The Rise of Fanfiction: How Fanfiction has Grown to Impact Mainstream Media

I have a confession. I read fanfiction. 

NO NO NO. Stop it. Whatever y/n, icy blue orbs, A/B/O (iykyk), nonsense you’re thinking of, stop it! Now, there is no hate for those who enjoy, but that’s not what this is about. I’m talking about The Love Hypothesis, City of Bones, and Fangirl/Carry On. Shocking, right? All of these popular novels, in some way or another, were originally written as or based on fanfiction. So, how did this happen? How did a form of media go from a new and contemporary form of expression to an influential and culturally significant phenomenon? From movies such as the recent ‘Idea of You’ to all sorts of books, fanfiction is influencing modern media today. I did some research into how and why we got to this point, but most importantly what comes next. 

As far as I can tell, the first fanfiction came from Star Trek sometime in the late 60s, and this kickstarted the trend of fan-made content. In 1988, the platform fanfiction.net was created leaving writers and readers a consolidated platform to both share and interact with fan-based content. Then, Harry Potter and Twilight came out, and it was an apocalypse. To this day, Harry Potter undeniably has the most fan-made content surrounding it, holding nearly twice as many works as any other media. Nowadays, fanfiction.net is reserved for more hardcore fanfiction consumers, while most of the activity happens on Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Wattpad.

Fanfic originally started as a way for people to make spin-offs of their favorite series, ranging from romance to comedy and tragedy. However, a clear trend had emerged of low-quality writing and cringy tropes being solely associated with the genre. Wattpad is an especially running gag amongst internet users, from its uncomfortable to occasionally downright offensive content. However, fanfiction is not limited to cringy immature writing, and some fanfiction is quite well-written and creative. A lot of fanfictions have their fandoms circulating the fanfic itself and not the original material. Examples of this would be ‘All the Young Dudes’, ‘Opposites’, and ‘My Immortal’. I’m not even joking I’ve seen sweatshirts, animations, and even songs dedicated to these works which is insane in the best way possible. 

That leads us into today where fanfiction has infiltrated the shelves as published novels. Popular books like The Love Hypothesis, Fifty Shades of Grey, and City of Bones all originated as fanfictions, but these stories then bloomed into a story that was narratively unique enough and of a caliber to be produced as a standalone book. It’s not that surprising when you consider that a lot of these works were inspired by other literature.  Additionally, fanfics like these transcend their nature by taking inspiration without losing creativity. Even cinema can recognize the potential of fanfiction, with ‘The Idea of You’ and ‘My Life With the Walter Boys’ both recently debuting, for better or worse. Now, I firmly believe this trend of fanfiction connecting with mainstream media will only continue to grow. But, by how much?