Brittany Luce

Talk soon.

You know, you're never going to win long term on anger.

Where were you like in your life when you first started reading fanfic?

I'm not loyal at all.

So one thing about me is that I'm nosy.

If something is going on that people are talking about, that they feel passionate about, I don't want to be on the outside of it.

And one thing that started showing up on my radar a few years ago was fan fiction.

Fanfiction has been around a long time, centuries actually, so it's not like I hadn't heard of it before.

However, when I asked people like in real life what was on fanfic sites like Archive of Our Own, better known as AO3, they looked at me so crazy.

So I did some sleuthing.

I checked it out and I saw all kinds of things.

Some very creative smut, for sure.

Some really compelling novel-length narratives about existing characters.

But most of all, people connecting over shared fandom.

And I don't think it's just me that's been curious about it.

If you are anywhere near fan spaces online, even just as a passive enjoyer of tweets about specific shows,

You've probably seen people talking about fanfic, but it's also behind some of the biggest books of the last decade.

Some of the publishing industry's greatest hits started as fanfic.

Fifty Shades of Grey, which was a whole thing.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, that was number one on the New York Times bestseller list.