Like the evolution of man, many things are guaranteed to change. The function of the author once was being held accountable or taking responsibility for blasphemy or any negative portrayal in their work. Over time, the author function became being able to own their work legally and being published an accomplishment (Foucault 211-212). 

​

This happened over decades of hardships that came without copyright—piracy, plagiarism, market, means of distribution, and so on. Copyright itself isn’t what it used to be, but what it is now, protects authors from all the things they had no control over in the past (McGill 199). One thing some authors wished intellectual property could control, and maybe put a stop to, is possibly fanfiction. 

​

The reputation of fanfiction and its writers is one attached to unoriginality and lack of authorship, according to Anne Jamison, as many of these stories are based on books, movies, and TV shows of every genre from any era (Jamison 522). Only, what fanfiction does isn’t much different from the passing down of literature since its birth (Jamison 523). 

​

There’s no original author, according to Roland Barthes, since everyone takes inspiration from each other. No text belongs to one individual and it’s the borrowing of literature that restores it (Barthes 6). We see this with Sherlock Holmes and the many detective-based media it inspired, Frankenstein’s influence on science fiction as a whole and the idea of the “other” as a form of destruction on mankind. But more blatant are the endless retellings of the Grimms’ fairy tales whether they’re happier endings or darker than their predecessors. 

​

All of these have been reproduced constantly over the years as films and books became more and more mainstream with advanced technology. Somehow none of these are fanfiction even as the history of literature repeats itself; authors continue to recycle the same characters and stories with a twist here and bend there (Jamison 522). They stretch the edges of the form itself as far as they can if it’ll grip the reader enough. So, when does fanfiction stop being just fanfiction? How can the industry change the way the genre is viewed? 

​

There are different components of fanfiction that make it stand out in its own form and genre. Its inspiration isn’t limited to one category in fiction or specific media. Let’s take Twilight by Stephanie Meyer for example: teenage girl moves to town, meets “teenage” vampire, and they fall in love. Twilight Fanfiction Recommendations is a site that’s been around for years with stories dating back to 2008. More than half the stories up to now have nothing to do with vampires and werewolves or Bella being hunted with the intention of death, but if anyone’s interested in seeing Edward as an alien, angel, or witch those stories are available. So is him as a priest, assassin, or firefighter. 

​

Fanfiction has been written about celebrities—from musicians to athletes—in alternate universes (AU). A lot of these stories can be found on Archive of Our Own (AO3) with a similar structure to TwiFanfictionRecs but in this case, the reader would have to search for a specific community. This only takes seconds.

 

There’s a method to the chaos in the world of fanfiction that works and keeps readers coming back. It’s easy to navigate, there’s something for everyone and it can be a total hit or miss. It’s like browsing Amazon for books but more precise and it costs nothing. With that, it seems the only issue is what’s taken from the “original” work. 

​

Jamison described fanfiction as pulling from several sources (522). It’s like a backward form of redaction criticism, authors creating literary work by modifying and editing other sources. For stories created based on books, many writers only ever take the names and faces of the main characters and maybe the world built by the author. 

​

Names are most prominent and tip readers off to where they are and what they’re looking for. There may be some slight variation, or a nickname introduced by the writer, but it still stands. When fanfiction writers publish their work, the first priority in the editing process is changing the names because of copyright laws, seeing as the writer is in the process of becoming an author and getting paid for it. 

​

A popular mention is Fifty Shades of Grey which was written on TwiFanFictionRecs under a different title. Edward was changed to Christian and Bella to Anna before publication. As for an AU, there is Anna Todd’s After. The series was written on Wattpad as a One Direction fanfiction; the male lead, Harry, was changed to Hardin in the editing process, the names of the other members featured in the story were changed as well. 

​

Not much else needed to be changed because the plot of FSoG was nowhere close to Twilight. It was set in a different world, the characters battled different things and had completely different personalities. For AUs, it’s the same—and while those do draw on some characteristics of the real person, it’s entirely fiction. In a way, this is what authors do based on their bookshelves and inspirations. 

​

Authors themselves could be writing fanfictions of their work. Consider spinoffs, alternate endings, and novellas; all come after the main story and are habitually done for fun for the readers’ and writers’ benefit. Using Stephanie Meyer again, Life & Death was the second version of Twilight, but this one merely flipped the characters’ genders and changed and put a spin on their names. Still, it told the same story. 

​

There’s not much of a difference between what unpublished and published writers do, but because they both carry distinct labels, they’re given different treatments and attitudes. Both are universal—published is being talented enough to catch a publisher’s eye and fanfiction is… fanfiction, an insult of its own. 

​

Some writers write fanfiction about fanfiction or create whole works in their specific communities through prompts online (Jamison 533). Many fanfiction stories are so distanced from their source that the only thing keeping them connected are the names of the characters. Most of the time the faces, bodies, and personalities described are completely different from the people the names are supposed to represent. 

​

By that point, it’s only a story, which is why when fanfiction gets published they generally avoid legal issues if they gain enough readership and attract an interested publisher. 

​

The redefinition of this genre will derive from how it’s viewed in the modern publishing culture and industry. Looking at this vast form as one big entity where every writing and writer is the same, limits fanfiction as a genre when in reality it’s one of the most versatile and diverse. 

​

There’s no fixed answer for what will be for the future of fanfiction, but like the evolution of copyright and the author function, it will continue to change over time in many ways. When that time comes, maybe the public’s gaze will be less judgmental and look beyond the names. But that’s up to those who drive the industry going forward—publisher, author, and reader.