Welcome to the world of fanfic

Captain Kirk and Spock in love? Thousands of stories based on famous characters are being told online, as fans let their imaginations run riot penning fan fiction, writes Anna Carey

Many Harry Potter fans may not be aware of it, but the story of the youthful wizard's sixth year at Hogwarts has already been published. So has the story of his seventh year. And his post-Hogwarts life. And his affair with Ginny Weasley. And his marriage to Hermione. Harry devotees needn't panic - they haven't missed a word of Rowling's own writing. These stories aren't part of the official Potter canon, and you can't buy them in any shop. They're works of fan fiction, "fanfic" - stories written by fans of the books and posted online.

And they're part of an international phenomenon. Throughout the world, tens of thousands of people are writing stories, poems and even songs about their favourite characters from literature, television and film, from Legolas to Lord Peter Wimsey. Think of an even vaguely well-known fictional character and chances are that someone somewhere has written fanfic about them.

For thousands of years, people have created new stories about previously established characters; it's how myths and most of the first literary epics were born. But for the past 30 years, a subculture has developed in which fans of everything from Star Trek to Sweet Valley High have started writing their own stories about their favourite fictional figures and distributing them among fellow fans, initially through fanzines and later - and much more successfully - on the Internet.

While fanfic isn't solely an Internet phenomenon, the Internet has introduced fic to people who would never have known about it otherwise. It provides writers of fanfic (fic for short) with a potentially enormous readership. It also provides them with a community of fellow fans and writers with similar interests, many of whom are willing and able to provide intelligent feedback and constructive criticism.

"If it weren't for the Internet I doubt I would write fic at all," says Dublin teacher Margaret Murphy, who started writing fanfic in her 30s and whose beautifully written stories have a devoted online following. "It's hard to overemphasise how strong an influence the Internet has on fic, making it easier to find both in quantity, variety and quality. Without the knowledge that fic existed and encouragement from others to start writing, I doubt I would ever have written a word of it."

Meg Jones from Co Kildare agrees that the Internet is a huge inspiration. Jones wrote some fanfic as a kid - "Somewhere in a box, there are a few Thundercats [ stories] with my name on them" - but it was when her family got Internet access in 1998 that she got into different "fandoms", or specific fan communities.

"The community feeling is amazing," she says. "Suddenly you have access to people who have similar mindset and interests, a lot of information on your chosen fandom and access to new skills. Not to mention a ready-made audience that respond and let you know what they thought." For many young people, fic can serve as an introduction to writing fiction, removing the pressure of thinking up new characters and settings.

Crossover fics, in which characters from one fictional universe meet characters from another, are hugely popular, allowing fic writers to mix genres and styles. But fanfic isn't just for new writers - even experienced writers may find it useful to write about characters who are already well-defined. "Fan fiction is a valuable exercise in writing in other people's voices," says writer and critic Roz Kaveney, a regular Times Literary Supplement contributor who started reading and then writing fic when working on a book of critical essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "It's also a great way of getting over writer's block."

It may be done for fun, but there's a culturally political side to fanfic. "Writing fic is an alternative mode of cultural consumption," says Kaveney. "It's a revolt against passivity. It allows people to consume culture in an active way."

The fact that, unlike most TV programmes and films, most fic is written by and for women, is another way in which it challenges the cultural status quo. "The Internet has made possible a huge, worldwide female culture of amateur writing, with women of all ages and cultural backgrounds reading and discussing one another's stories, and becoming friends," says Margaret Murphy.

Perhaps the most subversive fic form of all is "slash". Slash stories pair characters in same-sex couples; the expression comes from the term used to indicate such pairings. The original slash stories, about Star Trek's Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, were described by fans as Kirk/Spock, and the slash symbol between their names became shorthand. Much slash is sexually explicit - and when it is, the author usually posts a warning or a cinema-style age rating - but much of it isn't. Slash is seen by many of its writers and fans as a way of reclaiming cultural space for non-straight people.

