In the modern world today, everything that a person needs to know is on the Internet. Our global society is influenced by it, and everyone who comes in contact with the giant entity that is the Internet comes away with something. Ideas and information flow freely from site to site.
If something becomes popular in an Internet community, it can be rapidly transmitted through various sites that can be accessed around the world. Many things that are popular online are popular because they have been copied and mimicked so many times, that most everyone is aware of them, such as Internet memes. Then, there is something like fan fiction, which uses the Internet as a place to share and read and thus enhances its popularity.
The genre of fan fiction is quite popular on the Internet, and could not have been disseminated so widely without being online first. Fan fiction, as defined on Wikipedia is “a fiction, [that is] both related to its subject's canonical fictional universe and simultaneously existing outside the canon of that universe.” A fan fiction is a work that borrows the ideas of an original author, like J.K Rowling, and creates a new story. While most of these stories contain original characters or settings, the plot, or problems the main characters must work through are different, depending on the ideas of the fan fiction author. However, not all of these fan fictions contain ideas that the original author, or canon author, have used.
Original character fan fictions, or OC fan fiction as it is labeled on popular sites like Fanfiction.net, are fan fictions that contains the addition of a new character that is not featured in the canon author’s work. An example is the introduction of Krista, a muggle girl that works together with Sirius Black, into the world of Harry Potter. In OC fan fictions, the story’s focus is shifted to this new character, and no longer focuses on the canon story’s main character, in this case, Harry Potter. These OC characters, like Krista, are attributed to the fan fiction author’s imagination and are wholly of their own creation. Despite this fact, many of these OC characters are eerily similar, so much so that they have their own title in the fan fiction community, Mary Sues.
Mary Sues, and their less seen male counterparts Gary Stus, can be defined many ways. Wikipedia defines these characters as “a fictional character that is portrayed in an idealized way and lacks noteworthy flaws,". One writer, TA Maxwell, writes in their fan fiction, The Official Mary Sue Manual "Simply, a Mary Sue, or for the male population “Marty Stu, is a representation of either the writer or the person the writer would most like to be. They are referred to as “perfect” characters," (1). However, another view states that Mary Sues are simply a way to rewrite a canonical to "better represent oneself," (Chander and Sunder 598). Through all of these definitions, there is one constant. The Mary Sue is representative of something the writer desires, whether to better represent themselves in a text they admire, or to create and empower a character to a high degree.
However, the amount of perfection these Mary Sues contain has led many fan fiction readers to avoid stories that contain OC characters in them, simply because they are so unrealistic. Despite this, OC fan fictions are still very popular, and many people acclaim the new additions to the original canon story. OC fan fiction is a genre of fan fiction that is written for either personal or creative reasons and seeks recognition from their fan fiction community, and not the canon community, although it does further the canon community through the Internet.
One question that often arises about OC fan fiction is why these authors do not simply write their own stories, instead of remixing or transforming the work of another, with the addition of their own character. There are many reasons, and many of them come from the needs of the individual writers themselves. Some prefer to write OC fan fiction because it is easier for them to work with a character that is their own. Others prefer to start out in a canon world with their OC character, because it is familiar to them, and they do not have to concentrate on creating a whole new world. Some writer’s of OC fan fiction find it more creative than regular fan fiction that follows canon characters. And finally, there are some authors who use OC fan fiction as practice, before they begin to work on their own original stories, (Mibba forums). These are all creative reasons as to why some write fan fiction. There are other, more personal reasons why some write OC fan fiction.
OC fan fictions that stem from more personal reasons usually contain self insertion. The idea of self insertion is that an author puts themselves into the character. This is a case of write what you know, but often it goes further than this.
While self insertion can sometimes mean that an author inserts some of their self into their character, OC fan fictions use self insertion as the premise for an author to completely submerge themselves in their new character, and make them the vehicle for their desires. The author and the new character are one and the same, and the author, as Barthes states, never “dies” or becomes something that we ourselves, as the readers, can imagine. We already know who this author is. Not every OC story has self insertion, but the ones that do can often contain the Mary Sue character.
