How many of your real life friends and family know that you read fanfiction?

For me, the answer is one, and that's an ex-girlfriend from several years ago. (No, it's not the reason she's an ex). It's always felt like something of a secret - not shameful, but still an indulgence that would be embarrassing if everyone knew about it. I was studying 'serious' literature when I discovered Harry Potter fanfiction in 2008, and I would have cut off a limb before I admitted to my friends that I read it, let alone wrote it.

My family knows that I write a lot, and I always tell them I'm working on original fiction. This happens to be true, but 90% of the time I'm really screwing around with fanfiction.

What about everybody else?

 

My elder brother reads my work. A few of my friends have read it, but that follows the trend of being big readers. I really don't make any great secret of it. I can commiserate about my ex reading it, and let's say that I would hope that's not the reason she's my ex.

 

I used to put all the fanfic I downloaded in a subfolder of a folder named "porn" which was a system file. I figured that if my parents ever got that far, they'd think I was watching porn before they thought I was reading fanfic.
At this point however, I just don't care, and as it turns out, though apprehensive about the, uh, "seedier parts" (their words not mine) of fanfiction, they don't care.
I have a mate from school that also reads fanfiction. When asked, I say I read and write it, and most people don't seem to care. In fact, I submitted a one-shot as part of a writing portfolio.
Although, the less said about the great "Dobby/Hagrid lemon dramatic readaloud" incident in form class, the better.

 

I, for one, would like to hear about the time you read a Dobby/Hagrid lemon aloud in class.

 

Worse, they know I helped define a whole genre of it.

 

My school used a system of vertical forms, whereby a few students (around five or so) from each year level were in your form class. Now, I had earlier that month decided to move my "fucks given about people knowing I read fanfiction" operation to mars, as that planet is extraordinarily fertile. So, some seniors learned that I read fanfiction. (NZ seniors, not american seniors). So, they decided to give that "Dobby/Hagrid'' smut a dramatic reading.

I don't know what fic it was, but if you said "but dobby stretches sir" for the next year the entire class would crack up with laughter. Also, "chocolate starfish".

Damn, that was three years ago now that I actually think of it. When we went on school camp about a month later, we had a doc ranger come over and talk about how 1080 was bringing back the morning chorus [from birds and wildlife]. That night me and my cabin decided to sing a rather profane version of the school song at the top of our lungs at 3am. Form teacher comes out to breathe us, and as he leaves, one of us just whispers: "but Dobby thought gov’nah sah wanted to heer the morn’n chorus sah?” Teacher went absolutely red in the face at that.

Heck, even now, three years later "dobby stretches" is a year group in-joke.

 

Enembee's old sig comes to mind lol.

My wife, an ex, and two of my closest friends. All women. Only one who ever reads any of my work is my wife, who occasionally proofreads my stuff.

She found out when I introduced her to my best friend from high school who thought it was a good idea to drop the fact that I'm a relatively well known Naruto writer into casual conversation over lunch. Was about to strangle her until my wife said she read fanfiction all the time. she then spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out who I was on FFN before I finally caved and sent her my profile.

 

I have a few friends who are aware I read and write fanfiction, not necessarily my best friends but the friends who are more likely to appreciate it.

Not that I really care but it just seems like an awful lot of effort to explain the intricacies and depth of Susan Bones to my mates who prefer talking about football.

 

I don't really make any kind of secret of it, but just as I don't bother going into much depth about my programming hobby with people who have no idea about programming, or my gaming hobby with people who have no interest in gaming, it's not something I bring up with everyone. Some people know about it, others just know that I spend quite a bit of timing writing, and with others the topic has simply never really come up.

It's not really anything shameful, the way I see it, and if someone in real-life ever decided to take a look into my online presence, it would be fairly easy to find. Of course, there's the constant questions of 'why don't you write something you can actually sell?' but that's really just par for the course. Pretty much anyone who gets to be passable at a hobby gets those questions. I have friends who are decent golfers, and they get asked if they've ever considered trying to go pro, and friends who are very accomplished bakers who get asked if they've ever thought of making it a business. I don't see it as people looking down on fanfiction.

