FAQ: Why We Do Not Allow Fan Fic on AW

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We do not allow posting or critting of fan fic on Absolute Write.

Here's the site owner, MacAllister, explaining why.

Mostly, there are a number of really terrific and supportive fan-fic communities, elsewhere, that do what they do much better than we could.

We don't have anything against fanfic; I read some, lots of us write some, but it's just not what we're about, here. We're just more ideologically geared towards writing for eventual publication, either for fun or profit -- and publishing fanfic is a whole other can o' worms.

That, and getting takedown notices always makes me grumpy, so I try hard to avoid it.

Here's a good FAQ from Chilling Effects about the legality of fan fiction.

We are not hostile towards fan fiction at all, but we do respect the rights of artists, writers, and publishers.

Fan fic has a noble literary tradition, particularly in terms of responses to canon literature that has fallen into public domain and is not covered by copyright. There's a lot of "canon" literature that qualifies as fan fic. Most Arthurian literature, for instance, continuations of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by Lydgate and other poets, continuations of Sidney's Arcadia by others, large parts of the pre-tales to the Irish national epic, the Táin. Even Classic literature is full of fan fic; Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid is Illiad fanfic. And there are well-respected novels like Gardner's Grendel (a Beowulf tale) and several contemporary continuations or responses to Jane Eyre.

A number of professional writers from several eras got their start writing fan fic; this is especially true of the 20th and 21st centuries. For one thing, writing fan fic and working within fan fic communities in terms of critting and beta readers is a great way to learn how to write fiction. See 6 Ways That Fanfiction Makes Your Writing Stronger


We have a lot of members who read and write fan fic, but Absolute Write isn't the place to post it or crit it. That includes fan fic derived from books and media that are not in the public domain, including film, video, comics and graphic novels.

Where Can I Post My Fan Fic?

Here are some sites you might try:

  • Fanfiction.net
    A very large site, with lots of different ’ships, as well as betas.
  • archiveofourown.com
    Currently described as in beta, but already very active. You can click the link on the top page for an Invite to join.
 
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