People have different reasons for wanting to read fanfiction, and might have different reasons for different fandoms. Personally, I have a lot of downtime at work, and they're fine with me browsing the net on my phone, so I read lots to fill time until I get to leave. But when I first started reading fanfiction, it was because I couldn't wait for the next book to come out, and had already re-read everything I could.

So how much of the canonical series/setting do you tend to read, watch, or play through before jumping into fanfiction?

Personally, I find it varies, quite considerably. I'm currently mostly binge reading MHA and RWBY fics. For MHA, I actually got into the fandom before going through canon (although I'm a filthy degenerate, and watch the anime rather than reading the manga), and then I watched all three current seasons before reading more. On the other hand, I'm only up to V1c14 of RWBY, but I'd vaguely done wikiwalks before starting, and had long ago bookmarked it as something to watch when I had some spare time.

I often tend to pick up new series through a crossover - if an author I like is doing a HP/Worm/Pokemon crossover with something I've heard of, and I like the story; then I'll go and check out the other half of the cross. That's partly why I started with RWBY - having picked up the 40K crossover where Yang joins the Imperial Guard, but felt I didn't know enough to keep going.

However, I also pick some fanfic up when I'm completely unfamiliar with the base story (Trans-Dim got me into both Oregairu and DanMachi, Lamarckian into MHA; some weird one-shot with a weird name got me into Peaky Blinders) if it's a well-liked/reviewed story here or on SB/SV, or if I otherwise like the author's other writing. I've found that if it's an author I otherwise like, I can normally trust that their story will have similar themes to canon, and I can see whether it's something I'd like before trying to get into canon.


So, thoughts? Is it mad to read fanfiction of series I've not actually finished, or is this something you do too, to test the waters?

 

I find it extremely difficult to read FF of a book or series that I haven't already read or watched. To the point where it's almost a knee jerk reaction.

Plot sounds good? Really high ratings? Doesn't matter. If I don't know the series it takes an awful lot to make me read a fic.

 

Mostly, I've only read fanfic for things I'm already at least somewhat familiar with, for a bunch of reasons: I don't want to be spoiled for something I'm interested in but haven't got round to; most fanfic writers probably aren't going to do the best job of explaining the thing I'm not familiar with, especially in a dedicated fic but even in crossovers; they just don't appear on my radar when I do look for new fics, because why would I look in, say, the Fullmetal Alchemist section on ff.net or AO3 when I haven't watched it yet? Back in the day, when Shezza's Denarian series was still being written, I avoided it until I'd read at least the first five Dresden books.

There are some exceptions, but they're mostly things like the few Kingdom Hearts fics I read at uni despite never having played any of either Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, but I read the fics because my best friend was writing them, or BTT's current Sherlock/Persona crossover, where I read the initial post in the Drabble thread and went on to check out the full story; I've read a bit of the Holmes canon, and never played Persona at all, but the writing is strong enough, and the unfamiliar aspects explained clearly enough, that I wanted to keep reading.

Something similar happened with Supergirl, which is my main fandom at the moment. I hadn't seen the show at all, but I got reading some fanfic which I really enjoyed - I think someone I follow on tumblr shared an extract which intrigued me, and I just carried on hopping from fic to fic, and now I'm two seasons into the show and writing my own stuff for it. That does highlight another issue I have with reading fic for things I'm not familiar with though, which is not knowing when something is bad fanon or not - that's enough of a problem with Potter, of course, but imagine my surprise when I got to the second series of the show and discovered that the borderline abusive Mon-El of so many fics is actually just a bit of a thoughtless jerk, and even that only for half the season at most.

 

For me I generally keep to properties that I know. However crossovers are generally fine and I’ll happily wander into things I don’t know if I am familiar with one half of it. In some excellent crossovers I may end up reading more fics in the fandom I don’t know which is how I became familiar with FoZ and with various DC stuff.

It’s rare however that I’ll click on a fandom that I don’t know well, by itself.

What’d I’d be curious about is: do you guys/gals have a different threshold for writing in a fandom?

Personally, I know LOTR, GoT, Star Wars and various others pretty well. But I’d never feel that I knew enough about all the stuff out there that I could write for them. I have to feel I know a fandom inside and out to try and write anything decent in it and that limits me to pretty much HP and Worm. It’s a very different threshold to the one I use for reading a fandom. Is it the same for you?

 

I tend to read or watch the source material before getting into fanfiction, but there are always exceptions. More nowadays than I did before. It usually happens with newer anime that I haven't watched.

I've never read Worm, or My Hero Academia, or watched RWBY, but I've read dozens of crossover fics of those.

I almost never read a pure fic of a series I haven't read or watched, though. It's happened if I read enough crossovers to feel like I've got a good handle on the verse, though, like happened with RWBY. Crossovers are an easy bridge to get into new stuff. Mostly through an author's other fics, or favorite list. Nowadays, I still read as much fanfiction as never, but much less original works, so it just tends to happen.

 

I've read hundreds of worm fics and worm crossovers fics without ever having read the source material.

It really depends on if I was interested in the source material before reading the fanfiction, but not knowing the canon has never been the reason for me not reading a fic.

I don't think I've actually ever delved into the source of a fanfic because of the fanfic however.

 

As far as I recall, the only time I've read fanfiction without being familiar with its canon was The Monomythical Adventures of Regina Mills and Emma Swan. The title made me curious and the reviews made me go for it. Then I binge-watched the entire show which was interesting to see how the actual characters on the show contrasted with the image I built up from the stories.

