Fanfiction

Fanfiction is what you write when you want to write fiction, but don't feel like making your own characters or background. Instead, fanfiction writers use characters and backgrounds made up by famous people.

Popular Fandoms

The Harry Potter series has the greatest fanfiction following, or "fandom." (The fanfiction community likes to concoct cute terms to explain their craft.) The fandom's success is owed partially to the series's unparalleled popularity, and partially to the adaptability of its two-dimensional characters to even the most obscure situation. Other popular fandoms include Star Trek, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly.

With increased interest in recent years, fandoms have also formed for several anime, manga, and video games. Many of these fandoms originated in Japan, where interests expand from fanfiction to the publication of doujinshi, fan artwork, and other projects. Some writers speculate that creators of anime and manga purposely leave plot holes in their work to encourage growth of fandoms (as popularity from a fandom acts as advertising for the creators of the original work)

Slash Fiction

The term "slash fiction" is used to describe erotic fanfiction, a historically male homosexual genre. In recent years, however, slash fiction has branched out to female homosexual and heterosexual works, largely due to the craze of Harry Potter.

While the stories have nearly always been about male homosexual relationships, the writers have been from various backgrounds (most are women of various sexual orientations).

Gay Trek

The first big works of slash fiction were centered around the world of Star Trek.

Harry Potter porn

With the dawn of the Harry Potter craze, slash fiction has branched out to encompass a library of slash fiction written by women with characters in various types of relationships.

Yaoi/Yuri

Slash fanfiction written about anime-related characters often employ different terminology for the same erotic setups, including "yaoi" (man-on-man) and "yuri" (woman-on-woman) pairings. Certain anime series with primarily male casts are popular candidates for slash fanficion, like Gundam Wing and Wolf's Rain.

"Citrus" Warnings and Adult Content

Traditionally fanfiction writers employ the MPAA rating system to warn readers of potential offensive content in their work. However, writers of adult fanfiction have developed a "citrus" warning system, in which different fruit indicate the amount of explicit sexual content present in a story.

Citrus

General "citrus" warnings indicate that some form of sexual activity or relationship occurs in the story. Unless the author provides more detailed warnings regarding the type of sexual encounter, "citrus" often means mild sexual content.

Lime

"Lime" indicates mild types of sexual-related activities, such as deep kissing, fondling, or hints at more intimate activities (that are not described in detail within the work).

Lemon

"Lemons" are stories containing explicit descriptions of sexual activities, and can include non-consensual and other highly controversial situations. Authors of such fanfiction generally provide various legal disclaimers and warnings to prevent being sued if underaged readers come into contact with the stories.

Fanfiction Faux Pas

For any aspiring fanfiction writer who may stumble across this page, here are some handy hints of things you should not do.

• Mary Sues - A Mary Sue is a character that does not appear in the source material. Typically, this character is either perfect in every way or bears a striking resemblance to the author. Fanfiction readers frown on this type of character, since reading about Ron Weasley having sex with Draco Malfoy is really awesome, while reading about YOU having sex with Draco Malfoy is totally gross.
• Academics - If you submit your fanfiction work to a Creative Writing workshop, the other students will point at you and laugh.

Published "Fanfiction"

While the nature of fandoms dictates that fanfiction is primarily self-published via websites or other means, some examples of fanfiction can still be found on the bookshelves of such fine establishments as Barnes and Noble or Borders. The published status of these books may question whether they are true works of fanfiction, but they technically fit the description of fan-work published independently and in homage to another person's original piece of work. After the release of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film, readers became interested in reading Jane Austen's classic, and a niche developed for writers to publish their own Pride and Prejudice fanfiction, including:

• Conviction: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Skylar Hamilton Burris
• Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoll
• Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Helen Halstead