# fan fiction fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film novel television show or other media work using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. characters and props from more than one media work may also be incorporated into a single fanfiction (known as crossovers). it should be noted that in the pre-1965 era the term fan fiction was used in science fiction fandom to designate science fiction written by members of fandom and published in fanzines as opposed to fiction that was professionally published. this usage is now obsolete history modern fan fiction traces its modern roots back to star trek fandom which in turn inherited many of its practices from science fiction fandom. the first known published fanzine in modern fan fiction is spockanalia published in 1967. this community gave us many traditions that are still in place today including the concept of mary sues crossovers zine culture and public feedback other fandoms were active in the same period as star trek. one such fandom was the man from u.n.c.l.e. however these fandoms did not have a heavy influence on the global fan fiction community until later when there was a more widespread distribution of such fan fiction; early on most of it was distributed as individual stories to friends and family. these fandoms did not really expand into a more recognized fan fiction community until they published their first fanzines. in the case of man from u.n.c.l.e. this did not happen until 1976 with the publication of a man from u.n.c.l.e. story in warped space fan fiction has come to the fore especially since the rise of the internet where it flourishes despite the possibility that it infringes the copyright of the film book tv show or other media on which it is based major genres of fanfic include those based on: japanese anime/manga series; the book series animorphs by k. a. applegate j.k. rowling's harry potter series; j.r.r. tolkien's the lord of the rings; science fiction serials (both on television and in film); other serial television (dramatic and even comedic); american cartoon series and both dc comics and marvel comics. popular television series which have inspired fanfic include star trek the x-files and buffy the vampire slayer. even video games such as the final fantasy and street fighter series have become sources. it is also relevant to consider the formalised shared universe where the originating author actively encourages others to contribute to the development of the whole. the most consistent and long-running has been h.p. lovecraft's cthulhu mythos which has seen both professional and fan contributions for more than fifty years legal aspects according to current u.s. copyright copyright owners have the right to control or restrict the publishing of "derivative works" based on their material though they do not receive ownership of those works. the owner of the original work (film tv show etc.) therefore may have some legal power over fanfic though the laws as written do not address the issue directly since american copyright law specifically protects parody and also includes a provision that the specifically protected categories are not necessarily the only protected categories fanfic remains in a legal gray area. but even without an official ruling on the legality of fanfic the owners of intellectual property can exert a great deal of influence of fans. for instance a cease and desist letter from an entity with deep pockets exerts a great deal of influence on a single person who can scarcely afford legal representation. conversely the bad publicity and ill will generated by attacking one's own fan base can give even a large corporation second thoughts about conducting a legal campaign against fan writers it must also be noted that separate from copyright issues many characters in american television and film productions are also registered trademarks of the producing company. however this only requires that fan fiction producers make certain that their work cannot be confused with the trademark holder and does not claim to be endorsed of produced by them; it does not ban the use of a character any more than the registered trademark status of coca-cola prohibits its mention here. most authors avoid legal trouble by including short disclaimers at the beginnings of stories or chapters also fan writers argue that their work does not cost the owner of the source material any income and often acts as free promotion while fan writers themselves earn no profit. legally copyright (and trademark) infringement can still occur even when the infringers do not profit from the non-profit nature of fanfic is important legally because it limits or eliminates the damages that a court could find and also makes possible some defense against claims of infringement under copyright fair use most major studios and production companies tolerate fanfic and some even encourage it. paramount for example has allowed the production of two series of star trek fan fiction anthologies star trek: strange new worlds a series of seven anthologies of fan fiction selected by contest and bantam's star trek: the new voyages which followed bantam's star trek lives by reprinting stories from various fanzines a noted exception is lucasfilm which has threatened or sued many sites precisely because of their non-commercial nature. strangely though the company encourages fan-produced films and once made available a small library of sound effects most writers and producers do not read fanfic somewhat ironically for fear that they might be accused of stealing a fan's ideas. but many encourage it: j. k. rowling for instance says she loves fan fiction of all kinds though she is troubled by the proliferation of adult-themed harry potter stories. douglas adams also reportedly appreciated fan fiction based on his works to the extent that some would say that there are scenes in so long and thanks for all the fish that seem to be inspired by fanfiction noteworthy in regard to acceptance of fan fiction is eric flint who has set up a formal site for the submission of fan fiction into his canon in the 1632 series at baen's bar - (bar.baen.com) and has to date published five issues of the grantville gazette featuring fan fiction and fan-non-fiction alongside his original work. flint contends that this allows the expansion of the alternate history universe into something approaching the complexity of reality also noteworthy is the series of darkover anthologies published by marion zimmer bradley beginning in 1980 consisting largely of fan fiction extended into her canon anne rice stands is at the other