ISO parent-friendly fanfic
March 20, 2016 3:24 PM   Subscribe

My mom recently learned fanfic is a thing. Please recommend well-written fanfic that might be enjoyed by a 60 year-old lady who loves literary fiction, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, and would be deeply weirded out by shipping.

She tried to start a group for young writers at her local library and spent an afternoon chatting with every kid/tween/teen she could find about writing, only to find that they were uniformly interested in watching youtube and reading fanfic. As a lover of both reading and writing, she was fairly disappointed, and very skeptical of the merits of writing which uses characters created by another author.

I am looking for a few shining stars of fanfic which could convince her that amateur writers can tell compelling stories about developed characters. Literary fiction is more her style (Cold Mountain is one of her favorite books) but she is a Lord of the Rings fan from way back and has read the Harry Potter series several times. Can anyone point me to LoTR or Harry Potter fic she might enjoy? I envision something about Merry and Pippin's farming hijinks in the Shire, or Hermione and Ginny solving a mystery. She would be perplexed and distressed by shipping but wouldn't mind fighting. I will definitely check out some of the answers to this question but I am specifically looking for the overlap between well-written and warm fuzzies, for a gentle introduction.
posted by esoterrica to Media & Arts (33 answers total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't read much fanfic any more, and I like it smutty so no fabulous and G-rated things come to mind, but I'll circle around and approaching your question from a couple of different angles:

1. Naomi Novik apparently wrote Master and Commander fanfic before publishing her popular books about Napoleonic war dragons. Since your mom likes LOTR and literary fic, she might like Novik's 2015 fantasy novel, Uprooted, which is getting some buzz as a potential Hugo award nominee.

2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is a fairly cute YA novel about an eighteen year old girl who writes Harry Potterish fanfic and publishes it on the internet. The fanfic is about the love/hate relationship between two characters like Harry and Draco (with different names), but as I recall the snippets of the fanfic are not sexually explicit. So fairly safe water to dip a toe in.

3. The only fanfic that I read this month was a Calvin and Hobbes fanfic about Suzie Derkins playing Calvinball with Death. Since pretty much everybody likes Calvin and Hobbes and since the series ended too soon, and since the characters don't really grow and change, this comic strip is a wonderful sandbox and launching point for some intriguingly strange fic. (Most of which I just saw titles and summaries while trying and failing to find a link for the calvinball with death story.)

4. Oh, and that reminds me, Neil Gaiman has written Narnia fanfic.
posted by puddledork at 3:50 PM on March 20, 2016


The Strange Disappearance of Sally-Anne Perks is a strange little novella written from a really fun prompt: What happened to Sally-Anne Perks, a character who appears as a Hufflepuff extra in Sorcerer's Stone but whose name is skipped in Order of the Phoenix, when characters are called to take their OWLs in alphabetical order.

The writing is a little stilted, but the author does a really neat job of turning JK Rowling's harmless gaffe into a weird metaphysical mystery, and that connection to the source material could be a fun introduction to fanfic. (An early version had some undeveloped pointers in the direction of Harry/Hermione shipping—which... is actually how I found it—but I think the final version is unshipped.)
posted by Polycarp at 3:57 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


How about this one about Aunt Petunia that was posted in this MetaFilter FPP last year?
posted by misozaki at 4:00 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


The one misozaki links to is actually part of an entire what-if series here:

http://archiveofourown.org/series/285498

Note that AO3 will give you PDF or ebook formats, allowing you to forward the stories to her without giving her the site directly, where clicking around will expose her to what you'd like to avoid.
posted by foxfirefey at 4:08 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


The title notwithstanding, my immediate thought was that Lust Over Pendle would be perfect for this. There is a slash pairing but I don't remember anything terribly sexy happening - if my memory serves me, it's like reading a Lord Peter Wimsey story with Harry Potter characters in it. You may want to read it first to make sure my memories are accurate, though.
posted by town of cats at 4:48 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


I second the suggestion to send her files rather than links, as it's very easy to go from links to some stuff she may find very upsetting.

The Pure And Simple Truth by Lettered is frequently recommended to non-fans. Harry Potter fic, about Harry and Draco and their friends getting to know one another at the pub once the war's over. It's lovely, well-written, and interesting. The ending can be read as shippy, but it's not explicitly so (not even as far as spelling out a kiss or anything) so it might work.

The same author has also written a much shorter gen story about Ginny Weasley slaying dragons that also might work.

