Fanfiction - Fansplaining

Wordcloud featuring the most-frequent words in this article, with AO3, fandom, fanfic, fanworks, data, and fans largest. White text against a gradient image that moves from violet to pink.

Features

Crunching the Fandom Numbers

In 2013, curiosity about Johnlock fic led me to pull my first fandom stats. Today, the world of fandom data analysis is thriving.

Image of Shane and Ilya facing off on the ice in Heated Rivalry, with Claude code responses overlaid on top

Features

Heated Rivalry is at the Center of Fanfic’s AI Reckoning

A controversial anonymous document exposing Claude remnants in fics has collided with a fandom culture of production at hyper-speed.

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Special Episodes

Special Episode 37: The Fruitful Void

Exploring the intersections of TTRPGs, fannish roleplaying, and fanfiction.

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Criticism

Good Omens’ Final Love Letter to Fanfiction

The author is dead. Long live the authors.

Image of three portions of the languages drop-down on AO3, with one larger in the center flanked by two others. "Kiswahili" is highlighted. Red background.

Features

The Elation and Anxiety of Reading Fic in Your Native Tongue

For fans in Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi, “uncringing” non-English fanfiction is an endeavor in decolonialism.

Production still from The Pitt featuring Drs Abbott and Robby standing in front of the red emergency entrance (in the evening), looking meaningfully at each other.

Features

The Pitt Fandom Phenomenon

The hit medical drama showcases three things you need to build a juggernaut fanfic community: popularity, modularity, and intimacy.

Image from the back of issue one of Mary Sue, featuring Jessica the blonde vampire riding a bicycle, with Cassie (glasses, long brown hair) hanging on to the back, looking panicked.

Features

Reclaiming the Mary Sue

My new comic interrogates the continued bias against Mary Sues—and brings one life.

Photograph of Hutch and Starsky sitting together against a collection of stacked fruit crates.

Features

How Friendships Onscreen and Off Fueled Half a Century of Fandom

For the admins of the Starsky & Hutch Fiction Archive, preserving fanworks and fannish community go hand in hand.

Photograph of actors Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd with their arms over each others' shoulders, posing for a photo.

Features

The RPF Question

Amid blurry boundaries between fic, celebrity fandom, and conspiracy theories, how real person fiction evolved from forbidden to mainstream and back again.

Illustration of a very dense galaxy of stars—appearing as mostly gold and silver—with a large black hole in the shape of a perfect black circle sitting in the middle.

Criticism

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

In 2024, everyone wanted a piece of fic, from AI grifters to traditional publishers to ravenous audiences. Where did that leave the people who write it?

Image of cardboard cut-outs of a dragon and a castle perched atop some books, against a black background. Image via Freepik.

Features

Bringing Fanfiction Into the Classroom

Fic does something that my traditional English classes cannot: it places the power in the hands of the student.

1) Flourish and Elizabeth posing behind a purple banner that says "Fandom Is My Fandom" 2) F and E in front of a set of bookshelves, F in a gold necklace and E in a leopard print blazer.

Episodes

Episode 223: The End of the Flourish Era

Reflections on nine years of the podcast by, for, and about fandom in Flourish’s final episode.