Along the way, somewhere, someone decided they were not happy with the way an author decided to do things, and fanfiction was born.
And what a wonderful premise it was. It gave us the freedom to explore the world we had grown to love, it gave us an insight into the world of inception, it gave us an opportunity to share our thoughts with like minded souls who yearned for more, and who appreciated the endangered art of penmanship.
For, fanfiction is, at it's very best, an opportunity to float a piece of ourselves into a the universe we have known and loved. At its worst, it can be non-canonical swill that exists only because someone who had a random thought owned a keyboard and an internet connection.
For what it started out to be, fanfiction signaled hope. Character redemption arcs were soulful and touching. Missing pieces of a puzzle were carefully crafted into place. Non-canon, if it did exist, maintained a semblance of credibility and remained true to character development.
Dedicated portals for fanfiction opened up in the early 2000s. A new era was ushered in by the Harry Potter epic, it had an appeal that brought in people of all age groups and had them hooked, and left each one wanting more.
The thrill of contributing to your Fandom is indescribable. You are essentially baring your mind and thought process to a million others who are as invested in the subject as you are. Each read, each review, each follow sends shivers of pleasure through your mind, for you have made something that others resonate with.
Then came the dawn of the beta readers, the unsung heroes of the fanfiction world. You had to wait to get a good beta, and wait you did, for the wait was always worth it. The relationship you had with your beta was precious, because though the idea was yours, your beta was mostly responsible for the packaging it went out in.
If I had to choose between writing and beta reading, I would blindly choose the latter, because there is something special about helping someone achieve the finish line with the end product of their dreams.
And all of this, the betareading, the critique, the reviews, came unsolicited and only out of the goodness of their hearts.
I sorely miss those days. I don't know where the turning point was, though I am inclined to point to the mainstream emergence of teen romance novels, and the movie adaptations of older and newer works of fiction. Then there was a fanfiction boom, and not in a good way.
Everyone with an internet connection and access to cable TV had something to say on the subject. If you had a device capable of typing, and you had an inkling of an idea in your head, you could immediately put it down and publish it before you could say moderation. Oh, the nightmare. I still remember being contacted to beta an M rated story about Jacob Black and Hermoine Granger falling in love, and I had to take a step back to assess the situation. My profile explicitly said, no themes above T. I had also mentioned I would beta only strictly canon works. But somehow, this person thought I would change my principles because they had had an amazing breakthrough with their idea.
This simply put, is the problem with today's literature scene. Everyone thinks they have the idea of the century that deserves to be heard. And we have set a dangerous precedent the last few years with the type of fanfiction-based literature we have allowed to become mainstream. The downfall of mainstream literature has started, and we all subconsciously acknowledged it with a vague sense of irritation at the time the books in question became popular.
And yes, I'm going to single out the outliers.
We're starting with C. S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia. A perfect series, if you do not count the time he found religion and decided to thrust it on his readers. But it does not undermine the amazing world he brought to life and the lessons he taught us along the way.
The offending hitch is nothing a little fanfiction can't fix.
Then comes Tolkein, I have no words. The universe was perfection, and it came with its own language. Perfect fanfiction fodder to fill in the missing gaps. And then came the Hobbit movies and split the fanfiction world in two, people now don't know what is canon and what isn't.
Of course, the Harry Potter franchise. This was a gold mine, it started a reading revolution like the world had never seen before. Till something completely seemingly impossible happened. The author bestowed figurative knighthood on the first piece of fanfiction she read, and put her name and stamp of approval on it. The Fandom was in chaos, and orchestrated a silent coup to save itself from collapse. An unspoken agreement to pretend like it never happened was unanimously reached, and the pillars of the Fandom were saved, but it cost the author her credibility. A brilliant woman who made a few wrong choices towards the end, is this what hubris looks like?
There was an overlap between the Potter franchise and The Twilight Saga. Two contrasting themes evolving side by side, worthy opponents at the beginning. I say beginning, because Twilight started strong. It was a very haphazard series that was all over the place, but it had its moments. It will forever be the standard to which all teen (and vampire) angst romances will aspire to be. New Moon was a let down, but Eclipse seemed to turn things around. But the nail in the coffin was Breaking Dawn, and there was no coming back from the tangled mess of choices the author made in the final installment. I do not dismiss the series, I still hold that it is worth a read.
After these two giants of fanfiction fodder came to an end, there was a scramble to get to the top. But literature was slowly waning out of relevance. Screen adaptations started becoming mainstream, and so fanfiction followed.
I would like to single out two series that literally wrecked literature for me, personally.
The 50 shades of Grey trilogy, ths is pretty self explanatory. But it is easy to dismiss this as a fluke, it was just badly written fanfiction that was thrust into prominence by a population that had never appreciated actual meaningful writing. Paraphrasing Sheldon Cooper, "Being stupid is no reason to cry. One cries because one is sad. I cry because others are stupid, and that makes me sad." These lines pretty much sum up my feelings on this series.
The next, which will need some clarification, is The Game of Thrones series. This monstrosity set human evolution back by about ten decades. I am not partial to the books or the TV adaptation, I loathe both of them with a vengeance.
I don't care that the writing was good, I care about about impact it created. I care about how women were treated on screen, I care about the violence that graced people's screens, I care about the incest that was showcased and romanticised, I care about the pure unwantedness of the filth that permeated the series. It was unwanted, unwarranted, and set a terrible precedent for things to follow. I am not looking forward to the aftermath.
In an unlikely turn of events, the credit for the next major fanfiction boom goes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the Avengers starting off where Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk had left things years ago, it was fertile ground to start throwing around ideas in. And what a world it was. It brought comic book enthusiasts on to the platform, and the results were nothing short of amazing. The world of fanfiction was revamped.
Of note are three TV series that have influenced the most number of outstanding works in the world of fanfiction : Doctor Who, Sherlock and Supernatural. Fondly referred to as the Holy Trinity of Fandoms, the SuperWhoLock Fandom was one of the most active and elite planes of existence across all social media sites frequented by literature enthusiasts. But, sadly, all good things come to an end, like this one did, though the name is still whispered in the corners of Tumblr where the Fandom was once most celebrated.
A shining beacon through these trying times has been Rick Riordan, who has continued to pump out beautifully crafted gems that stand out even in today's written literature scenario.
Literature exists where ideas are born. The media is irrelevant.
Fanfiction is the only hope in a world where good literature is in short supply.
Use it well.