CREATIVE WRITING CLASS TOOK A TURN
I was sitting in my creative writing classroom, waiting for the professor to get there and thinking about the direction I could take my frankly TERRIBLE Sherlock fanfiction excerpt. It had been a normal day. No strange occurrences. Nothing to warn me about the horror that was to come. Eventually my professor arrived and started class.
She asked if anyone had read a news stories about writing over the weekend.
So she talked for a little bit about the Emily Dickinson photo that was found recently and then she pulled up a story about an 18-year-old getting a 6 figure publishing deal for her vampire novel.
This is of course sparked a discussion about Twilight. Which led to a discussion about 50 Shades of Grey. Which led me to ask our professor, who is an author herself, what she thought about the idea of fanfictions being turned into original works. Her and I and a couple other people talked about what constituted plagiarism and how fanfictions were by definition free and that they had to be in order to remain legal.
Suddenly my professor glanced around and noticed the blank faces of the majority of the students.
"How many of you have no clue what we're talking about with fanfiction?"
90% of the class raised their hands. So, my professor pulled up the projector and typed in a web address.
And my heart leapt into my chest. I glanced at the girl beside me, whom I'd known to be a part of a couple fandoms herself, and her expression mirrored mine. We looked at each other and shared our mutual panic. Oh please dear god no.
My professor mentioned to the fanfiction-clueless students that people wrote all sorts of stories based around all sorts of media. She mentioned that TV was a popular category and clicked its tab. My mouth got a little drier.
She then began to read down the most popular categories starting with "Glee." And then "Supernatural." "Buffy." "Doctor Who." I prayed a silent prayer to the fandom Gods that she wouldn't pick that one. She didn't. Instead she glanced down the collumn and said:
"Sherlock?!?!?! It hasn't been around that long! Wow look how many fanfictions are already up!"
I sunk down in my seat and covered my mouth with my hands.
"No no no no no no" I whispered.
My professor clicked on the link.
"Obviously this is the most recent Sherlock Holmes adaptation," She said with a smile, "The one with Benedict Cumberpatch."
" - batch!" I called from the back of the class, "Cumber...batch." It had been an immediate response. I hadn't known how to stop myself. The whole class stared at me for a moment.
"Thank you!" she replied, "Cumberbatch."
I clamped my hands over my mouth and nose and waited for it all to be over. A knot was forming in my stomach and grew tighter and tighter as the discussion moved forward.
"Now, you might notice tags in these fanfictions that say AU for 'Alternate Universe,' AH for 'All Human,' or, particularly in the Sherlock section, you might find ones with M/M tags."
We had gotten there. We had reached
I honestly nearly ran out of the room at this point. My hands were clenched over my face, my cheeks warm and bright red. I needed to freak out somewhere in peace. Instead, I stayed strong, slowly lowered my head to my desk and whispered to the girl next to me,
"my internet life is being revealed and I'm NOT OKAY WITH IT." She nodded sympathetically and my professor continued to speak.
"This means that the fanfiction contains a male/male pairing. Some people want to read about Sherlock and Watson being together in a romantic relationship. F/F is the female equivalent meaning female/female pairings."
A girl from the other side of the room sneered, "Who would want to read that?!?"
The urge to punch her in the face for being a homophobic asshole was only eclipsed by my desire to stand up and scream "HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY OTP!"
My professor was far quicker than I though.
"Who would want to read this?" She asked, her smile fading almost instantly, "maybe gay individuals who don't get enough representation in television, film, and literature. Brokeback Mountain can only satiate those individuals who want media depicting a realistic homosexual relationship, for so long. Or maybe people who just think those two characters would be good together if the story were to go in that direction."
The girl didn't say anything in response. I punched the air in my mind and breathed a sigh of relief as my professor clicked out of the "Sherlock" tab and into a different section of the website.
After class was over I turned to the girl next to me and started to talk about fanfiction and how the whole thing had been utterly terrifying and not what he had expected to discuss walking into class today.
Another girl heard us and scoffed as she walked out the door.
"GOD, Fanfiction," we heard her crack.
"Well, I really like fanfiction!" my professor said to my friend and I with a knowing look. I glanced around at the emptying classroom and said in a low voice,
"I may or may not have been writing a Sherlock fanfiction before class started."
My professor just smiled at me, winked, and watched as we left the room.
