The Rise of the Kingdom of Fan

15 January 2010 | Filed Under Tales from the Author's Desk 

Fanfiction has taken an interesting turn over the years. I’ve watched the genre go from a fun creative exercise to a way to practice and develop the craft to its own publishing realm. Case in point? Jane Austen spin-offs.

My dad likes to joke that if my mom and I started a Jane Austen book club, we could read for years and never come close to running out of material. There are so many novels on Mr. Darcy’s point of view in Pride & Prejudice alone. Add in sequels, prequels, supernatural versions, mysteries, modern adaptations, you name it, it’s written.

But why? Why can’t we just leave well enough alone? Why are we compelled to saturate ourselves with fanfiction?

Because people love Pride & Prejudice. They love it. They can’t get enough of it. They need to know what happens after the last page. They need to know what happens before the first page. They need the deleted scenes, the alternate realities, the modern versions, and they’ll never get sick of it.

How did we come to this? When did fanfiction become legitimate? Are people really that lazy that they can’t come up with something completely original? Are you telling me that I can take all those stories I posted on fanfiction.net and actually put them in print? That’s probably not true. I don’t think Harry Potter’s ready to be fanfic’ed into oblivion.

I like to joke (yeah, lots of jokes in this one) that all I have to do to break into the realm of publishing is write a Pride & Prejudice spin-off. I mean, why wouldn’t I want a piece of the fanfiction pie? I don’t have to worry about creating characters, the basic plot’s already in place, and given the plethora of material out there it’s bound to be published.

Why haven’t I done so, you ask? Don’t worry, I’ve got a plot up my sleeve. Just needs some more outlining.

Comments

5 Responses to “The Rise of the Kingdom of Fan”

  1. Dan on January 15th, 2010 10:16 am

    “Are people really that lazy that they can’t come up with something completely original?”

    That’s usually my question to my writer friends who spend months upon months writing and revising stories to post to fanfic sites.

  2. jajohnson7 on January 15th, 2010 10:20 am

    I’d say “yeah me too!” but I’ve written fanfiction. I guess the best I can say is that I don’t spend months writing them, and I don’t revise.

  3. Sara S on January 15th, 2010 6:41 pm

    >< you should write a list of your favorite jane austen fanfic books. <3 fanfic, but bad fanfic is one of the worst things ever to read.

  4. jajohnson7 on January 15th, 2010 7:49 pm

    Sure, I can send you a list if you want. And I agree about the bad fanfiction. Too bad that’s mostly what there is.

  5. Dan on January 19th, 2010 4:43 pm

    Yeah, I’ve written fanfic too… but also as a one-shot without revision, and only minor stalking of the comments on the site to see if anybody cared what I’d written. I was obviously just referring to people who write fanfic to the exclusion of all else ;)

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    Hi, I'm Jenn, new grad student and old YA fantasy writer. I've long dreamed of being a novelist, and I bet you have too. I hope you find my blog helpful, inspiring, and maybe just a little bit fun. (But not too much fun. Writing is serious business, you know.)

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