Fan Fiction

Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic or fic when used in a singular sense) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. Characters and props from more than one media work may also be incorporated into a single fanfiction (known as crossovers). It should be noted that in the pre-1965 era, the term fan fiction was used in science fiction fandom to designate science fiction written by members of fandom and published in fanzines, as opposed to fiction that was professionally published. This usage is now obsolete.

History

Fan fiction has probably been with us since the dawn of time, first taking shape in the form of myths and folktales. Since copyright didn't exist in prehistoric times, a good storyteller could change or add to a tale any way he liked.

Written fan fiction probably dates back to Biblical times. An early example is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a series of improbable tales about the Christ Child. While he is shown doing the occasional kindness to others, for the most part he is portrayed as a superpowered brat, whose mother Mary stands up for him with other people, while St. Joseph is a clumsy bumbler. Archaeologists say they have found Gilgamesh fan fiction, in that there are tablets with Gilgamesh stories on them which have little or nothing to do with the established myth. Medieval Mystery plays also arguably qualify as Bible fan fiction.

Charlotte Brontë and her siblings wrote copious short stories, novellas, poems and plays in a fantasy-adventure genre. The stories are fan fiction about an actual person, the Duke of Wellington, and his sons. Later stories take off wildly into melodramatic romance, the Duke's elder son Arthur becomes a figure of almost supernatural charisma, and one can see foreshadowings of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights all the way through it.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes in the early part of the 20th century called themselves the Baker Street Irregulars. They write original stories and articles analyzing his life and work, taken from the perspective that Holmes was real. It was the Irregulars who gave the name canon to the officially recognized body of work from which they inspire themselves. At this time, the genre was generally referred to as pastiche. After the death of Arthur Conan Doyle, his son Adrian collaborated with John Dickson Carr, in creating new Holmes adventures. Many novels of Holmes adventures never dreamt of by Doyle have been written and professionally published.

Beginning in 1967, authors Lin Carter and L. Sprague deCamp wrote a lengthy series of novels based on Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian character. They called this work "posthumous collaboration", claiming they were working from Howard's notes left behind at his death, but over time it became clear they were making up most of it themselves. They also made massive changes to Howard's already published Conan material.

Modern fan fiction probably originated with Star Trek fandom which in turn inherited many of its practices from science fiction fandom. The first known published Star Trek fanzine is Spockanalia, published in 1967. This community popularized many traditions from the science fiction community that are still in place today, including the concepts of crossovers, zine culture and public feedback. They also originated the idea of the Mary Sue or annoying wish-fantasy character who appears in some juvenile fan fiction.

Other fandoms were active in the same period as Star Trek, including The Lord of the Rings, The Prisoner, Mission: Impossible, Doctor Who, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. As time went on, the various fandoms began to take notice of one another, and by the mid-1970s a more widespread distribution of such fan fiction began. Much fan fiction was originally distributed as individual stories to friends and family. Some fandoms didn't publish their own fanzines until the mid-1970s. In the case of Man from U.N.C.L.E., the show was cancelled in 1968, but fan fiction was not published until 1976 when a Man from U.N.C.L.E. story appeared in a fanzine called Warped Space, which usually published Star Trek material.

Fan fiction has become much more widespread on the Internet, where it flourishes despite the possibility that it infringes the copyright of the film, book, TV show, or other media on which it is based. The Internet has widened the scope considerably, allowing many more people than previously possible to share and critique fanfiction. Even a few of the authors of the original works on which the fan fiction is based may be among the readers.

Archives of stories have grown in the web environment. Some, like FanFiction.Net, have millions of stories - all carefully organised and crossindexed, and freely available. The web has also encouraged events like annual awards, competitions and even conferences all based around fan fiction.

Major genres of fan fiction include those based on: Japanese anime/manga series; the book series Animorphs by K. A. Applegate, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series; J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings; science fiction serials (both on television and in film); other serial television (dramatic and even comedic); American cartoon series, such as Daria, and both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Popular television series which have inspired fanfic include Star Trek, Starsky and Hutch, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and "CSI". Even video games, such as the Final Fantasy and Street Fighter series, have become sources. It is also relevant to consider the formalised shared universe where the originating author actively encourages others to contribute to the development of the whole. Besides the Baker Street Irregulars, the most consistent and long-running shared universe has been H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos which has seen both professional and fan contributions for more than fifty years.

