ReviewColumn’s rating :

Fan fiction (fanfic for short) is a term for fiction about characters and/or settings written by fans of original, published works and such works are usually uncommissioned and not published professionally. Fan fiction can be based on anything, from books to movies and even fictional accounts of real-life celebrities. These stories are most often found on websites nowadays, and FanFiction.net is arguably the largest and most popular site where fan fiction is published and archived.

The site is easy enough to navigate as the stories are clearly categorised. Upon reaching the main page, a list of eight main categories are presented to you. Clicking on any of the main categories’ link will take you to a page that lists all the sub-categories under it. This page usually specifies the exact series you are looking for, and you can now filter the page by the first letter of the series you are looking for. Want to find a Harry Potter fanfic? Check under Books and filter to the letter ‘H’ to find the appropriate link.

To make it easier to search for a fanfic to read, FanFiction.net has several functions to help the user. You can sort stories by the date it was updated or published, genre, rating, language, length of story and even status of the story - whether the story is complete or not. For the larger categories, you can even search for stories based on characters. You will also be shown the title of the story, the author and a short summary which is written by the author. Additionally, one can also access the Communities link, located on the top right of the page. Communities are created by authors of the site and they archive select stories. The basis for such archives can be genre, specific characters or even pairings (romantic or otherwise). If you have an account on the site, you can even subscribe to the community and receive email notifications when new fanfics are added to the community.

However, quantity does not always mean quality. It is quite common to hear laments that it is becoming increasingly difficult to search for a good read on FanFiction.net, and as a user of the site for close to 4 years, it is a sentiment which I share. The reason for this is likely to be due to the fact that FanFiction.net allows anyone to create an account to start writing and publishing their works. There is no minimum age for creation of an account, so you may come across the works of pre-teens as you are browsing and see a lot of Internet speak. Also, the only form of quality control - if it can even be called such - is through the review system where readers are able to leave comments and reviews after reading the story. Thankfully, it is often easy to tell which stories are likely to be more worth your time by looking at the story’s title and the accompanying summary, although the summary might not always show whether the characters will be in-character.

Other than being a site for publishing and archiving fan fiction, FanFiction.net has, over the years, expanded its services and improved existing ones. The newest service to hit the shelves is the “Beta Reader” service, where authors of the site can advertise their services to other authors on the site. A beta reader, in short, proof reads a story and makes amendments or gives suggestions for improvements before it is published. This can be seen as another way to improve the standards of fan fiction on the site, although it depends on the author if he/she wants to use the service. Relatively new to the website is also the forum, which allows for anything pertaining to a particular original work to be discussed. Other services include private messaging between authors, a dictionary, a search function and a profile page for each author which is often used by authors for updating readers on their current on-going works.

All in all, FanFiction.Net is a good place to start your journey in the world of fan fiction, as well as for interacting with fellow authors. So if you’re new to reading fan fiction and planning to start, why not try out FanFiction.net?

Rate this website, give us your rating:
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading …