Collecting Fan Fiction
Running down and saving fanfiction is a lot of work! There are quite a few sites that specialize in it. I don't even pretend to know them all. The main ones I use for Potter books are:
FanFiction.net
Schnoogle
Sugarquill
Gryffindor Tower
HarryPotterFanFiction.com
As I write this I am building a fast page and don't have the full URL's handy, but you can find them through a search without much trouble.
Fanfiction.net is the big one. They have something over 60,000 Potter stories in process. You have to remember that the vast, vast majority of these are either very short works, a couple of pages, or are longer works that got started but never have been finished and never will be. If you study the listings and look for works with over 60,000 words, or over 20 chapters, you will begin to see that the number of actual completed books is fairly small, on the order of a few hundred. You used to be able to search the site by length, but that seems to have been done away with. Some authors will state "Finished" on the précis of their work, but most do not. The average book length work takes a year or so to finish, as most of the authors are young and in school or are teachers and likewise affected by exam schedules, etc. I have encountered a few books that were just bad, but very few. Most are quite enjoyable if you accept the poor editing standards.
Being so very large, Fanfiction.net is very subject to breakdowns and irregularities. However, it is a good place to start. From the main page, select "books", then you can either go down to the listings and select "Harry Potter" or, if you are following up on a specific author, use "Find" from the menu and search by author's pen name, story summary (i.e. "Harry Potter year 5", or anything that occurs to you) or by book title. Be aware that the search engine is case sensitive, especially with regard to author pen names. When you find a work that interests you, you can click on the author's name and get a brief review of who they are and of each work they have completed or are working on. One major problem is that many do not make a notation on the review when a work is finished. I usually go to the work, then click on the "Chapters" key and scroll to the last chapter, then bring that up to see if there is an author's note or something to indicate that the work is ended.
I also keep a follow-up list, of titles and authors who have works in progress that I am interested in, and go back every couple of months to see if they have been finished.
Sugarquill is a much better organized site, with far fewer participants and much higher standards. Many authors start on FanFiction and hope to graduate to having their work accepted at Sugarquill.
Schoogle is another higher standard site, as is Gryffindor Tower. Gryffindor Tower has the honor of being recognized by J.K. Rowling.
In my efforts, I have concentrated on longer works, though I gathered a few short stories. I take down only finished works, as I got bit by one that I thought was finished. I printed it out, was reading it and really enjoying it, but found it was not finished, and never was. Oh, well
I encounter many references in the author notes to other books that the author enjoyed or to sequels in progress. I check these out and put them on my follow up list.
It is considered good form to send an email to the authors to tell them you appreciated their work or make comments on it.
Oh, yes FanFiction.net has a million pop-up ads! However, they have an ad blocker than can be implemented. Use the "Menu" key at the right of their toolbar and click on "Ad Blocker". You have to re-implement it as needed for each session. It isn't worth it for a quick search, but it certainly is if you are downloading a work.
Binding is worth a mention I print the books out, printing on both sides by printing odd number pages first and then manually reversing the order and printing the even pages. I do the reversing manually so that I can tell if the printer has picked up an extra blank page, which would ruin the reading order if you just reinserted the stack. I have a special machine punch that punches rectangular holes for plastic "finger" binders, which I keep in a number of sizes. The machine will do the binding on thinner books, but on thick ones I insert the fingers by hand.
As in any field, fanfiction has developed a vocabulary of its own. Some of the terms can be critical. For instance, I encountered the word "slash" in descriptions of stories. Being old but still naïve, I interpreted this to refer to gory violence, as in "slasher movies". Wrong! It apparently is a code word for stories with same sex relationships. Also, many stories are describes in terms of the relationships or pairings in them, i.e. H/G is Harry/Ginny, R/H is Ron/Hermione. These get abbreviated to "ships", and those who favor a particular relationship are "shippers" i.e. if your favorite pairing is Harry and Ginny, you are an H/G shipper. Be careful though D/H can be Draco/Hermione, a common and popular pairing, or it can be Draco/Harry. If you go searching on your own, read the author's bio info and the précis of the story before you get too far into it.
Below this I am providing a glossary from the Harry Potter Fan Fiction site.
Dick Wightman
Fan Fiction Terms
(From the site: www.harrypotterfanfiction.com )
A
Admin Short for Administrator.. Administrators maintain and run the website and/or chat and messageboards.
Adult A story with themes for older readers. May be inappropriate for children.
Age Statement A statement that the person is old enough to view the story.
Alt See Alternative.
Alternative Different from the norm.
Alternative History Alternative history fan fiction changes the original path of the book. An example of this is Harry meeting his parents..
Alternative Timeline A piece that breaks off rom a specific point of time.
Alternate Universe A piece that changes the original settings. An example is a story in which Lily and James Pottter had never died.
Altfic See Alternative.
A/N See Author Notes
AN See Author Notes.
Angst A piece that deals wiyh raw emotions, anxiety fear and worry.
Antishippers Fans who are opposed to a certain relationship. Eg. Harry and Hermione
Archive (1) An Internet storage site for fan fictions. An example being our own Archive!!
Archive (2) The act of archiving a story.
Archivist A person who updates and maintains an archive. (Me!!)
AU Stands for Alternative Universe. See Alternative Universe.
Author fic A story based around authors. It may take place in the world of HP
Author Notes A brief explanation or information, before or after a story by the author.
B
Beta (1): Same as Beta reader. See Beta reader.
