Fan fiction stories, more commonly known as “fanfic,” have helped fans reimagine some of the most popular stories of the 21st century.

“There is a magic in being able to rewrite a world the way you see fit,” said Maya Roman, a DePaul alum and veteran fan fiction writer. “Sometimes you do want to be able to step in and see what it would be like being in there, and writing fan fiction gives you the opportunity to do that.”

Before becoming an internet mainstay, fanfic began in convention centers and on mailing lists. For the dedicated, these fictional side stories represented a way to consistently escape to the worlds they fell in love with in the original works.

These pieces aren’t simply rewrites of the originals. Instead, fanfic is tailored to fit a new story of the author’s design. Side stories are waiting to be written in worlds like “Star Trek” or “Game of Thrones.” They can range from shorter “one shot” stories to chapters-long fictions, some with word counts in the hundreds of thousands.

Pandora’s Box has been opened, letting out Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk romance, Ned Stark taking the Iron Throne, and Chewbacca wielding a lightsaber. Fan fiction is a way to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Fans have shown their unfiltered creativity through cult classic stories like “Lumos” and “Manacled,” based on “Harry Potter,” which both emphasize romantic storylines. “Shipping,” or creating romantic relationships between preestablished characters, was first coined for an “X-Files” fanfic.

“If somebody sees an arm touch or a little glance in the original media, they’re going to take that little two-second clip and draw it out for a 50,000-word fan fiction, which is beautiful,” said Edward Ambrose, a senior in The Theatre School. “I love that so much. And if you have those, please send them to me.”

Fanfic communities also give a space to young people unsure of their identity, who seek comfort in their favorite worlds surrounded by likeminded people. Roman said these spaces are important for representation.

“There is a lot of media that is put out into the world … through the heterosexual cis male gaze,” Roman said. “And that means a lot of people aren’t given the opportunity to see themselves reflected or represented within the media.”

Samantha Close, an associate professor of media and popular culture at DePaul, believes that fanfic fiction is one of the best ways for female-dominated romance stories to break into the mainstream.

“Anything associated with femininity, and especially teenage girls, tends to be devalued in our society because of patriarchy,” Close said. “You see that a lot with fan fiction, which is heavily associated with teenage girls.”

Stories form connections between writers and appreciators, even going on to make successful franchises themselves. These include fanfics like “Fifty Shades of Gray,” an sexually explicit fanfic runoff of the popular “Twilight” book series. The popularity of the book turned it into a three-movie Oscar-nominated series.

Websites like Tumblr, Wattpad and Archive of Our Own (AO3) have troves of fanfic. Sites like AO3 operate with a tag filter system, a way to find personalized stories based on material, franchise, characters or authors. Finding stories is now easier than ever.

Frontrunner site AO3 is in especially high demand, even being run by volunteers with a passion for art over profits. The backing of hundreds of thousands of fans across nearly 20 years allowed the website to officially launch on April 2, 2026.

No matter the quality of the writing or the richness of the story, fictional adventures of drama and romance give fans even more of a reason to love creative properties.

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