Have you ever reached the end of a book, TV show, or movie, and thought to yourself, “But that character should have ended up with them instead!” or “Why was that character so one-dimensional? I wish I could have known more about them,” or the classic: “Why did my favorite character have to die?” Maybe you kept thinking about it, days, months, or even years later, wishing that things could have been different. Then, perhaps you told yourself to stop being weird, that this is a fictional person in a fictional world, and to quit thinking about it. It is what it is. Right?
Wrong! My solution to all of these problems is simple: rewrite the story. Who’s to say that what you saw or read in the original work is all there is to that fictional world? What about an alternate universe where everything was different, where some small person made some small choice that changed everything, and the two people you wanted to be together got together, or your favorite character never died? And as for that character who you thought wasn’t properly developed and wanted to know more about? You can invent their life; you can decide what their story is. Even if writing it isn’t your thing, you can read about it from people who have already done it. This is what the world of fanfiction is all about.
Many scoff at fanfiction, dismiss it as a lower form of writing or plagiarism, or assume that it’s all poorly written smut. This is far from the truth. The truth is that fanfiction is, at its heart, an expression of deep love for stories and storytelling. Very few fanfiction authors will ever receive any sort of monetary compensation for what they write; they write because they love it. Seriously, there are fanfictions out there that are more than a million words long and still going strong, and these authors get nothing in return but likes and comments. Have you ever heard a better argument against capitalism?
What no one wants acknowledge when they bash fanfiction is that many fanfiction authors and readers are people marginalized by a patriarchal and heteronormative society. The majority of fanfiction is written by women and queer people, and many readers find representation in fanfiction where many popular works lack it. I know that, as a young queer person, fanfiction helped me understand my identity, and I have heard the same from some of my friends as well. The fact that fanfiction is so often looked down upon is symptomatic of how society loves to disparage things that women are passionate about, especially teen girls (pumpkin spice, anyone?).
When I was twelve, I started writing my first Harry Potter fanfiction series. I finished what ended up an almost four hundred page story at the age of fifteen. Looking back on it now, it’s one of the cringiest things I have ever read, but over the course of those three years I spent writing it, I grew so much as a writer. I learned how to write, really write, in a way that I can now be proud of even if my early attempts were a bit blundering.
At the age of twenty-one, I went back to writing fanfiction with a very different perspective than when I left it at fifteen. While what ultimately made me want to write was still the deep love I still feel for the characters, I also wanted to write because of the deep hurt I feel as a result of J.K. Rowling’s statements. As many people probably know by now, J.K. Rowling is a vehement transphobe. In addition, rereading the Harry Potter series as an adult made me realize all the blatantly fatphobic, homophobic, transphobic, racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic messages that I had internalized from my favorite childhood series. I hate J.K. Rowling, as do all the good members of the Harry Potter community, and want nothing to do with her in the future.
Nonetheless, I can’t escape Harry Potter. To be honest, I wouldn’t want to even if I tried. Throughout my life, the series has been a refuge for me, a place to go for comfort and to escape the awfulness that was sometimes my reality. I escaped into this world full of magic, miracles, and heroes, and it saved my life. As any of my friends will tell you, I quote Harry Potter like it’s my job, and will regale you with the most minute, intricate details, plot holes, and facts that you would probably never notice otherwise. I can’t help it. It’s my comfort, and, as an autistic person, it’s also one of my special interests. I can’t just get rid of Harry Potter.
Instead, I chose to reclaim the series in a way that I know would make J.K. Rowling furious, a fact I thrive upon every day. With fanfiction, we have the power to rewrite the worlds that have not only shaped us as people, but also deeply hurt us. We can write back into the story the safe spaces that the author took away. We can develop characters who were originally one-dimensional and based on offensive stereotypes into three-dimensional, complex, and beautiful people. We can make the relationships that were only hinted at in the books canon, and let our favorite queer-coded characters out of the closet at last. We can put people with marginalized identities at the forefront, and let them reclaim their voices and stories through us reclaiming our own. We, as the fans, have just as much right to weave love and beauty into the story as the original author did.
In doing all of that, we, as fanfiction authors, are real writers. Of course, all fanfiction authors are different. We ship different couples, relate to different characters, write for different fandoms, have our own headcanons, and create our own alternate universes (AUs). Some of us (like me) like writing angsty, slow burn, 200,000+ word romance fanfics full of metaphors, symbols, and discussions of real world issues that were neglected in the original work. Others like writing one-shots that show the reader glimpses of their favorite couples or characters. Some people just want to write smut. It’s all valid, and it’s all allowed.
And yes, some of it is badly written. Some of it is problematic. Some of it is creepy and questionable. But that’s true for books too, as well as the content on a number of social media platforms.
The bottom line is, fanfiction is a place for people to explore. It allows readers to indulge their love for their favorite characters and worlds in new ways and stories. It allows writers to improve their writing skills, get feedback, and create stories for their favorite characters, as well as sometimes changing the worlds they love into better, more inclusive, and more accepting places for themselves and others.
Remember: whatever anyone tells you, it’s alright to be a fan. It’s an incredible thing to love something and be passionate about it to the point where just engaging the original work isn’t enough. It’s great to look for and read fanfiction, and it’s amazing to write it! It’s not a waste of time, or something to be ashamed about. You’re doing it because you love it, and no one should ever make you feel ashamed for loving something that much.
So, grab a mug of tea, hot chocolate, or a pumpkin spice latte. Bundle up as the weather gets colder, and go read or write some fanfiction in your free time (I recommend ao3.org). It may just surprise you!