Link Highlight: FanFic

Off on the right side of the main page you may have noticed some links. I've decided to explain why those particular links are there, one per post.

Today, appropriately enough, I'll talk about the "Harry Potter FanFic by Gridley" link.

FanFic, or fan fiction, are stories written in another author's universe, often but not always involving their characters. Typically the borrowed universe is that of a professional (i.e. published in book form) author, while the fan fic is done by an amateur and published on the web for free, but this is not always the case.

The Web being what it is, most fanfic isn't worth the time it takes to find it, much less read it. Some authors object to fanfic, since they feel it violates their intellectual property. Others have adopted a "what I don't know won't hurt me" view.

Some, a rare few, have said it is OK as long as the fanfic isn't making any money, pretending to be the real author, or getting into things the author doesn't want associated with their characters (sex, gratuitous violence, etc.). JK Rowling is, luckily for us, in the latter catagory.

Harry Potter fanfic exploded on the web after the first few books came out. Dozens of websites appeared that were devoted to fanfic, generally along with a discussion bboard for the series, and maybe a gallery of fan art. Some of these sites decided that they would require authors to have editors, also amateur members of the site. These editors are often known as "beta readers" or "betas." Simply having that "first pass" quality control check greatly improved the average quality of the work on those sites, and the phenomenon spread.

I first came across Harry Potter FanFic shortly after Goblet of Fire (book) came out. Within months I was checking multiple sites on a daily basis. In the "two year summer" I read hundreds of stories. Perhaps it is their fault that I began to ask that most treacherous question in FanFic: what if?

What if... someone like Harry had existed, but had been prevented from recieving their Hogwarts letter? Such a person would have the potential to be a wizard. What if... they then had an accidental encounter with the magical world as an adult?
What if... Wormtail still had a chance for redemption?
What if... some of the Muggle borns among the wizarding world tried to apply muggle technology to the fight against Voldemort?
What if... just as a magical field can prevent electronics from working, and Chizpurfles (Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, page 7) can 'eat' electricity in place of magic, a strong electrical field could disrupt a weaker magical one?

Shortly before Order of the Phoenix came out, these What Ifs converged on my brain and totally inhibited any other useful thoughts. In a desparate attempt to continue with my life, beginning June 5th, 2003 I wrote out over 10,000 words of fanfic (telling no one else what I was doing) in under a week. I set those words in Harry's SIXTH year, based on a number of explicit and implicit assumptions about what would happen in his FIFTH. In an effort to keep the Plot Bunnies (as they are often known) at bay, I promised that if my assumptions were correct, I'd clean it up, finish it, and apply to one of the beta'd fanfic sites for publication. I selected Gryffindor Tower, one of the sites I liked the best. The story was called "Harry Potter and the Grand Alliance."

OotP came out June 21st, 2003. I was stunned. Only ONE WORD of those over 10,000 needed to be changed to align my story with the published universe. Specifically, I in one place changed "Sirius" to "Moody."

As I began to flesh out my story, however, Gryffindor Tower fell apart, the victim of infighting among the site staff.

I thought I was off the hook, but then Sugar Quill posted a challenge, and the most determined plot bunny yet sank its fangs into my neck. On July 16th, 2003 I started writing "The Making of a Wand." I submitted it, not to Sugar Quill, but to the semi-sucessor to Gryffindor Tower, PhoenixSong.net. Somewhat to my surprise, I was accepted. On October 12th, 2003 I became a web-published author. Two days later, the prologue to Harry Potter and the Grand Alliance went up.

Twenty months and over 80,000 words (for comparison, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was about 77,000) later, I published the last chapter of what had become a trilogy (Harry Potter and the Grand Alliance, HP and the Bond, HP and the Price of Freedom).

And that is how it happened.