Fanfics are not going anywhere

Writing is an isolated journey, but you don't have to go through it alone if there's a podcast specifically dedicated to help you along the way.

The Fanfic Writers Craft is a podcast hosted by Jo and Lani discuss all the things fanfiction: story research, plot development, character development, and more. In this short conversation we talked about the common misconceptions about fanfiction writers, how fandom evolved and why they started the podcast in the first place.

Why did you start the Fanfic writers craft podcast?

Jo: It was my idea initially, I’m so happy that Lani, my co-host, agreed to join me. I’m a fanfiction writer myself and lover of podcasts, and was listening to a lot of writing-related content at the time, but couldn’t find anything specifically geared towards fanfiction. Original writing podcasts will often focus heavily on how to get published, how to get an editor which is obviously not a concern for us. We, however, will care about things like AO3’s tagging system and remaining (or not) compliant with the original works and characters - these are things that are very specific to fanfiction. I wanted a podcast that would be aimed at fanfiction writers to discuss their craft, and I wanted it to be fandom-agnostic. People online tend to get a bit siloed in their fandoms and it was very important to me to speak to everyone. I think I was also hoping to show fanfiction as the beautiful craft it can be, beyond all the clichés that exist about it.

I must admit as well that it is a fantastic excuse to interview writers I deeply admire, or discover areas of online writing I’ve never heard about. We’ve done episodes on reader-inserts, multimedia fiction, dystopian fiction, etc. It’s such a privilege to get to message someone whose work I absolutely adore and ask if they want to come on the podcast so that I can quiz them about their craft. Our guest episodes are always ones I adore.

Lani: Jo was looking for a host because she had this concept for a podcast, and since we were already DMing all the time, it seemed like a natural extension of that conversation. I also love talking about writing in general. I feel like there are a lot of podcasts about fanfiction from a reader’s perspective, but not as many aimed at writers who want to discuss the craft of writing.

What are the common misconceptions about fanfic writers?

Jo: God, so many! I think most of them stem from misconceptions about fanfiction itself. That it is just erotica, that all fanfic is badly written, that most fanfiction writers don’t take their work seriously, that they’re all horny teenage girls, etc. In fact, many works of fiction that we see out there today qualify as fanfiction if you think about it. See how many new versions of Sherlock Holmes we’ve seen pop up in films and TV programs in recent years. The only difference between those and what we know as “fanfiction” is that the original works have fallen into the public domain.

We’ve spoken about it before on the podcast before but I think a lot of this is down to the fact that fanfiction is statistically mostly enjoyed by women and thus suffers from the general misogyny that exists in society. I also think that under capitalism, we conflate creative value and monetary value, which leads most people to believe that works that aren’t “sellable” because of copyright laws are inherently devoid of value. Don’t get me wrong: is there erotica in fanfiction out there? Sure. Is there some really badly written fanfiction out there? Of course. But I’ve also read fanfics that have stuck with me for years the exact same way a “real” book would. And, I’ve also read very bad (published) books!

So, I think the misconceptions about fanfic writers are related: people say fanfiction writers are bad writers, and that they’re crazy cat ladies, obsessed with a piece of media, or that they only write fanfiction because they can’t write the “real thing.” This is simply untrue. Many fanfiction writers are also original fiction writers. It’s just different stories we want to tell. My experience is that fanfiction exists on a very large spectrum (just like original fiction) where some people write beautiful things and take their works very seriously, and some are just there for fun. Both are very valid and enrich the community.

Lani: I agree with everything Jo has said above, and this is something we’ve discussed in the first episode of our podcast. I’d like to add a few more stereotypes that even seasoned fic writers don’t necessarily acknowledge as such:

• Firstly, there’s an assumption that first someone falls in love with an original media work, and then chooses to write a story based on their love for the original. What I’ve seen is that very often, the process works the other way around. I might have an idea for an AU (alternative universe) story first, and then select the fandom most appropriate to the idea I already had. I might also choose to work in a fandom on the basis of that fandom being most active, or having the best social community, or being most relevant to my friends.
• Secondly, there’s an assumption that people only read fanfiction of media works they are already familiar with. I know that I and a significant amount of other readers will read fics, mostly AUs, based on stories we’re actually not familiar with. We might do this because we already love an author’s other work, or because we really liked the concept for their story. So, our exposure to a fandom might be through fanfiction first, before the original work.