The Mary Sue character stems from an author’s desire of that character. “The author of a Mary Sue Adventure operates on the simple principle of wanting to be liked, thus he or she makes their character likable,” (Self Insertion And Mary Sues). But, besides this, the author can also endow their character with other traits. Some notable Mary Sue characteristics are extreme beauty and physical attractiveness, several otherworldly or unusual powers, having skill levels that were attained without training or hard work, or an extreme amount of perfection. Some Mary Sue characters contain no flaws.
While these Mary Sues do not contain self insertion in that way per se, they are the ultimate vision of the author. This can be illustrated best in the fan fiction, My Immortal. This fan fiction is very strongly labled a self insertion OC tale by the fan fiction community because of the author’s blatant use of her own personal hobbies and fascinations, and the fact that she inserts her friend as a character into it. Not only this, but the author uses her story to act out what she wishes she could do in the Harry Potter universe. What the author longs or hopes to be is what the character, and the story, eventually becomes.
This can sometimes lead to an alienation of the reader. “Unfortunately that runs against the readers' fundamental wishes. The readers don't want a character they can like, they want a character they can identify with,” (Self Insertion and Mary Sues). Essentially, OC fan fictions that contain self insertion are more about pleasing the author than the fan fiction community, though the author does want recognition for their character.
Recognition is a large part of the fan fiction community, and it is a way for fan fiction authors to gain the feedback and positive reviews from people that enjoy their writing. This is in direct contrast to wanting any sort of recognition from the canon community. The canon community, for the purposes of this paper, consists of the original author of a work, for example J.K Rowling, and anyone else who would credit recognition to an author of a novel or other such work, like publishing companies.
A fan fiction writer, especially an OC fan fiction writer, will never gain any sort of recognition from the canon community. Recognition from the canon community might be considered being published, or receiving money for a story written. Fan fiction writers are still taking an element from the canon author and remixing it to their liking. Even though an OC writer has created something original, they are still borrowing the story from the canon author. However, this sort of recognition is not what fan fiction writers are looking for when they post their stories to Fanfiction.net or other popular websites.
The fan fiction community is huge. There are thousands upon thousands of stories online, written by fan fiction authors who want the recognition of the community they belong to. Whether it is constructive criticism on writing techniques, or simply a gushing paragraph of praise, fan fiction authors enjoy reviews from other authors, readers and general fans of whatever canon subject they have chosen to write about. OC fan fiction is no different from regular fan fiction in this regard.
Authors of OC fan fiction are sometimes avoided because there may be a potential Mary Sue character in their work. But, for every person that avoids them, there are at least two more people who enjoy the idea of a new character being introduced into their favorite canon story. OC fan fiction authors want recognition just as any other fan fiction authors do. Not only do they want recognition, but OC fan fiction authors want others to see how much they enjoy the subject that they are writing about. OC fan fiction authors, despite the fact they have added something wholly new, further the popularity of the canon work that they love.
People who love fan fiction, and those who author it, do not read and write fan fictions to change the original work, or to somehow gain money from their labor. The main reason that most people pen fan fiction is to share their own interpretation of it, or to explore the “what ifs” of a tale. Thus, even if a canon story is deemed completed by its original author, it continues to grow and evolve online, in the form of fan fiction. Even if the addition of a new character, in the case of OC fan fictions, radically changes the canon, it is still another way for a fan to enjoy their favorite tale.
Fan fiction keeps stories alive and changing. Constantly remixing canon works may change them in essence, but it never really detracts from the canon. The canon story, like Harry Potter, will always exist. Remixing it and adding new characters to it only gives a reader a new way to look at their favorite story. OC fan fictions sometimes are looked at in a negative light because of Mary Sues, or self insertion, but they are important to the fan fiction community. The authors that write OC fan fiction are doing what everyone else in the community does. They are taking something that they are a fan of, adding a character of their own design, and making the canon their own in some small way.