I second the suggestion for AJ Hall's series, which has long been one of my favorites. However, it is Draco/Neville and also includes other non-canon pairings, primarily Hermione/OMC. It was also written well before HP was completed, so there's going to be some non-canonicity your mom may find confusing. It is also not particularly kind to Harry or Ron, if your mom likes them a lot.

I believe the series does have some kissing and non-explicit stuff -- it opens with Draco and Neville being photographed in flagrante and the photos being published in The Prophet. However, the two main stories do not get super-explicit, and they are really, really well-written.

Also, if you're interested in discussing what fan writers can go on to do with your mom, there are a TON of writers out there nowadays who started out in fanfic and went on to original fic. We came up with a long list of them in the Cassie Clare discussion the other month if you're interested.
posted by pie ninja at 5:00 PM on March 20, 2016


Best answer: Two of my favorite general stories from HP and LOTR:

Unusual - about when Ron Weasley bought perfume for Hermione

The Unexpected Homecoming - about when Bilbo Baggins came home from his adventures.

They're short, but well written.
posted by ilovewinter at 5:11 PM on March 20, 2016


Unfortunately, the two stories I like best in the Harry Potter fandom that fit your criteria (Nightmares of Futures Past by S'Tarkan and Realizations by Wishweaver) are both works in progress. If your Mom doesn't mind that then I can't think of a better introduction to HP fanfiction than NoFP.

I want to STRONGLY disrec Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I say this as somebody who read the first HP book when it first came out, who grew up in fandom, and is willing to read pretty much anything that's decently written. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality turns Harry into a Sheldon-esque asshole know-it-all, and strips every bit of wonder from the series. I can't think of a story more likely to send your mother screaming.
posted by Tamanna at 5:19 PM on March 20, 2016 [9 favorites]


Lust Over Pendle

I'd avoid this. The romantic/sexual relationship between the characters is front and center, and in my opinion it's a deeply shippy fic (in addition to other plot goings-on).

I also don't think it would be that convincing about the merits of fanfic, because it's not particularly well-connected to the Harry Potter canon. It's pretty OOC to start with, and most of the plot was invalidated by the later books.

Course, I can tell you this now because I did enjoy the series enough that I remember it years later!
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


You might get a winder variety of answers if you asked on specific message boards, subreddits, etc for these fandoms.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:31 PM on March 20, 2016


FanGirl by Rainbow Rowell, about a girl who writes fanfic called "Carry On". Which Rainbow Rowell then released last fall as an actual novel. Very loosely tied to Harry Potter.

What does your mom think of Prince Will and Kate? " The Royal We" was also released last year as fanfic about them. There is sex, but not explicit sex. It was very grocery-store-tabloid type fun.
posted by jillithd at 5:42 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


In which Snape befriends an old grey donkey is a very well written short fic about Snape meeting Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh.

Green Ice is a crossover featuring both Bertie Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey, with a really well-done character development for Bertie.

(No shipping in either!)
posted by Azara at 5:54 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Have you told her yet about Mary Sue?

In that case, Ensign Sue Must Die!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:17 PM on March 20, 2016


There is a Baen Books author named Eric Flint who wrote several books about a small town in WV being transported to Germany in the middle of the 30 Years War called 1632. It developed such a huge fanfic following that the publisher started publishing ebook anthologies of the fanfic. Some of the fan storylines became so well developed that Flint eventually incorporated them into the canon.

Now, the original series is more about military and industrial history, but the fanfic covers everything from music and dance to natural history. This may not be literary enough but it does demonstrate the less derivative possibilities of the form.
posted by irisclara at 6:17 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


My two favorite "so you don't think fanfiction can be any good?" recommendations:

After the End stays very much in the spirit and style of the Harry Potter books. There's some romance, but it basically gets as much time as needed to advance the plot. Read more than just the first section of the first chapter to judge it--that initial segment always strikes me as stilted, or at least like it's consistent with a wide variety of writing abilities.

Backward with Purpose takes time travel within the HP universe--which was kind of a cheap throwaway in the books--and runs with it. There are occasional issues with pacing, and some of the loose ends in this first story are realistically unsatisfying, but if she likes it, the sequel Book of Albus is mindbending. (I've read a lot of time-travel fics where "Harry goes back and does it over!" is thinly-disguised wish-fulfillment. This is most emphatically not.)
posted by cogitron at 6:18 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


There are so very many good gen Lord of the Rings stories out there. Birthday Present is a creepy short that I love where Merry takes the ring.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:37 PM on March 20, 2016


HP fandom contains multitudes, so this is kind of a tough question to answer! I want to second the anti-recs for HP and the Methods of Rationality (not at all in the spirit of the canon, and not at all representative of the fandom as a whole, or even media fandom as a whole), and Lust Over Pendle (well-written, but really only nominally related to HP and shippy besides).

