Meta essays in defense of fanfiction

This page lists meta and other written discussion that celebrates and defends fanworks (and notable arguments for the contrary position).

For meta essays covering legal defense of fanworks against copyright, which somewhat overlaps with this topic, see Timeline of Fanwork Copyright and Legality Meta. For a broader summary of all fanfiction meta, see Timeline of Fanfiction Meta.

Other related topics may include: Timeline of Fandom and Profit Meta.

Overall Topics / Themes

See Attitudes Toward Fanfiction, particularly sections Fic Writing as a Hobby and Fic Writing as Practice for two dominant in defense of fanfiction.

Creativity/Originality

• And Now For Something Completely Different: Fanfiction as a Genre of Literature
• I’m done explaining why fanfic is okay.

Because fanfic is joy. Fanfic is fixing the things you see as broken, and patching the seams between what's written and what is not, and giving characters who got cheated out of their happy endings another chance. There was a time, not that long ago as we measure things, where all fiction was what we would now call "fan fiction." Shakespeare didn't come up with most of his own plots. He wrote plays about the stories people already loved. We didn't get a thousand versions of "Snow White" accidentally: people changed that story to suit themselves, and no one said they weren't storytellers, or looked down on them for loving that core of red and black and white, of apples and glass and snow.

https://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/574901.html

Self-publishing

"professional art and works often exclude people professional art and works often do not take risks"

Some fanfic bad != all fanfic bad / Community worthwhile n and of itself...

• In Defense of Crud

Notable commentary against fanworks & responses

Much impassioned defense is written in response to impassioned attacks.

• Robin Hobb and The Fan Fiction Rant (2005)
• Anne Rice and Interrogating the text from the wrong perspective (2006)
• Fan-Fiction and Moral Conundrums by Diana Gabaldon and followup: George R. R. Martin and his post Someone is Angry On the Internet (2010)

Timeline of Meta

1983

• Shady Thoughts: "Why Do You Waste Your Time Writing This Stuff?" by Roberta Stuemke (1983)

1985

• Shady Thoughts: Why I Like Reading/Writing Fan Fiction by Misty Lackey (1985)

1995

• The Generic Slash Defense Letter covers rebuttals to many arguments against slash and remains relevant 25 years later

1997

• The Advantages of Fan Fiction as an Art Form and The Advantages of Erotic Fan Fiction as an Art Form by Koimistress

2000

• Fanfiction: A New Form Of Internet Literature

2001

• Philosophy of Fan Fiction

2004

• Natasha Walter: Fan fiction on the internet is revitalising classic stories and bringing back an oral tradition to society; The Guardian, ^{Archived version} (2004)
• Writing fanfiction is a HOBBY. I do it because it is FUN. by Shieldmaiden of Encinitas (mirabellawotr) (May 2004)
• In Defense of Fanfiction by Melusina, ^{Archived version} (2004)
• Why I Write Fanfiction, ^{Archived version} by Melusina (2004)

2005

• In Defense of Fanfiction: Guestblogger Justin Goes Robin Hobbnobbing, ^{Archived version}, November 9, 2005 (In response to The Fan Fiction Rant by Robin Hobb

• Fanfic: Electrifying the Oral Tradition, essay by Red Hen on their website (May 2005)

2007

• The Fan Fiction Phenomena: What Faust, Hamlet, and Xena the Warrior Princess have in common. by Cathy Young
• In Praise of Fanfic by Cory Doctorow (May 2007)

2009

• "NO FAN FIC (or suggestions) PLEASE by Robin Hobb (Notes) on Sunday, May 3, 2009".
• The Plenty Net, ^{Archived version} [Archive Link] [Archive Link], posted July 2009

2010

Diana Gabaldon Post & Followups

Several posts by Diana Gabaldon, referred to as Fan-Fiction and Moral Conundrums, lead to a huge uproar in fandom as well as responses from other authors (see: Someone is Angry On the Internet by George R. R. Martin). Extensive meta rebutting these criticisms and sharing their own thoughts here is linked on the page.

