CREATIVITY FOR THE LOVE OF IT, PART 2: FANWORKS by Max Jason Peterson

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

This is the second post in my series about art for art’s sake. Part One focuses on poetry. Today I’m going to talk about another form of creativity for the love of it that enriches my life: fanworks.

Fanworks are art forms dreamed up by fans for other fans to enjoy, sharing their love of the original creator’s characters and world. The fans who make them often introduce as many people as they can—friends, family, total strangers—to the original works that provide the foundation of their own. Though some people who create fanworks also have professional lives or ambitions as artists or writers, the majority are only interested in making art for their fandoms. Many are amazingly talented, designing things of great power and beauty. And the love shines through, touching other fans. There’s a great spirit of generosity and community here, which is important: for fanworks are paid only in appreciation and the joy of playing in a beloved universe.

Indeed, “joyful play” is the name of the game: this apt description for fanfiction comes from Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series of fantasy novels and cofounder of Archive of Our Own, a nonprofit and inclusive repository of fanworks that received a Hugo Award in 2019 for Best Related Work. A fanfic author herself, she’s among those interviewed for “The Boy Who Lived Forever,” an insightful article about fanfic by Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians series of fantasy novels—whose characters and world I celebrate in my own fanworks.

While fandoms are a modern phenomenon, in one form or another, fanfiction and fanart have had a place in our culture for ages. In many ways, folktales and folk ballads come from this same source of communal creativity; think about how many people from medieval times to the present have enjoyed spinning tales about King Arthur. (Lev Grossman himself has a highly anticipated Arthurian novel coming out on July 16, The Bright Sword.) Literary and artistic remixes include pastiche, parody, homage, ekphrasis, and other forms of interaction and commentary. (The list of works inspired by Sherlock Holmes includes my story “The Adventure of the Hidden Lane” [under former byline Lyn C. A. Gardner], anthologized in A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes.)

Fanfic and fanart may themselves generate fanworks; a favorite fic may inspire art or a podfic recording. There are fic gifted to other authors or inspired by other works, as well as deliberate collaborations between authors or with illustrators. Fanworks challenges invite interested authors and artists to contribute works on specific themes during a set time; some of these events pair artists and authors to create beautiful illustrated novels.

Fanworks are also part of the robust conversation among the fans. The most basic message, “I love this so much (here’s why),” can be profound on its own. But the fans also explore deeper questions about characters’ identities and connections to one another; aspects of plot and worldbuilding; commentary, celebration, and criticism of the original works and/or our own world; and correspondences to and connections with other works. In other words—they dig into many of the same questions asked by original works.

While some authors do not encourage this use of their copyrighted material, others welcome their fans to interact with their creations, so long as it’s not done for material gain. Such authors may be cheered by fan enthusiasm, enjoy the extended life given their characters, or welcome the potential for free publicity.

The Magicians fandom is lucky: author Lev Grossman is on the record as a friend of fanworks. His article “The Boy Who Lived Forever” delves into the history of fanfiction and clears up some common misconceptions about what it is and those who create it. Lev’s article is brilliant and well-researched; I urge you to check it out. Amongst many other important observations, he says, “Cutting, pasting, sampling, remixing and mashing up have become mainstream modes of cultural expression, and fan fiction is part of that. It challenges just about everything we thought we knew about art and creativity. … It was apparent that fan fiction was not just an homage to the glory of the original but also a reaction to it. It was about finding the boundaries that the original couldn't or wouldn't break, and breaking them. … It was a way to bring to light hidden subtexts that the show couldn't address. … It's also an intensely social, communal activity. Like punk rock, fan fiction is inherently inclusive, and people spend as much time hanging out talking to one another about it as they do reading and writing it. … [T]he fan-fiction scene is hyperdiverse. You'll find every race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, age and sexual orientation represented there, both as writers and as characters. For people who don't recognize themselves in the media they watch, it's a way of taking those media into their own hands and correcting the picture.”

Lev speaks about fanworks often; a few other places to find his thoughts include his foreword for Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World by Anne Jamison, “Adult fantasy author Lev Grossman on his work, Harry Potter and Evelyn Waugh,” and “Lev Grossman, S.E. Hinton, and Other Authors on the Freedom of Writing Fanfiction.”

