By Fans For Fans — Introducing the OTW
1. Introducing Fanfiction
If you’ve ever been a fan of anything—and I do mean ‘anything’—bands, books, movies, TV-shows, games, comics, puppet shows…you name it, you’ve probably come across the concept of ‘fandom’ and fan culture. A pretty integral part—or product—of fandom and fan culture is the wonderfully terrifying world of fanfiction. If you’re already intimately acquainted with fanfiction, as a writer or reader or both, you might be experiencing a knee jerk notion of cringe right about now. The whole business of fanfiction has gained a rather ‘guilty pleasuresque’ reputation in mainstream culture, possibly due to it having roots in mainly female driven communities, which in a patriarchal society, tend to get a pejorative rep. Sigh. Nevertheless, it is a community and practice that is thriving online and has produced hundreds of thousands of works of literary excellence all free of charge, which is why I find myself typing up this article in hopes that it will be able to provide a smidge more well-rounded look at the fuss that is fanfiction.
In the spirit of first things first, I present to you the definition of fanfiction by Merriam Webster (some say America’s most trusted online dictionary…):
Stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet
— called also fanfic
(“s.v. ‘fan fiction,’” n.d.)
While this definition is technically entirely correct, it does not wholly convey the appropriate ‘vibes’ of fanfiction, which is why I will attempt to elaborate on the topic. First, an important addition to the above definition is that fanfiction does not only involve fictional characters, in fact, there is a whole genre of fanfiction devoted to writing with real people as your characters. Worry not, if you’re just regular old Joe walking down the street with an overpriced cup of hot bean water, the likelihood of fanfiction being written about you is nonexistent. What I am referring to here is the use of popular people such as actors, singers, online personalities –essentially, people who have fans—as characters in fan written fiction.
Second, I think it is important to understand that there truly is no financial motivation for fans to write fan fiction. Yes, there are cases of fanfictions being later adapted into books (cough, cough, fifty shades of what?), but these instances are outliers and fanfiction by its nature is non-commercial. Third, to define fanfiction without getting into why people write fanfiction is like having sliced bread with no toppings—get’s the job done but lacks in flavor. Therefore, I will try to illustrate some of the reasons people take time to create 100K and up works of literature based off existing fictional content. A very popular reason for writing fanfiction is simply the love fans have for certain characters or for certain worlds coupled with a lack of content regarding them. Like, what? You’re just supposed to move on after a book series ends? Get over your favorite character getting killed off? Waiting for a new season to come out months on end without any new content to binge in the meanwhile? Fans think not.
Another reason is that perhaps fans disagree with the direction the canon (read as original material) is going with the story. Sometimes fictional characters take on a life of their own in the hands of imaginative talented fans. This inevitably leads to many interpretations of any given original source material as fans bring their own twists and turns into the plot. Sometimes people just want to mess around with fully fledged characters they know and love without having to worry about the emotional labor of creating or having to absorb and follow a whole new context to enjoy fiction. This is also a possible reason why reading fanfiction is so enjoyable; you know the characters, you know the general premise, all you must do is sit back and relax while someone comes up with some minor (or at times more major) alterations that don’t mess with the fabric of the fandom core and read your heart out. A common comparison is that compared to reading a 350-page book of fiction, reading a 35-chapter fanfic will likely feel like the easier task. In fact, the incredible truth is that though some fanfics are pure hilarity (in all the best ways) and fans indulging in their own imagination, there are many ‘fics’ that make a big chunk of commercially written, edited and published material pale in comparison.
Is this an all-encompassing summary of the nature of fanfiction? –No. Does it cover enough to get you through this article? –Why, yes. Yes. It does. With that being said, it’s time to take a look at how all this unravels online. At this point, it is probably painfully clear that fanfiction is written and read by fans. The name is, after all, fairly self-explanatory. But, depending on how much you’ve come into contact with fanfiction or fandoms in general, you might be wondering about a couple of practical things; How do you get started with fanfiction? How does one go about browsing through fanfiction? How and where can one write and publish fanfiction? Is writing fiction about existing creative content even legal? Where does fanfiction stand in terms of commercially published works? Whether these questions have already been living in your head rent free, or if you’re just now starting to feel the thirst for fanfiction related knowledge, I urge you to buckle up and stick with me as I’m about to introduce you to the Organization for Transformative Works—also known as OTW—and its key role in the phenomenon that is fanfiction.
2. OTW—Organization for Transformative Works
Writing fanfiction, obsessing about plot points, and creating fan art in all shapes, sizes, and mediums is not all that hard working fans have been up to in the last couple of decades. In fact, the Organization for Transformative Works was established by fans in 2007 and is still run as a non-profit by fans today. The OTW aims to ensure the recognition of transformative works as legitimate and legal creative activity under the fair use statute of US law. Essentially this means that the OTW wants to make sure fans can keep writing about existing fictional characters without having to worry about getting sued. After all, no one wants to get sued for writing spicy fiction about Marvel characters, try explaining that to a judge… “But your Honor, Loki is just sooooo misunderstood…he’s a total cinnamon bun”. Yeah, in any case, while fair use is an American legal concept, the content held under USA based OTW servers are acknowledged to fall under said jurisdiction.