Other Meta

• Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout by thefourthvine
• My take on the "Pro Authors Who Don't Like Fanfic" rants... by rap541

2011

• Creativity in Common: Fandom and the Ownership of Ideas (2011 or 2012?)
• Some uses for fanfiction by Patricia C. Wrede (May 2011)
• In Defense of Fanfiction by “Contributor” at Spark Life (May 6, 2011)
• Culture of the Future: Adapting Copyright Law to Accommodate Fan-Made Derivative Works in the Twenty-First Century (December 2011)

2012

• Yes I Know I Reblogged It, ^{Archived version},Ivy Blossom's Tumblr, May 2012 -- a post using the example of a transformative fanwork of The girl with the pearl earring

• Fan fiction is more than smut, post at Club Jade (2012)
• An Academic's Defense of Fanfic by Emily for Tosche Station (April 18, 2012)

2013

• Fanfiction: A Rant Before We Begin
• In Defense of Fan Fiction by Alex Willging (July 2, 2013)
• In Defense of Fanfiction: getting beyond a weird bias by Brent Newhall for I.M.H.O. for (November 11, 2013)
• In Defense of Fanfiction by Rebecca Coffindaffer (December 16, 2013)

2014

• In Defense of So-Called “Bad” Fanfiction by Emmy Ellis for The Mary Sue (August 7, 2014)
• 365/365 Day 112: Defending Fanfiction by Will Watson at gameinformer (April 22, 2014)
• In Defense of Fanfiction by Kat Giordano for Geek Insider (May 27, 2014)

• Let's talk about fanfic.

2015

• In Defense of Fanfiction by Jane Smith for the Morningside Review (2015)
• In Defense of Fanfiction by Mckelle George (January 15, 2015)
• Ngl actually one of the coolest things is reading fic by someone who is super knowledgeable about a specific field, ^{Archived version} Ngl actually one of the coolest things is reading fic by someone who is super knowledgeable about a specific field (buckyballbearing/eye-of-orion/cryogenia, 28 Oct 2015)

• "It's a Fanmade World". Archived from the original on 2015-03-18., comments that begin about the article It's a Fanmade World: From One Direction to Soderbergh, but diverge later into a big discussion about fanfiction (March 2015)
• In Defense of Fanfiction by Brianna H. for Electronic Literature (March 15, 2015)
• In Defense of Fanfiction, ^{Archived version} by Jenna Burne at Geek Mom (April 10, 2015)
• Is Fan-Fiction Wrong? by sockii (2015)

2016

• In Defense of Fanfiction by Kaitlyn Booth at WatchPlayRead (January 18, 2016)
• In Defense of Fanfiction: Part 1 + In Defense of Fanfiction: Part 2 by Carlyn Greenwald at Neon Tommy (February 2016)
• Fanfiction isn't about muting the original stories. It's about heightening them. by Constance Grady for Vox (June 6, 2016)
• I don’t care what anyone else says–writing fanfiction is goddamned educational., ^{Archived version} I don’t care what anyone else says–writing fanfiction is goddamned educational. (dinovia-grant, 7 April 2016)
• Killing Literary Snobbery: In Defense Of Fanfiction -- Why I chose to celebrate the "black sheep" of the literature family., ^{Archived version} by Andy Krouse (August 1, 2016)
• Star Trek is at its best when it’s fan fiction of itself: Or, why holodeck episodes are great, shut up, ^{Archived version}, Susan Polo (September 2016)
• In Defense of Fanfiction – A Convert’s Tale by Ryan (November 22, 2016)
• In Defense of Fanfic by Sophia Simon-Bashall for Spark Movement (November 28, 2016)

• Thoughts, ^{Archived version} on why fanfiction is superior to commercial romance (and some other thoughts on fandom) (1 June 2016)

2018

• In defense of fanfiction by LightningStreak (February 2018)
• How do I defend the fact that I write slash fanfiction?, ^{Archived version} (March 2018)
• ON BENEFITS OF FANFICTION; OR, VETERAN OF THE FLAME WARS by Mason Chennells (April 2018)
• When I say “Fanfiction is free”... by kedreeva (December 1, 2018)

2019

• Another thing that’s cool about fanfiction: it’s as long as it needs to be.
• Fanfiction: The Infinite Free Buffet by Alexandra Rowland, (August 2019)