Some writers of essays about fan fiction (usually writers of fan fiction themselves) suggest that fan fiction is simply a new incarnation of amateur storytelling: amateur storytellers are still making up new stories about their favorite characters for "amateur," uncritical audiences, but now those characters are Draco Malfoy and Sailor Moon instead of Brer Rabbit and Hercules. That some cultures now view such storytelling as unusual and possibly illegal, and that professional storytellers now have much higher status and control, are considered inessential by proponents of the viewpoint. They consider modern fan fiction to be similar to a garage band: not quite a contribution to professional literature or music (although certainly a reflection of it), but a creative, devoted method of enjoyment.

Types of Fanfiction

Dōjinshi

Main article: Dōjinshi

Japanese manga fan fiction are known as dōjinshi. These are self-published Japanese works most commonly in the form of comic books (manga), novels, fan guides, art collections, and games.

Mary Sue

Main article: Mary Sue fanfiction

Some fanfiction falls into the category of Mary Sue fantasies, in which a new "flawless" character enters the story and goes on to upstage the established characters. Often the Mary Sue represents an idealized author character. A Mary Sue can also be a character who, as well as being idealised, also becomes the character upon whom the central characters in canon become dependent. While the Mary Sue style of writing has some fans, it's generally frowned upon. The male form is 'Gary Stu', 'Larry Stu', or 'Marty Stu'.

Self-Insert

A sub-genre of fiction in which an author pens himself or herself into the fiction as an author character. According to detractors, the author becomes a Mary Sue: flawless, omnipotent, and unable to make mistakes. In some stories, however, an author will make himself or herself more subject to human flaw. In comedic stories, the author usually retains their omnipotence, but is usually comically (or driving all the canon characters, more likely) insane.

See also: Author character

Crossover

Another fan fiction sub-genre is the crossover story where characters of different media franchises interact. An example would be the human refugee fleet led by the Battlestar Galactica finding and entering the territory of Star Trek's United Federation of Planets and learning that not only does Earth exist, but it is a charter member of this interstellar political entity and so is potentially a more formidable enemy of the Cylons than they ever hoped. In fan fiction of animated series, one of the more popular crossover situations is a combination of Pokémon and Digimon. This is common because both series share similar traits: they are anime cartoons, their main characters are groups of children, and the children command monsters to fight each other in battle. Other common crossovers are between sources in similar settings, such as the two space-based television shows Babylon 5 and Star Trek; between two sources created by the same writing staff, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly; or between two sources which share common actors, such as Smallville and the Dukes of Hazzard (both of which feature John Schneider). At times, however, a fan fiction author will attempt a crossover between sources or characters which have practically nothing in common, sometimes with comedic intent; for instance, sitcom characters may find themselves enrolled in Hogwarts. In recent times, Kingdom Hearts parodies have become common, with the premise of replacing the characters of the game with one's of the author's devising. Kingdom Hearts also lends itself to the crossover genre due to the nature of the game's premise, with a number of Disney and Final Fantasy worlds placed within it. Because of the fact that new authors are often attracted to it, the crossover genre has the stigma of being one of the most poorly written story concepts.

Songfic

Main article: Songfic

A songfic is a story, often a one-shot (a fanfic with only one chapter), where the lyrics to a song, or sometimes a poem, are included in the body of the writing, and in someway are connected to the story. For example, characters may be performing the actions described in the song, or going through the emotions described in the song. The lyrics may be used to reveal a depth to the character, or explain complex emotions. Other times it is used merely to set the general mood for the story. In some fandoms, especially ones inspired by printed, literary fiction, songfics are critically unpopular (much like Mary Sues). However, other fandoms, especially those inspired by fiction which normally attracts a teenage audience (such as TV teen dramas, like The OC or One Tree Hill etc.), accept songfics completely and are at times vastly popular in that fandom.

However, on some fan-fiction hosting sites (such as fanfiction.net), songfics are banned. Most writers use songs that they did not write and that are not in the public domain. And since these songs are copyrighted, it is said to be illegal to use them. But some say that as long as you put a disclaimer on your writing it's legal. Writers should be sure to check with the rules of the site before submitting content like songfics.

