sycophanthex.com/) - several Harry Potter fanfiction archives dedicated to certain pairings or constellations.

Movies

Parley! (http://www.theparleyarchive.net/) - Pirates of the Caribbean fanfiction.
The Seventh Dimension Highlander Fan Fiction Archive (http://www.seventh-dimension.org/) for Highlander fanfiction.
The League of Extraordinary Fanfiction (http://league.settiai.com/) for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen fanfiction.
http://www.portkey.org/ Portkey] - The largest Harry Hermione Shipper site out there.

Slash content

The Library of Moria: (http://www.libraryofmoria.com/) Lord of the Rings Slash fanfiction.

Television

Bay City Library (http://www.skeeter63.org/bcl/) - Starsky and Hutch gen fanfiction
Bite Me... Please? (http://willsvamps.topcities.com/) for Willow - centric Buffy fanfiction.
The BtVS Writers' Guild (http://btvswritersguild.dymphna.net/) - for Buffy fanfiction.
Twisting the Hellmouth (http://www.tthfanfic.com/) for Buffy crossover fanfiction.
NewsRadio FanFic Archive (http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Lot/2701/) fan fiction based on the TV series NewsRadio
Outpost Daria (http://www.outpost-daria.com/) - Daria fanfiction, fanart, and downloads.
Quadrant Delta (http://www.quadrantdelta.com) - Joint interactive fanfic set in the Star Trek universe.
The Gossamer Project (http://www.gossamer.org/) - The X-Files An extensive fanfiction archive with regular updates.

Video games

The FFNetMetalGear Forums (http://ffnetmg.1.forumer.com/) - Action (Metal Gear etc) Fanfiction discussion
The Domain of Netraptor (http://www.netraptor.org) - G-rated Sonic the hedgehog fanfiction
IcyBrian's RPG Page (http://www.icybrian.com/) - RPG (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, etc) fanfiction and discussion.
VGStories (http://www.phpbbforfree.com/forums/vgs.html) A small fan fiction website based on popular video game series

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Categories: Fan fiction