Authorfic

Synonyms:	metafic, self-insert
See also:	Tuckerization, Fandom RPF
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Authorfic refers to fanfiction in which the story's author appears in the story and interacts with its characters. Authorfic may have originally gained popularity in Babylon 5 and The X-Files fandoms. The term is used to describe several distinct types of stories:

1. A type of metafic in which the author and characters converse, with the characters understanding in a fourth wall-breaking way that the author is the author. Often, the author can exert god-like powers over the characters' world.
2. Stories in which the author gets "sucked into" a canon's universe or otherwise appears as a character with a real-world awareness of the canon.
3. Obvious or explicit self-inserts, in which the author is represented by a traditional original character.

In any of these scenarios, other fan authors can sometimes appear alongside the story's author, a practice somewhere between fandom RPF and Tuckerization.

Archive Policies on Authorfic

FanFiction.Net

FanFiction.Net permits most kinds of authorfic and even, until 2002, had dedicated categories for it: an "Authors" category and a specific "Harry Potter Authors" category. The "Harry Potter Authors" category in particular caused a lot of confusion about what kinds of fanfics it was intended for. The FanFiction.Net TOS stated that users may not "upload Author Fiction without prior permission from the parties appearing in the story."

The Harry Potter Author Fics category had 818 stories in July 2001, over 1150 stores in March 2002, and over 1280 stories in July 2002. During this time, it was one of the 50 largest non-original categories at FanFiction.Net.

FanFiction.Net staff announced in August 2002 that it would be removing the "Authors" categories—and all stories in them, leading to user dissatisfaction:

[werechick]

Effective today, both "Books [>] Harry Potter Authors" and "Originals [>] Authors" categories will no longer be accepting new entries and the two categories will be removed on September 26th, 2002. These two categories no longer represent the original intent of their creation. If you have stories in these two categories, please visit them through the links provided by the "Statistic" page in the members area and download them for backup purposes.

My God! That's just not right! *hits evil Fanfiction.net people with a stick*

[Candy McFierson]
Well, it seems that it's only the HP Authors and Original Authors links.

That means, that fics where the Author puts him/herself into the story will no longer be able to be posted.

It doesn't mean that no HP Fan Fiction or Original Fiction will be able to be posted. That would just be knocking thousands of fans off the server. I don't think we have anything to worry about.

(Although, my first reaction was 'WHAT THE ****????' That was before I looked down and saw that it said Authors) I seriously need to get a grip on my temper.

[Ev vy]
We are safe. HP authorfics mean blatant authorial insertion fics. If I wrote a fic with Ev vy as the main character who goes to Hogwarts and meets the Trio/who begins to work as DADA teacher (closer to my age and future RL profession) that would be an authorfic. I'd say it's a category for brave writers who admit that they insert their avatars in theri fics instead of disguising them as Mary-Sue variations.

FanDomination.Net

FanDomination.Net did not allow authorfic. Its Content Control and Weeding Guidelines stated:

What's the problem with Authorfic? AuthorFic, outside of humor, is often a fantasy of the author's. Fantasies, especially other people's fantasies when it comes to sex, are often boring. These stories also, for the most part, seem to be written by beginning authors who don't generally know how much these stories can suck. They deal very little with the exploration of characters. As such, most of these stories tend to be well, bleh and unless there is a good reason, most seem like good candidates for weeding... not all but most. (lhale)

ThunderCats Fan Fiction

ThunderCats Fan Fiction, the archive of ThunderCatsFans.org, has an Authorfic category, described as "Stories that feature an author's avatars or those of their friends." As of 2017, there are six stories in the category, written between 2003 and 2007.

The archive's FAQ defines authorfic and a related genre, "riff":

Riff: A term taken from the TCATGR, this describes a story written as a retaliation to someone else's fiction (typically where the posting author's avatar got humiliated or teased) and usually involves heavy use of author avatars (i.e. when the author takes his/her persona and inserts himself/herself into the fic - different than mary sue as this is done rather obviously and intentionally).

Authorfic: As mentioned in the riff category, an authorfic usually entails the writer using his/her fandom persona and/or that of other fandom members and inserting them in a fan fic. This can also include a story where the cartoon characters get transported to our time and meet you and/or your friends.

Authorfic Examples

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

• Goddess by Jessica Mauch. Power Rangers. The author finds herself in Angel Grove with the Power Rangers. Author's note: "This is an Authorfic. I admit it freely. And this is not the sort of fanfic where the author (me) gets incredible god-like powers (see "Twisted Path" and "Undocumented Features" for an example of god-like powers) [...]" (1998 or earlier)
• Interrogation Room 3 by Kelly Moreland, Jemirah, and Andrea. The X-Files. Mulder and Scully interrogate the authors about their fanfics. (2001 or earlier)
• Playing Favorites by Cassatt . Star Trek: Voyager and Law & Order. Metafic in which the author is known as the creator by her characters: 4 she wrote in the past plus 2 she is (was) currently writing. After the six meet for the first time, she challenges them to prove which pairing is worthy of her attention. (2003 or earlier).