Yes that's right, I'm starting another open ended question thread, huzzah

I've been thinking about this for a while and I've noticed that fanfiction has been in pop culture a lot more than it used to be with references to it everywhere. The sheer amount of the stuff is growing and it is getting much more attention in the media than before.

I know a lot of you think that the HP Fandom is in its death throes.

But I personally think it's entering the prime of its life, the next few years will be the years where we see the best of hp fanfiction as the life long avid readers of both canon and fanon grow up and mature and the influx of retards slows as the movies finish (of course it won't stop entirely it probably never will).

I also think fanfiction will gain more recognition as a real hobby rather than a guilty pleasure as many still think of it.

Those are my thoughts on what will happen to fanfiction in the next few years without going into much detail.

What do you think will happen? Do you think Harry Potter is dying? Do you think fanfiction will gain more recognition? What do you think the fanfiction world will be like in a decade?

Fanfiction is a bit of a phenomenon actually in that it is based in the internet but because it can only grow as fast as it's demographic does it isn't nearly as explosive or short-lived as the rest of the internet is, just an interesting thought.

 

I started reading fanfiction near on a decade ago with Zelda and Evangelion. Each is still doing pretty decent with stories because new people come in. Even without a new Zelda game, a major one, for years. (Hell I'm still finding new fics about Oot.)

However, a lot of the old writers of those fandoms, some of my favorites, have long since put the pen down. A bare few are still writing in other fandems, but most have just drifted away. They still do pop-up in forums and check out new fics, though. What I'm trying to stay is that for a lot, writing fanfiction is just a phase some people go through. Those that stop their phase will be replaced by others going in with fresh ideas.

I've seen some fandoms die, and others still chug along. I think it's hard to lump it all together as it's based on a case-by-case basis. I've seen a dearth of good Eva fics over the years, be revived by a series of new and interesting ones. Same with Zelda.

So personally, if those two old fandoms are still going with not even a tenth of the following of HP, I think HP still has a decade of blood still in it. Also, from the history I've read here, people always complain about how the well as run dry year after year. Yet, still fics are produced that get people interested. NMB, Nuhuh, Voice of the Nephilum, are still producing great fics. Andro is also, though we await an update. Joe is still writing despite RL. Not to mention the fucking monthly contests here ensure I have something new to read every month. Someone actually bitched about a lack of quality fics a few weeks after the Time-Travel fics were unveiled. Seriously? So I don't think the HP fandom is dying, not by a long-shot.

As for fanfiction in general? I think it's a strong medium brought more to light and popularity thanks to HP fandom. I guess more mainstream is one way to put it. I think fanfiction has decades more life to it. It's just finding said fandom you want to read about. Despite my comment earlier, I think reading, and occasionally writing fanfiction, will continue to be a hobby of mine for years to come.

 

Where do you see fanfiction in pop culture? As far as I know, it's still a taboo socially worse than murdering a family of kittens.

 

The HP fandom will most likely diminish in the upcoming months after the final movie hits theaters, but the drop certainly won't be as severe as when the books ended. Potter is a worldwide phenomenon and it's going to be republished over and over and over. Bloomsbury is never going to let their baby stop bringing in cash and since Potter is the core of Fanfiction culture, I don't think fanfiction will be taking any substantial dives in popularity.

Fanfiction will never be socially mainstream. Being a 'fanatic' over anything is going to get you judgmental looks from people that aren't into what you're into no matter what. Take sports, for example. Watching Football is perfectly 'acceptable,' but being a fat, sweaty fuck that lives solely to cultivate one's Fantasy Football League isn't.

Basically, if you want to read and write fanfiction, then do it. It's a free fucking country. :awesome

 

I agree; at least in my city, fanfiction is the stuff of "weirdos".

However, I do remember one pop-culture reference to ff. That's about it. In TBBT, Sheldon makes Penny reenact with him parts from his Star Trek fanfic. Penny plays Spock and Sheldon plays the mother of the self-insert character.

On the topic, fanfiction will last for at least another decade. As iLost mentioned, if the Evangelion fandom has last this long, HP surely has a better chance. At any rate, I highly suspect that JKR will release extra HP material in the upcoming years. Even stuff unrelated to Pottermore.

 

In the future, fanfiction and fanart will combine, allowing for a better masturbation sesh when reading lemons and PWP.

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Actually, I'd think fanfiction popularity grows upon the end of the series, as the avid readers will still want more, but the original source is probably not going to deliver soon.

This demand for more has been anticipated and will be met by pottermore, but I do believe a few people will find their demands met by fanfiction. Both will serve to keep interest in the brand, allowing for a longer lifetime.

 

It already exists - it's called fancomics.

 

The other side to this is that people will grow out of it.

