When my daughter was six she read the wonderfully funny Moin and the Monster series by Anushka Ravishankar. She wrote to the author asking her to write another book in the series, and saying, “If you don’t write it, I will.” She even proceeded to give her the plot of the book. She received a very sweet response from the author, but that’s not the point of this article. When I mentioned to my friend that my daughter had more or less threatened an author to “write the third book or else”, my friend said, “Oh, your daughter’s already writing fan fiction!”
That was the first time I heard that term. Fan fiction is fiction or stories written by a fan of a book/movie/series featuring the same settings and characters as the original. Writing fan fiction is hugely popular. There are entire communities online dedicated to fan fiction. Stories are read, written, and critiqued on these forums.
Of course, all this work cannot be published formally. It is just for fun. But I’m sure you can see the appeal. Maybe you’ve been unhappy with the ending of a book and wished to rewrite it. Or maybe you loved a book series so much that you really don’t want to tear yourself away from that world. Maybe you don’t think the story has enough characters like you, or that it does not deal with certain issues important to you. So create all that yourself!
Writing fan fiction has a lot of potential when it comes to kids.
Creative writing: Not all kids like to write. But fan fiction can take away the pressure to create new characters and settings. Children will be able to start with something familiar and focus on plot or technique or other writing skills. Reluctant kids could be more willing to try fan fiction. In fact, many authors got their start from writing fan fiction!
What-if scenarios: They make for great creative writing prompts. “What if Hermione hadn’t been Harry Potter’s friend?” or “What if Alice hadn’t drunk the “Drink Me” potion in Wonderland?”
Fun and bonding: My daughter and her friend wrote fanfiction which consisted of the characters from Harry Potter taking part in the Hunger Games — so it was a mashup of both worlds. They spent hours planning and writing it and had a whole lot of fun with it.
Different perspectives: If children write fan fiction in a class/group/book club setting, they will be able to read each other’s work and see how their friends respond to the same prompt. It could be an excellent education on perspectives.
A note of warning though. If your child is deeply into fan fiction, at some point, they’ll end up on a fan fiction forum online. But many of these have age limits, as some of the content there can be mature, even if the stories being written are based on children’s literature or young adult books. So please do take care!
The author has written 14 books for children and can be reached at www.shruthi-rao.com
GobbledyBook is a fortnightly column that gives a peek into the wondrous world of children’s books. Hop on! Or as Alice did, plunge into the rabbit hole.