To Be Continued: Fan Fiction Writers Extend The Story

Amazon's Kindle Worlds program allows fan fiction writers to get paid for their work.

BY RACHEL GAMBACH

So you’ve just finished an awesome series that was so utterly fantastic that you can’t believe it’s over. There are a few things you can do, either cry about it, wait for another series to come along, or start writing fan-fiction. Fan fiction provides the ultimate outlet for all the creative energy and excitement you have bundled up inside of you. Fan-fiction started in science fiction magazines such as Spockanalia, a Star Trek fanzine from the 1960s. Now you may be asking yourself, what is fan-fiction? Essentially, it’s when you read a book, see a movie or watch a TV show, then rewrite or extend the story. It gives a fan the opportunity to change key events and put their own twists on their favorite stories. It was relatively unknown for quite a while, but now with the help of the Internet, and websites like fanfiction.net, people all around the world are taking part in the creative storytelling experience that is fan-faction.

Nowadays fan-fiction writers often have their own blogs that appeal to their specific fandoms. A fandom is the collective community of people around the world that are fans of the same book or movie.

All the most popular shows, movies, books and even bands have tons of fan- fiction written about them. The biggest fandoms now are The Hunger Games, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, One Direction, The Mortal Instruments, Percy Jackson, Twilight, Sherlock and Divergent. If you search any of these you will find millions of fan-fictions from almost every character’s point of view. If you’ve ever been to Comic-Con then you’ve seen the craziest combination of fandoms all under one roof. Reading and writing fan fiction is one of the best ways to relate with all the people who share your unique obsession with a series.

Fan-fiction used to be a simple hobby, people wrote it for fun. Lately, though, it’s been recognized as professional work, so much so, that people are actually getting paid to write it. Amazon is launching a new program called “Kindle Worlds,” which will allow writers to post their fan-fiction and earn 35% of the profits. You can’t just use any fan-fiction you have lying around though, Amazon has only secured the licenses to a few trademarks so far, such as the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries. Also, writing must fall within reasonable standards (that have yet to be completely defined) for the franchise.

Fan-fiction could be the start of many authors writing careers.  Take E.L. James, author of The Fifty Shades Of Grey series.  Before her successful novels, she was a simple Twilight fan-girl who wrote fan-fiction about it. Now look at her, a best-selling author whose book is now becoming a movie.

Without a doubt, Fan fiction has subliminally taken over the entertainment industry; no series can survive without its fans, and it looks like today’s enthusiasts could soon be tomorrow’s best selling authors.