Fan-Fiction's Growing Popularity

Fan-fiction has always been popular online, with series like Harry Potter and Twilight spawning off millions of mini-stories, prequel stories and stories set after the original ending. Even bands have been submitted to their own fantasy worlds. There are even shows, such as the very popular Sherlock, which aren't written by their original creators.

While there are many who believe fan-fiction to be a lesser form of writing to original fiction, these days it is growing in popularity, and no longer is it confined to the Internet.

Fan-fiction is defined as "a fictional account written by a fan of a show, movie, book, or video game to explore themes and ideas that will not or cannot be explored via the originating medium."

These days, fan-fiction can be found in book stores. Commissioned by others and written by pro authors, fan-fiction books are available for shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and Alice in Wonderland. Published parodies are also available, the most popular ones parodies of Harry Potter and Twilight. There's even published fan-fiction books based off games, like Halo or Dungeons and Dragons.

That's not to mention the huge variety of comics and graphic novels. Very rarely are they created by the original makers of the characters or settings, but are proving to be even more popular now, especially with all the comic book based films coming out.

Even the critics seem to be lightening up.

Mathilda Gregory from The Guardian newspaper wrote recently, "Fan-fiction can be a thrilling, creative outlet for all kinds of people... Like any kind of literature, fan-fiction can be sublime or ridiculous... There are some real gems out there, that are every bit as original as works with no previous owners. Isn't it time we gave the art of remixing stories a little more respect?"

With good reviews such as that, and bands even saying they find fan-fiction entertaining, it seems that this style of writing will be growing even more. Though it will most likely be a subject that is always followed by controversy.