Any other time, I wouldn't touch the fanfiction if I haven't read/watched/played the source material.

 

I honestly don't think I've ever read a fanfiction for a fandom that I'm not quite familiar with. The only I can remember was Shezza's Denarian Renegade series, but I started the Dresden Files before I even finished that fanfic.

 

I'm perfectly happy going into a fanfic totally blind on canon, it's actually a big part of how I find new work to read/watch/etc. Something gets recc'd, or the title intrigues me, or whatever, and if I end up liking it, I'll generally go look for the source material. It's how I found out about Worm, MHA, the Dresden Files, and probably a dozen other things I'm spacing on.

That said, I don't generally seek out fics from fandoms I'm not already familiar with. It's gotta be recced here, or the title catches my eye on SB, etc, etc.

 

I only look for fanfiction of things that I'm already familiar with. The only times I've read things that I didn't know was because I particularly liked the writer.

 

I have yet to play a single Danganronpa game and get I know a lot of characters fairly well. Thanks FFN.

Fanfic also got me into many anime, including several of my favorite shows. I don't really think completing canon is necessary to enter the fandom.

 

I don't think I've ever read a fanfic for something I'm not already familiar with. Some of the answers here make me curious though. Are there any HP/Something crossovers that serve as good introductions to different fandoms?

That's a broad question, I know. I don't mean the best fics. I mean crossover starter fics for the uninitiated.

 

Browncoat Green Eyes by Nonjon got me into Firefly
Retsu's Folly by Nuhuh got me to give Bleach a once over.

That's kind of an odd question. Just go browse crossovers and give them a chance even if you don't know the material. It's mostly just about open mindedness more than specific qualities that you can look for. Being willing to browse a wiki while reading can also help.

More broadly, if an author I enjoy reading writes in a fandom I am unfamiliar with I will probably give it a shot. Shezza is the only reason I got into Naruto for example.

 

I don't mind reading fics from fandoms I don't know, only the quality matters and how readable it is. If a fic starts with a premise that you need to have watched/read in the fandom before then I'll probably drop it if it isn't very interesting. That's also why I don't really mind canon rehashes for fics in unknown fandoms though I hate them when I do know the source material.

All fics should have a bit of set up and allow the reader to sort of understand where it's coming from, so I have quite a lot of fics that I never bothered to read the source of after like https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6942921/1/He-Who-Fights-Monsters (very good fic, wasn't interested in reading the canon un-subverted take)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10282151/1/The-Hematic (this makes me want to read Silmarillion so thats on my list)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6361176/1/Other-Gods (Havent read much of lovecrafts work besides some short stories so thats on my list though I watched Coraline ofc)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5124106/1/Polarity (Haven't read much comics, still enjoyed and understood this/just wiki-walked a bit)

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3117926/1/The-Life-Times-of-a-Imaginary-Friend (Very nostalgic like oneshot, I did watch the show as a kid but it wasn't really necessary to know to understand the show)

 

To answer the question: it varies wildly between whether I consume the original content first or run into the fandom first.

It's more my practice to see really good fan art of something and then read/watch it. When I was getting paid to draw things, I got paid to draw a lot of media I hadn't interacted with before. I quit pretty early on once people started pigeon-holing me into mass commissions (asking for 10-20 cheap sketches of one character instead of buying a higher quality commissions) and I got tired of drawing Sakura Haruno over and over (I hadn't watched more than two episodes at that point). The second best way to sucker me in is a good meme/photoset.

Writing/reading wise, I had to pull up my AO3 for some quick stats, but the majority of things I've bookmarked I've watched/read canon before reading. There's a significant number (>30%) where I read fic before I started: Star Trek, Supernatural (only to season 5), The Walking Dead, etc. That said, my biggest contribution to any fandom was written before I'd watched the show. It was a gift to a friend and is probably my most consistently popular work even five years later. Honestly, I think it worked as well as it did because it was a fresh take on characters that had been hashed and rehashed in fan fiction before. At some point, it became a lot easier to write for something I had never seen before. That said, I'm kind of a deadbeat parent when it comes to my unfinished works (I think I've done one update a year on one of them), so the not interacting with the original media is probably not a great thing for my productivity.

 

Regarding reading fics cold, there are some fandoms where you easily can, and some which are much harder. Harry Potter is an example of a tough one. When I was 10 or so, I remember specifically looking up what the largest fandom was. I'd never read the HP series before, and the fanfics were all going over my head. Aurors, legilimency, death eaters-- there's quite a lot that the fandom kinda requires you to know at a baseline before you can really delve in. Conversely, fandoms which take place in the "real world" are easier to consume without having read the source material, e.g. Sherlock, Twilight, Criminal Minds, whatever.

I don't feel a pressing need to look up the source material for a fandom unless 1) there are a lot of great stories but I have absolutely no idea what's going on (Harry Potter) 2) I want to write for the fandom myself. And if I want to do that, I'll read everything there is. I've had a few ideas for Worm over the years but haven't followed through because I haven't finished the web serial.

It's kind of funny-- there's this one case where I was reading a really great fic from a smaller fandom, decided to watch the source material, and realized the fic was a total canon rehash. That soured the tv show for me a bit because it felt as if I'd already seen it.

I don't read many crossovers. I usually find new fandoms by looking through the Bookmarks/Favorites list of an author I really like, and stumbling across a compelling summary.