What is fan fiction?

[Ragsnstitches]

So fan fiction seems to be one of the most maligned types of fan created content. But what exactly is fan fiction? and when does fan fiction become normal fiction?

I mean is it regular fiction if its published? Cause it seems like allot of fiction out there could be classified as fan fiction, it seems like there are hundreds of Star Wars books out there but I doubt Lucas wrote any of them. Then there is something like Fallout Equestria that should be easily considered fan fiction but its been published.

Anyway, the question is what is fan fiction and why is it fan fiction.

Fan Fiction is non-licensed use of established IPs. The authors neither own the IP and may not have asked permission to use it.

Books that are published with the star wars label may not be written by lucas (thankfully), but he has greenlit the publishing of that material. Generally all published books are licensed by the IP owner, but derivative Fanfiction can exist without a license (though permissions are usually given in this case).

The difference is simply licencing... licensed fictions vs fan fiction (non-licensed). It's much harder to publish a non-licensed piece of fiction using an established IP, but not impossible.

50 shades is an example of derivative fan fiction, though it had to undergo major rewrites to be published, to the point of not resembling the source material at all. This is, more often then not, the case with published fan fiction. Either that or the IP holders approach the author and get it licensed for publishing (relatively rare).

EDIT: It should also be noted that Licensed fiction does not mean it's canon to the universe being used.

EDIT EDIT: As an aside, the reason why Fan Fiction gets a bad wrap sometimes is that if Fan Fiction reaches wide appeal, it is usually picked up by the license holder and made official. Ergo, not fan fiction anymore. What's left under the label "fan fiction" are usually amateurish, creepy or just shite.

 

[Whitbane]

Fan fiction is using someone's universe as a place to situate a piece of writing, often without legal consent. That's why fan fiction is never published, because it would break copyright laws.

It is usually associated with a negative viewpoint simply for the fact that most fans don't have a goddamned clue what they're writing about.

However they are gems that are, if not better, on par with most other quality written content. Just because you're using someone's slate doesn't it anything about writing quality, but such an act is usually seen as lazy, or in a negative light because people seem to say the writer lacks creativity and cannot create his/her own world.

However, stories likes Fallout: Equestria and Fallout: Project Horizons are pretty decently written fan content, if you can get past the ponies.