As Lev says, one of the many reasons some fans create fic is to add to the diversity of that world—and/or expand on the lives of the characters beyond the scope of the original story. One reason I love The Magicians fandom so much is that I’ve found it to be a very queer-friendly space that’s a delight to inhabit, a place where I feel comfortable and included. Lev’s Eliot Waugh, an all-too-rare gay magician in mainstream fantasy novels even in 2009 when the book came out, was one of the many reasons I loved the books so much from the beginning. The LGBTQIA+-positive focus of our fandom does include many nuanced fan responses to the way queer characters and their story arcs were handled on the show, both positive and negative.

Fanfic can also heal the heart and reawaken the pure love of creativity that can get ground down by the business side of a freelance career as well as by the stresses of everyday life and a full-time job that leave little time for creativity. Amidst a series of personal setbacks that left me too exhausted to write, burnout from an all-consuming volunteer commitment to a writing organization, and grief, I decided it was time to give up on my freelance career (depression probably played a role, because objectively, it was an odd time for it: under my other byline, Adele Gardner, I’d just achieved a lifetime dream of getting stories into Analog and Clarkesworld). I dove back into Lev’s Magicians trilogy for solace, as I’ve so often done before. Only now, I wasn’t cramming my freelance work into every minute I had outside my full-time job; plus, I had the internet at home as a result of the pandemic. I finally found the world of fanfic and fanart.

For about two months, I did very little but read and appreciate fanworks while reexperiencing Lev’s books and the SyFy show based on them. It was pure joy. Lev’s books have helped me through some times in my life that felt unbearable. Now these fanworks set in his universe brought me back to life. They were healing in so many ways.

Though I was still burnt out on professional work, I found myself bursting with ideas for Magicians fanworks. Making fanfic and fanart was pure fun, bringing back the joy I’d found as a child when dreaming up my first stories and drawing illustrations for them. I’d always wanted to illustrate my own books, but my art had gotten sidelined, along with so much else in my life, during the pursuit of my freelance career.

And—shy nerd that I am—I found friends who shared my passion for The Magicians. That community rapidly became so important to me. Conversations with fellow fans fueled the fire. In collaboration with a fanartist I love, I’m writing a novel to an outline for the very first time. I’m collaborating with another fic writer I love by providing the artwork for their novel. I’m pushing my own boundaries and learning new things both as an artist and a writer. But more important, I’m having fun. In addition to sharing my love for The Magicians, I have total creative and artistic freedom. I get to let a story be whatever it wants, any length it wants. I can take as long as I need to learn new art skills and push my boundaries. I have the space to keep trying until I get things the way I want; I put my whole heart and soul and every ounce of skill I have into these works. And there’s a thrill in writing a serial and interacting with fans over each chapter.

While many fanworks creators have no interest in making art outside fandom, some also have ambitions or careers in the professional realm. An increasing number of authors and artists got their start as fanworks creators; some even provide advice on how to follow this path. But for most, making their fic and art is not a springboard to anything else. It’s the chance to more fully engage with the world and characters they love so much. It’s truly art for love’s sake—the chance to create something beautiful, fun, emotional, deeply thoughtful—and share it with others who’ll appreciate it. It’s also a great way to stretch your wings while doing something you love.

I’m so thankful, because fanworks have reawakened my passion for writing and art in a way I didn’t think possible anymore, so that the joy of creation once more brightens my life. I’m so grateful to Lev Grossman for imagining this world and writing the wonderful books I return to again and again, and for being so supportive of fanworks and encouraging to his fans. And I'm thrilled beyond measure to be able to experience the work of my fellow fans and share mine with them. 

P.S. Speaking of the Great Conversation among the arts, inspiration from other creators, and collaboration: a collection of poems in collaboration with my father, Muse Mansion by Adele Gardner and Delbert R. Gardner, is coming out from San Francisco Bay Press this year, paying tribute to muses literary, artistic, and musical. Given that part one of “Creativity for the Love of It” focuses on poetry, this seems like a fitting place to end the series.

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For more information about Max Jason Peterson (they/them), visit maxjasonpeterson.wordpress.com or the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram links through gardnercastle.com. Here’s a recent interview as Adele, but the author goes by Max in daily life.