Het

"Het" classifies a story which has as its main focus a relationship ("ship") between two characters of different genders. The expression is derived from the word "heterosexual" and is used in contrast to slash fiction and gen(eral). Het varies from innocent romance to explicit erotica.

See also: Shipping (fandom)

Slash

A "slash" story has as its main focus a relationship ("ship") between characters of the same gender. The expression comes from the use of the "/" symbol to designate Kirk/Spock romance from friendship fic (which used an ampersand "&") in the very early days of Star Trek fanzines. Stories with male/male parings are the most common. "Femmeslash" (also commonly spelt "Femslash" and very occasionally shortened to just "Fem") designates more specifically stories centered on a lesbian relationship, though some queer female fan writers now prefer the term "Saffic" (from 'Sapphic' and 'Fiction') for their romantic or erotic fiction, as they feel that the word "femmeslash" makes female/female fiction into a special case of male/male. Recently, sigil had been put into use too. (Sigil: A sign which symbolizes the female gender, a circle sitting on top of a cross)Slash fiction varies from innocent romance to explicit erotica.

In anime and manga slash fictions, there are specialized terminologies in common use, often brought into English from Japanese language. The terms shōnen-ai and yaoi refer to male/male slash fictions, and shōjo-ai and yuri refer to femslash fiction, Shonen-ai/Shojo-ai refers properly to romantic relationships and yaoi/yuri refers to more sexual relationships.

Wingfic is a specific type of Slash fiction in which one, and sometimes both, of the two characters (usually both from a fantasy novel) grows wings. Usually the stories will involve the character who has grown wings feeling disgusted with their new form, and the other character must show them they are beautiful via sexual intercourse (sometimes in midair). This type of slash fiction may have started within the Domlijah fandom pairing (a real person pairing between the two actors Dominic Monaghan and Elijah Wood, who are not in fact at all homosexual). Wing fics seem to be slowly spreading to other fandoms, including Harry Potter and others.

Some hold the opinion that a homoerotic or homoromantic fan fiction is only slash if it is a non-canon pairing and neither character is canonically homo- or bisexual. However, others feel this view is rather narrow, and wonder what should one call canonically gay romance fanfic, if not the established word for homoromantic fanfic, which is slash. Those who read slash fic because of greater identification with homosexual romance than heterosexual and/or who favour the 'dead author' are likely to favour the latter view

See also: Shipping (fandom), Shōnen-ai, Yaoi, Yuri (animation)

Lemon and lime

Explicit sex stories, especially in anime fan fiction, are known as lemon. Lime is a moderated version of the lemon, sexual but not necessarily explicit. Lemons without much plot other than sex are also referred to as smutfics or PWPs ("Porn Without Plot" or "Plot? What Plot?").

Virtual seasons

Main article: Virtual season

Since television is responsible for a large part of fanfiction, it's no surprise that people have also written virtual seasons on their favorite shows. In this instance, multiple fanfiction writers will usually come together to produce a compilation of original fanfiction stories. Often, these writers and enthusiasts will elect among themselves producers, head writers, editors, and other traditional roles to aid in the coordination of the virtual season's material, direction, and continuity.

Alternative universe

Main article: Alternative universe (fan fiction)

If a fanfiction story at some point completely changes the original's canonical storyline or premise (such as killing-off the main character, changing characters' motives or alliances, changing the setting, and so forth), it is known as an alternative universe fan fiction, or 'AU' for short. "Minor changes" to character personalities are not considered an alternate universe; instead these changes are called out of character, or 'OoC' fanfiction. Generally, to be considered an alternative universe story, the change must be extremely improbable to ever happen within the canon, or must be contradicted by new canon information that was not released when the fic was first written. An example of the former might involve a character becoming a rock star (in a story where such would be very unlikely). An example of the latter is writing a fanfic sequel which includes characters who are killed off in later canon installments of a series. Fan fiction is limited only by the author's imaginations. Draco Malfoy might find himself as a private detective in Los Angeles, hired by Harry Potter. Buffy might end up as a soap opera actress in Prague. Billy and Mandy might change personalities. Zim could be the Almighty Tallest.

Continuation

Continuation is when fanfiction is created after a series has finished, with the series being a television series (series finale), a cinematic trilogy, a series novel, and so forth (although the series' spin offs and other franchises may continue). The continuation fanfiction then creates tangential storylines with the characters, or may elaborate on perceived incomplete storylines from the discontinued canon of the series.

