There were the summers I spent huddled in the young adult section of my hometown library—a charming, hexagonal, room with stacks of books so tall they touched the skylight and three copper ladders to reach them. Then there were the summers I spent glued to my iPad, googling “The Mortal Instruments best Wattpad stories,” building my collection of imagined meet-cutes and angsty fake relationships until my burgeoning Wattpad library was bigger than my real one.
I had a high school English teacher once go on a rant about the harmful properties of fanfiction; poor quality, unoriginal, unregulated, blah blah. I sat at my desk, fifteen, picking at the skin around my fingernails and nervously considering the dozens of AO3 tabs open on my phone. Oh no… was my fanfiction consumption making me a bad person? Or worse: a bad writer?
From rapidly digesting Wattpad stories in middle school to scouring the depths of Archive of Our Own (AO3) during college lectures, my fanfiction journey has come a LONG way, and I’m here to tell you why reading it does NOT make you a bad writer… rather, why fanfiction is the greatest pastime in the world.
I grew up on Wattpad (that bubbly orange W holds a special place in my heart), though I must admit, I haven’t opened the app in years. Its writers and readers are younger, still teenagers, and most college students will have likely outgrown the platform. Even older in fanfiction.net, the OG source for all the queer, 2000s Harry Potter enjoyers. But the best site, if you haven’t already heard of it, is AO3. The website endorses freeform tagging and a sophisticated taxonomy that its users expertly make use of. It’s very regulated, thank you very much, and the writing quality on AO3 tends to be better than on other sites too.
On the subject of poor grammar and cringy dialogue, writing fanfiction is a fantastic way to learn. Fanfiction encourages creative writing as a hobby as opposed to a homework assignment, and this form of intrinsic skill-building tends to foster more improvement than anything else. You’re learning from the supportive comments on each work you put out. You’re learning for YOU! Have you heard of the fanfiction = communism theory? Might have some merit…
Even scholars call fanfiction an excellent way to invest in beloved characters and stories. Fanfiction is a prime example of productive connection with a text when fans go beyond passive reception to actively and creatively engaging with it. The representation consumers often lack in media is almost guaranteed to exist in the depths of fan writing, and if it doesn’t, they can write it into existence themselves! Fan communities celebrate their deviation from mainstream values and boast a diverse array of cultures, genders, sexualities and more.
Fanfiction isn’t unoriginal. In fact, it is the most creative way to be a fan. If your favorite book or TV series left you a little unsatisfied or if you loved it so much you wish there was more, AO3 will change your life. Don’t trust your high school English teachers. Trust your fellow fans. Trust me, an avid AO3 enjoyer. Fanfiction is a safe space, an eccentric space… the best space.