- Emma Di Bernardo wrote a post for the online zine Wom*news asking Twilight Fanfiction: Can It Turn Sexism Into Feminism? “The most popular, successful and fastest growing genre in Twilight fanfiction is Alternate Universe, or AU. These fics take away what many presume to be the most enticing elements of the Twilight series…That Bella loves Edward unconditionally and forgives him for any mistakes or sexist, misogynistic, or manipulative behaviour and…Bella is super submissive and basically the character equivalent of a doormat with no personality…Fans are given the chance to rewrite parts that they didn’t like about the books, or take the essential physical traits of the characters and use the already established familial and romantic relationships to shoulder an original plot.”
- Posting at The Writer’s Block blog, Lyda Morehouse also cites fixing canon as one of her three reasons for writing fanfic. “Fandom used to be a word that encompassed the entire community of fans, no matter what their individual fandoms…I find it’s a whole different kind of writing than what most professional writers are used to because there is a serious amount of instant gratification…It’s not like sending a book off to a publisher and never hearing boo from your readers. I get feedback chapter by chapter for my fics, and sometimes a dialogue happens between the reader and the writer—someone will say, ‘Oooh, I wonder if x will happen?’ and the author writes back and says, ‘I never thought of that! I might use that!” and suddenly a community is writing a story.'”
- Speaking of Twilight fanfic and fandom communities, Examiner.com wrote about the continued interaction between author and fandom. “Fifty Shades of Grey fans got a heartfelt thank you from E L James on July 7. The author made an impromptu call into Seattle WAVE radio which was devoting 3 hours of airtime to the ‘greysessed’ fan community. Planning to discuss fan fiction, fan art and all things ‘Fifty Shades,’ host Lori Ness was excited when E L James called to give a ‘huge thank you’ to all her loyal fans. James went on to tell prospective writers to ‘write for yourself.'”
What fanwork spinoffs have you seen in your fandoms? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.
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