While HP (and to some extent fanfic) is supposedly for 'everyone', people do grow out of things they liked when they were younger. That and the writers with real talent, and the time to throw at it, have treated it or will begin to treat it as a hobby, which sees less attention as they write more original work.

jbern springs to mind, and Joe to some extent, but there are others (including myself, though I don't quite hold myself in the same regard). I've always treated it as a stolen audience, almost a captive audience, for my work, and there's far more ego than talent driving it because that's roughly the sum of what you get in return. While HP fanfiction isn't going to die a death - people still play pokémon, which never ceases to amaze me - a good chunk of the fandom will progress onto the 'next HP', which will inevitably be the only new kids' franchise not heralded as 'the next HP', and whether that has fanfiction or some other communal firing range for an overabundance of juvenile creativity remains to be seen... either way, between that and the gradual progression of the older authors into original work or a daily grind, the fandom will dwindle.

As iLost rightly said, for many it's a phase, though I disagree that it's going to maintain its calibre if not its quantity. While the monthly contests seem to have been a shot of adrenaline for the community at least if not the fandom as a whole, as more writers step away the quality of fics will decline as well.

...methinks.

 

You are about to open up a can of worms, motherfucker. DLP Fantasy Football League - and not that candy-ass soccer shit, neither...

/awaits apocolyptic rage-storm from DLP's many soccer fans

I agree about many of the more talented fanfic writers using this as a way to hone their skills and cut their teeth in the difficult task of finding their voice.

JBern is only one of many (well, maybe not "many" but there are more than a couple, right?) who've made the move from fanfiction to publishing original work.

I for one welcome that, although I do hate to lose those people as a source of quality HP stories.

 

I think fanfiction will probably continue to grow in popularity. However, as for recognition, probably not for reasons mentioned in above posts. In any case, as long as the books still exists and people are still reading it, I don't think the community will die. True, there won't be nearly as many people later on, but new avid readers that are itching for more will eventually stumble onto fanfiction, and continue/hopefully contribute to it.


Also, while we do lose quality writers as they begin their original work, new exceptional writers will hopefully come in eventually as well. This is a reason why I love this site, as it helps others to up the quality in their writing. As for what fanfiction will be in a decade, I honestly cannot imagine what more fans can do. The population may fluctuate, but I don't think much will change. One thought (potentially scary) is that maybe the population will be high enough that the authors or whatever the fanfic is based off of starts to recognize fanfics in public. If they advertise it more and encourage it, that could change the type of people that reads/write them. (Perhaps less fangirls looking for Draco/Harry slash to read and more intelligent people, although I won't hold any hopes for this).

 

It won't end. It might decrease in popularity from time to time, but then another generation of fan fiction writers will step in. There will be another author as successful as Rowling in the future, bringing with it millions fans who would then set up their own DLP.

 

I'd like to hope so... but then again The Potter Books were kind of a freak of nature in terms of popularity growth. As the books were carving a name into the best of children's literature, the internet itself was gaining momentum, allowing never before seen, lightning-fast, interconnectivity all over the world. That expansion of media made the fandom what it is.

I doubt we'll be seeing another sensation as big as Potter in our lifetimes.

 

Maybe not in your lifetime, but some of us around here plan to live forever, bitch.

OT: Fanfiction isn't going anywhere. It's been around for ages - centuries, really, depending on how you define it. The modern incarnation is at least as old as Star Trek, and gods know that won't die. The Internet just makes it more accessible, rather than having to mail away for it.

Will HP remain the largest fandom? For a while, I'd say. The end of the films will provide a spike - a spike of total shit, but a spike nonetheless - then it will continue for a while after that as it has for the last few years. It will eventually be replaced in terms of total amount written, and possibly quality, but it will never be forgotten, for, as you say, its rise and the rise fo the internet itself are intertwined, so anyone on Wiki will always know, and never forget.

 

Fanfiction is a phenomenon that dates back decades -if not centuries- and that will not go away as long as people are fascinated by fictional characters and environments, that is for the foreseeable future. I would guess that the fanfiction of the next decade will use the exponential growth and availability of computation power to branch out into other media formats, mainly movies and games, but the written word will not die out as main format for ff anytime soon.

 

I'd just like to point out that Twilight has achieved massive popularity and a very large fandom. Hell, their most popular fic had like 56k reviews before the author decided to take it down and repaint with OCs for publishing. Meanwhile we've got MoR with just under 13k reviews.

That said, I took a glance at the Twilight front page and the review density by both words and chapters is significantly lower than in HP. Make of that what you will.

Edit: the whole point of this post is to point out that it's possible and likely that a new series will capture a very large audience probably every 10 years or so. The quality might utter crap, like Twilight, or we might get lucky...

 

Or Doujins. Of course almost dominated by slash... or yaoi.

 

QFFT. Robin Hood, King Arthur, Beowulf? Fanfiction is hundreds of years old.

 

Yeah that's already happened... it's called Twilight. What that means for the future of fanfiction I leave for you to decide.