Fun fact about me: I have accidentally been sucked into the world of Fan Fiction – or “fanfic” as it is so lovingly referred to by the legions of devoted dorks who fire up their browsers on a half-hourly basis just to check for updates on the latest fictitious stories based on the movies/TV shows/graphic novels/comic books they love. I’m not sure exactly how I became entangled in this geeky phenomenon (I think it all started with an innocent Google search), but I am now terrified that I’m too far in. Will I be able to pull myself from the cyber quick sand of poor grammar and weak plotlines that IS fanfic???
For those of you who have no idea what fanfic is, let me fill you in. Fan fiction occurs when an obsessive fan of some entertainment medium spends so much time pondering their favorite characters from said medium that they feel like they need to write their own stories about them (this usually occurs when the individual has no real friends and begins to believe that the fictitious characters they love actually ARE their friends – or they just have waaaaaaay too much time on their hands). Sometimes these “authors” are expanding on plot lines from the actual movie or show, but usually they just end up writing their own original stories and slapping the character names on their characters.
Let’s take, for example, the fanfic that I’ve read: Will & Grace fanfic. I know, I know, its an obsession. Deal with it. Honestly I only even ended up finding these garbage stores based on W&G after doing a very innocent, very generic Google search for “Will and Grace.” You know, I was just looking for fun facts, updates on DVD releases, new pictures – but what I found was the W&G section of www.fanfiction.net (yes, an entire SITE devoted to this nonsense). Well, I was naturally curious, so I started reading one of the stories.
Bad idea. Will and Karen in a three way? Will helping Jack get through a rape? Grace coming out as a lesbian? Karen having Will’s baby? I was shocked. It was the weirdest thing I had ever experienced. These fans were extreme – imagining and writing about the most dramatic, most unrealistic, most graphically sexual (and I mean GRAPHIC) situations that could be imagined, all based on four fictitious characters from a syndicated NBC sitcom.
So you may be wondering, why do I keep reading this stuff? I’m going to be honest with you. Because its HILARIOUS. Most of this crap is written by teenagers and pre-teens, and the writing is just….atrocious to the point of hilarity. And if they do happen to be even half-way decent writers, they try so hard to use big words and complicated sentence structures that they just come up with a jumbled, seneless mess of incomprehensible letters.
The weirdest part is that fanfic is not limited to sci-fi stories and cult movies from the early 90’s – there is literally fan fiction for anything you could think of. Everything from Friends to Walker Texas Ranger and Twilight to The Golden Girls have fanfic stories floating around somewhere in cyber space. For a complete listing (and to be thoroughly confused and amused), visit www.fanfiction.net.
The best fanfic I have ever read? It’s got to be “My Immortal,” a gothic Harry Potter fanfic that is so ridiculous it borders on insane. Whenever I need a little pick me up, this story is one of the only things that can bring tears to my eyes every time I read it because I’m laughing so hard. In this particular rendering of Harry Potter, Harry is a vampire, Draco Malfoy loves hardcore punk music, and a a girl is only as unique as the white foundation and blood red lipstick she wears.
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