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.

Slash Fanfiction

The term "slash fanfiction" is used to describe erotic fanfiction stories. Most of it is totally hilarious.

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.