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It is no real secret: the practice of writing fanfiction is still frowned upon at large by creative writers who make a living in the field. Writing fanfiction can still be seen as a juvenile hobby, and fanfiction writers are often dismissed as not real writers. It is a hush-hush sort of thing: write it under pseudonyms and do not bring it up at a creative writing workshop. However, in the last decade or so, writing what we normally think of as “fanfiction” has become a popular hobby.
From the humble beginnings of a Kirk/Spock story hidden away in a Star Trek fanzine, writing fanfiction is now something most fans dabble in, publishing beloved pairings in “coffee shop AU”s online to sites like Archive Of Our Own and FanFiction.net. Due to this growth, fandoms and the fanworks they produce have also become a popular topic to study. Search the word “fanfiction” on JSTOR, a commonly used academic database, and it will return with just over four hundred books and articles from all fields of study.
With the practice being more commonplace (or, at least, talked about more openly by writers of fanfiction) and with the study of fandoms now a more legitimized endeavor, it is increasingly clear that one-day fanfiction could (and, perhaps, should) be welcomed at the creative writer’s workshop table.
Why Workshops Could Welcome Fanfiction
The cultural studies of fandom are abundant with looks into fanfiction as a literary practice. Many academics in defense of fanfiction have already agreed that most — if not all — writings taught as “literature” could fall under the “fanfiction” label, often called “transformative fiction.” Transformative fiction is a piece of writing that is “written in response to or adapting a specific source text (( Finn, Kavita Mudan, and Jessica McCall. “Exit, Pursued by a Fan: Shakespeare, Fandom, and the Lure of the Alternate Universe.” Critical Survey 28, no. 2 (2016): 27-38. )).” This definition could be applied to any writer from Virgil to Shakespeare to James Joyce. In addition, fanfiction has been compared to folklore and mythmaking, as it “relies on in-group knowledge for its continued existence (( Ingram, Shelley. “On Fanfiction and the Amateur/Professional Divide.” In Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies, by Ingram Shelley, Mullins Willow G., Richardson Todd, and Prahlad Anand, 44-54. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2019. )),” and “is a way of making and transmitting meaning through collective narrative creation (( Stasi, Mafalda. “Toy Soldiers from Leeds: The Slash Palimpsest.” In Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Ed. by Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse. 115-133. Jefferson: McFarland & Co., 2006. )).” With these descriptions and definitions in play, it is safe to assume that these studies take fanfiction and its writers seriously and that the same could be said one day of the creative writing space, in a way similar to the evolution of graphic novel studies (which was also a form of writing often dismissed as “unprofessional”).
Though the academic writing scene may still be unwelcoming, fandoms have taken it amongst themselves to create a space that works somewhat the same. Fans often create “fanzines,” a magazine containing published writings and art about a particular piece of media. Mythlore, a fanzine dedicated to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams, has been going strong for just over fifty years now and contains not only scholarly writing, but “artwork, poetry, and other creative work (( Croft, Janet Brennan. “Mythlore at Fifty.” Mythlore 37, no. 2 (134) (2019): 5-22. )).” These fanzines take on a similar role to the literary magazine: it is a place to publish and share works that many may deem noteworthy or impactful. They are curated by editors in the same fashion and distributed the same, either online or in print. They can be sold or shared freely and are open to any who wishes to submit work to them.
Furthermore, these works are often edited by someone within the same fandom, or a “beta-reader.” While it is noted that a beta-reader does not hold the same position as a peer-reviewer (someone who can “dictate whether or not a piece of fanfiction is posted read (( Finn, Kavita Mudan, and Jessica McCall. “Exit, Pursued by a Fan: Shakespeare, Fandom, and the Lure of the Alternate Universe.” Critical Survey 28, no. 2 (2016): 27-38. ))”), beta-readers can hold an identical position to a workshop group. While most only check for grammatical and syntactical errors, many read for inconsistencies in narrative, like consistent tense usage, characterization, and story continuity and legibility. The same (outside of grammar checking, for the most part) is done in a workshop. The only difference between the two is the nature of the work itself, a work based on another source versus a wholly original piece. A fanfiction piece may have many beta-readers, just as an original piece may only have one-to-two workshoppers. Fanworks may also be read aloud at anime and comic book convention panels and discussed by fans in a similar way as writers’ retreats and conventions. The only difference here being whether or not the presenter is dressed in cosplay.
There is also a growing number of “professional” (professional here meaning “studied and paid to do”) creative writers who have beginnings or publicly dabble in fanfiction. Outside of the academic label of “transformative fictions,” many authors actively participate in fandom activities. Of course, the most public example is E.L. James, whose controversial book series Fifty Shades of Grey started as Twilight fanfiction, but many famous and renowned authors have published fanfiction at some point. In addition to them, many writers who decide to take creative writing classes (most commonly fiction based ones) often started writing because of fanfiction. Creating fanfiction drove them to understand the craft better. These writers then apply the classes’ skills into their fanworks, thus completing a circle of some kind.
