I’ve been reading fanfiction since the tender age of 12. So amazingly for over a decade now. I’ve obviously jumped around from fandom to fandom over the years but I enjoy reading fanfiction so much. The romance, and the creativity…

I’m amazed at how many people have never heard of fanfictions soooooo here is a mini breakdown of some words I use a lot (in my own words):

fanfiction: works of fiction created by fans depicting their own plots using characters or persona’s already created by someone else, not for payment but simply for the creative process.

fandoms: this would be the world that the previously mentioned characters/persona’s come from. Included by not limited to, books, movies, television shows, and games.

shipping: derived from the word relationship, you “ship” or are a “shipper” when you like two particular characters together, for example, if you like Caroline and Tyler from the Vampire Diaries together, they would be considered one of your ships.

canon: this refers to ships that have actually happened in the original work.  and because there are “canon” ships there are in comparison “non-canon” ships which involves shipping two characters together in a romantic relationship when it didn’t happen in the original work. for example, Zuko and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender, where original supposed to be each others love interest but the writers went a different way, so they never actually were romantically involved on the show, yet there is still a large fandom of this non-canon pairing. (other examples of non-canon pairings are, Draco and Hermione from Harry Potter, and Jacob and Leah from Twilight)

other fanworks:fans express themselves in many ways outside of just writing fanfiction, they edit fan videos, draw fanart, create fan manips (manipulations), participate in fan forums for discussion with like minded shippers and fans.

and that’s the basics… there are so many other levels and details into what i’ve just said, but that’s the start.

For me its easy to understand the draw of fanfictions because I’m a shipper at heart. I tend to only read stories (books and fanfics) with a romantic plot of some sorta. So for me reading fanfics is an emotional journey, and if the writer is good, they will take you on a roller coaster ride.

As much as I love a good love story and wish for a happy ending every single time, occasionally it’s the stories that end in heart break (and leave you sobbing your eyes out and gasping for air because its hard to breathe through the emotions) that are just what you need. Still for me, I need the love story! :]]