Implications of Canon

The Essentials

Fanfiction refers to works of literature that are derived from someone else's work.  A work of fanfiction is usually called a "fanfic" or just a "fic".  There are other types of fan works, such as fan art and fan vid, but this website will focus on written fanfiction.

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Many writers derive their stories from other source material but you should understand that not all of these are considered fanfiction. Adaptations and retellings are commonplace in much of published literature today, but these aren't classified as fanfiction for one specific reason: the authors get paid for their writing. The legailty of why authors are allowed to get money for hijacking someone else's universe is complicated but it's usually because the author either a) has the rights to the original work or b) is deriving from a work that's currently in the public domain. 

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Fanfiction writers, on the other hand, do not have any legal authorization to sell their derived works.  They instead exploit a loophole: as long as the fanfiction writer doesn't get paid, they can post all the fanfic they want.  There is a caveat: a few mainstream authors have publicly stated that they don't want other people writing in their worlds (and the major fanfiction sites include guidelines to enforce this), but the vast majority of authors have no qualms about their fans playing in their sandbox.

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So if a fanfic writer can't get money for what they write, then why spend all their time and energy doing it?  Maybe they love the characters and worlds they've read about and want to play with them.  Or they noticed a problem in the original story and want to fix it.  Or they want to see what would happen if something changed.  Or they just want to improve as a writer and get immediate feedback in a low-risk environment.  Or they love bonding with fellow fans by exploring the possibilities of canon together.  Whatever the reasoning, fanfiction writers find value in it and that's more than enough to do it.

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But should you and your patrons actually read fanfiction?  Short answer: yes.  It can be as excellent as anything sitting on your library's shelf and you won't have to pay anything to access it.  All you need to do is know what's out there and point your patrons in the right direction.  With any luck, they'll need little prodding to read more in a universe they're already invested in.

Commonly Used Tags

The fanfiction community has adopted a lot of strange terminology.  Some terms are fandom specific, but there are plenty that have universal usage.  Glossaries like this one or this one can help you gain some familiarity with these, but since those lists are a little on the long side, the tags you are almost guaranteed to see (possibly on this very website) are described below.

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Canonicity Tags

Canon--What actually happened in the original work.  Fanfics that don't contradict canon are called "canon compliant."

AU--Short for "alternate universe."  The world of the fanfic changes on a fundamental level, such as making the characters all high school students.

Divergent AU--A common type of AU where everything happened in canon up to a point before going off and doing its own thing.

Crossover--When the worlds of two or more fandoms are mashed together.  This could be that the groups of characters had been in different parts of the world all along, that some characters literally crossed universes to meet, or that characters in one universe have the roles filled by characters in the other universe.

Crack--When the story is just plain weird and isn't intended to make any sense.  Usually written for fun or as a challenge.

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Romance Tags

Shipping--When a fan wants certain characters to get together.  Short for "relationship."  There are a lot of fanfics devoted to presenting various "ships," whether they be canonical (e.g. Leia and Han), noncanonical (e.g. Zuko and Katara) or insane (e.g. Hedwig and the giant squid--yes, it exists).

Pairing--A romantic duo that is shipped together.  The names of the two people are usually mashed up to create a pairing name, for example, Dramione is Draco/Hermione.

Slash--When the pairing is a homosexual one.  It was named for the slash in the shipping term "Kirk/Spock" that was popular in the early years of fanfiction.  Note that you can use the slash symbol "/" when describing a non-homosexual pairing but only homosexual ones are actually called "slash."

Het--When the pairing is a heterosexual one.  Many fanfic authors don't bother tagging this since it can usually be assumed from context.

Multi--When there are more than two people in a ship.  Fanfic has more threesomes and harems than you might expect.

OTP--Stands for "One True Pairing."  The fan's favored pairing.  Note that for ships containing more than two people you can swap out the P for a number: for example "OT3" means "one true threesome."

Gen--When there is little to no romance in the story.  Short for "general."

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Character Tags

[adjective]![character]--A common format for identifying a version of a character.  For example, Dark!Harry or Manipulative!Dumbledore.  This format is often used outside of the realm of fanfic to describe specific iterations of a character, such as if they are a clone or have changed sides.

Bashing--When a fan calls out (and/or exaggerates) the questionable behavior of a character in canon.

OOC--Stands for "Out of Character."  When the fanfic version of the character does things the canon version wouldn't.  This can be as extreme as being the complete opposite or it could be as minor as being a little more outspoken.

OC--Stands for "Own Character."  A character that wasn't in canon that the fanfic writer created for story purposes.

Genderswap--When one or more characters have their genders swapped from canon.

How to Find Fanfic

If you just want a handful of recommendations to get you started, explore this website's Fanfiction Examples pages.  If you'd like some tips of where to look beyond that, continue reading.

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There are several websites that host nothing but fanfiction.  The two that most people use are Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own (abbreviated AO3).  The former is a bit older and thus has more fanfics overall while the latter website provides a greater degree of flexibility in what a fanfic writer can tag and post. Other websites like WattPad, deviantART, and tumblr include a major fanfiction component to them and are also worthy of your perusal.

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Regardless of where you go to find your fanfic, it can be hard to find the story you want to read unless you already have a link to it.  There are literally hundreds of thousands of fanfics for popular series like Harry Potter or Naruto and there is absolutely no way you're going to slog through all that.  Hosting websites usually have filters to narrow things down, and if you are just looking for something a lot of other people liked, sorting by number of favorites/kudos can help.  If you're looking for a story with a particular plotline, though, you are very much reliant on what metadata the fanfic author decided to include in their tags or story summaries.

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An invaluable resource for finding quality fanfics is TVTropes.  Popular works are likely to include a Fanfic Recs subpage where people post recommendations.  The lists are relatively short and organized by criteria like whether or not there is a romance, whether there is a crossover with another series, or whether the story takes place in an alternate universe.  They also contain reviews detailing why a reader liked a particular story, sometimes with other reviewers commenting further why they agreed or disagreed with the recommender.  If you don't know where to start, going to a Fanfic Recs page reading synopses until one sounds interesting to you is one of the better ways to reach the crème de la crème of fanfiction.