"Hollywood is resolutely un-queer," says Roz Kaveney. But by writing slash, particularly about characters whose original versions already have a close relationship (like Kirk and Spock), fic writers create an alternative and subversive world where heterosexuality isn't automatically the norm. And the fact that these erotic stories are nearly all written by women breaks another cultural taboo.

Many writers and TV producers are pro-fanfic, reasoning that as long as people aren't trying to make money from the use of other people's characters, it's harmless - and it also encourages a deeper involvement with the original source. When a journalist asked Buffy creator Joss Whedon what his fans should do to get their Buffy fix once the show ended, his answer was "write lots of fanfic".

Meg Cabot, author of the enormously popular Princess Diaries books, approves of her young fans writing their own stories about her characters. "I'd be a big hypocrite if I didn't, because I wrote a lot of Star Wars fanfic when I was a kid," she said. Like many authors, however, Cabot stopped reading fic based on her work in case she was unconsciously influenced by any of the plot ideas dreamed up by her fans. But one famous fantasy writer stopped reading fic based on his work for another reason - he found a story starring not one of his characters, but himself.

Such "real people" (or RP) fic is a controversial topic among fic writers. The Internet is full of fictional stories about real celebrities, which make many fans feel uncomfortable.

Popular subjects of RP slash include the actors who played the hobbits in Lord of the Rings, who are now aware of what's being written about them and who apparently find it more funny than offensive. The band Franz Ferdinand were also amused when they discovered a story online in which they enjoyed a night of passion with Morrissey. "It's really, really funny," said Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos. "And I like that sort of thing - it means that there are people who have imagination who are inspired by your personality and the things that you've done, so it's a good thing."

While RP fic still provokes angry debates online, most fans are united in mocking the type of fanfic known as "Mary Sue". Mary Sues always feature a thinly disguised but idealised version of the author herself - there are many, many terrible Harry Potter fics about a feisty young American girl who arrives at Hogwarts, turns out to be the most powerful witch in history, and enjoys a romance with Harry.

Mary Sues make it easy to sneer at fanfic. So does the fact that, as in most literary genres, the truly terrible stories far outnumber the good. And some people just dislike the idea of new writers using other people's characters.

But the same level of scorn is seldom poured on well-known professional writers who produce new stories about old, out-of-copyright characters - such as Emma Tennant's Austen sequels - or who write "legitimate" sequels to the copyrighted works of dead authors, such as Jill Paton Walsh's completion of Dorothy L. Sayers's final unfinished works. Laurie R. King's entertaining stories about Mary Russell, a girl who becomes the assistant and later the wife of Sherlock Holmes, have been well received by critics and public alike - but they are, essentially, fanfic (and, with their bookish half-American heroine who shares King's background in theology, they're pretty much Mary Sue fanfic as well).

Even some great works of literature could be described as fanfic - take Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. In telling the story of the first Mrs Rochester, who appears in Jane Eyre as the "madwoman in the attic", Rhys does exactly what many fic writers do: she gives a voice to a marginalised but fascinating character.

But perhaps the best argument for the existence of fanfic is that those who write it are writing for the sheer joy of telling a story. They know they can never make money from what they're doing.

They know they can never achieve mainstream literary success with these stories and they don't care. They write for themselves, for their friends, for their fellow fans. In a publishing industry driven by commercialism, there's something refreshing about tens of thousands of people writing their hearts out just for pleasure.

"People who write fic write out of love," says Roz Kaveney. "A love for writing, a love for characters. And there's a purity to that that I really, really like."

Unlikely stories

The Chalet School Elinor M. Brent-Dyer wrote the last of her hugely popular books about the school at the chalet (and the island, and the Welsh village) in the 1960s, but fans keep the flame burning at www.chaletian.co.uk

Sunnydale Street Buffy goes to Coronation Street. No, really. Just as deranged as it sounds. satanstoady.sinfree.net/sunnydalestreet.html

Scooby Doo Slash Fred and Shaggy? Yikes! Except it's actually about Slash from Guns 'N' Roses meeting Scooby Doo and friends. Bizarre beyond words. www.snakepit.org/scooby.html