More than a million stories have been published internationally to date, all of which is done with the help of countless dedicated fans. This is a vastly growing genre is called fan faction.  Fan fiction is a fictional story based on a particular book series, celebrity, TV series, or movie and written by a fan instead of the original creator.

Fan fiction has given fans of particular series an opportunity to introduce their own plots and take their interest in a specific subject to the next level.

The popularity of fan fiction has become more widespread within the last decade because of the internet. When fan fiction expanded virtually websites sites such as Fanfiction.net, ASOS.com, and Wattpad.com have allowed writers to share their literary work with larger audiences.

Junior Daniel Buchanan is an avid reader of fan fiction and cites fan fiction as another way to expand his interest in anime.

“I read fan fiction because it’s interesting to see what alternate story lines other people come up with. ” Buchanan said.  “It’s interesting to read a story that goes further beyond what was originally published.”

Although their popularity may be primarily online, there have been several fan fiction authors who haven’t limited their writing to just the fan fiction community.

Meg Cabot, bestselling author of The Princess Diaries, began her writing career with publishing her own “Star Wars” fan fiction.  Cassandra Clare, the author of The Mortal Instruments is another author who used fan fiction as a forum to share her early writing.

Within the fan fiction genre lies many different categories. There is alternate universe, also known as AU, which is a type of fan fiction that takes place where the setting is changed. Crossover is when two or more fictional characters from two stories are collided. Another is type is cannon which is one of the more common types. Cannon is the continuation of the original story.

From Lord of The Rings to One Direction, there is a fan fiction for almost every medium. Whether you are interested in expanding your interest in a series or you enjoy writing; fan fiction may be something you want to try.