“Fanfiction in the Time of Internet”
Chapter III.
“Hit them with your best shot”
If we wanted to make a point of how much the relationship between readers and writers of fanfiction has changed through the years, all it would take is one visit to either FanFiction.Net or Archive of Our Own. Once a fanfic is chosen, what greets the reader in both websites is a short description of the story or chapter at hand, and a list of features that is anything but accidentally selected. Appearing in a variety of titles, the Ratings, Word Counts, and dates of first or latest Updates are amongst the features used in order to indicate the nature of the fanfic and prepare the reader for what is going to transpire. What is most interesting to examine, however, are the Reviews, the Favourites, the Follows, the Bookmarks, the Kudos. Available for all to see and playing their own significant part in forming the identity of a story, these simple yet powerful words represent the imprints made by the readers, their very own contribution to the creative process. And for all intents and purposes, this contribution is not only encouraged, but methodically sought out.
When the popularity of the fanzines lapsed and fanfiction was relocated to the vast plateaus of the internet, the size of a writer’s fanbase and the reception of their stories were no longer measured by the numbers of sold copies. Instead, in a way quite mathematical and transactional, the focus shifted on stats representing the number of readers, the ‘hits’ of each story, and the reviews. Suddenly, with most of the available feedback lying entirely within the power of the audience, fanfiction writers were rendered passive spectators, on hold till the time when a reader’s chosen words would let them know if and how they have succeeded (or failed) in their endeavour, if the message they wanted their story to convey was successfully delivered. In simple words, if they did the characters and the story justice. The revelation that the readers did not only have the privilege of enjoying those freely shared stories, but also the responsibility of providing feedback in any of the available practices, was yet another shift in the long history of fanfiction.
Nowadays, coming across multi-chaptered fics, WIPs (work-in-progress) or writers with steady fanbases, is not at all an unusual thing. If anything, over the years it has become the norm. However, with reviewing available for each chapter, the feedback — whether it be negative or positive — unavoidably alters the intent behind the story, in ways that traditionally published works, such as novels, articles and so on, have never been subjected to. With a completed work, its reception can be either gratifying, or not, or become a cautionary tale for the future. But when it comes to on-going fanfics, ripe as they are for any and all criticism, it is practically impossible for said criticism not to infiltrate the creative process. Whether it be positive or negative, the nudge is right there, and writers very rarely decide to ignore it.
In other cases, this synthesis of authorial intent and expectations of the audience is actually encouraged by the writers themselves. With platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter making their way slowly into the fanfiction arena, writers often ask readers for ‘prompts’ operating as a foundation for usually short fanfics, or they set up polls, with the choice of content made solely by the audience. Whether it be a way to engage the readers or augment the audiences, this interactive practice shows that the presence of the readers is very much the reality of the present-day fanfiction-writing. So what is it that keeps the writers going, even when they have to relinquish part of their control? What is it that keeps them active, even when the readership is low, unaffected, uninterested?
The answers are many, but what I’ve found they all come down to is that fanfiction is something personal. It is about writing the stories one wants to read but don’t yet exist out there, KnightedRogue explains in our interview. “I wanted a novel featuring my characters as I saw them, doing the kind of things they did in the source material,” she goes on to say. With more than 15 years of fic-writing in her very talented pocket, fanfiction eventually moved beyond KnightedRogue’s original intent. “Now I see fanfiction,” she reveals, “as a kind of platform to hone my skills as an author, as a way to understand storytelling and the mechanics of writing.” A recent addition to the Star Wars fanfic-writing circles, but with a touch no less singular and understanding, Scruffys Sweetheart also admits that “writing fanfic is really something I do first and foremost for myself. I think I got to a point where I started imagining my own scenes/stories and felt like the only way to get them out of my head was to put them into words”.
And what happens when writing is not all smooth-sailing or the feedback is not entirely positive? Even though disappointment is inevitable, Scruffys Sweetheart would tell you that, at the beginning and end of the day, fanfiction is all about “creating what it is [she] sees in her mind’s eye and expressing what it is she feels, from her unique point of view”. “It becomes a self-preservation tactic, then, to write for oneself,” confirms KnightedRogue. “The original need still exists: I want these stories out in the universe to enjoy, for myself and others, and so I continue writing and posting them because now the urge has been made manifest. There is deep contentment in that, even as the lack of response still stings. I created it. I made it real. In a way, it is a part of the source material that could not exist without me. I have asserted myself into the larger story and that is a powerful feeling.”
Instant gratification takes too long, Carrie Fisher once said, and if that is not applicable to the reality of fanfiction I don’t know what is. Condemned, inspiring and inspired, fanfiction’s existence has been a wild ride, and even if its downs have been more than its ups, one thing is for certain: fanfiction is going to be around for a long time still, taking us all the way back to that far far away galaxy of old, whenever we so want it.
Fin.
