Haven't hunted up any fic for these folks yet, but it's only a matter of time! Suggestions anyone?
Last weekend, Hanna and I found ourselves having a lovely chat with our friend Minerva about the pleasures of the fan fiction created around BBC’s Sherlock. This post was inspired by that conversation.
Despite being a copious fiction writer when I was young (as are many homeschoolers; haven’t you always wondered what we did with our time?) I am a relative newcomer to the wonderful world of fan-created fiction, or “fanfic” as the online short-hand has become. I had friends who participated in online fan-fiction communities as teenagers (this would have been in the early-to-mid 1990s) but my family didn’t have internet access until I was a bit older. And I wasn’t very brave about online communities until I discovered the feminist blogosphere post college. I know: I was a teenage fogey. So the upshot was that what fiction writing I did, I did without a community of folks to write for.
Then I moved to Boston and met Hanna. While we were courting (yes, I know, but that’s really the best word to describe how two extremely shy, cerebral people dance around each other) she used to send me fic at the end of the week or when I finished with homework assignments, as a reward for getting through frustrating or tedious times. Sometimes links to her online faves; sometimes (oh the deliciousness!) stuff she’d written herself. I was entranced.
Why entranced? Well, I’d suddenly found entre into what had been (to me) and invisible network of writers and readers of amateur fiction writing by people who love to create stories about the characters they love … just for the sake of it. For themselves, for each other. Anything from single-paragraph gobbets, little gems of an idea, to novel-length sagas shared chapter-by-chapter through blogs and livejournals. A cornucopia of alternate beginnings, u-turns, intercises, revised endings. It’s a fascinating and (from my perspective, joyful) form of conversation between fans of a particular imaginary world, be it a novel, series, television show, film, or video game. Fans actively generate narratives concerning their favorite characters: back stories, romances, humor, revised endings to stories they felt went badly. This was something that I had always done, since early childhood, but only in isolation. Suddenly, with Hanna as a guide, the doors opened to a whole community of folks who were engaged in the same practice … and willing to share.
There’s a lot of analysis to be done of fanfiction as a phenomenon … the gendered dimensions, the erotic dimensions, the literary dimensions, the demographic characteristics of fanfic authors, how fan writers relate to the original works and the creators of the original works — and how they should relate to them. It’s a fascinating topic. But for now, as this is a Friday Fun Thread, I thought share a few of my favorite fics with y’all, share a few ”if you’re new to the genre” tips, and then invite y’all to share your own favorite fan-created fiction, artwork, videos, whatever you like in comments. This is a space for celebrating the creative pleasure of being a fan.
So a quick glossary of fan fiction terminology for those unfamiliar with the genre (compiled with assistance from Hanna):
Slash (/): The first thing to know about fanfiction is that it is often highly erotic (and overwhelmingly homoerotic) in content. Frustrated that your favorite characters won’t get together, or that your favorite show just won’t write satisfying same-sex pairings? Chances are, someone in the fanfic universe has done it for you! This is knowing as “slashing” characters, for the simple reason that folks indicate what pairings will be in a story by placing a / between the names. Depending on fandoms, other forms of shorthand or nicknames are used. Examples: Jack/Ianto (Torchwood) or 1x2x5 for Heero/Duo/Wufei (Gundam Wing).
m/m and f/f: Should speak for itself, really … indicates the gender of the pairings in certain stories. Sometimes also identified using the Japanese-language terms yaoi (m/m) and yuri (f/f).
Hentai: Be prepared for sexually-explicit stories. Hanna says she’s always thought of this term meaning something along the lines of “dirtyminded.”
One True Pair(ing) or OTP: This is shorthand for indicating that there’s a particular pair (or, at times, more than a pair!) from a universe that is just really the only way to script it. No other pairing really works at the same level as the “one true pair.” Example John/Sherlock 
Plot? What Plot? or PWP: Stories that are primarily an excuse for getting characters naked and enjoying sexytimes. Any fic labeled “PWP” is guaranteed to be all about the sex.
Canon: Identifying something as “canon” indicates that the fic-writer is not contradicting the central facts of the story or characters as established in the original text(s). Example: In the Doctor Who universe, the Doctor is a Time Lord, non-human. If you wrote a story in which the Doctor was human, that’s not canon.
Alternate Universe or AU: When a story is tagged as taking place in an alternate universe, that means the author has appropriated characters from a story and moved them into, well, an alternate space. This often also indicates you’re going to deviate from the canon truths. Example: Take the character of the Doctor and make him human, have him marry the Master (also human) and settle them in Manchester as parents of boisterous triplets .
Spoilers/Warnings: Many fics will provide up-front disclaimers indicating any plot spoilers to be aware of and anything else the author feels are important. This is a good place to look if you’ve only seen, say, two seasons of a series and want to make sure you don’t read anything that takes place during following seasons.
Final note … you don’t necessarily have to know the original canon of any of these fics to make the stories pleasurable. Sometimes it makes them more fun — but I only saw episodes of Gundam Wing after Hanna introduced me to the boys via fic … and I’ve never played Final Fantasy. Doesn’t stop well-written fic from being a good read anyway.
