fan fiction

Noun

fan fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fan fictions)

1. (uncountable) Fiction, typically amateur, created by fans, incorporating the characters and concepts of a commercial media property, typically without permission from the author or owner.
   • In the latest issue of Astounding, our old pal and brother-fan, Milt Rothman makes his professional debut under the pen name: Lee Gregor. And Milt is to be congratulated on the story.... it is definitely pro and not fan fiction.1939 August 19, Arthur Wilson "Bob" Tucker, “Archived copy”, in Le Zombie, number 11, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016, page 2
   • I also want to put in my two-cents-worth on the subject of fan fiction. There has been a strong trend away from fiction in fanzines of late: SPACEWARP stopped using fan fiction shortly before the end; ORB followed suit; WYLIE STAR will switch; most of the new mags are starting out with non-fiction...1950 December, R. J. Banks, “Slurp!”, in Quandry 5, number 5, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2013, pages 8–9

   Synonyms:

   fanfic

2. (countable) A work of fan fiction.
   • This can be, as you note below, quite fun and entertaining, but I do think that it is very easy for people to lose track of the fact that all of these "speculations" are just fan fictions that have little to do with what Tolkien actually wrote.1993 August 2, James Alexander Chokey, “Re: Ents, trees, and all that”, in rec.arts.books.tolkien (Usenet), message-ID <1993Aug2.035026.1049@leland.Stanford.EDU>
   • An otherwise strong site is marred by some trashy material. Skip the many bad ER fan fictions here and take the rumors section with a huge grain of salt.1998, Sam Keenleyside, “Nothing But Net”, in Bedside Manners: George Clooney and ER, →ISBN, page 109
3. (dated, slang, uncountable) Fiction about fans and fandom created by members of fandom.
   • fan fiction - Sometimes improperly used to mean fan science fiction, that is, ordinary fantasy published in a fan magazine. Properly, the term means fiction about fans, or something about pros, and occasionally bringing in some famous characters stf stories. It may refer to real fans by name...1944, John Bristol Speer, Fancyclopedia, Fan fiction
   • Triode specialized in humorous ‘fan fiction’—stories written about actual personalities in the SF field—and dates from the period in which science fiction fans did not take themselves quite so seriously as nowadays, and those who made religion from an enthusiasm were generally mocked for it.1984, Michael Moorcock, “Introduction”, in Elric at the End of Time, page 11

   Synonyms:

   faan fiction