Fan fiction is a form of creative writing that repurposes preexisting, sometimes copyrighted, stories and characters, which is often written for the enjoyment of other fans.
While writers—including John Milton and William Shakespeare—have always reinterpreted and retold others' stories, modern fan fiction began in the 1960s with fans of "Star Trek," who shared self-published magazines that reimagined the show on their own terms. The genre found a home on the early internet, where its writers created online communities dedicated to sharing their "transformative stories" about their favorite books, shows, and movies.
Fan fiction gained popularity as the internet became more widespread. Several 21st-century bestsellers began as fan fiction before being revised to avoid copyright infringement. While some authors oppose readers repurposing their work with fan fiction, others tacitly permit it, believing it's a boon to their art.
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Writers have always reinterpreted and retold others' stories. (John Milton, for example, used characters from the Bible in "Paradise Lost.") Fan fiction, though, refers to unauthorized, creative retellings of copyrighted stories intended for other fans.
Modern copyright law prohibits using someone's intellectual property (like a character) without their permission. By and large, fan fiction is tacitly condoned by copyright holders because it's commonly distributed for free. If anything, the copyright holders often benefit by allowing passionate fan communities to flourish.
Arthur Brooke's "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" was first published in 1562 and shares many details with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare wasn't alone in his borrowing; Brooke's poem was based on other earlier Italian stories. None of this writing was considered fan fiction—copyright law didn't exist, and stories were regularly cribbed from preexisting sources.
Sybil G. Brinton's 1913 novel "Old Friends and New Fancies" brought together characters from Austen's six major books. Other works of JAFF (Jane Austen Fan Fiction) followed in the same style. The books appealed to the budding group of Janeites, a term referring to Jane Austen superfans.
Fan fiction sites often appear to be littered with inscrutable codewords, with stories labeled as "AU," "drabble," or "PWP." These alert readers to elements of a fan fiction: "AU" is an alternative universe narrative; "drabble" is a very short story; "PWP" stands for "plot? What plot?"
Rather than complaining about a writer's decisions, fan fiction is interactive, providing the fandom with the opportunity to tell the story in the way they see fit. That's especially evident in "shipping," a popular fan fiction trope that's focused on the romantic pairing of characters who are not romantically involved in the source material.
One subgenre of fan fiction is called "self-insert." It's exactly as it sounds: The form takes a preexisting story and inserts a reader proxy into the world of the story, acting as a form of wish-fulfillment.
The "Game of Thrones" author is all for fans creating their own stories, but he finds attempts to commercialize fan fiction distasteful. He's also not interested in reading it. "What I see doesn't affect me, so if you want to do it, I don't care," he said in an interview, "but please don't send it to me."
While people have always reinterpreted preexisting stories, fanfiction is often noted for its communal, interactive element, which many believe started with the TV show "Star Trek." Fans were so passionate about the show that they began creating stories set in the show's universe and sharing them with fellow superfans through conventions and self-published fanzines, like 1968's "Spockanalia."
The self-published fan fiction zines of the '60s, '70s, and '80s were obscure enough that they rarely attracted the attention of their source material's copyright holders. But Lucasfilm, the production company behind the "Star Wars" films, threatened legal action against fans who published X-rated stories and "homosexual expressions of love" featuring its characters.
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