How to speak the fanfic lingo

Imagine Harry Potter in a clinch with James Bond: welcome to the world of fan fiction. By Robert Colvile
'Harry Potter looked up at the Death Eater. With his wand two metres away, all he could do was wait for the terrible green light of the killing curse. But suddenly, a shot rang out, and Lucius Malfoy dropped to the ground. 'Who are you?' gasped Harry as his saviour stepped into the room. The reply was calm: 'Bond. James Bond.' "
That corny little paragraph is a work of fan fiction. It uses a pre-existing fictional universe, or in this case two of them, as the scaffolding for a new story. And thanks to the internet, such tales are available in staggering quantities: FictionAlley, one of the largest Harry Potter sites, stores 80,000, plus 20,000 works of fan art. Fanfiction.net, a vast archive of everything from The A-Team to Z Cars, has 280,000 more Potter works. It is, according to Sheenagh Pugh, author of a study of fan fiction called The Democratic Genre, "the fastest-growing form of writing in the world".
Although such tales have always existed, the variety of stories, and story types, available online is bewildering. There are those that take place in the gaps within stories, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-style. There are stories that depart from the "canon" — such as "What if Wendy had stayed in Neverland?" There is time travel, and evil twins, and male pregnancy – sometimes in the same story. "It's a massive community," says Heidi Tandy, who runs FictionAlley. "Also, these days, the [original] producers of the content are so much more open to the idea of fan fiction being created."
Although readers and authors span the spectrum of ages and genders, many are teenagers – as demonstrated by the adolescent fantasies in which a beautiful American student arrives at Hogwarts and wins Harry's heart. The stereotypical writer, however, is a suburban mother stuck at home with the children.
Bizarrely, it is these middle-aged women who are largely responsible for one of fan fiction's more unusual phenomena – "slash" fiction. Named after the "forward slash" symbol separating characters' names (eg Han/Leia, Romeo/Juliet), it puts straight male characters in gay relationships. Popular belief has it that the first "slash fic" was between Captain Kirk and Spock from Star Trek, and most slash fiction follows a similar arc: forced to work together, the two characters find their animosity shading into lust (so Gordon and Tony, look out).
"I think people want to be subversive," says Tandy. "It's a big question with Torchwood [the Doctor Who spin-off] – if the main character snogs people of both genders on screen, can you actually slash him?" Of course, she says, it's also about women drooling over pretty men.
Even with heterosexual characters, fans tend to be vocal – if not rabid – about their chosen pairings, often coupling this with a hatred of their favourites' romantic rivals.
"When you're talking about this community, it's not garden-variety fans," says Cassandra Clare, one of the leading Harry Potter writers. "People have built a central part of their identities around being fans. They've projected a huge amount of themselves into this source material, and the idea that someone else might interpret that source material differently is offensive to some of them."
Such is the passion that some called Clare's positive portrayal of Harry's malignant classmate Draco Malfoy "character rape". And she admits that not all the work holds up. "Some of it is very bad indeed. There are bad novels, too, but there probably aren't any that contain 14 pages of Backstreet Boys lyrics."
Yet the best can act as a springboard to a professional career. A 23-year-old Chilean, Francisca Solar, has moved from Harry Potter fan fiction to fantasy novels; Clare also has a fantasy trilogy due for release. She says that the barrier between professional and fan fiction is fuzzier than might be supposed: many professionals practice their craft anonymously in the forums, "though you have to get a few drinks in them before they'll admit it".
The dubious status of fan fiction can get complicated: Clare, for example, was accused of plagiarising novels and TV shows in her fanfic. And a few creators find it alarming – Anne Rice, author of Interview With a Vampire, forbids stories set in her world.
Others, however, are more positive. "Fanfic is a marvellous invention," insists Geraldine McCaughrean, author of Peter Pan in Scarlet, the approved follow-up to J M Barrie's original, and thus itself a kind of legal fan fiction. "And it's highly adulatory – any author should be delighted their words have sparked such a thirst for more."
Although she says that extensive reading provides "a worrying insight into people's warped preoccupations", McCaughrean emphasises its benefits. "Children who write stories are frequently shy and lacking in confidence," she says. "Therein hangs the most wonderful thing about fanfic: your stuff gets read by like-minded people who rave with enthusiasm or offer constructive criticism. You can forge long-term friendships – albeit with people called 'Shirebound' or 'Frodoschick'. And best of all, you get to visit the imaginary world of your choice and create your own happy endings."
And although the show or book that collects the largest following may change in future years, it looks certain that fan fiction will stick around. "No one is going to stop any time soon," says Sheenagh Pugh. "They're having too much fun."

How to speak the fanfic lingo

Canon: the world established by the original creator. Stories that contradict these events are "AU", ie "alternate universe".
Eg: "My story follows canon until the third series, then is AU from there."

Fandom: the set of fans for a particular show, and their collective attitudes.
Eg: "In Star Wars fandom, Boba Fett is probably more popular than Luke Skywalker."

Mary Sue: an obnoxiously perfect character, obviously the product of an author's wish-fulfillment.
Eg: "Your super-Jedi-wizard was a total Mary Sue."

Slash: stories in which characters who are heterosexual in the canon are written as gay.
Eg: "This story is Kirk/Spock slash – look away now if you're offended."

Ships/shippers: fans who devote themselves to a particular character relationship.
Eg: "I'm a huge Draco/Hermione shipper."

PWP ("Plot? What plot?"): a scene of sexual fantasy, usually semi-pornographic.
Eg: "This is a PWP in which Buffy and Xander are trapped on a desert island."