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Fan fiction (commonly abbreviated to "fanfic") is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other dramatic or literary work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. (As a matter of historical interest, 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 distinguished from fiction professionally published; this usage is now obsolete.)
Fan fiction has come to the fore especially since the rise of 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.
Some have argued that Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, was the first work of fan fiction, based on Homer's Odyssey. In it, a Trojan named Aeneas leads a group of Refugees after the fall of the city to find a new homeland, eventually founding Rome.
Nowadays major genres of fanfic include those based on: Japanese anime/ manga series; J.K. Rowling's Harry PotterHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Harry Potter is the informal name given to a collection of fantasy novels by J. Rowling, and the movies based on them. The series is named after the protagonist, Harry James Potter who was born July 31 1980 given t series; J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story by J. Tolkien, a sequel to his earlier work, The Hobbit''. For more information on the fictional universe the story takes place in, including lists of characters and locations, see Middle-earth. The story's n; science fiction serials (both on television and in film); other serial television (dramatic and even comedic); and American cartoonA cartoon is a form of art with diverse origins and even more diverse modern meanings. In its historical original meaning, a cartoon is a full-size drawing made on paper as a study for a further artwork, such as a painting. However, cartoons were typicall series. Popular television series which have inspired fanfic include Star TrekStar Trek collectively refers to six science fiction television series, ten motion pictures, and hundreds of novels, video games, and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the early to mid 1960s. and Buffy the Vampire SlayerDVD collection Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a U. television series loosely based on the 1992 movie of the same name. It first aired in March 1997 on the Warner Brothers network; after five seasons it transferred to the United Paramount Network ( UPN) for t. Even video games, such as the Final Fantasy and Street Fighter series, have become sources.
In Russia, where copyright laws have been lax at best, it is not uncommon to see fanfiction based on the work of popular authors published in book form. Sergey Lukyanenko, a popular science fiction author, went as far as to incorporate some fanfiction based on his stories into official canon (with permission of the writers of the said fanfiction, of course). In the United States, officially sponsored books are another form of published fanfiction. Series like Star Trek have official books that are nothing more than fanfiction, just with the profits of the company in mind as well (the official Star Wars book series is part of the continuity of the Star Wars universe and cannot strictly be considered fanfiction).
A large subsection of fanfiction revolves around romantic and/or sexual relationships between characters, almost always outside the canon of the source material and often dealt with in explicit detail. Further, among relationship centered fan fiction, a large portion deals with same sex relationships, with male/male pairings being the most common; this is called slash fiction. Fanfiction revolving around pairings is often denoted by writing both names with a slash or a (usually lowercase) X, or by fusing the two names together.
In anime and manga fan fiction, there are specialized terminologies in common use, often brought into English from Japanese fandom. Explicit sex stories are known as lemons. Lime is a moderated version of the lemon, sexual but not necessarily explicit. The terms shonen-ai, yaoi, shojo-ai, and yuri are also often used to classify fanfiction with same-sex relationships.
Japanese fan fiction manga, an entire class unto themselves, are known as dojinshi.
Some fanfiction falls into the category of Mary Sue fantasies, where a new character representing the writer enters the story and upstages all of the established characters. However, Mary Sue can also be a character that's 'perfect' and has no inherent faults. While Mary Sue has some fans, she's generally frowned upon.
Another fan fiction subgenre 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 powerful interstellar political entity.
Yet another subgenre is commonly known as the song-fic. This 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 fic.
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. These can also be known as the alternative universe fan fiction, or AU for short, if completely changing the original storyline at one point (such as removing a character, or changing events, setting things elsewhere, these are too numerous to count). Continuations are when stories are created after a series has finished (for instance, after the end of Buffy), as the facts have already been set out and are known (i.e. canon), and then it takes it to another level, continuing any remaining plot lines, or creating new ones entirely. Virtual seasons or episodes need to be written well in order not to contradict the canon as many such stories are often set between episodes or seasons of the TV shows, between books in a serial or between movies in a series.
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 based on any previously existing story. Not all amateur fiction is fan fiction, regardless of the fact that the popular site Fanfiction.net once had a section for original works (which has since been moved to Fictionpress.com). 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.
Fan fiction also exists in film and video, in the form of independent, fan-produced pastiches and parodies of established works. One of the best known is Troops, a parody of the reality television show Cops starring Star Wars 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.