 

My friends know, but probably not to the extent. If someone asked them to guess how many fics I’d read they might say three or four when the reality is three or four thousand. It’s not that I’m trying to hide it but it’s not their thing (afaik) and they don’t ask about it.

 

I don't keep my fanfic reading a secret, as such, but I don't blurt it out the first time I talk with someone.

To be honest, I don't think most of my friends read much - some browse comics, some flick through lifestyle magazines, but that's about it, as far as I know. I'm not saying they can't read, but they tend to game/DJ/paint/TV as leisure, rather than read.

When it first came out that I was reading fanfiction, my reasoning of "don't you ever just fall completely in love with a setting, so much that you want to read it again almost immediately?" was pretty quickly turned into a sex joke. But because it's something we don't really share, we don't tend to discuss it much, so it doesn't come up.

My brother, on the other hand, is always shooting me recs for timefillers, and shower-thought questions.

 

Up until this summer I could have said none, however, because of a few quirks in my writing I was recently 'found out' by a friend who unbeknownst to me is a massive fanfic reader. She told a couple of mutual friends and I was hoping to get to have an actual conversation about the two longer plotty fics I've written, maybe told to update the one that's still in process, but instead they were much more eager to discuss the one-shots of mostly slash porn that I've also written. It is a truly awkward feeling to have one of your best, completely platonic, friends tell you that she got off a few days ago reading something I've written.

 

If it comes up on conversation or is relevant then I'll discuss it with just about anyone, but I don't go out of my way to bring it up. I've a handful of friends who know I'm more than just your casual fan of Harry Potter, but again I don't go out of my way to bring it up.

 

I make no secret that I read fanfiction, but since nobody else I know does so it's not a topic that comes up in conversation. My brother knows for sure that I do since I have several times answered his "what you up to?" questions with "reading fanfics". A former colleague of mine knows too; she spent most of her adolescence writing original stuff and asked if I ever tried writing, to which I responded that I tried and failed several times to write fanfiction, but my writing ability is quite poor so I gave up and stuck to reading.

 

Some of my closest friends do, and I've co-written a couple of stories with one of them. Another group of friends might be about to find out, as we're all in a book club together, and I might just snap and tell them that the cheesy Christmas romance they've chosen for this month is worse than a lot of fanfiction I've read, but we'll see how that goes. My family...might do? I can't really remember, to be honest; I feel like I've mentioned it to them in the past, but whether they remember or not is another matter. Basically, I'm happy to share it with people who I know will be interested, or at least not actively against it, but I wouldn't talk about it with some people in the same way that I wouldn't talk about video games with non-gamers.

I will say though, the only people who've ever been even slightly critical of me for reading/writing fanfic (other than people on here who think I've recommended or written something bad lol) have been members of the writing group that I'm in, who seem to view it as a bit of a waste of time at best.

 

My brother, an ex close friend and an ex friend from high school, I only told the latter because she was into really trash fanfiction herself and so I felt no shame xD.
More seriously I'm not particularly ashamed about reading FF, it just doesn't come up in conversations and if it does idk how I would go about explaining why I do read it.
Pretty interesting thread, seems I'm not in the minority on this.

 

My beta is one of my oldest friends, and he isn't afraid to share his opinions if he thinks I wrote something bad. My family has all read the HP books but they aren't interested in fanfiction. I have actually mentioned it to people but only when they've already expressed significant fandom in HP -- I ask "have you read fanfiction?" and if they have, then I can bring up I've written it. But in general I think that it's not quite the same stigma as it was say, ten years ago or so.

 

Two of my friends know: both girls. One of them is a fellow fanfiction affectionado, and the other is an ex.