According to the OTW, transformative works are those that take something that already exists and turns them into something new in response to the already existing content. In other words, transformative works are like slices of toast to which fans have piled on their own preferred toppings thus creating new flavor combinations in the process. The OTW reasons that since the intended use of copy right law is to allow creators to profit from and be recognized for their work, transformative works do not infringe on those rights as their nature falls under fair use and more importantly as they elicit no profit. Because the creation of OTW was fan driven and its mission is to serve fandom needs, the focus of the organization often lands on the legal and practical services it offers to fan creators worldwide. Yet the OTW also has vested interest in preserving and cultivating fandom culture and artifacts. In their own words, the OTW declares their intent as such:
Our mission is to be proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenge, and to preserve our fannish economy, values, and way of life by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity, while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans. (“Frequently Asked Questions | Organization for Transformative Works,” n.d.)
To accomplish all its goals and to keep tabs on all things fandom, the OTW has created a set of programs and platforms to serve the transformative works community online.
3. Ao3
While fanfiction has been and still is available on multiple sites across the world wide web, the by far most popular and arguably diverse site capable to curb all your fanfiction cravings is Archive of Our Own—Ao3. Ao3 is a non-profit suborganization of OTW functioning as a central hosting site for transformative works created by fans for fans. Due to its non-commercial nature, one could describe fanfiction as capitalism’s worst nightmare, yet providing places to practice, store, and share fanfiction is not free. This is the case with Ao3 as the entire operation is kept up and running by volunteer workers and financial donations. Yearly fundraisers consistently hit their targets and go over by thousands and thousands of dollars thanks to community donations. This is a clear indicator of the importance and appreciation of a functional and purposeful community platform on which to share, consume, and comment on fanworks.
A key feature that sets Ao3 apart from previous platforms is their queue system for requesting a user account. This drastically decreases the number of bots and the creation of spam accounts, which further works to ensure the quality of works and feedback on the site. The cool thing is, because the site is designed and created for fans by fans, the functions it offers for filtering through content and navigating the myriads of transformative works the archive hosts, are highly useful and cater both to the needs of avid fanfic readers and first-time browsers. While the archive is at the moment only available in English, it holds fanfiction written in over a hundred different languages in just about any genre you could possibly think of (yes, even in Finnish). The number of fandoms featured on the archive is ever increasing as fanfictions hosted on other sites looking to relocate are welcome to transfer to the archive for the purposes of preservation and much more. Navigating this web of fandoms ranging from Harry Potter to Hamilton to Pixar’s Cars and back may sound daunting, however the categorization of works on the archive uncomplicates the complicated. In all honesty, the search function on Ao3 could wipe the floor with the Helsinki University Library’s online HELKA search function. Slam dunk. Check mate. ‘Oh’.
The archive has been commended for their extensive tagging system—no I’m not talking about graffiti—which allows for fanfic authors to explicitly tag the relative content of their works in such a way that they can be filtered by readers with ease. This pertains to tags that focus on genres, pairings, themes, plot points, characters, triggering content, and ratings. Much like other media content, works on the archive are rated in terms of age appropriateness and their intended audiences. While this is all very much an honor code-based practice, the archive does have moderators who address any tagging and rating related violations as they arise.
It should be mentioned that not all fanfiction is appropriate for all audiences. There has been increasing discussion within the transformative works and fanfiction communities about the types of works that are hosted on Ao3, and the crux of the matter appears to come down to who fandom spaces belong to. Because fanfiction nowadays is an inherently online phenomenon, it is accessible to everyone who has a device with which to connect to the internet. This includes minors, who belong to fandoms just as adults do. While there are original works that are clearly targeted towards certain age demographics (i.e., Teletubbies for kiddos and gruesome horror for more mature readers) there are a lot of works that appeal to all ages, one such example is the Harry Potter series. In some cases, the fandoms for these types of works churn out transformative works that deal with a wide range of topics and scenarios, which could result in unintended exposure to mature themes for younger fandom members. I think we can all agree that youngest Harry Potter fans do not need to be reading about Harry and Draco’s dungeon adventures.
There have been arguments demanding that Ao3 remove or sensor content that is not suitable for all users. This essentially puts the responsibility over the internet consumption of minors on people who are in no way, shape, or form responsible for them. However, Ao3 has maintained the position that it supports works that do not violate its community guidelines even if they contain explicit content matter or discuss possibly painful topics. Thanks to their comprehensive filtering system, users can exclude content matter that they find offensive, inappropriate, or otherwise unwanted. This, however, requires active agency on their part. Thus, Ao3 remains open to fans of all age wanting to engage with fanfiction, while still actively facilitating a platform in which ‘what you see is what you get’. In other words, if you end up reading a story in which Winnie the Pooh does lines of cocaine with Bernie Sanders in a Starbucks bathroom in Reno, chances are, you searched for it in the first place. Unless of course…you’re not too familiar with the lingo of tags and fall down the ‘I wonder what this means’ rabbit hole.
