Five Reasons Fan Fiction Is Magical
Harry Potter has been a part of my life for 20 years now. I started with reading the books and quickly turned to the movies. There was a lot of waiting in those early years of Potter with years in between different releases of the books and the movies. During those gaps, I turned to the Harry Potter fandom so that I could still be immersed in this magical world. I started my journey by reading articles, playing games, and chatting with fellow fans – all on MuggleNet, of course. After a little while, I discovered fan fiction and instantly fell in love. Here are five of my favorite things about reading fan fiction.
Different Viewpoints
The Harry Potter books are a bit one-sided. This is great because we get to see the wizarding world as Harry himself sees it. The problem with this is that our favorite boy wizard is not the most observant person, and we miss out on seeing most of what goes on in the background. Through fan fiction, you can experience this world through the eyes of every character imaginable and see what everyone would do in different scenarios. This creates a more well-rounded world because we get to learn all of these inside details and wacky facts that our main narrator either misses or never learns about.
Shipping
Shipping is one of the most interesting parts of fan fiction. By reading fan fiction with different ships, fans get to see what would happen if different characters got together. With the lack of LGBT+ representation in the main series, fan fiction gives many of us a chance to see ourselves represented in this world. No matter what rare pairings you ship, you can find a fan fiction with them in it.
Harry Potter for Adults
The Harry Potter books were originally written to be a children’s series, with the books getting darker and darker as time went on. Overall, while there is some language and subject matter that is geared toward the older readers, they’re still children’s books. Fan fiction gives different writers the chance to take this world and age it up a bit. This is great for those of us who have grown up reading the Harry Potter books and now want to read something that reflects our lives today. I can’t relate to being overwhelmed with schoolwork, but I can relate to seeing Harry complain about his job as an Auror and wishing he had a different career.
Familiar World and Characters
As a writer, I love writing fan fiction because it gives me a pre-established world to play in. I don’t have to spend time explaining all of the details behind everything and instead get to go straight into the plot. I like this when I’m reading too. There aren’t tons of new characters to learn, because I’m already familiar with most of them. I’m not overwhelmed by a bunch of new words and phrases because I’ve known them since I was a child. It’s not hard to find yourself fully immersed in the story when you already have everything pictured in your head.
Community
The fan fiction community is my favorite part of every fandom. It’s often the first place I turn to when I join a new fandom. Fan fiction writers spend so much time developing amazing stories, and they do it for fun. There’s no money in writing fan fiction. These wonderful people write purely for the love they have of writing and the need that they have to get the stories in their heads out to the public. Without these passionate people, fandoms would be a little less vibrant.
What are your favorite things about fan fiction? Do you prefer to read it or to write it? Let us know in the comments.
