What Fan Fiction Teaches That the Classroom Doesn’t

Websites specializing in fan-fiction are using the existing bodies of work, playing and tinkering with it, while providing feedback to each other. In this process, the participants are learning and teaching each other to write well. The continuous, constructive feedback helps make fanfiction writing a collective effort, which is sometimes better than the original, in which only one mind was involved.

This kind of vast, community-based learning is called distributed mentorship.

Someone can have an encyclopedic knowledge of a certain character, but may not be able to write well. The contribution of that person can be to fine-tune the writing of someone who wrote it correctly but couldn’t accurately portray that character. By providing their insights and corrections, the participants jointly improve the quality of the fanfiction writing.

This ‘crowdsourcing’ method works within a community in which people have different strengths and weaknesses.

..or Constructive criticism is an integral part of fan-fiction websites, though it is not always welcome.

• Negative feedback or flames is a loud minority in any group of critics.

• Positive feedback, on the other hand, is often discounted, even though it is really important for struggling writers and English learners.