[Note from Frolic: We’re so happy to welcome author Molly Ringle to the site today! She’s talking all things fanfic. Take it away, Molly!]
“It has the feel of fanfiction, but in a good way.” – That’s a paraphrase, but a sentiment like that is what a few different reviewers have said so far about my newest novel, All the Better Part of Me, m/m rom-com and coming-of-age story. To which I answer: yep, that’s fair, and in fact is completely accurate. When I was writing the book, I told myself, “Just pretend it’s fanfic.” Why? Because nothing could be more fun and pressure-free to write than fanfic. And when I write in that delicious mood, it’s likelier to carry through to the reader too.
So, yes. I’ve read plenty of fanfic over the decades. I’ve even written some, on rare occasion. I have a totally unverifiable theory that lots of published authors have done the same, writing fanfic under secret names—not just famous examples like E.L. James or Cassandra Clare, but almost certainly loads more that we might never know about. Writing a fic for a show we love is just too fun to resist, and really, what romantically-minded writer hasn’t carried a serious ship torch for some fandom couple?
It’s not just an irrelevant side hobby, either. The burning love I’m lucky enough to feel for a ship is awesome at igniting ideas for my original characters. I mean, look, I wrote a trilogy about the Persephone/Hades myth (Persephone’s Orchard and its sequels), in which I came up with a new version of how they met originally, along with deciding what their modern reincarnations might be up to. I and everyone else who’s written a Greek mythology retelling have essentially been writing big ol’ novel-length fanfic. And, as with the fanfic on Archive of Our Own (AO3, as the regulars call it), there’s a ready-made audience for it, millions of people in the world who are already way into Persephone/Hades or other Greek gods and want to read more about them. Win-win!
Not all my books have been so directly ship-based, nor have all my fan ships evolved directly into novels. But it’s fair to say that the romantic feelings each fandom pair inspired in me helped feed my ever-evolving inspiration as a writer.
So! Here are some of the biggest ships in my fandom life so far, and what fascinates me about each of them. SPOILERS for all the material discussed. You have been warned.