A Few Faves to Get You Started
Joined at the Hip by Spurglie. 3-part, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike/Xander, Season 7, NC-17. After a mishap, Spike and Xander find themselves handcuffed together for three days. Leaving them with the opportunity to learn more about one another than they ever expected.
want
Xander has Kittens also by Spurglie. 9-part, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike/Xander, Season 4 (-ish), R verging to NC…? The author only rated the first chapter and didn’t revise the rating based on…ahem…later occurrences. If you like this one, there’s a sequel out there called Xander’s Kitten has Kittens. Spike, Xander and an apartment full of kittens. Fairly self-explanatory. With sexy times.
Correlation Conjunction Juxtaposition Admission by ClarySage, 1-part, Gundam Wing, 1×2, R. A truly lovely and quiet Heero and Duo AU fic. Everything ClarySage does, really, is for the win.
Lollipop by ClarySage, 1-part, Gundam Wing, 1×2, R. One of Hanna’s favorite single-part fics of all time.
Blue-Bottled Belly Dancers by ClarySage, 12-part (with sequel, Seeing Love Dogs, and PWP outtake, Seeing Love Dogs Outtakes), Gundam Wing, 1×2 (the outtake is 1x2x3x4), R/NC-17. Some of the smuttiest smut that ever was smutted. Djinns, bottles, Heero, Duo, and lots and lots of lovemaking.
TBA by blooms84, 1-part (very short), Sherlock, Mycroft/Lestrade, PG-13. In which plans are made. [shout-out to Minerva for the link]
The Heart in the Whole by verityburns, 14?-part (currently listed as Work In Progress), Sherlock, Sherlock/Watson, R/NC-17 (depending on chapter). [all hail Minerva for this gorgeous piece of pic] some of the best “hurt/comfort” fic I’ve read. Love the way the author writes Sherlock navigating his growing awareness of his feelings for John.
My Phone’s On Vibrate For You by Miss Lucy Jane, 4?-part (currently appears to be a Work in Progrss), Sherlock, Sherlock/Watson, R. Sexting! Brought to you by Sherlock and John. Also handcuffs. But playful ones.
Lightning by KittyMeowMaxwell and Hicky, 60 chapters plus epilogue (pour yourself a drink first), Final Fantasy, …actually, it’s too nice to spoil the pairings, R/NC-17. What can I say, folks. It’s a saga. No background in FF needed.
5 Kisses Owen Doesn’t Talk About by pocketmouse, 1-part, Torchwood, Owen/Torchwood Team, Season 1, PG. Actually debatable whether this is smut or not, since most of the kisses are quite platonic. Missing Owen now!!!
and one that might just be my personal favorite of all time, The Night That Never Was by X-tricks, 1-part, Torchwood, Jack/Ianto, right after “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” in Season 2 Torchwood and “Last of the Time Lords” in Season 3 Doctor Who, R. A little jewel of a fic that sometimes makes me cry.
Oh, and if you’re the audiovisual type and you’re also a fan of Dr. Who, do wander on over to seduff’s YouTube channel and check out her fanvids.
Recommendations? Emendations? Observations? Queries? Leave ‘em in comments!
Thanks for this post! I’ve been writing fanfic for twelve years(!) and I love, love, love finding new fandoms and immersing myself in them. For the last few months I’ve been writing Mark/Eduardo Social Network slash — don’t judge me! — and this makes me want to spend my weekend bookmarking all the great stuff I’ve read in the fandom so far. If anyone has any interest in that fandom there’s a Livejournal community I post to, http://www.community.livejournal.com/mark_eduardo that has some very good stuff indeed.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Laurie and roxy , Pursuit of Harpyness. Pursuit of Harpyness said: Friday Fun Thread: The Joys of Fan Fiction http://bit.ly/ejzj59 [...]
Aw, this is great! I’ve participated in fandoms as a lurker, as a writer and moderator and poster, and as an academic (my favourite conference paper argued that modern fanfiction practices in the English-speaking world can be traced to the mid-eighteenth century). It’s a fun, fascinating topic.
When I was younger, I got a lot of joy out of writing and reading fanfic and getting to know other fans. I don’t participate actively in any fandoms these days, but I love the ways participatory fandom shapes the culture surrounding the original work, and the ways it plays into narratives about gender and sexuality, and how it both problematizes and shapes issues of creative ownership.
@sarah.of.a.lesser.god … I’d love to set up some sort of Harpy Seminar about fan fiction and themes of gender/sexuality. I was thinking of inviting my friend Minerva to do a discussion with me, since she’s a fanfic reader and also interested in sexuality/gender activism. I’d forgotten you were a writer of fic yourself! Think this might be something fun? Know any others who’d be interested in participating?
@Kari do you happen to have citation info for that conference paper? it sounds really interesting!
