"2020 was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, an uptick in police brutality against the Black Lives Matter movement, the Australian bushfires, and more. People need ways to cope with these traumatic events, especially as they continue to work or go to school. Fanfiction has risen admirably to fill that need."
- Zoe Jung, 10th Grade
The past year and a half has been very stressful for many people in the United States. When the shelter in place orders started in March, 2020, the country entered a state of uncertainty that is still ongoing despite the return to in-person interaction. 2020 was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, an uptick in police brutality against the Black Lives Matter movement, the Australian bushfires, and more. People need ways to cope with these traumatic events, especially as they continue to work or go to school. Fanfiction has risen admirably to fill that need.
Coping mechanisms are ways in which people try to deal with stress. The three generally agreed-upon main types are problem-based, emotion-based, and avoidance-based coping. Problem-based coping tries to affect the stressor, like putting on noise-canceling headphones in a loud room. Emotion-based coping tries to change your emotional response to the stressor, like when you try to find the positive side of a situation, while avoidance coping tries to avoid the stressor entirely with distractions or diversions. Problem-based coping is usually the most helpful in reducing stress long-term. However, it can have the opposite effect if the stressor is chronic or completely outside of your control. In that case, it’s best to not think about it.
Fanfiction works very well as a method of escapism, or avoidance. As the name suggests, it’s fiction written by fans about other pieces of media. One reason fanfiction makes such a good coping mechanism in times of stress is the predictability and familiarity of it. Lots of us have comfort shows that we rewatch episodes of, or favorite books that we read multiple times. Fanfiction is like that, but it also allows us to read new stories using characters and worlds we’ve already bonded with. An article on The Washington Post states that “a large portion of the cognitive load is already done before you even start reading”.
One of the most popular sites for reading fanfiction in the U.S. is Archive of Our Own. Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a fan-started, fan-run nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving fanworks. AO3 has an extensive tagging system for sorting fanfics by their content—authors tag their works to give readers a sense of what’s going to be in the fic so they know what to expect, and can avoid content that they don’t feel like reading. This reduces anxiety about possible triggers or unwanted plot twists.
The tagging system can also be used to search for a specific type of fanfic, whether it focuses on certain characters or uses a specific trope. Tags for tropes like found family or coffeeshop AU will bring up a wide selection of similar fanfics. Fanfics tend to focus on interpersonal or intrapersonal relationships and are written to evoke emotional reactions, whether sadness, glee, or embarrassment. Common tropes become that way because a lot of people like them and the emotional experience they bring. Like a microcosm of the whole fanfiction experience, searching for a specific trope can give you different stories with different takes on a concept using the same basic structure if that’s what you’re in the mood for.
One more important difference between fanfiction and other media is the community aspect of it. Fanfiction is a community experience, made to be shared and talked about. All of the most popular fanfiction sites in the U.S. have ways for writers and readers to communicate directly with each other. Archive of Our Own has its kudos and comment sections for readers to compliment and speak to authors and each other and engage with the work instead of just consuming it. And in a time when even speaking to other people is dangerous, a sense of community is vital.
During the three days of ballot counting after the 2020 presidential election, I read fanfiction obsessively: fix-it fics, fluff, the tag everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. Fix-its are fics that take events like character deaths in media and write it as if they never happened, and fluff is just pure happiness. There’s an array of feel-good fics and tropes to be found on AO3, to make the world a little better when everything seems uncertain. As the times stay trying, fanfiction will still be here for us.
Works Cited:
Coping mechanisms are ways in which people try to deal with stress. The three generally agreed-upon main types are problem-based, emotion-based, and avoidance-based coping. Problem-based coping tries to affect the stressor, like putting on noise-canceling headphones in a loud room. Emotion-based coping tries to change your emotional response to the stressor, like when you try to find the positive side of a situation, while avoidance coping tries to avoid the stressor entirely with distractions or diversions. Problem-based coping is usually the most helpful in reducing stress long-term. However, it can have the opposite effect if the stressor is chronic or completely outside of your control. In that case, it’s best to not think about it.
Fanfiction works very well as a method of escapism, or avoidance. As the name suggests, it’s fiction written by fans about other pieces of media. One reason fanfiction makes such a good coping mechanism in times of stress is the predictability and familiarity of it. Lots of us have comfort shows that we rewatch episodes of, or favorite books that we read multiple times. Fanfiction is like that, but it also allows us to read new stories using characters and worlds we’ve already bonded with. An article on The Washington Post states that “a large portion of the cognitive load is already done before you even start reading”.
One of the most popular sites for reading fanfiction in the U.S. is Archive of Our Own. Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a fan-started, fan-run nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving fanworks. AO3 has an extensive tagging system for sorting fanfics by their content—authors tag their works to give readers a sense of what’s going to be in the fic so they know what to expect, and can avoid content that they don’t feel like reading. This reduces anxiety about possible triggers or unwanted plot twists.
The tagging system can also be used to search for a specific type of fanfic, whether it focuses on certain characters or uses a specific trope. Tags for tropes like found family or coffeeshop AU will bring up a wide selection of similar fanfics. Fanfics tend to focus on interpersonal or intrapersonal relationships and are written to evoke emotional reactions, whether sadness, glee, or embarrassment. Common tropes become that way because a lot of people like them and the emotional experience they bring. Like a microcosm of the whole fanfiction experience, searching for a specific trope can give you different stories with different takes on a concept using the same basic structure if that’s what you’re in the mood for.
One more important difference between fanfiction and other media is the community aspect of it. Fanfiction is a community experience, made to be shared and talked about. All of the most popular fanfiction sites in the U.S. have ways for writers and readers to communicate directly with each other. Archive of Our Own has its kudos and comment sections for readers to compliment and speak to authors and each other and engage with the work instead of just consuming it. And in a time when even speaking to other people is dangerous, a sense of community is vital.
During the three days of ballot counting after the 2020 presidential election, I read fanfiction obsessively: fix-it fics, fluff, the tag everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. Fix-its are fics that take events like character deaths in media and write it as if they never happened, and fluff is just pure happiness. There’s an array of feel-good fics and tropes to be found on AO3, to make the world a little better when everything seems uncertain. As the times stay trying, fanfiction will still be here for us.
Works Cited:
- Archive of Our Own
- Demerouti, Evangelia. “Strategies used by individuals to prevent burnout.” Wiley Online Library, 6 July 2015
- Wendell, Sarah. “For a lot of book lovers, rereading old favorites is the only reading they can manage at the moment.” Washington Post, 2 May 2020
