Anindya Nahar Habib

Fan fiction is fiction written by fans basing on characters or setting from an original work. Mostly a non profitable source of enjoyment of venturing an fictional universe made by fans for the fans.
Even though fan fiction gained high exposure after the easy access of internet this concept was well alive in the world of start-trek fans in the 60s. then fanfictions were published in fanzines. Whereas now the internet made self-publishing easier; this is where every fanfic writer’s and reader’s savior Fanfiction.net comes in, the first not profitable website to host fan written fictions. Following their footsteps many other websites came to meet the thirst of many readers.
Fan fictions are not just bound to the internet and fanzines these works of literature do get a more traditional recognition. Like E.L. James’s series “Fifty shades of grey”, “Fifty shades darker” and “Fifty shades freed”. This series was based on Stephenie Meyer’s series twilight. Though the author changed the character names to avoid copyright infringement, her series gained just as much fame as the original work. Just like this another fan fiction “After” written by Anna Todd, which is based on the lives of the band members of One Direction landed a movie deal with renamed characters.
Fan fiction starts from where the original work ends. Originals works sometimes have some lacking in portraying the whole situation, or that is how the author wants this work to be represented. From need to have a proper satisfying end or just from the hunger for more of that fictional universe fan fiction is born. In some stories the fanfic author takes the characters and creates their own universe. And it some it is set in the same canonical fictional universe with the same set of characters expect now they have changed the dynamics of those character’s relationships.
The best place to discover fan fictions currently is tumblr.com. Any fictional character’s dynamic that is imaginable, tumblr has it. Other than that tumblr there are more websites solely dedicated to fan fictions and fan works. One of these is “Archive Of Our Own” or better known as AO3, this website is currently the treasure chest of all fan fictions.  Its design and text layout made it more popular than the first fanfiction hosting website.  Additional to these websites there is also Wattpad, Quotev, FicWad, Live Journal and many more. Just a Google search with the word fan fiction can create a way to a whole new side of literature.
Fan fiction writers are just as good as any writers, though the elite writers tend not to give credit saying this is plagiarism, where in the internet and to fanatics these writers are celebrated widely. Their followers are increasing day by day and Fanfiction is becoming another strong genre of its own.