Oh! And another tip I forgot to mention to any newbies looking for fic to accompany their favorite television series … One of the best ways to discover new fic is to do internet searches for your show of choice + “fan fiction” + awards or “best of” etc. Lots of the fic communities do contests for the best of in specific categories. It’s a good way to find authors you like and then follow them to other authors and so forth and so on
I adore this post, Anna! Please do count me in on any discussions of gender and sexuality in relation to fanfiction that you plan to have. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to spend my time. Also, I thoroughly second the need for that conference paper, Kari.
Aw, another slasher! I’ve been writing it for like 10-12 years myself (though not for a long time). Sherlock has the most adorable “we’re not dating, even though we’ve fallen completely, obviously in love nigh instantaneously” conversation ever. I bet you can guess which it is.
Also…George/Mitchell, OTP!! <3
GASP! I write fanfiction! I’ve been writing fanfiction for the past six years!!!! *guilty shuffle* I’m so delighted to read this post, someone who shares my observations on what an open-minded and generally feminist savvy world it is!
Soooo much happy right now!!!
My friend has written some amazing world of Harry Potter slash. She writes Snape / Sirius Black (otherwise known as Snack). She has a novel length piece on her blog called “Bored”.
She will friend anyone on her livejournal so you can access it, she’s trying to keep her family away from her slash
It is WELL worth the time to read, as a fast reader it will take you several half-days.
Oooops, here is the link!
http://nwhiker.livejournal.com/
Another fanfic lover (and writer!) here. Pretty much all of my favourites involve variations on H/C (hurt/comfort) and other tangentially-related kinks, so I’m not sure people would want any links…?
I also like free-form, text role-play, which is basically a co-authored fanfic (when occurring with canon characters/in a canon universe) or a co-authored short story/novel (when occurring with all-original characters in a non-canon universe). I’ve been doing it for nine years, and it’s amazing.
And I’ll add my voice to those asking for the info on that conference paper, Kari. ^^
@Skada speaking as the OP author, I totally meant to encourage links! If you’re linking out to anything that you think folks might need particular warnings about, just make a note of that. For my money, H/C fic at its best is damn sexy
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Why would you even have fanfic without slash?
I don’t read much fanfic, but what I have read is LOTR and HP. The best one I ever read is The Shoebox Project, which, sadly, has stopped adding entries. It can be found here: http://www.lomara.org/sbp/. It’s Marauders fic with a heavy emphasis on Sirius/Remus, my personal OTP.
I used to go to HP cons with baraqiel, and I would bet that they were one of the first places where slashers and female fic writers could get together and let loose, but I could be wrong about that.
Sherlockians refer to fanfic as pastiche (an older, pre-computer term), and it started almost as soon as the series itself started. JM Barrie, of “Peter Pan” fame, wrote a short one-he and Watson’s literary agent, Arthur Conan Doyle, were friends. There’s a lot of bad Holmes pastiche out there, and some really superb ones. I can name a few if anyone’s interested.
@mischiefmanager
By all means, name your faves
! That’s what this thread is for; I think it’s funny (in a very charming way) that everyone feels compelled to ask first.
… when it comes to Sherlock pastiche, I have a very special place in my heart for Laurie King’s Holmes/Russell series … though I’ve always felt a bit shy of admitting it, since I tried actual Conan Doyle and couldn’t get into it. Sigh. I’m told by close friends this is a serious failing
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@annajcook: Ooh, the Mary Russell novels are SO GOOD! Laurie R. King’s other books are great too, but I am just in love with Mary and Sherlock!
Thanks for the great post. I’ve never really explored the whole world of fan fiction, but I absolutely adore Sherlock and the Whoniverse shows, so I will definitely check out your recommendations.
I don’t write it, but I do read it. Mainly Buffy, and I’ve found some great literary stuff (Diana Wynne Jones, Dorothy Sayers, as well as some really random authors I thought I was the only person to have ever heard of – Barry Hughart, anyone?). I’m currently wandering round this site: http://archiveofourown.org/media which has more fandoms than you can shake a stick at. I’ve read some awful work, but equally I’ve read some that compares favourably to a lot of the published professional fiction I’ve read.
Lurker!Harpy just here to say you should look at fanfiction.net if you want neat, easy to access fanfics.
Es, I’m glad you mentioned Archive of Our Own, which is a great site. The software that the founders of AoOO created is free/open source, which means anyone can help develop it and anyone can use it to make their own archive.
Which makes AoOO one of only a few projects in the free and open source software (FOSS) movement created and run by primarily women.
The gender balance in FOSS is horribly skewed – something like 1-2% female. I was at a party recently talking to a bunch of male FOSS-ers about gender in open source and they brought up Archive of Our Own as a sign of how women are participating more.
I’ve always felt hopeful about the way that fanfic encourages women to critique texts and stories by rewriting them. What is Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, for instance, besides a feminist fanfic? Henry Jenkins writes a lot about slash and why women write it and the gender dynamics it allows them to explore.
I love fanfic. It empowers women to critique and rewrite texts, it’s spurs women to work in a male-dominated field, and it’s really just fun to write and read.