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juhl: fanfiction stories are the garage bands of the literary world
like garage bands, it's not all great. some of it is truly awful. some of the fanfic your kid will write might be awful. it doesn't matter.
aug 23 2024
2 minute read
lou as deku from my hero academia takes a break at montreal comiccon in 2022. my hero academia is one of the most popular vehicles for fanfiction.
john kenney
/
montreal gazette
students are told in creative writing classes to write what they know. at the same time, fanfiction is often strongly discouraged because it isn’t considered “real writing.” that’s a great way to confuse kids.
fanfiction — writing stories using established characters from books, comics, tv or movies — isn’t new. the retelling of tales is older than the bardic storytelling tradition of passing news from town to town. even now, you can throw a shoe and hit dozens of books and movies based on cinderella.
the subtle difference is that most fanfiction picks up a story after it ends, or takes the characters into fanciful worlds of “what if.” once confined to photocopied zines or passed around friend groups, fanfiction had a renaissance in the early ’90s with greater access to the internet. suddenly stories could be easily shared via listservs and bbses. communities dedicated to such fandoms as star trek and the x-files popped up.
browsing the fanfic platform archive of our own , it appears the most written-about world now is that of harry potter, with the marvel and star wars universes, supernatural tv series and the anime my hero academia also boasting tens of thousands of stories to peruse.
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fanfic had a bad rap for many years and was considered low-brow literary piracy. it was the awkward cousin in geek culture, riddled with plot holes, childish fantasies and shallow archetypes. yet the writers — and the subfandoms they generated — got something out of it. they were able to put themselves inside stories they loved. they gained community. they got validation that sometimes led to growth and much improved writing. the cream rose to the top.
the rumour that the twilight sparkly vampire saga started as fanfiction has been debunked, but the genesis of the fifty shades of grey books was twilight fanfiction. twilight became the inspiration for several other published novels, according to business insider.
the writers aren’t copying, they’re emulating. they’re the garage bands of the literary world. and like garage bands, they’re not all great. some are truly awful. some of the fanfic your kid will write might be awful. it doesn’t matter.
they are learning language and storytelling from a world they are passionate about. they’re sharing with their friends. if you’re lucky, they’re sharing it with you. they’re holding onto their make-believe worlds just a little bit longer. there aren’t many downsides.
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as with anything that lives on the internet, caregivers should be aware of what their children are reading. websites that host fanfiction categorize the stories many ways, including flagging adult content. you might not want your kid reading fifty shades-inspired stories. if youth are submitting work, families should ensure their privacy is protected and talk about what kind of feedback they might encounter from strangers.
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