Fan fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fan fiction, often spelled as fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic, refers to fiction written about the worlds and especially characters of films, novels, television shows, or other media works, by people who enjoy those works. Frequently, to be seen as fan fiction a work must not be a work which was commissioned by an owner of the original work, such as is often the case with novels based on television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate: SG-1; another common viewpoint, however, holds that such works may be considered a form of fan fiction if the creator(s) of the original canon work(s) had nothing to do with their creation, or if they declare them to be unofficial or explicitly "non-canon" (as is the case with many novels based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The reasoning behind each view, respectively, is generally:

• 
  That true fan fiction can only be written by fans, for the sake only of personal fulfillment and/or entertaining other fans; monetary gain is not a motive nor an incentive - only a love of the canon work and/or fandom community is.

• 
  That something that is neither the original canon work nor a wholly original work cannot be anything but fan fiction, regardless of whether or not a monetary profit is gained from it.

It is also important to note that in the pre-1965 era, the term fan fiction was used in science fiction fandom to designate original amateur works of science fiction written by members of fandom and published in fanzines, as opposed to fiction which was professionally published. This usage is now obsolete.