Real person fiction

Main article: Real person fiction

Real person fiction is a type of fanfiction written about real people such as actors, politicians, athletes and musicians. FanFiction.Net was once the largest archive of this subgenre on the internet. On September 12, 2002, they enacted a policy change which eliminated most real person fiction from the site. The site still accepts real person fiction in several categories including the Christian Bible, Diary of Anne Frank and Celebrity Deathmatch. As a result of FanFiction.Net's policy changes, several different tools were used by the fannish community to archive real person fiction. These sites include FanDomination.Net, LiveJournal, Soup Fiction, AdultFanFiction.Net, EFanFiction.Net and FanWorks.Org. ( Fanartcentral.Net has a small collection of fanfic as well.)

Original fanfiction

It is worth noting that there is no such thing as an "original fanfic". The term is a misnomer that is sometimes applied to completely original works published online. It is inaccurate, however, because the work is not intentionally based on any previously existing story and is therefore not fanfiction. Not all amateur fiction is fan fiction, regardless of the fact that the popular site FanFiction.Net once had a section of original works (which has since been moved to FictionPress). Among anime/manga fans, 'original fanfic' is used to refer to an original work that borrows heavily from anime/manga themes and plot devices, and is often set in Japan, with the characters having Japanese names. In other forms, original fanfiction commonly refers to a story which takes place in an established universe, such as Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, but uses none of the characters. Note, however, that some fanfiction authors at times publish a piece of fiction they have titled 'Original Fanfiction'; this mostly derives from the concept that these works, conceptually independent, have a (normally small) reference to some fandom (i.e., a normal dramatic romance story which starts with a character taking a train at King's Cross Station in London, Britain can be considered as an 'Original Fanfiction' in the Harry Potter fandom).

"Uber" Fanfiction

Similar to "original fanfic", "Uber" stories originated within and are still most common among the Xena fan fiction community. In recent years, the Uber trend has spread to other fanfic communities, most notably the Harry Potter and InuYasha communiites.

A typical Xena Uber story is generally romantic or erotic in theme, and features characters with the appearance of the central duo of Xena and Gabrielle, but placed in contemporary settings, with different backgrounds, names, personalities, etc. Uber stories rarely make any specific mention of or allusion to anything within the Xena canon but instead, center around the duo's relationship as perceived by the Xena fan community. There are many uber stories with reincarnation as part of the theme and most uber stories contain a sense of repeated destiny regarding the duo's relationship.

The term "Uber" was coined in 1997 by Kym Taborn of Whoosh.org, who notes that the sudden emergence of Uber fanfic arose following the 1997 Xena episode "The Xena Scrolls", set in 1942, in which the actors portrayed their respective characters' descendents, in an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt. This explains why Uber has only recently been seen outside the Xena fanfic community.

It's unclear as to the motivations of an author to write what is effectively an original story with prepackaged character descriptions. One possible explanation of Uber's popularity suggests that by terming their work "fanfic", story authors may be assured an automatic audience they might otherwise find harder to establish. This explanation discounts the concept that it is the relationship/romance of the characters that has become central to the commonality of the stories.

Another possibility is that Uber has now taken the form of a community focusing around romances with similar themes, featuring the idea of soulmates, destined to meet. These stories can be considered to have thus moved out of the realm of fanfic, while maintaining the tight community and "rules" for plot and character creation.

Outside Xena fandom, Uber stories are also referred to as "AU", short for "Another Universe". As explained above, AU authors only use the characters and their relationships (sometimes not even that) and place them in totally new backgrounds. Though some old characteristics of the character may stay behind, usually their entire background is changed. It is usually frowned upon when someone totally morphs a character without much explanation. For example, the title character Naruto from the very well known anime "Naruto" suddenly becomes dark, moody and totally silent despite that in the actual manga and anime, he is loud and obnoxious.

Fanfic as pastiche

There is also fan fiction in the form of independent, fan-produced pastiches and parodies of established works, including film and video. One of the best known is Troops, a parody of the reality television show Cops starring Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers on patrol. Another lesser known film is Batman: Dead End, by Sandy Collora. It's small, but creates an interesting scenario between Batman and the Joker, not to mention a crossover with two of the most unlikely series ever.

Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Rice Burroughs both have fan fiction pastiche communities. This tradition comes from the establishment of literary societies, dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. These societies attracted both professional and fan writers. They practice a semi-professional level of publication of fan fiction of a higher literary nature, both in print quality, community expectations and orientation.

Hatefics

Occasionally one may see stories in fanfic sites that do not fit the normal definition of fan fiction because they are not written by people who are fans of their subject matter; rather, they are written to ridicule the subject by somebody who dislikes the characters featured in the story. The act of ridiculing or mocking the a story's characters is often called "bashing". There does not seem to be an established term for such stories. An example would be a Lizzie McGuire fanfic story that has as its description "Why Lizzie is a Dumb Blonde". A subcategory is the "character-bashing" fic, devoted to a negative (and often grotesquely out of character) portrayal of a single character whom the author dislikes or resents: for instance, a Lord of the Rings fanfic in which King Aragorn desperately searches for a way to escape his nagging, vicious, vindictive harpy of a wife, Arwen.

Another variant on this is the 'Anti-Fic', where the character(s) that the author dislikes are killed and/or maimed. While character death is often a part or sub-genre of Fanfic, in an Anti-Fic the deaths exist only so the author can express their dislike of the characters.

Note that not all deaths are intended to express hatred to a certain character by an author, as there are occasions where an author will "kill" a character that they favour in order to gain sympathy from the audience.

Also note that some hatefics are intended to express dislike to the entire fandom using any means, including the character death mentioned above. For example, a person who believes that the Harry Potter series promotes the occult will write a hatefic in which the characters promote the occult.

Webseries

There are also fan-made machinima webseries such as Red vs Blue. Based on the Halo and Halo 2 video game series, it chronicles the encounters of two groups of soldiers, the Reds and the Blues. This series has won several awards, is popular on the internet and has seen three commercial DVD releases.

Extending the canon

Some invented facts or situations are used so frequently in fan fiction, that despite not being part of the original product, they are seen by fans as part of the canon. This is sometimes described as Fanon (fiction), .

MSTings

Main article: MSTing

MSTings (Sometimes called MiSTings) are fanfics written in the style of the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. They are not fanfics in the usual sense due to the nature of the show they are based on. The simplified premise of the show is that a man and some homemade robots trapped on a spaceship watch a bad movie sent to them by a mad scientist who tries to take over the world. The viewer sees the silhouettes of the movie's trapped audience making humorous comments over the film. For MSTings, instead of bad movies, the source is generally bad fan fiction, though other kinds of text have been used such as rants taken off USENET or e-mail spam. The jokes are generally pop culture references, but some are "observational riffs" that point out the flaws of the fanfic such as bad continuity, poor spelling and bad grammar, and in the case of screeds or rants, logical fallacies, straw man arguments, and ad-hominem attacks. "Observational riffs" are discouraged by some fans, but are nonetheless popular. A relatively well-known MSTing is one written by Adam Cadre concerning an original sword-and-sorcery fantasy, The Eye Of Argon by Jim Theis.

Generally speaking, MSTers follow a code of conduct, though some places such as Fandomination.net have MSTings which clearly violate these "rules." One of the least respected rules is that MSTing authors should always obtain permission from the author(s) of the fanfics that they are MSTing.

Fanfics starring the Mystery Science Theater 3000 characters in traditional narrative formats exist, but are in the minority.

Although MSTings originated as MST3K fanfics some people have used the MSTing format with an original cast instead of the MST3K characters. Mystery Octagon Theater, ImproFicRoast, Elmer Studios, and the Nancing Pony (see Nancing Pony) are some of the more well known writers of Non-Standard MSTings, as they are called.

Drabble

Main article: Drabble

Drabbles are not exclusive to fanfiction, but they are common in many fanfic communities. There is some debate over the exact meaning of the term (anything under 1000 words? anything under 500 words?), but the generally accepted definition is a story of exactly 100 words.

The term is also used to apply to very short vignettes in many online amateur erotica communities, several of which have overlap with fanfic.

Reviews and Flaming

Many fan fiction websites give readers the option of leaving reviews, where they can express their thoughts on the story. Usually, the review is directed at the author, letting him or her know what the reader thought of the story or giving hints on how to fix the story up.

Flaming is the act of leaving a review that expresses an extreme dislike for a fan fiction, while simultaneously offering no, or a very poor, reason as to why (such as not liking a certain romantic pairing within the story or a character death) and no advice on how to improve the story. Flames are often very brief and more than likely are intended to be hurtful and/or insulting.