How is your podcast helping fanfic writers along their journey?

Jo: Our podcast has two different types of episodes. Lani and I co-host discussions about particular writing topics, to try and provide guidance/insights to our listeners. How to craft a plot, how to create an original character, how to write romance - that sort of thing. We’ll take listener questions on our tumblr and try to answer those as well. I think Lani and I are very different in terms of what we like and how we write, so it makes for good discussions and everyone can get something that works for them out of our episodes. Then, every two/three episodes, one of us will host a chat with a guest - typically another fanfiction writer - to talk about their work and their vision of the craft. Again, we’re fandom-agnostic so we’ve had people from fandoms like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Stranger Things or even Ancient Greece myths. It’s been super interesting.

Lani: We’ve had some people message us to say that they’re beginning to write fanfiction and the podcast has really helped them think about strategies. I like to think we provide some suggestions for different ways of doing things that are helpful to people who feel a little bit like, “Where do I start?” I think we also give “permission” to some people who are a little worried about ‘breaking the rules,’ from breaking writing conventions to breaking fandom conventions to going ‘outside their lines’ in terms of writing diverse identities. We’ve basically issued a lot of, “Yes, you can write that,” permits.

How has fanfic and fandom culture changed over the years?

Jo: My co-host, Lani, is a much better fandom historian than me! I do think what I’m seeing now is a lot of people viewing fanfiction more like “content creation” and fanfiction writers almost as “influencers” of their own fandom niches. Readers demanding updates, writers constantly worrying about their statistics, etc. In my opinion, this is a problem because unlike influencers, fanfiction writers are not paid - this is a hobby! But then again, I don’t know if this is new or if it’s always been the case in bigger fandoms where audiences were larger to begin with. We always heard of people who were “big-name fans” and influenced the fandom, way before this became a thing on Instagram or Tiktok. I am very wary of this trend of saying that fandom was “better before” and that now people are doing too much of this, or worrying too much about that. To me, it sounds like an old person going on about how things were “better in their day.” The fact of the matter is that, like the rest of the internet, fanfiction and fandom have evolved with different tools, different platforms, but the core of it is still the same thing: we like to read and write stories.

Lani: I’m interested in fandom history as an outgrowth of internet culture history and also fandom as it relates to artist multiples, zine-making and mail art. Fanfiction and fandom dates back way before the internet, but I only really joined fan culture in the 2000s. To drastically simplify some of the changes since 2004-ish, I’ve mainly seen a shift from an anything-goes, Wild West sort of atmosphere where you were liable to encounter pretty much anything anywhere, and it was a reader’s liability for taking charge of the content they consumed, to a culture of much more safety and author liability. It used to be that kids would lie about their ages to consume adult content, whereas nowadays, you’ll see 17-year-olds saying, “I’m a minor, please protect me.” That’s a really different vibe. I was ten years old online and pretending to have been born in 1990 so I could have an account on various platforms, and yeah, I saw some things that were definitely not for kids. Additionally, it seems like AUs are a lot more popular than they were back when fanfiction was more canon-oriented.

What are podcasts you love listening to for fun and for learning things?

Jo: God, I’m going to expose myself as a not-very-fun person because I am in fact a highly boring, highly political nerd. I live in Ireland so two podcasts I listen to a lot are the Irish Times Women’s Podcast which talks about feminism and media in Ireland, as well as The Irish Passport which is more about Irish History and politics. I religiously listen to The Financial Confessions with Chelsea Fagan who taught me literally everything I know about money and economics. I like dipping in and out of How I Built This and The Fault Line, depending on the topic they choose to focus on. For fun, I adored My Dad Wrote a Porno (gutted this is finished!), and I giggle at Smelling Sunset, which is a commentary podcast on the reality TV series Selling Sunset. It’s hilarious.

Lani: There are no new episodes, but I’m a latecomer working my way through Reply All, which is a podcast about weird internet culture and how technology has changed our lives, and I’m always a paying subscriber to Blocked and Reported, which is about, and I quote, “dumb internet bullshit.” It’s kind of hard to explain the lore if you weren’t there from the beginning. I also listen to various true crime and wilderness survival story podcasts.