UI writers cite fan fiction as inspiration to pursue creative writing
| News Media Commentary | |
|---|---|
| Title: | UI writers cite fan fiction as inspiration to pursue creative writing |
| Commentator: | Charlie Hickman |
| Date(s): | January 23, 2024 |
| Venue: | online |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| External Links: | UI writers cite fan fiction as inspiration to pursue creative writing; archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
UI writers cite fan fiction as inspiration to pursue creative writing is a 2024 article by Charlie Hickman.
Intro
Students with a fan fiction background share how writing in their favorite fandoms inspired them to pursue writing, a common inspiration impacting writers throughout the history of fan fiction; a history which is cataloged in the UI library’s record-breaking collection of fan fiction.
Some Topics Discussed
- Archive of Our Own
- history of fanfiction
From the Article
The University of Iowa is renowned for its excellent writing program, churning out countless award-winning novelists, nonfiction authors, and playwrights from the writers’ workshop.
But fan fiction writing often goes unrecognized, and even dismissed, for its pivotal role in the development of young writers’ voices.
For many people, the genre itself evokes a stereotype: superfans who create written spinoffs of fiction books or movies out of obsession, often containing taboo takes on beloved fictional characters.
Writers are aware of this, but the reality could not be further from this misconception.
Passion from fans has always been a driving force behind making fan fiction accessible, whether it be through physical publications or digital archives. As someone who aided in the curation of one of the largest physical collections of fan fiction in the world, Balestrieri is one of those fans.
“A lot of students don’t know that the University of Iowa is a hub of fan fiction,” Balestrieri said.
The Organization for Transformative Works, the parent company of Archive of Our Own, has partnered with the UI since 2009 to form a preservation alliance. The UI provides a physical space for the OTW to house its historic collections of fanzines and fandom content.
“Through our partnership with the [OTW], we’ve received hundreds of collections of historic fan fiction,” he shared.
A large portion of fandom content is novels, stories, and fanzines. However, fan art is an equally important entry in fan content archives.
... sharing work with fellow fans can add a layer of pressure, especially when your work lands in the laps of thousands, even millions, of other users.
“The first story I put online reached about two million readers,” Eliazar recalled.
Eliazar’s fan fiction, based on the popular anime series “My Hero Academia,” had reached beyond the website on which she published it. One random reader brought her story to TikTok, and their video went viral.
“I was just sitting at the dinner table and my phone was blowing up like ‘Your story has 100,000 reads, your story has 200,000 reads,’” Eliazar said.
It may be hard to pin down exactly what fan fiction can be, but it has captured the imagination of aspiring writers for decades. However, Eliazar shared that the internet’s biggest misconception surrounding fan fiction is that it’s all “cringe.”
“Sometimes it is, but I think just like any other kind of writing, there’s variety … It’s how a lot of young writers get their start,” she said. “A lot of powerful stories can get brushed aside just because of the form of writing.”