In this essay I will be changing the negative stigma that comes with consuming and writing Fan Fiction. Most often fan fiction is disregarded and frowned upon by the majority of readers. Fan fiction is believed to be the work of desperate teens from the ages 13+ who over romanticize book characters, movie characters or people in the public eye. Ill be looking into the benefits that come with this medium of self-expression.
Recently, my friends and I have started a blog where we upload our personal writing. From what I have noticed, my writing has matured substantially. My characterization, vocabulary, problem solving skills, and many other aspects of this creative medium have grown to something I am prouder to show. Even though I do not plan to pursue a career in writing this has given me to confidence I need for general writing, for schoolwork and for jobs I hope to obtain in the future. Growing up I never enjoyed reading or writing, I was insecure about my abilities because I grew up bilingual, which caused some teachers to treat me unfairly The friends who are writing alongside me do plan on publishing novels, and through this type of writing I have noticed that they were able to polish their skills and develop a writing style. Though, I have noticed that they have not been able to feely talk about their writing because people do not take their writing seriously because it is fanfiction.
I was able to conduct a survey asking people about their opinions concerning fanfiction. From what I have gathered most people are turned off by what they perceive fanfiction to be.
Out of all of the people who have taken the survey the majority did enjoy reading. Though I know reading does not necessarily mean reading books, there is a wide variety of writings that are accessible to consumers The most popular types of readings were Book and novels and comics. Which I found interesting considering the fact that those works are typically taken and used as inspiration of fanfiction. Still, most of the people who took the survey have not read and do not want to read fanfiction.
Seventy percent of the group had not read any fanfiction and had given the media a negative connotation without actually having read though any of the works. When asked about what they had hears about the writings a lot of the times they expressed hearing “not a lot of appropriate things” someone even called it “cringe” and just decided they did not want to give fanfiction a chance.
My goal is to show the reality of fanfiction to readers and authors who overlook these works of fiction because they bring more benefit to those who consume and create these. I was able to ask a few more established authors on Tumblr, for their background and their opinion of the stigma surrounding this media, their personal opinion, and a little information regarding their positionality. On my Tumblr I direct messages a few of my favorite writers out of the twenty I ask only five answered. Even though the turnout was not the best I was still able to get some really good insight from authors of different backgrounds. I was able to talk to was Shanna of Kpopfanfictiontrash, Sol of jamaisjoons, Traci of cupofteaguk, Admin Kim, Admin Calico Admin AdMin from rightsockjin and lasty Athena from GoddessAthean on Wattpad.
First I was able to talk to Shanna from Kpopfanfictiontrash (late 20’s) and comes a Caucasian background. She has been withing for around six years and at the moment she works as a businesswoman. Soon after I talked to Sol admin of the Tumblr jamaisjoons (22yrs) writer that comes from an Indian background, she has been writing for around seven years, but she is currently working as an accountant. I was also able to get in contact with Traci (23yrs) Asian-American fanfiction author with around ten years of experience who writes on the cupofteaguk tumblr blog, she is currently studying Communications in collage. Lastly, I got to talk to all of the three writers in the Rightsockjin blog. Admin Kim who is a twenty-one and working as a teacher with a Hispanic/Mexican background, she has been writing for 12 years and lastly Admin Calico (19), who is a full time student working on an English Major who also is from a Hispanic/Mexican background who has had over ten years and Admin AdMin(19) who is a Computer Science major who had been writing for seven years. Lastly, I was able to talk to Athena (19) a Hispanic who writes under the AthenaGodess pseudonym who is also a Computer Science major and has been writing for around four years.
I was able to have talk to all of the authors and get their personal opinions of their work, the writings they’ve read, and the perspective about this creative medium. I wanted to know that their work actually meant to them. Traci expressed that she “really [enjoys] writing fan fiction because it’s a form of expression...”. More than fifty percent of the authors mentioned self-expression, this medium is an easy to show the inner turmoil that in the mind of the author. Often, these writers show more vulnerable and intimate part of themselves. Personally, I love to write about my ideal relationship because I have had some really terrible experiences with relationships. Aside from using this as a way to vent her creativity it has helped her with her academic writing. “Allowing myself to write on a daily basis also helps hone in on my writing skills, which can be applied to professional situations or school assignments.”
I also asked about their opinion on the stereotypes and stigma surrounding fanfiction and how it affects them. Shana gave me an interesting perspective, “I think most stereotypes are rooted in a general lack of understanding. I do write fanfiction based off a musical artist, so my male lead character may contain some of their features and personality traits. I don’t necessarily have to create these aspects myself. Everything else I do. The plot of the story. The side characters and romantic interests. The setting, the world-building. The dialogue and description and everything in between – that exists nowhere but in my own mind. I would also say there’s an equal, but different challenge to writing based off something which already exists. It requires greater research, perception and understanding than simply creating something out of thin air.” Which correlated from my previous research, most people who have not even read fanfiction just refuse to even look into the medium. When I asked specifically about the stigma Sol stated “There [is] an assumption that most fanfic writers are young 12-16-year-olds and while that’s true sometimes, there’s actually a higher percentage of authors who are 18+, especially ranging from 22-30.” Which while there may be young authors the majority according to my studies range higher than eighteen years of age.
This media just seems to get less credit than it is worth but in reality, these works can be equally, and sometimes more intricate than their original works. Unfortunately because it was not written by a credible author the writing is not taken seriously. So instead of sending negativity to these individuals we should encourage them to continue supplying their audience with their work because we never know maybe one of the content creators may just be the next Jane Austin.