The Goblin, the Witch, and the Werewolf is a great post-canon fic about how Harry handles being godfather to Remus Lupin's son Teddy. It's only as shippy as the books themselves.

Just Another Word is a lovely, richly detailed look at how and why Sirius Black ran away from home.

When I was active in HP fandom, lo these many years ago, I was a big of Arabella's fics. She did a great series covering Hermione's POV of books 1-5, and her version of the Chamber of Secrets from Ginny's point of view was chilling and well-done (written pre-book 6 I think, so it doesn't incorporate later canon). Alas, most of my time in HP fandom was before I started bookmarking on delicious/pinboard, and I was big into R/Hr, H/G, and R/S besides, so I can't recall many non-shippy fic recs.

If she's a fan of literary fiction, she should take a look at the Yuletide archives, searching by fandom for whatever takes her fancy (or whatever you know she's interested in). Since the yearly Yuletide fan fiction exchange covers rare/small fandoms, you don't have to worry about missing a lot of implied/assumed fanon or fandom-savvy knowledge. HP especially has a lot of that, given how long it's been going: tropes and fandom assumptions build up and create their own whole secondary fandom of a sort, and it can be hard to parse if you haven't been in the fandom.
posted by yasaman at 7:29 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Last Ringbearer is a Russian retelling of the Lord of the Rings told from the losers point of view. It goes a bit off the rails at the end, but I quite enjoyed it.
posted by pombe at 8:46 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


Ooh, seconding The Last Ringbearer. That is a very literary fanfic with a lot of original creative material, and no ships at all.
posted by corb at 9:25 PM on March 20, 2016


I really like Irnan's Mischief Managed series of short stories. They're a series of short stories about Harry's life post-DH. Other than the canon ships, they're not particularly shippy My favorite is story #17 which has Hermione and Ginny being girl detectives
posted by Constance Mirabella at 9:47 PM on March 20, 2016


Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness is a story about the students left at Hogwarts during the year of the 7th book.

Under the rating system described here, it's rated "M", meaning
"Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with non-explicit suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, or coarse language.
Explicit sexual content is the next rating category up, "MA":
Fiction M can contain adult language, themes and suggestions. Detailed descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature is considered Fiction MA."
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:53 PM on March 20, 2016


::cough::

Carpetbaggers examines the beginning of the Pevensies' return in Narnia, and the aftermath of the White Witch's tyranny during the Long Winter. here.

To be fair, it's kind of long. But it is gen, with no shipping of any sort, and the worst violence is mostly offscreen.
posted by suelac at 9:57 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness is a story about the students left at Hogwarts during the year of the 7th book.

Ooooh, no. Don't go for that one. It's very very ooc, and the author is an INFAMOUS wanker/scam artist/fraudster within fandom circles.
posted by lovecrafty at 10:08 PM on March 20, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'll repeat my answer from the other thread about After the Rain's fiction (my favorites being Running Close to the Ground and Correspondence Course). Her work is all great, and none of it has any sexual content.

Oh, and I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and I think it's a great argument for fanfic as a genre in that it brilliantly deconstructs the original story -- but I'd have to agree that it probably wouldn't be to your mother's taste, based on what you've described.
posted by phoenixy at 10:11 PM on March 20, 2016


Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle is the first of a series of novel-length fanfics set in the Harry Potter universe, but located in the USA.

It's well-written and enjoyable mind-candy, aimed at a similar readership to the JK Rowling masterworks. Index to the rest of the series is here.
posted by Combat Wombat at 1:34 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I think most people are secretly a lot more tolerant of shipping than they'd like to admit, but I'll answer this in the spirit in which it was asked.

I adore Lust Over Pendle (mentioned above) but I'm not sure it's the best for what you want unless your mom really likes Dorothy L. Sayers' style. The Neville/Draco relationship is front and center, and it's really a mystery caper that happens to borrow the HP scenery. Parenthetically, if your mom might be interested in some meta-commentary on writing fanfiction the author of LoP has a short piece on Rowling as a mystery author and viewing her work through that lens reposted here.