4. Fanlore Wiki
The OTW has set up a Wiki dedicated especially for documenting and preserving fandom culture and the development and history of transformative fanworks. This Wiki is known as Fanlore and it’s been around ever since 2008. Fanlore is open for fans to document their experiences, point of views, knowledge, and fandom related information in articles, which aim to provide a well-rounded view of transformative works and the community around them from multiple perspectives. While Fanlore is an invaluable project of preserving and documenting living history as it pertains to fanworks, it is also a handy resource for those newly acquainted with fanfiction as the site provides glossaries for fanfiction related jargon, explanations of tags, tropes, and genres. So, if you ever find yourself wondering what things such as ‘cross-overs’, ‘OFC’, or ‘OTP’ mean, Fanlore is your friend.
Thanks to Fanlore being open to edits, the Wiki aims to chronicle the experiences and existence of fanworks and fandom culture as it is compiled into creation by the contributions of varying community members. This ensures that the spirit of ‘by fans for fans’ remains in the documentation and understanding of transformative works and fandoms.
5. Open doors and Transformative Works and cultures
The OTW has a project called ‘Open doors’, which hosts all kinds of fandom content that is at risk of disappearing whether it be into the vague bit-space cemetery of digital content or succumbing to the ravishment of time. Open doors hosts and preserves fan content online, though focusing more of formats that cannot be yet held in Ao3 or Fanlore: fan art, video edits, multimedia projects, etc. The project has also partnered with the University of Iowa that has graciously provided holding space for hosting special fandom collections that are practically ancient a.k.a. not digital. Think, fan fiction written on paper and physical collages of fan casts. Now, I understand that this may sound a bit silly, but it’s not all so different from things like the Rock N’ Roll Hall of fame and the likes. I guess in this case it is simply the contribution of fans rather than the object of their admiration that is being preserved and recognized as valuable enough to document. Even with running the risk of sounding like a B-side Oscar acceptance speech tape, I think it is important to acknowledge the part fans play in popular culture and advancing creative content creation. If the existence of the transformative works and the blossoming community around them proves anything, it is that the passionate nature of dedicated fans can result in diverse expression that adds a whole new dimension to things we already know and love.
6. Fluffy Fiction to Scholarly Scribblings
As you may have noticed by the mention of things such as tags, pairings, crossovers, and other fancy fanfic lingo, the world of written transformative works has its quirks and an informative but unique vocabulary. Ask any avid fanfiction reader what the most typical way to describe any given character’s eyes is, and you’d get nine out of ten answering with a similar phrase. The same would go for dialogue related actions. There’s a lot of leaning against various things, mostly doorways…even in rooms that have no open doorways. You could give them this line of what to the undiscerning eye might look like a coded cipher—Mr. Darcy/Tinky Winky, Teletubbies/Pride and prejudice crossover, AU, AH, Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to lovers, Slow Burn, Mr. Darcy Needs a Hug, Tinky Winky Needs a Hug, idiots in love, HEA— and they would instantly know what kind of story said line is describing. There are tropes within genres and tags that seem like gibberish to the naked eye, but to those who speak the language, a brief description of a story is enough to convey what feelings to expect as a result. This system of summarising the features of any given work is effective for describing content from sugary sweetness to discerning discombobulation and beyond. All this brings me to the final aspect I’d like to discuss in the context of transformative works.
It would be pretty out of order for an English students’ webzine to fail to mention Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), the international and peer-reviewed online journal that the OTW publishes as a space to encourage the scholarly approach to transformative works and fandom culture. In addition to the historical aspects of transformative works and the exploration of the culture surrounding the community, there is merit—beyond the obvious enjoyment of consuming fanfiction for pure pleasure—in delving into the textual intricacies within the genre. If you think about it, transformative works provide so much potential nuanced material to the study of language and popular culture despite the general view on things like fanfiction typically centring around the whole shebang being waved off as nothing more than a cute, if not cringy, hobby. Personally, I think that those who hold this view must be avid fans of plain unsliced bread. Yet with the work and aims set by the OTW, perhaps all hope is not lost. After all, most creative works draw influence form their predecessors—hell, I’m beginning to wonder whether a thing such as a truly original idea even exists at this point of humanity—so, who’s to say fanfiction and other transformative works should be treated as a pejorative category of creative expression. So, if you’re an English student who appreciates their bread sliced, toasted, and piled with toppings and you find yourself looking for a BA or MA topic to pour your life and soul into, perhaps considering transformative works could prove a fruitful option? If nothing else, I dare say exploring fanfiction will certainly not leave you bored.
