Must-read fan fiction from fandoms of 'Arrow,' 'BtVS,' One Direction
Do you write fan fiction? What's your fandom? Do you write canon or fanon (aka fan canon)? Alternate universe? Or all human? Yeah? Seriously? In that fandom? You ship them together? No! That's just wrong. Oh, so, that's what slash means?
Does the first paragraph of my first column, a new monthly post on HEA, read like gobbledygook? Then I'm here to help enlighten (fingers crossed). If it made perfect sense, then I hope you enjoy these posts where I'll dive into the world of fantastic fan fiction.
There are hundreds of fandoms and millions of fanfics. A fic can be written by anyone with an idea. A novel, a novella, an epic, or PWP (porn without plot), it's completely up to the fan fiction author. Why write fan fiction? Because writers are fans who love the characters and the worlds created by someone else in television, film, literature, romance novels, comics and anime. It can also be about boy bands — but more on that later.
Recently, multipublished authors, most notably in romance, are tipping their hats to their fan fiction roots. And some fan fiction authors have taken their work to the masses through contracts with traditional publishers. Of course, as with any art form, there are still many writers who will always share their stories only with readers for free. You can find them on websites such as Fanfiction.net, Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, Goodreads and Tumblr, to name a few.
I started writing fan fiction a while back and wrote exclusively in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom. I wrote "Spuffy," which paired Buffy and Spike. I stopped writing fan fiction a few years ago to write "original" fiction. But when I wrote fan fiction, my hangout was Live Journal, and I ravenously read stories by writers with names like eurydice72, herself_nyc, anaross, girl with journal and evil manic laugh. Some of these writers I never met in person. Others are close friends today. Most of us remained anonymous for fear of Hollywood lawyers and the television networks closing down our websites and killing our fun. Not so much fear today.
This month I am recommending fanfics from three different fandoms. (I will reveal the identity of the fan fiction author only with that author's written permission or if it's already public knowledge.)
Desperately Seeking by Roxanne Tucker (aka Angelina M. Lopez)
Fandom:Arrow TV show
First, a big sigh of happy for Arrow fan fiction! Desperately Seeking is an erotic romance about an attractive young widow who places a personal ad for companionship, and it's answered by Arrow's Oliver Queen. One exciting appeal of Roxanne's story, which currently has 50,000 reads on Wattpad, is that she puts "the luscious" Oliver (played on TV by Stephen Amell) into the heroine's regular life, not an episode of the show. Roxanne then explores the fantasy of what would happen if a gorgeous, noble, tortured billionaire/vigilante with a kick-ass body wanted to take a "time-out" with you.
My Life Closed Twice by Anaross
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
One of my favorite Spuffy authors is Anaross. She calls Spuffy a mix of high romance (good and evil and saving the world together) and the mundane (love amidst everyday life — career, family, home). She says the contrast is fun and creates conflict that lets her write deeper rather than just wider.
A prolific fan fiction author, Anaross' works are primarily character studies that explore her BtVS OTP (One True Pairing). My Life Closed Twice takes place following the finale of Buffy spinoff Angel. Anaross called it a PWP: poetry with plot. She says, "My Life Closed Twice was special because it convincingly depicts a mature relationship between two people who went to hell and back."
After by imaginator1D (aka Anna Todd)
Fandom: One Direction
Real-person (RP) fanfic is what we called this form of fan fiction on Live Journal. Anna Todd's After is the premiere fanfic in the One Direction fandom based on the British boy band. After is now a traditionally published novel, though expanded and revised, that kicks off her After series. The other books, in order, are After We Collided, After We Fell and the upcoming (Feb. 24) After Ever Happy. Originally on Wattpad, the fanfic After has generated more than 8 300 million reads. The story is about an 18-year-old college student with a simple life, excellent grades and a sweet boyfriend who meets a rude boy named Harry.
Hope you enjoyed this blog on fan fiction and will come back next month for more about the fanfics that are exciting more and more readers every day. Also, feel free to make your own recommendations in the comments!
Denny S. Bryce won the 2014 RWA Golden Heart in romantic suspense. Her website is www.dennysbryce.com. You can also follow her on Twitter (@dennysbryce) or connect with her on Facebook.