Cauterize is very short (a "one-shot" as they say) HP story only ~1600 words but it is an incredibly well-realized little series of vignettes meditating on the aftereffects of the war while remaining pretty much canon compliant.

FF.net user Northumbrian has written a sprawling series of stories mostly set after the end of the Potter series but remaining canon compliant. The prose is much better than average for fanfic and the plots, if a little on the saccharine side sometimes, are safe for work. To quote the author himself: "I like action, rather than fluff, though I seem to write a lot of fluff. I cannot read Dramione, Drinny, slash or, for that matter, any major non-canon pairing. If JKR says that's what happens, that's good enough for me." Grave Days picks up right after the battle of Hogwarts and is a logical place to start, though the author's most popular story is probably Strangers at Drakeshaugh, which takes the perspective of an original character who is curious about her new neighbors (Ginny and Harry Potter).

Lessons with Hagrid is only four thousand words and very silly. Worth reading for the laughs. Hagrid teached Harry Potter occlumency using a rather different technique than canon. And frankly one of the best characterizations of Hagrid I've seen in fanfic.

insurgere is also short, and plays with the what-if scenario of Tom Riddle being sorted to Hufflepuff. Neither he nor the house is ever the same.

The Desk is a very silly 1400 word short about Harry Potter's peculiar notion of workplace organization.

(Can you see the trend here towards short stories? Fanfic does seem to fall into short evocative vignettes or sprawling 500,000 word romantic epics doesn't it?)

I think what one gets out of fanfic depends on what one is looking for. There are a lot of people who want fanfiction to be a story about their favorite characters doin' it, so there's a lot of that out there, but there's something for everyone. For example I enjoy the subgenre of "Harry Potter as political farce" and a few people have done that very well.

This post on Tor.com by Natalie Zutter about participating in fanfiction exchanges is an insightful take on what a writer gets out of it.

Actually pretty much all the stuff tagged with fanfiction on tor.com is worthwhile.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:08 AM on March 21, 2016


A lot of fandoms, HP included, used to have "Gen Fic-athons", where the challenge was to get as many people as possible to write stories that had nothing to do with shipping. If you look for that phrase, you might find a few treasure troves.

Have you looked through the Archive of Our Own for the top rated Gen HP/LOTR stories? That would be my starting point. "Gen" is the magic term that means "this is a story about this universe that is not about romantic feelings or shipping".
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:53 AM on March 21, 2016


Consider easing her in to the idea of "the merits of writing which uses characters created by another author" with some published fanfic by celebrated authors. One of the most prolific fandoms for this kind of work is Sherlock Holmes. I recommend "The Final Solution" by Michael Chabon particularly.
posted by 256 at 8:02 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Following on 256's comment, other authors who have written fanfiction novels of Pride and Prejudice include Colleen McCullough and P.D.James.
posted by CathyG at 8:10 AM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Not quite as literary as your original question, but if your mother is familiar with Game of Thrones, either the books or the TV series, Sean Bean Saves Westeros is the sort of fanfic that makes shuffling through all of the other crap on the internet absolutely entirely worth it. It's one of those magic moments where 1) the author has a great idea AND 2) is familiar enough with the source material to rework it effectively AND 3) can actually write really well. It's more than just using someone else's characters but rather riffing off the original books in a way that feels inspired rather than like a direct imitation, and it's an interesting and enjoyable read to boot.

Book 1 is complete, Book 2 is in progress. I use ficsave.com to compile them in ebook form.
posted by yeahlikethat at 9:47 AM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


If you want literary fanfiction, you might want to check that list : http://bookshop.livejournal.com/1044495.html

I've personally enjoyed Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea (I'll never read Jane Eyre the same again), Saramago's Caim, Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead, Tournier's Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique (no idea whether this one is available in English).
posted by snakeling at 1:42 AM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh! I forgot to mention and I know it's been mentioned in other threads on this topic but there's a fic from 2008 called The Kids Aren't All Right that's written and formatted as if it was an in-depth Vanity Fair profile of the MCU Tony Stark (set just after the first Iron Man movie). It's utterly believable as a long-form magazine article of that style, and includes not just good writing but some insightful commentary on American imperialism as it develops that theme from the Iron Man film.
posted by Wretch729 at 9:56 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


I just recommended these books on another thread and realised they are sort of the ultimate published literary fanfic - The Mary Russell books by Laurie King, which are essentially fanfic of Sherlock Holmes. They're fantastic. (Although Ms King is no amateur.)
posted by jrobin276 at 8:25 PM on April 12, 2016


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