Fanfic
what it means
A vast, mostly-free literary ecosystem with its own tagging conventions, genres and etiquette. Some of it is better than the source material.
Fiction written by fans using characters or settings from existing media.
the origin story
Modern fan fiction culture traces to 1960s Star Trek zines, though the practice of writing about existing characters is far older.
It moved from printed zines to mailing lists to dedicated archives, and the fan-built Archive of Our Own won a Hugo Award in 2019. Several commercially successful novels began as fan fiction, which has made the relationship between fan work and publishing considerably more complicated.
in the wild
It's 200,000 words and better written than the show.
Fanfic often is.
How do you find anything?
The tags. Fandom archives have extraordinary tagging.
how to use it
- Describing fan-written fiction
- Fandom and literary conversations
- Discussing fan creative practice
- Dismissively, given the scale and quality of the output
- Professionally without context
- About commercially published work derived from it, without noting the distinction
related terms
receipts
Community feedback
keep scrolling
Glow-Down
The opposite of a glow-up — appearing to have declined rather than improved.
Slept On
Underrated — overlooked despite being genuinely good.
Hot Girl Summer
A season spent being confident, unbothered and out enjoying yourself.
Cheat Code
A trick or advantage that makes something much easier than it should be.