Fanfiction is generally regarded as a fictional work relating to one or more preexisting media that serves for entertainment rather than commercial purposes, (as profiting from these works goes against copyright laws). Fanfiction typically takes a written form and can range in length. These stories have been produced for hundreds of years, though began exponentially increasing in popularity within the past three decades. Now, in 2025, most (young) individuals have heard of the term, but lack context. This post will discuss how fanfiction has progressed in the last century and how common fanfiction "tropes” appear in popular literature of the last decade.
Although fanfiction may be dated back to the 14th century, it became more prominent during and after the 1960’s, where “fanzines” and conventions began slowly growing in attention. The term fanzine refers to a (relatively short) physical fanfiction; it was often a combination of written and artistic mediums as they typically included fan made art (fanart) of characters from either the original media or fanfiction story itself. For the next three decades (until the end of the 1980’s), a community began to form, although separated and heavily outcasted. (Fun fact: there are some accounts detailing the passing of fanzines in high schools in the 70s, similar to today with online fanfiction). While fanfiction today has become comparatively more normalized, it heavily deemed individuals partaking in anything fanfiction related as “nerds.”
It was not until the introduction of the World Wide Web (WWW) that fanfiction became more interrelated with published literature (specifically novels), though the changes are better associated with the early 2000s, when the community had had time to evolve. During the beginning years of the WWW, fans of different fandoms (communities centered on (typically) one specific media) created small websites dedicated to their fandom. These sites included discussion boards, places to submit fanart, fanfictions, and more. In particular, Star Trek, Daria, and X-files sites were some of the most popular. There will be some links at the end of this post to explore, if you, the reader, are interested.
However, these sites lacked longevity. Typically, each website averaged (approximately) seventy users, with the most popular having only a few hundred at most. Therefore, as users slowly lost interest over time, the sites died. Yet, the fanfiction community continued progressing thanks to the creation of Fanfiction.net in 1998, a site that is still used today. Fanfiction.net connected all fandoms, as previously, each group had been secluded to their individual sites. This website allowed for posting of any fanfiction, introducing individuals already accustomed to fanfiction to new and different fandoms, therefore growing the fanfiction community as more interacted with one another. As the site became more popular, entirely new individuals too heard of fanfiction, also aiding in growth, as more joined the community.
Like any other community, the fanfiction community began having unique tropes, niches, and its own culture. Some tropes began being specifically associated with fandom culture, creating different writing styles and common themes (eg: MESSY BUN AND KIDNAPPED BY ONE DIRECTION). In the mid 2000’s came Wattpad, Tumblr, and Archive of Our Own (Ao3), which are other highly popularized fanfiction sites that spread the community to multiple platforms. Fanfiction also started being more openly talked about on other social media, such as YouTube. Therefore, it became common for new YA (young adult genre) authors and writers to also peruse these sites, likely finding it of interest as other story-enthusiasts did. Ultimately, many were influenced by these newer elements, and began incorporating the themes that originated in fanfiction within their own, published works.
For example, both Cassandra Clare (popular YA author, known most for her “The Mortal Instruments” book series) and E. L. James (author of the bestseller “Fifty Shades of Grey”) have admitted to their novels having been heavily influenced by fanfiction. Specifically, Cassandra Clare said that, originally, characters Clary Fairchild and Jace Herondale (from “The Mortal Instruments” series) are meant to be representative of, respectively, Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy from the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling. She told audiences that she had originally written fanfiction about them, but later revised her drafts for publishing. Likewise, E. L. James said her book was inspired by Twilight fanfiction. Both authors, while of the 2010 era, were (and are) quite popular, and heavily contributed to book trends at the time. Notably, “The Lunar Chronicles” and the “Red Queen” series also depict typical fanfiction tropes, mimicking the aforementioned series, “The Mortal Instruments” with their similar character archetypes and overall themes (supernatural elements/magic in modern world featuring relatively young main characters with strong personality).
As years progressed, these same patterns continued, lodging themselves in most YA books produced today. For example, “Red, White, & Royal Blue,” “Powerless,” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” can all be comparable under fanfiction-influenced fiction, despite their having relatively large differences in terms of general plot and setting. Fanfiction also further encouraged people to become authors themselves, as can be seen with the influx in the fictional book genre, where now lay home to more books than ever before. Arguably, they are accredited to fanfiction spaces specifically because, as rates of online writing have gone up, so has the number of individuals aspiring to write fiction. While some of these novels tend to be of relatively bad quality, with incorrect grammar and incoherent plot (something also often attributed to fanfiction, as those spaces are generally against negative or constructive commenting), they still grow in popularity, therefore influencing others as they once were. Overall, fanfiction has changed from an incredibly niche subject, to something that has greatly impacted the ways new authors write and think about their books, inspired by the grown community.
ANYWAYYYY THAT’S IT FOR THIS BLOG POST–HOPE U FOUND IT AT LEAST SOMEWHAT INTERESTING
Links to old fansites:
Fanzine (gray poster) and convention poster (blue poster):
ALSO, SHOUTOUT TO NONA FOR FINDING THE FANZINE INFO 'CUS WE WENT OVER SOME OF THIS IN OUR AGORA CLASSSSSS
AND GO CHECK OUT OLIVE’S BLOG POST FROM SIXTH PERIOD ON THE DOWNSIDES OF FANFICTION
-Karina