How Fanfiction Could Be Used In An Academic Workshop
If fanfiction is one day allowed into the creative writer’s workshop, then the question is “how,” and the answer could take a variety of forms. Fanfiction could be brought into the workshop space in a “training wheels” fashion. Those who are new to public workshops are often nervous over the prospect of creating and sharing completely original, as well as being new to the way workshops are formatted. If fanfiction is allowed, it may ease some of this discomfort, as the new writer can write from something that they know and gives them comfort. For example, a workshop could be centered around trope usage, and a newer writer could write fanfiction about characters they are accustomed to and focus more on the tropes than characters.
Maybe the form is bringing fanfiction into screenwriting workshops. Many TV shows often have guest writers for individual episodes of a singular series. An example of this is The X-Files, which had many guest writers over its original nine-year run (including Stephen King). This practice is no different than fanfiction written and published online. Both examples are written by someone that is not the original creator of the material, and each can be done either extremely well or extremely poorly. Bringing fanwork into workshops centered around screenwriting/playwriting may help train writers in character continuity, a large part of the TV and film writing industry.
Or perhaps, the answer is in teaching fanfiction of older literary works to better teach interpretation. Some teachers have started to teach fanworks of Shakespeare to help students engage with the interpretation of the works, and not just the literal meaning of them (as resources like SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare do (( Finn, Kavita Mudan, and Jessica McCall. “Exit, Pursued by a Fan: Shakespeare, Fandom, and the Lure of the Alternate Universe.” Critical Survey 28, no. 2 (2016): 27-38. ))). Interpretation is a key part of workshops, as it becomes difficult to help someone with their piece without an understanding of it. Without that understanding, a workshop often derails into just grammar work or a discussion about the lack of understanding (usually in a way that does not help the author). Building the skill through reading (or even writing) fanfictions as homework and then discussing them openly in a workshop fashion could negate this problem and further help writers later on once original works are in the mix.
What Is Holding Fanfiction Back?
Of course, several concerns and issues may keep fanfiction away for some time. The argument over copyrights could keep workshop leaders and teachers wary of accepting fanworks, as many workshops are conducted or taken with the objective of publishing the works brought in. An author’s word may also similarly affect workshops. Many authors (even those who have written fanfiction previously) are recorded as being uneasy with the notion of fiction about their works. The two in tandem could bring, at best, reputational troubles for a workshop space, and at worst, authentic legal problems.
Other issues may come from the creative writer’s fear that a fanfiction writer may never “mature” out of writing it. Fanfiction has a connotation of “literary inept (( Jamison, Anne. Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World. Dallas: Smart Pop. 2013. ))” from years of ridicule and dismissal from the world at large, while writing wholly original stories is often praised as true art. This idea is so prevalent that even books in favor of fanfiction writers often end in the writer only being recognized as a true writer once they move onto non-fandom writings, like the book Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. If fanworks become accepted as “workshop-able” (and “publishable”) work, the incentive to become a “better writer” is thrown out of the window. The divide between “real art” and “hobby” would become nonexistent, and the future of what is considered “literature” by these standards would be murky.
Another common question would be, “what if no one at the workshop knows the source material?” This problem is a real one. As interpretation is a large part of the workshopping process, if someone does not know or understand what the fanwork is riffing from, the workshop becomes difficult or halts altogether. As a commenter on a (now deleted) blog post stated, “If you don’t know the work, how can you appreciate beautiful canon-compliant fiction (( JustTheTippiHedren. Comment on “Fan Fiction Tuesday: We have Questionable Taste.” Kinja. 2014. ))?” It could be (theoretically) possible to workshop the fanwork without knowing the characters and backstory. However, the question here is, would the feedback be fully helpful to the fanfiction writer? Someone who wants to keep these arts separate could very well say “no.”
Less “If,” More “When”
There can be no denying that both the literary scene and the fandom one are changing as more “professional” writers admit that they’ve written fanfiction. As more fanfiction writers become “professional,” it is becoming clearer that the two worlds are not as separate as one would believe. Add to this the academic study of fanworks as legitimate folklore, and the last of the walls that keep “real” literature and fan literature separate come crashing down quickly.
Once these walls disappear or are at least ignored by the majority of the creative writing field, fanfiction could easily find its way to the workshop table. When this will happen or what it may look like once it does is unclear; the welcoming of “coffee shop AUs” and retellings is imminent. It is now only a matter of what ship will be brought to the table.