...maybe a lot more than 20...

College is a time when many students avail themselves of opportunities to engage in activities they might not normally participate in. It’s easy to take some of these activities too far, and become addicted. In many cases, addiction is a serious problem and needs to be addressed as such by those affected. This isn’t one of those cases. Names have been changed to protect the addicted.

Hello, my name is __________, and I’m addicted to fan fiction.

Fan fiction is a covert addiction. The majority of college students may not even know that it exists, let alone it’s addictive nature. Fan fiction, as Wikipedia broadly defines it, “is simply unauthorized written work based on a published one.” Typically, fan fiction is written about current or popular books, movies, TV shows, or even video games. Some writers stay very true to the “canon” of the original work, which entails looking more deeply into certain events or character’s views of them. On the other hand, some authors can diverge greatly from the original work, picking and choosing certain characters or places and inserting them into completely different situations.
As an example, the Harry Potter fandom is one of the most prolific and varied at the moment, given the series’ worldwide popularity. The fandom, that is, any fan fic or art for the Harry Potter books or movies, includes everything from relationships between existing characters to stories about newly created characters. By far the most popular genre of fiction is romance, but just about every imaginable angle is covered.
The readers of fic are almost as varied as the stories. Although women make up the majority of fan fiction readers, they range in age from just old enough to use the internet freely to grandmothers. SpicyK, a long-time fan fiction reader, describes the addicts at a recent fan fiction convention she attended, “ I was surprised by the ages of the attendees. I was the youngest person there! One woman, a university professor, was over 60!”
“It gets bad sometimes. I can’t count the number of times I’ve showed up late for class after I needed to finish just one more chapter!” SpicyK, a long-time fan fiction reader and sometimes writer confides. “Just like with an exciting novel or movie, a well-written fan fic will draw you into it.”
Swanson, a long-time reader of all things fan fiction, spends roughly two hours a day reading fan fiction. When asked whether she has time for anything else, she confides, “I’ve skipped class like once, though fan fiction was more of a deciding factor than the only reason. Um…I’ve delayed hanging out with real people to read it.”
However, a typical college student, Swanson was quick to point out that she’s not technically blowing off real people to indulge her habit, since she lives with her room mate, who is also reading fan fiction. Her roommate, Dry_TINI, spends, “more than twenty…maybe a lot more than twenty…” hours a week reading fan fiction.
Dry_TINI, however, hasn’t skipped class to read: “However, I have skipped class to sleep, and I maybe needed more sleep because I’ve spent all night reading fan fiction.”
Like most addicts, readers rationalize their obsessions. When asked to explain her love, Swanson said, “It kind of has all the nice romantic punch of a romance novel, with emotional trauma and all that, but it’s shorter, there’s more sex scenes, and it’s more interesting.”
“That it’s …It’s like all the fun parts of a relationship, but I don’t have to do anything. If it ends good, if it ends bad, it has nothing to do with me or interacting with human beings. It’s like a book but more compelling because you know a lot about the characters and can picture them.” Dry_TINI clearly is experiencing some of the anti-social effects of addiction.
And it’s not just reading that’s the problem, writing fanfiction can also be a problem. A common term amongst the afflicted, “plot bunnies” are ideas for stories that come randomly and stalk a writer until they put a pen to paper.
“Writing fan fiction is like trying to navigate a maze. You have to navigate around the accepted universe and the characterizations in place in the original story, and make these characters jump through hoops that they normally wouldn’t.” SpicyK’s knowledge in this case comes from experience-she’s written over a dozen short fan fictions.
When asked if she was addicted, Swanson first denied it. “No, in the sense that I’m trying to find something to replace it. But I really don’t want to.”
Like most college-aged fan fiction readers, Swanson is female, walks around with dark circles around her eyes, and is hopelessly addicted to her fandoms: the Sentinel, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and Metal Gear Solid.
“It’s just too darn good, I just can’t quit. They’re just cute and fun. Sure, I guess I’m addicted. Why not?” Swanson finally decides.