Fanfiction is a genre of fiction that involves fans writing about their favorite fictional characters and settings from sources like novels, movies, or video games. The fanfiction (or “fanfic”) phenomenon has been around since the 1960s, but with the age of the Internet, fanfic writers have far more opportunity to share their work with other such writers.

The objectives of this 8-week class are to learn about the history, legality, and tropes of fanfiction AND become more confident in your own fanfic writing abilities!

Participants will:

Learn how to create your own source content. If you are a media consumer who has ever been dissatisfied with your source material, you can learn how to fix it up yourself and be your own content creator.
Improve your general writing skills, including the mechanics of writing dialogue, describing settings, developing characters, and telling a compelling story.
Gather tips on how to navigate archiveofourown.org in order to seek out the types of fanfiction you’d like to read and find inspiration for your writing.
Provide feedback to other students (but don’t worry, you don’t have to share your own writing with the class unless you choose to).

This class is ungraded and while your participation is strongly encouraged, the level at which you choose to engage is up to you.

Fanfiction is meant to be fun and this class will be, too!

Instructor: Janee Ronca

Details:

Age range: 13+

Outside Work: Each week you’ll be asked to read up on a new fanfic “trope” and participate in the group discussion about this trope. You are welcome and encouraged to submit your own fanfiction to be workshopped by the group, but this is not required.

When and where: Online (Canvas; no face-to-face meetings or video chats). Sept. 4 - Oct. 23, 2020, but participants are not required to be online at any specific time of day.

Fee: $100 for the semester, which includes a non-refundable registration fee of $10. Payment plans available. Fees waived for families with financial need. (Waivers and payment plan information.)

Photo credit: Martin Gajc