The Unexpected Sides Of Fandom And Fanfiction

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Fandom has been around for longer than most expect. While many think that fandom only applies to those of pop culture shows, movies, comics, and books, it actually applies to things like bands, such as One Direction or more recently BTS, and even sports. Basically, if you’re a fan of something there is a good chance there is a fandom for it.

Fanfiction and fan-works are something produced within a fandom. They can be something as simple as a drawing to elaborate paintings, or short stories changing the ending of a series or putting characters into non-canon relationships. The days of having to hide works under mountains of disclaimers and tags that you don’t own the characters or subjects of the works are over (though many creators still do). With the creation of websites like Fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own, and Wattpad, creators no longer have to hide their works in the dark corners of the internet in fear of getting cease and desist letters from authors or showrunners.

Over the last ten years, there has been a dramatic shift in fandom. People started being more open about it. It was no longer something to hide. Take the CW’s Supernatural for example. What started as a cult-favorite show grew to make fun of fandom and fanfiction itself on several meta-episodes, one about slash-fiction (fanfiction that pairs two guys or girls in a relationship) between Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) in the Supernatural books. In another episode, the Winchester brothers investigate a case at an all-girls school where they are putting on a musical based on the Supernatural books, but with changes made such as there being robots and subtext of Destiel (a pairing between Jensen Ackles’ Dean and Misha Collins’ Castiel).

When most think of fanfiction, people tend to think of it as teenage writers with no sense of grammar or punctuation skills. While this is true in a lot of cases, there is also a large portion of fanfiction writers who are adults. Fanfiction for these writers may just be a gateway into writing their own stories. For example, Anna Todd, who wrote the popular After Series, which started as a One Direction Fanfiction on Wattpad or 50 Shades of Grey by EL James, which started as a Twilight fan-fiction.

Writing fiction requires a lot of experience and practice, so for someone just starting out in writing, fan-fiction is a good way to learn without having to do a lot of world-building or character creation because it’s already been done.

But like with most things, there are both good and bad sides to fan-fiction. Take episode three of HBO’s Euphoria for example. In this episode, we get to see camgirl, Kat’s, life before she became a camgirl. She started out as a One Direction fanfiction writer, specifically writing erotic slash-fiction between Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles better known as Larry Stylinson fanfiction on Tumblr. While this may not seem like much of a problem, there is a difference, when people write real-person fiction (RPF) they separate the person from the character as much as possible and never want it to get seen by the artists or actors. What Euphoria did was cross a line that these writers know not to cross, they didn’t contact either of the mentioned musicians before using them in the show. With Louis posting his reaction on twitter,
“I can categorically say that I was not contacted nor did I approve it.”

Late-night comedy hosts are known to do this as well; they either try to get the actors, musicians, etc. to read erotic fanfiction about themselves or show them NSFW fan-art.

However, there are differences when it comes to fan-art, a lot of the time fan-art isn’t NSFW. Good Omens actor Micheal Sheen has been a driving force for the fandom to share their works with him. Since the show aired, people have been tagging him in the artwork they have created of his character (Aziraphel) and David Tennant’s character (Crowley). He’s retweeted the works and even shut down a hater who didn’t like that he was catering to what they described as twelve-year-olds who comprise the fan-fic universe.“I will unashamedly and unapologetically celebrate the joy and warmth and the creativity of a community of people sharing something positive and beautiful and connective and if you don’t like it you are most welcome to very fuck off,” he responded on Twitter.


And if the tweet isn’t enough, another user responded with the fact that people like the original poster are the reason why fan-fiction writers hide and don’t share their work openly. They fear that people will judge them.

I have experienced this myself. There was a time when I was just starting out with my fanfiction writing that I didn’t want anyone I knew to know about it. People online were fine, but if a member of my family or friends would ask, I would just respond that it was a new story I was working on and I never let them read it. I wasn’t even writing erotic fan-fiction, just fluff pieces at that time.

Cosplay is another big part of fandom. You see them at conventions, online, and sometimes just in public. There isn’t a better feeling than getting complimented on the costume you worked tirelessly to put together. There is no right or wrong way to cosplay but some people just like with fan-fiction and fanworks there are people who will judge. There are also the people who get inappropriate with the cosplayer and touch them or take pictures of them without permission. This is especially true for female cosplayers.

Conventions are a big thing, they act as a meeting location for every pop-culture fandom. With large-scale conventions like San Diego Comic-Con or more small scale ones like Creation Entertainment Conventions (Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries) or local conventions like Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona, Pennsylvania. These conventions include panels by cast members, autograph and photo opportunities, and vendors that sell art, collectibles, and other items.

Fandoms have also rallied together to raise money for different charities. Jared Padalecki did different T-shirt campaigns to raise money for To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) and other suicide prevention charities. Misha Collins runs a charity called Random Acts which runs a world-wide scavenger hunt called GISH where people create and do good things. Lin-Manuel Miranda did different campaigns to raise money for Puerto Rico and most recently RAICES.




Overall fandoms are like giant families made up of strangers from all over the world. And like most families, there is the good and the bad. And like Supernatural’s character, Bobby Singer said, “Family don’t end with blood.”

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