ficbinding archive: a project
one of my long-term, ongoing obsessions is the iteration between traditionally published romance and fanfiction; the ways they intersect, the ways that fic writers are influenced by romance novels which are in turn influenced by fic writers who are pulled for publishing. of course the major example of this was fifty shades of grey, which was independently published and then picked up by a big publisher–but other writers of that era, too, were pulled from the AO3, including christina lauren, rebekah weatherspoon, sally thorne, etc.
we’re on the precipice (or in the middle of?) another big pull from the archive for published works, with something like thirteen reylo fics being published in the past few years–beginning, obviously, with ali hazelwood–and several big-name dramione fics coming our way in 2025. with that in mind, i wanted to go back and preserve the “original” texts as best i could–the chapter notes, the fan art, the AO3 stats.
i’m including in this project–or will be, as i continue to slog forward–several fics that aren’t strictly pull-to-publish, such as twilight fics from sally thorne or RPF from casey mcquiston. i’m also looking at tradpub with an eye toward certain titles that seem obviously influenced by fandom (looking at you, well met) and works that have fandom influence from BNF fandom people (naomi novik, an original founder of the AO3).
jayne ann krentz says that ‘genre carries the myth’ and i think that’s possibly never been more true as our 'genre’ gets flattened into broader and broader fics and those are what then get pushed into the mainstream. as we stand on the precipice of ongoing unprecedented times, what myths are we carrying forward?
the endless appetite for fanfiction
the bodies of the girls who made me: fanfic and the modern world
fanbinding as a method of fan work preservation
fated mates: christina lauren on fanfiction and romance (blissward is how it should be)
how fanfiction improves writing
