Fanfiction and Fan Art

I’ve been reading some Harry Potter fanfiction lately (yes, I’m that big of a nerd) and I’ve come to realize that while a story can be interesting and you can enjoy reading it—there is a huge and noticeable difference between writing a story and writing a story really well when it comes to fanfiction

An utterly, totally, 100% reliable resource called Urban Dictionary.com defines fanfiction as “a piece of fiction within a fandom utilizing characters and situations from a pre-existing work including (but not limited to) books, television programs, films, and comic strips.”

I would imagine that writing fanfiction is one of the most difficult yet completely self-gratifying genres one could attempt to write in. First of all, you’re writing about a fictitious world that already exists and that world, its characters and its creator already have fans of their own—the same fans that will most likely read your work. Those fans can be unbelievably grateful and positive yet others can quickly turn obsessive compulsive and nasty when the writer of a work of fanfiction fails to adhere to the rules of this preexisting universe. The tradeoff? You get to live out all your wildest imaginings about those preexisting characters and create the stories only you know.

After reading about three works of Harry Potter fanfiction, I am convinced of three things…
1. Most fans don’t know when or how to end a story even if they know how they want to end it (none were completed).
2. People love writing and reading about illicit sex between two unexpected characters. Take slash or het fanfiction for example: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/Snape and Hermione/Snape etc…
3. Lastly, it’s painfully easy to recreate central characters most fundamental idiosyncrasies in order to effectively create an alternate storyline that appeals to our general opinions on the nature of good and evil. That departure from personality could, in my opinion, be the Dementor’s Kiss of all fanfiction. Out of the three works I read, the one that stood out as the best was titled “Forgotten” and attempts to take its readers to a future in the Harry Potter world most readers, and perhaps Rowling herself, would never have seen. Because of that bold sweeping move into what will most likely prove to be an alternate future, the story is able to stand alone as a separate work about characters we’ve already come to know. Also, the writer does what any good writer would do and draws from his/her own personal areas of expertise or interest to create an alternate fictitious universe.

Just in case the suspense is killing you, “Forgotten” finds Hermione several years post-Hogwarts and a few years after the great wizarding war we’ve all been lead to believe is inevitable. She has lost her two closest friends in the war and survived by escaping into the muggle society in which she was born and has become renowned in that world for her art restoration capabilities. In a very Nick Bantock-esque way, the writer throws us into her life just when she begins receiving mysterious and beautiful paintings of a clearly magical nature from a stranger. At the end of chapter three (the last chapter posted) the reader is beginning to realize who this very unexpected “stranger” might be and we wonder what role the stranger will play in her life: will this person deliver redemption or a final blow.

After reading some of this, I find that I innately want to marry the alternate worlds into the Harry Potter world that already exists. That could be dangerous as the series comes to a close… I might forget that Lily and James never got to see what became of their son, or that Harry and Snape never did have hot gay sex. :) You’ve been warned.

If you’re interested, I found these stories through Mugglenet.com