[ SECRET POST #5930 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5930 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Will be missing a Friday post this week (traveling!). Just a heads up!

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #850.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[feotakahari]

Profic isn’t the opposite of fanfic. If you put your original books up for free on your website, that isn’t profic either.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, historically, that's the original use of fanfiction - "putting your original books up for free on your website" is the modern equivalent of how the word was originally used

Fanfiction being transformative fiction based on existing works is a later development

[(Anonymous)]

If it originally meant just original stories, then where did the fan part come from? I thought the fan referred to writing about things you're a fan of?

[(Anonymous)]

Originally "fanfiction" was fiction that was written by amateur writers, and published for free in amateur fan publications.

So, if you were a science fiction fan, and you wrote your original science fiction story and sent it to your friend who published it in a science fiction fanzine, that was fanfiction. If you wrote your original science fiction story and you sent it to a prozine that published it for money, that would be profiction.

[(Anonymous)]

I’d love to see sources on this because frankly your claims are literally unbelievable.

[(Anonymous)]

Fancyclopedia - makes it clear that fanfiction was either original fiction published in fanzines, or original fiction about fandom, but in either case, not adapted fiction from existing properties:
https://fancyclopedia.org/Fan_Fiction

Psychotic 2-4 (August-October 1953, #3 - page 25 and following; #4 - page 31 and following; #5 - page 32 and following) - series of letters and articles from Larry Balint and Terry Carr discussing fan fiction, making it clear that the distinguishing quality of fan fiction for them is the fact that it isn't published in pro magazines; absolutely nothing that would indicate it was fiction based on existing media properties
https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/SF_Review/SF_Review102.pdf
https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/SF_Review/SF_Review103.pdf
https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/SF_Review/SF_Review104.pdf

Yandro 77 (June 1959, page 8) - mention of "mostly average fan fiction, except for one story that I've read previously in a promag" in a fanzine review, making it clear that "fan fiction" means "distinct from pro fiction":
https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Yandro/Yandro77.pdf

And you can go look up the stories that they're talking about if you want. Or go look up the fiction that was published in science fiction fanzines of that era generally. Almost none of it is based on existing media franchises. These are examples picked completely at random.

[(Anonymous)]

That's interesting. Do you have sources?

[(Anonymous)]

https://fancyclopedia.org/Fan_Fiction

actually, this distinguishes a *third* category, IE, fannish fiction, fiction *about* fandom.

but if you go back and read anything fannish from before 1970 or so, it's just really clear that people mostly use 'fan fiction' to refer to original fiction published in fanzines, and that fiction based on established media properties really wasn't a common thing at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Huh, interesting. I was wondering where the "fan" came in, since with fanfic as a transformative work, "fan" signals the author is a fan of the established media they are writing about. I didn't think about how if you are an SF&F fan in general, you are definitely a fan and part of fandom, and if you write an original story and put it in a fanzine rather than getting it accepted by a magazine or publishing house, then I see how what you have is "fanfiction." I guess I was also thinking about amateur/self-published writing in general, not specifically SF&F, and didn't think it was likely that "fanfiction" was the term for all such writing (and that does not appear to be the case).

[(Anonymous)]

Wait, then what is it? I'm a little confused by the secret combined with this comment...

[(Anonymous)]

"Profic" by definition is professional, so it would be written for money.

Original fiction that you post for free isn't professional, by definition.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Ah, ok. I was thinking of like, published authors who occasionally had the ebook of one of their books for free on their site or something like that, not just a random person who wrote stories and put them online.

[(Anonymous)]

Tons of writers get published without getting paid. The “payment” is that they’re published.

All of this seems to be very specific to randos posting on the internet vs novel authors and doesn’t seem to take into account the absolutely staggering variety of writers in between.