Beta (2): The act of beta reading.
Beta reader A person who checks over a story for an author. They will normally check on the grammar, spelling and general setup of the story.
Beta Version A first/rough draft of a story.
Bunny See Plot bunny
C
Canon Established history and characterizations of the book. For Harry Potter fans, the books written by J.K. Rowling are canon.
Challenge An idea given out by a reader that sets a plotline or idea for a story. Sometimes used in competition.
Challenge fic A piece that answers a Challenge. See Challenge.
Chara Is short for character.
Character Codes Letters in the Header Info of a story that alerts the reader as to who the piece is about. eg. H/H(Harry?Hermione), D/H(Draco/Hermione)
Cliché An over used plot , or description can be described as Clichéd.
Copyright The exclusive right of an author to their material.
Criticism Critical comments and feedback about a story.
Cross over A piece that involves characters and or locations from more than one fandom. An example would be a story featuring Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
D
Dark (1) A piece of fan fiction that is depressing, sad or unpleasant.
Disclaimer Usually found in the header to a story.Usually stating that the characters etc.belong to JK Rowling
Draft (Rough Draft) A first unedited versionof the story.
E
Editor The person that checks a piece before it is posted.
Epic A long drawn out story.
F
Fandom The world revolving around HP fanfiction.
Fan Fic Abreviation for Fan Fiction. See fan fiction.
Fanficcer A writer of fan fic stories.
Fan fiction Fiction written by a fan of the Harry Potter Books (or others eg LOTR). Based around original characters and locations from the books.
FAQ Stands for Frequently Asked Questions.
FB Stands for feedback. See Feedback.
Feedback Comments by a reader of a story for the author. There are generally four types of feedback: Praise, constructive feedback, criticism and flames.
Femmeslash . This term is used to signify a female/female (f/f) romantic or sexual pairing.
Fic Another term for Fan Fiction. See fan fiction.
Ficcer A writer of fan fic stories.
First Draft The first and unedited version of a story.
Flame An insulting and rude comment often containing profanity aimed at a story or author.
Fluff A light, happy piece. Will not stretch the reader.
G
Gary Stu Is a male Mary Sue. See Mary Sue.
General A story with a general theme. Not specific. eg. Romance or Angst are not General.
H
Header Info Information at the top of a story that informs the reader about the story, author or just gives details. Our header info shows the title, author number of hits and story No.
Het Stands for heterosexual. Attraction to the opposite sex. A hetfic may be Harry and Ginny falling in love.
I
IC Stands for In Character. In Character means the characters behave in a fashion that agrees with canon behavior.
Index A list of stories and links to the stories.
J
K
Kleenex Warning A warning by authors that the story is gonna be sad...Get the Kleenex ready
L
Love/Hate A story type where the characters start out hating each other and end up loving eachother.
Lurker A person who belongs to a discussion group or forum but does not participate.
M
Mailing List An e-mail list of users or authors.. .
Marty Stu A male version of Mary Sue. See Mary Sue.
Mary Sue A character that is seen as perfect and has a tendency to be great at everything. Generally not considered a good character.
Mod Mod is short for Moderator. See Moderator.
Moderator Performs the same job as an Adminstrator. See Administrator.
Muggles Humans. Non wizarding people.
MWPP Moony Wormtail Padfoot and Prongs. Astory labeled MWPP deals with the the time period when Harry Potter's parents were attending Hogwarts.
N
Netiquette A code of conduct or acceptable behavior on the Internet.
NEW Stands for New. NEW is put into header info to signal to a reader that the piece is new.
Newbie (1) A new fan fiction writer, or a new user to a forum or messageboard.
O
OFC Stands for Original Female Character. A character not taken from the book or other fanfiction.
OMC Stands for Original Male Character. ( as above)
OOC Stands for Out Of Character. Not what you would expect from the character.
P
Pairing A combination of any two characters.
Pairing Codes Letters in the header of a story to inform the reader who the main characters are Eg..H/H, H/G, R/H
Prequel (1) A story that takes place before events in the book.
Q
R
Rating A way to tell reader what reading level the themes are appropriate for. Ratings are based on American Film Ratings. These ratings consist of the following: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. More information on ratings can be found at our terms of service page.
Regular A person who a well known user of the site..
Review An opinion of a story left by a reader..
Round Robin A story that is started by an author wh then invites others to add a chapter to it.
R/R Read/Review.
S
Sequel (1) A story that takes place after events in the book/s.
Shipper A reader who supports a particular relationship pairing above all others. They are usually fanatical about their particular favourite. eg. H/G shippers are fans of Harry and Ginny stories.
Shipperfic A story that is based around a particular relationship.
Slash A story involving a theme concerning same sex characters.
Slashy A story that mwill touch on aspects of same sex relationships.
Songfic Song fan fiction. A story that is based around or inspired by the lyrics of a song. See our Archive for examples.
Spoiler .. Iformation from the books which you may not know and which may spoil your reading of them.
Spoiler Warning A note that the story may contain info from one of the HP books which may spoil it for you if you havent read them
Story Challenge See Challenge.
Story Header See Header Info.
Summary A brief outline of the story.
T
Teaser A small part of a story, posted to get readers interested in the story in advance. An example being the snippets released at theannouncement of the release date of Book 5
U
V
W
WAFF Warm and Fuzzy Feelings. A WAFF piece is light and happy and leaves the reader feeling happy and warm.
WIP Work in Progress. A story still being worked on.
X
Y
Z