What is Fan Fiction?  Would you believe it all started with Star Trek?

Fan Fiction (fanfiction, fanfic, or FF) is a term for stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the work’s original author*. In our case those works would be Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, or Midnight Sun, along with a few outtakes on Stephanie Meyer’s web site. (*Taken from Wikipedia’s detailed article on Fan Fiction, it’s origins and many other aspects of the genre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction)

There are a lot of acronyms or unfamiliar terms. What do they mean?

1. FF – short for fan fiction

2. Beta-Someone who proofreads a story. They may also advise the author on changes to make it better, etc.

3. In Cannon – Everything in it matches with the world and rules of that world as established by the original author, in our case Stephanie Meyers. Non-cannon is therefor, not in the cannon of the author’s original story.

4. Pre-Twilight – This refers to the time period before the beginning of the first book, Twilight.

5. Post BD – Refers to stories that take place after the conclusion of Breaking Dawn.

6. AU – Altered Universe.  Something is changed from the universe defined in the Twilight series. For instance, Renee and Charlie are still married.

7. OOC – Out Of Character – Something in the character of the people in the story is different from the original books. For example, Edward may be abusive, or Carlise evil.
8. POV -  Point of view, who is telling the story

9.  Angst – A story that makes you feel anxious or afraid for the character.

10.  Fluff – Light-hearted romance , happy stories with no angst!

11. Lemons/limes. Lemons -explicit sex stories. Limes have sexual themes but is not necessarily explicit.

12. A/N  -  Author’s notes, asides posted by the author.

13. One-shot- A short story with no chapters.

14. Ships – Short for “relationships”, For example e/b means Edward and Bella, an in-cannon “ship”, while the “ship” e/a means Edward and Alice, a non-cannon relationship.  A popular non-canon “ship” is that of Jacob and Leah.  That pairing has come to be known as “Blackwater.”

15. Slash – Refers to homosexual encounters in the story.

16. What is a “unicorn”?  Please see the definition here.

17. Who writes FF?  Anyone can. Check out CBA’s Things of Interest to FF Writers forum for help.

We have some great interviews with some of the top Twilight FF authors if you’d like to learn more click HERE.

What about legal issues?

Here are two great articles addressing that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/faq.cgi

Where do you find FF stories?

There are many, many sites that contain Fan Fiction. Here at Cullen Boys Anonymous we have our own Fan Fiction area in our forum, called Fan Fiction Addiction, click here to view it. One of the  biggest FF sites is  FanFiction.Net. According to the Encyclopedia Britanica, FanFiction.Net has 1.2 million authors and readers monthly. Twilight-related stories are the 4th largest group there with over  108,000 stories.

For the Twilight world exclusively, a few of the many sites include :

Cullen Boys Anonymous
Simply Twilight
Twilighted
Twilight Fan Center
Twilight Archives

How do I know if it is appropriate for my age?

Fan fiction is generally rated by the author. The most common rating system and the one we use at CBA, can be seen here

How Do I know if it is any good?

Well, that’s where we come in. In general, reading FF is kind of hit and miss. You can hit some really bad ones and you miss some really good ones if you go it on your own.

Here at CBA, at least one and generally two of our specialists read every story and determine if it is up to our standards before we recommend it to you. Of course that doesn’t mean you will love all of our choices because everyone has different tastes, but it sure helps a lot!

I base my choices on the following :

• First the story must be completed.
• Generally, I look for stories greater than 10,000 words. Some times we pick shorter one-shots for a variety or reasons, including time constraints and quality of the work.
• Grammatical Errors- If they drive me nuts, I won’t pick it. That does not mean there won’t be any grammar problems at all.
• I don’t pick slash.
• I won’t pick non-cannon Cullen family couples, unless there is a great reason and I generally don’t like Jake and Bella stories.
• I have to really like the story and the writing style.

PM’s “Must Read” Story Recommendations:

Blind
Retrograde
Spiral Static
If Every Word I Said Could Make You Laugh
Green, Red, and Gold
Parenting Skills 101
Boycotts and Barflies*
The “Fairytale” Series (The Fairytale Continues, My First Year as A Cullen,Year Two of Forever)
You”ve Kept Me Waiting It’s BACK!!!!

Really Good but Really M rated:

Teenage Angst Brigade
Generosity of Artemis
Mutually Assured Destruction
Behind Enemy Lines
Wide Awake
Ladders
Scotch, Gin, and the New Girl (Great Jasper)

*There are soooo many all human ones I like, I don’t know which to pick!

Check out our Fan Fiction Addiction Forum for MUCH, MUCH more FF fun!