FanFiction.Net
Wandering around the net, I found this web page - FanFiction.Net (http://www.fanfiction.net/).
I found it a little difficult to find what I wanted, at first, but if you're just looking for fanfics, it's great. (I, on the other hand, was looking for a way to submit my fanfics.)
The directory of fanfics is easy to use... just pick the topic that interests you, and drill down to your favourite show or movie. The main directories include:
As you can see, it's a broad range.
They even have a little survey - as of this review, the survey asks about the ages of the FanFiction.Net users, and these are the results:
6% 40+ years old
6% 30 - 39 years old
17% 20 - 29 years old
68% 10 - 19 years old
2% less than 10 years old
There are columns, too, which I haven't gone into much. If you want to be a columnist, select the columnist at the top of each page.
What I was looking for, though, was how to submit fanfics. This, I discovered after a little bit of playing around, was as simple as selecting the authors tab at the top of each page!
Once you've filled in the appropriate details for your profile, it's quite simple to add your fanfics - on the menu on the left, pick Upload Fic! Just remember to make sure that all of your fanfics are saved on your hard drive (not on the web) because this site doesn't allow uploads from a web page. I had to copy all of my 'fics to my PC before putting them on the site.
But the effort of downloading and saving the files, then uploading them to FanFiction.Net was worth it!
When looking at my statistics, I can see, in real time, how many hits my fanfics have had!
(Just remember that hits are the amount of times your story has been read... NOT the amount of people who have looked at your site. If one person looked at your 'fic twice, you'll get 2. If you, yourself, look at your 'fic, that will count as a hit.)
You can also see the reviews that you have been given by your readers. This is e-mailed to you, as well as being listed on the site. This has been one of my favourite features - I love hearing what people think about my fanfics!!
For fanfic authors (and people thinking about becoming authors), there is the writers university! I'll leave it up to them to describe this section of FanFiction.Net:
Hello and welcome to FanFiction.net Writers University. It was created to provide a resource for writers and readers seeking more information on fan fiction's history, terminology and culture. Writers University was created to help facilitate discussion of fan fiction and to provide information for authors to help their writing.
Other features of FanFiction.Net are their Just In (new fanfics list), Forum (discussion area), Directory (list of authors - I'm there under Kunoichi), Links (to fanfic related web sites), Help Desk (FAQs and help) and Black List (list of plagiarists/thieves).
If you don't know where to start, or what to read, every time you go to a new page, there is a random fic generated for you, at the top of the page!
I have found a few problems (for instance, when I do a search, I can't find my name or the fanfics that I submitted a number of days ago) but it's a generally a very good site, and I highly recommend it.
FanFiction.Net can be found at http://www.fanfiction.net/.
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PS - One favour I do ask, please e-mail your comments about the articles to kunoichi@thekeep.org because it's your comments that keep me writing! Oh, and can you check out my other articles?
I've added a new search function to make it easier for you to find information in my articles!
© Caroline Seawright 2000