Medium: Fan Fiction

Firstly, let me wholeheartedly exclaim:
Beautifully written fan fiction exists! And it is not all just 'piggy-back riding' on an original story the author couldn't himself come up with!

Thank you. I needed to let that horn 'toot' before I started explaining what fan fiction truly is, since I've had *ahem* people make the assumption in the past that writing a fan fiction is like copying a story and calling it your own, or being uncreative by using someone else's plot and abusing it.
Although that does happen-- invariably too often, I'll admit, but what are you gonna do?-- there are many piece of writing in the fan fiction realm that are so deeply and wonderfully interwoven with canon, that contain a plot all their own aside from the main story-line, and that give an entirely new dimension to a character ( even one you may before have thought yourself to have been thoroughly acquainted with), so that I feel I must defend the honor of the few, and the proud, well written fan fictions.
What is a fan fiction? It's a worthy question, since it's not typically something people know about in general. I know, because I've explained it... many times.
The dictionary definition of 'fan fiction' is this: "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." (You can also call it 'fanfic')
Personally, I would only add that I use fan fiction as a way to finish a story (in my case, from a movie or a book) the way I wanted it to end. Let's say my favorite character didn't end up with the gal I wanted. I can write a story about how he ends up with another canon character... or I can make up my own character, which is an OC (Original Character-- you could say OFC, Original Female Character, or OMC, Original Male Character as well) and have them be together.
I'm a romantic, through and through. I love an epic love story. So when I become acquainted with a fantastic movie or book, where I love most, or even only some of the aspects of its plot, its world, its characters... I like to incorporate my style into it.
I'd be one of those terrible scribes who is commanded to copy a scroll, but does so with his own flavor, so that by the time you've read the scribe's scroll it is a different story than what was in the original scroll. ^_^
For a wonderful example, you can take one of my fan fictions, which is for the Lord of the Rings movies. It's called "Faril Nin, My Huntress" and is about how my OFC character, Gwaeron (Gw-EYE-ron), the younger sister of Aragorn, develops her relationship with Orophin, an elf in Lothlorien who loves her despite the contrast of his immortality and her human mortality. It's about fourteen chapters (including an epilogue) long, and goes along with most of the plot of the movies. I only added my character (because Aragorn has no sister in the books or movies) and chose the other main character because he is a fairly anonymous one and I could really play with what happens to him, since no one really knows much about him.
That's an example of mostly following the plot, whereas you could easily write an AU (Alternate Universe) story. I love those too. If you have never heard of an alternate or parallel universe theory and don't at all understand what I'm talking about, try watching a select episode of Star Trek, or Stargate SG-1 in your spare time. But if you have no spare time, I guess I can just briefly explain it in the context of fan fiction.
An alternate universe story is one where you may have the same characters, or setting, or plot, but somehow the characters are in different positions, maybe they're the same characters in the real world, you might even make all the characters personified animals... although I don't know why you'd want to. One way I have used AU is that, since a character I liked dies, I add an OC that somehow prevents this death, or at least prolongs the life of this character just enough so that I'm personally satisfied with how the story ends. Alternate universe basically means you can do whatever you want to the characters and plot, regardless of what canon is.

Now that I've told everyone how attached I am to this medium and explained just a little bit about it, let me flare the warning signs. By absolutely NO means am I applauding all fan fiction. I would safely say that at least half of it is terribly written (bad grammar, misspelled words, inconsistent quotations, translated poorly from another language... i.e. not edited), and half of it is disgusting. By disgusting, I mean entirely inappropriate for anyone with morals. Mature.
Browse fan fiction the same way you would a movie, by its rating. I promise you, the little guide of G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 is your best friend.

I hope I've enlightened some of you to the possibilities contained within the world of fan fiction. Maybe you'll try to write some yourself, which I highly encourage everyone to do, a one-shot vignette, a multi-chapter novella... have at it! It's a great way to satisfy your curiosity when you're watching a movie or reading a book and say, "I wonder what would have happened if..."
I bid you all happy reading!

- Codi Lyn -