I Love Fanfiction

...Now that that’s out there.... 

I could call it a guilty pleasure, but it’s not one I often feel guilty about. Unless I’m neglecting things I need to do. Yeah, that’s really the only time I feel guilty about it.

See, part of what I love so much about it is the time and the love people put into writing it KNOWING they’re not going to get paid. And there are some really, really good writers out there.

Take for example, some of the reads I've had this year:  DaphneBeauty, Recycled-Stars, Jameison Rook (who made me sob in public, by the way), and MommaKristine of Castle fandoms. They are amazing writers who write these stories entirely out of love.

I've been known to fall in love with a fandom just because the stories I was reading were so good. I’ve read Sailor Moon stories only for that reason.

Sure, there’s a lot of not great things out there, but even the not great stuff is done with love.

Some do it in their free time, between classes, after work, when the kids have gone to sleep. And to me, they are just as legitimate as any other writer. They publish online and never get a dime, but these are worlds and characters they love -- that I love -- and that they keep alive for me even after the lights go down and the canon story ends. 

I made this!

I've read Harry Potter fic and Dr. Who fic, Inuyasha, Firefly, Babylon 5,  Pride and Prejudice, X-Files, (oh yeah, Matrix).... I could go on.

There are writers I've followed and writers whose work it breaks my heart to know has disappeared from the interwebs (jeuxdevagues, I’m talking to you.).

I go through cycles of reading it, but no matter how long in between, I always come back. And from time to time, I bring a few friends along.

I have lost more links to fic I've loved over the years than I've managed to keep track of. I've been reading FF since I first discovered the internet -- back when Netscape was cutting edge, but I realize I've been into it a lot longer. A friend of mine and I tried writing a Three Ninjas script back when... aaaaand then there was the thing I wrote that may or may not have been based in a single scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thank god that was lost back in the 90s (or I’m sure that Genn and Jenny would probably have demanded to see it and know why it was never shared before in all it's embarrassing, 15-year-old glory....). 

Among my favorite kinds of stories are ones that make the characters I love real, some that change the way I look at characters, and others that put favorite characters in a whole new world.

(Source - Chocolateisafoodgroup via Tumblr)

It’s one of the things I loved about Recycled-Stars story The Ends Opening to New Ends Always. And not to forget MommaKristine’s Your Last Day. (I’m still looking for this hi-larious set of stories I read that were a little Twilight, a little X-Files. I’ll try to link when I find it.) There are the Pamela Aiden books, the Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a Gentleman series (Okay, that is one of the few that I’ve read that actually got paid to publish.) and, of course, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, that I've already mentioned before.

Before you say it, Genn and Jenny have given me more than enough grief about this, but honestly, I don’t see the problem. If anything, it shares the love for an author’s work, it brings new people into the love, and as long as no one is insisting on starting a flaming copyright war, who does it hurt?

What do you say? Do you feel the love or just disgust? If you feel the love, share me some reads in the comments. I’m always looking for something awesome to read. :)

Cheers!
Angel

PS: Genn's up tomorrow, with more regular programming. Stop back, now, y'hear?