When The Fic Hits The Fan: The Good, The Bad And The Sexy Of Fan Fiction

If the namesake of Eminem's global hit single Stan hadn't overdosed on sleeping pills and driven his car off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend in the boot, where would we find him today? Would he still be the obsessive fan who became a trailblazer for a uniquely 21st-century mode of fandom? Would he have kept the same phone numbers and pagers in the hope that his idol might eventually make contact? Would his Anger Management tour T-shirt still fit him, and if not, would the exposed inches of his protruding beer-belly bother him? He'd be in his mid-to-late 30s by now, probably with at least two kids, both in their teens. The weathered, leaky tattoo of "SLIM" scrawled across his broad chest (maybe with a crude stick 'n' poke caricature of daughter 'Bonnie' over his heart), would be a familiar sight for his YouTube followers, streaming another of his barely coherent political rants. Stan's come a long way since the cassettes he once recorded for his 24/7 obsession. And yet, in more ways than he'd dare admit, he's exactly the same.

But if Stan was, in fact, looking up from hip hop hell, he might take some comfort in knowing his legacy has been immortalised in fandom vernacular. Interchangeable as a noun or a verb, "Stan" has become the shorthand for those who take their adoration past the point of reason, often considered a portmanteau to full-blown stalking. It can be a badge of honour, particularly when a fan wants to truly boast the depths of their unwavering commitment. It can also be flipped as a cuss, to shame the stans of daggy artists: "She is such a Ja Rule stan, it's embarrassing." (Of course, nobody deserves the ignominy that Ja Rule stans have endured in 2017, particularly after his involvement in the unmitigated dumpster-fire that was Fyre Festival. So let's go easy on them, if they still exist at all.)

If Stan was around today, I'd like to think his near-death episode jolted him into taking a less destructive path. He might have abandoned his damaging lifestyle choices, stopped cutting himself, started treating his girlfriend better. He might have even managed to stash away enough cash to afford a VIP meet and greet pass, allowing him to finally come face to face with the object of his fanaticism.

Backstage, deep within Comerica Park in Downtown Detroit, in a dimly lit locker room-cum-green room and flanked by security, nerves are getting the better of Stan as, at last, he approaches Eminem. Dazed by the hot fug of emotions swirling through his head, as if on a kind of involuntary auto-pilot, he goes in for a hug. Slim, startled but warmed by the embrace, signals the ol' 'circled thumb and forefinger' over Stan's shoulder to his bodyguard indicating all is fine. He shoos the heavies out of the room so he can have a long-awaited solitary moment with his #1 fan.

"Sorry. It's just that I'm s-s-so nervous to f-f-finally meet you," Stan stutters.

"Me too man, I've got the hometown crowd jitters myself," Slim responds, steadying Stan's clammy hands with his own. "Just breathe..." he whispers gently as he tilts Stan's chin up. The two pause, looking into each other, held in a perfect, unspoken moment of clarity. Without a word, Slim gently guides Stan's lips to his own...

Welcome to the fucked up world of erotic fan fiction.

This is but a taste of this bizarre literary genre, a universe of alternate endings, parallel worlds, one true pairings (or OTPs to those in the know) and endless, often sexually audacious possibilities. Fan fiction has been a storytelling outlet for longer than you might guess. Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Romeo And Juliet, might even be cited as a very early example, inspired by the Arthur Brooke play The Tragical History Of Romeus And Juliet, written some 40 years before The Bard's famous tale of woe.

While it's true that not all fan fiction authours are quite in Shakespeare's league, this model of hero worship was once considered an entirely legitimate form of expression. It seems sometime between the late 16th century and today, noses have been turned up to these adaptations, once deemed creative, now 'cringeworthy'.

Consequently, many pre-internet examples may be lost to landfills and dusty attics. But since the dawn of the digital age, thousands of budding fan fictioneers have flooded the internet with their various juicy odes to pop stars, boy bands, celebrities and socialites. The diversity of fans is reflected in the diversity of fan fiction available online, and most tastes are catered for in sites like archiveofourown.org and fanfiction.net. Real life A-listers, characters from TV shows, films, anime, manga, theatre and even video games are the subjects of fan-made fictions, both erotic and more wholesome.