end of the scale aggressively preventing any fan fiction of any of her characters (mostly those from her famous interview with the vampire book) or anything to do with any of her books. other authors do this they claim in order to protect their intellectual copyright and prevent any dilution saturation and distortion of the universes and people portrayed in their works one curious case is that of larry niven's known space universe. in an author's note in the ringworld engineers niven stated that he was finished writing stories in this universe and that "if you want more known space stories you'll have to write them yourself." internet writer elf sternberg took him up on that offer penning a parody in which members of niven's hyper-masculine kzin species engage in gay sex and bdsm. niven responded by denouncing sternberg's story in the introduction to a later volume and issuing a cease-and-desist for copyright violation. to date sternberg holds that the story is constitutionally protected parody while niven maintains that it is a copyright violation (but has not legally pursued the matter further) in russia where copyright laws have been lax at best it is not uncommon to see fanfiction based on the work of popular authors published in book form. sergey lukyanenko a popular science fiction author went as far as to incorporate some fanfiction based on his stories into official canon (with permission of the writers of the said fanfiction) in the united states tie-in novels have the curious status of officially sanctioned for-profit fan fiction. series from star trek to buffy the vampire slayer have numerous books that exist outside the canonical world of the series much like fan fiction but which have the official sanction of the show's creators. the refusal by paramount pictures (owners of the trek franchise) to allow printed adventures to be considered part of the canon has led many fans to consider the books to be fanfic despite their legal and licensed status. the official star wars book series is part of the continuity of the star wars universe and cannot strictly be considered fanfiction either in japan the writing and even sale of fanfic (especially in the form of doujinshi) is totally legal and in many cases encouraged. it is looked on more often than not as a form of advertising a similar attitude to that developed by many sectors of the recording industry toward tape trading the attitude of copyright holders toward incorporating fan fiction into the canon varies. it is generally the case that the writers hired for a television or movie are under strict orders not to read fan fiction out of fear that doing so will cause the copyright holder to be sued later for infringement. however some copyright holders such as the case of the bbc and doctor who have mechanisms to allow for unsolicited submissions of stories into the official canon and it is also the case that the writers of canon stories have sometimes been recruited from fan fiction writers types of fanfiction djinshi japanese manga fan fiction an entire class unto themselves are known as djinshi (or doujinshi) mary sue some fanfiction falls into the category of mary sue fantasies in which a new "flawless" character enters the story and goes on to upstage the established characters. often the mary sue represents an idealized author character. a mary sue can also be a character who as well as being idealised also becomes the character upon whom the central character in canon becomes dependent. while the mary sue style of writing has some fans it's generally frowned upon. the male form is 'gary stu' 'larry stu' or 'marty stu' self-insert a subgenre of fanfiction is one in which an author pens irself or irself into the fanfiction as an author character. generally the author becomes a mary sue: flawless omnipotent and unable to make mistakes. ocassionally an author will make irself or irself more subject to human flaw crossover another fan fiction subgenre is the crossover story where characters of different media franchises interact. an example would be the human refugee fleet led by the battlestar galactica finding and entering the territory of star trek's united federation of planets and learning that not only does earth exist but it is a charter member of this interstellar political entity and so is potentially a more formidable enemy of the cylons than they ever hoped. in fan fiction of animated series one of the more popular crossover situations is a combination of pokemon and digimon. this is common because both series are anime cartoons and their main characters are groups of scientists virtual seasons since television is responsible for a large part of fanfiction it's no surprise that people have also written virtual seasons on their favorite shows. in this instance multiple fanfiction writers will usually come together to produce a compilation of original fanfiction stories. often these writers and enthusiasts will elect among themselves producers head writers editors and other traditional roles to aid in the coordination of the virtual season's material direction and continuity alternative universe if a fanfiction story at some point completely changes the original's canonical storyline or premise (such as killing-off the main character changing characters' motives or alliances changing the setting and so forth) it is known as an alternative universe fan fiction or 'au' for short. "minor changes" to character personalities are not considered an alternate universe; instead these changes are called out of character fanfiction. generally to be considered an alternative universe story the change must be extremely improbable to ever happen within the canon fanfic as pastiche there is also fan fiction in the form of independent fan-produced pastiches and parodies of established works including film and video. one of the best known is troops a parody of the reality television show cops starring star wars imperial stormtroopers on patrol. another lesser known film is batman: dead end by sandy collora. it's small but creates an interesting scenario between batman and the joker not to mention a crossover with two of the most unlikely series ever sherlock holmes and edgar rice burroughs both have fan fiction pastiche communities. this tradition comes from the establishment of literary societies dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. these societies attracted both professional and fan writers. they practice a semi-professional level of publication of fan fiction of a higher literary nature both in print quality community expectations and orientation // republic of bob