Example of a flame: "This story blows! You should delete this and then go shoot yourself!"

Many times, people confuse flaming with constructive criticism, when, in fact, the two are very different. Constructive criticism gives both a valid reason as to why the reviewer doesn't like the story and ways on how to improve it.

Example of constructive criticism: "The grammar in this story is very poor. Next time, try having someone proofread the story before posting it."

Sometimes, a person will leave a negative review with a valid reason as to why they dislike the story, but will not offer any way as to how to improve it. While these reviews can often be harsh, they should not be confused with flames. Usually, these reviews can be considered a harsher form of constructive criticism or just a negative review.

Example of a negative review: "This story is horrible. You have the characters doing things that are completely OOC (out of character), and your grammar is horrible!"

Sometimes, reviewers somehow manage to leave a combination of all three in a single review.

Legal aspects

According to current U.S. copyright, copyright owners have the right to control or restrict the publishing of "derivative works" based on their material, though they do not receive ownership of those works. The owner of the original work (film, TV show, etc.) therefore may have some legal power over fan fiction, though the laws as written do not address the issue directly.

Since American copyright law specifically protects parody, and also includes a provision that the specifically protected categories are not necessarily the only protected categories, fan fiction remains in a legal gray area. But even without an official ruling on the legality of fan fiction, the owners of intellectual property can exert a great deal of influence on fans. For instance, a cease and desist letter from an entity with deep pockets exerts a great deal of influence on a single person who can scarcely afford legal representation. Conversely, the bad publicity and ill will generated by attacking one's own fan base can give even a large corporation second thoughts about conducting a legal campaign against fan writers.

It must also be noted that, separate from copyright issues, many characters in American television and film productions are also registered trademarks of the producing company. However, this only requires that fan fiction producers make certain that their work cannot be confused with the trademark holder, and does not claim to be endorsed or produced by them; it does not ban the use of a character any more than the registered trademark status of Coca-Cola prohibits its mention here. Most authors avoid legal trouble by including short disclaimers at the beginnings of stories or chapters.

Also, fan writers argue that their work does not cost the owner of the source material any income, and often acts as free promotion, while fan writers themselves earn no profit. Legally, copyright (and trademark) infringement can still occur even when the infringers do not profit; however, the non-profit nature of fan fiction is important legally, because it limits or eliminates the damages that a court could find and also makes possible some defense against claims of infringement under copyright fair use.

Most major studios and production companies tolerate fan fiction, and some even encourage it. Paramount, for example, has allowed the production of two series of Star Trek fan fiction anthologies, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a series of seven anthologies of fan fiction selected by contest, and Bantam's Star Trek: The New Voyages which followed Bantam's Star Trek Lives by reprinting stories from various fanzines.

A noted exception is Lucasfilm, which has threatened or sued many sites precisely because of their non-commercial nature. Strangely, though, the company encourages fan-produced films, and once made available a small library of sound effects.

Most writers and producers do not read fan fiction, somewhat ironically, for fear that they might be accused of stealing a fan's ideas. But many encourage it: When Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air, creator Joss Whedon encouraged fans to read fanfiction during the show's timeslot. J. K. Rowling, for instance, says she loves fan fiction of all kinds, though she admits to finding some of the works to be 'quite bizzare'. Douglas Adams also reportedly appreciated fan fiction based on his works, to the extent that some would say that there are scenes in So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish that seem to be inspired by fan fiction.

Noteworthy in regard to acceptance of fan fiction is Eric Flint, who has set up a formal site for the submission of fan fiction into his canon in the 1632 series at Baen's Bar and has to date published five issues of the Grantville Gazette featuring fan fiction and fan-non-fiction alongside his original work. Flint contends that this allows the expansion of the alternate history universe into something approaching the complexity of reality.

Also noteworthy is the series of Darkover anthologies published by Marion Zimmer Bradley, beginning in 1980 consisting largely of fan fiction extended into her canon. The author eventually discontinued these after a skirmish with a fan, which cost Bradley a book. This incident led to a "zero tolerance" policy on the part of a number of professional authors, including Andre Norton, David Weber and Mercedes Lackey. Some television producers have implemented similar constraints, one example being Babylon 5 creator