But for too long these writers or "fan-fickers" have been getting a bum rap. To those on the outside of fervent fandom circles, they can be considered frighteningly obsessive, lacking in originality or just plain creepy. But more often than not, they are just misunderstood. There are, however, some heartening standard bearers for fickers done good. For example, erotic romance writer EL James, author of the Fifty Shades trilogy, who started out writing stories inspired by Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. James, listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2012, made her splash into the fanfic universe under the dubious pen name "Snowqueen's Icedragon", penning titillating erotica and self-publishing global bestseller Fifty Shades Of Grey as an e-book. The novel and its subsequent instalments were widely panned by critics, but while James may not need to clear her mantlepiece for a haul of literary awards anytime soon, she certainly isn't struggling to fill the space under her mattress with the earnings she has made from sales of over 125 million copies globally.

On the more intellectual end of the scale, there is Eliezer Yudkowsky's well-regarded fanfic opus Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality, which takes a far more cerebral approach to fan fiction. Yudkowsky favours the term 'parallel universe' to describe her work's connection to the original, using JK Rowling's beloved wizards to teach readers a lesson in cognitive thinking. The work imagines Harry to be brought up by Oxford University biochemist Michael Verres-Evans, who teaches Harry science-based learning before the youngster heads off to Hogwarts to develop his magical skills.

While we're on the topic, ever wondered what would have happened if Harry ended up with Hermione? You're not alone. So do many thousands of fans who have "shipped" the two — the term used when non-romantically linked characters are thrust into a tryst by their fickers. Also very popular in the fanfic world is the shipping of brothers Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural, a pastime known as 'Wincest fic'. Maybe your OTP (one true pairing, or your heart's most desired coupling of characters) could be Agents Mulder and Scully of The X-Files, otherwise known as "Sculder".

Is David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest just a casual Sunday read for you? Then The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest by AuraChannelerChris may be the fanfic you've been looking for. Coming in at over 4 million words and 220 chapters, the work is inspired by none other than Nintendo's Super Smash Bros (who knew Mario was a muse?). And in case you were wondering, that's almost eight times the size of Wallace's sprawling masterpiece.

But no crash course in fan fiction would be complete without addressing those truly top shelf delicacies. Strap in people, things are about to get straight up pornographic. Archive of Our Own (also known as AO3) has a *cough* leg over the very popular fanfiction.net, as it allows fans to post content as explicit as they dare, so long as it is clearly labelled. According to a statement issued by JK Rowling's publisher Christopher Little, she is flattered by the many thousands of fan fiction pieces scribed in her honour, but when it comes to explicitly filthy reimaginings of the boy wizard, she warns, "If young children were to stumble on Harry Potter in an X-rated story, that would be a problem." A sage warning, but it's done little to cool the passions of countless fan-fickers who have conjured stories about Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, and just about every other obscure witch, wizard, house elf and goblin in the canon, all stroking their wands and stirring their cauldrons to obscene levels. There's even a Potterotica podcast.

Another important sub-genre, Slash fiction — same-sex attraction in existing heterosexual characters (or 'femslash' for female to female) — has been considered important in shifting traditional narratives away from heteronormative relationships, and exploring romantic and sexual plotlines that would be immediately stifled in the mainstream. It's proven to be a form of therapy that's being increasingly recognised as an important outlet for those processing their own sexuality. Writers of slash story lines can delve into their own personal feelings of same-sex attraction anonymously online, helping develop their sexual or gender identity while expressing themselves creatively. So, whether it's a means of expression towards self-actualisation, an outlet for your latent thirstiness, or a means of earning millions of dollars, fan fiction is so much more than just the ramblings of superfans.

Meanwhile, in Detroit...

Slim opens the locker room door and walks out. He smooths a cap over his shaved head and removes the smirk from his face with a wipe of his hand. Without missing a beat, he marches over to his first position under the stage as the lights dim and the crowd roars.  The opening gong of Ass Like That rebounds around the field. He leaves Stan in the locker room under the stage. Still gasping for air, Stan is still in disbelief of what happened.

'Has Slim left already?'

He reclines on the sofa, hair tussled and a trail of sweat mapping the nape of his neck down to the keychain attached to the rear of his belt. Short of breath, he clutches the Anger Management tour T-shirt near his throat, heaves three times, then rips the shirt off and tosses it across the room, liberating his heaving, sweaty bust. Looking down, he is hypnotised by the letters rising and falling on his chest. He traces his wet fingertip along the letters. S-L-I-M...