Increasing English Language Writing Fluency With Fanfiction

by Katie Mitchell

Do your students love Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, or The Lord of the Rings? You can
incorporate these popular characters into your classes using fanfiction. Fanfiction has been
defined as “writing that continues, interrupts, reimagines, or just riffs on stories and
characters other people have already written” or produced (Jamison, 2013, p. 17). Students
can create fanfiction based on novels, short stories, movies, or television shows. While
writing fanfiction, students analyze characters and remix them for their own creative work.

The Benefits
Fanfiction is at its core task-based learning built on “problem solving and play” (Sauro, 2014,
p. 240). Because they use source material as inspiration for writing, fanfiction assignments
motivate students to read and listen more closely. Fanfiction also encourages students to think
critically because they need to make inferences about characters’ values, objectives, and
actions in order to place those characters in settings and storylines of their own invention.
The writing task changes how students interact with the source material and improves their
receptive skills.

This creative task also benefits students’ productive skills. Creative writing is playful and
encourages students to experiment with language; this language play can aid in language
learning and fluency (Cook, 2000). In this playful genre, teachers can still focus students’
attention on vocabulary and grammar, but it is inherently lower stakes, more creative, and
less formal than other kinds of writing. Finally, fanfiction writing is meant to be shared. It’s
fun. Together, this playfulness, practice, and motivation can encourage writing development.

Applications
Changing the Medium: Fanfiction can take many forms. It can be as simple as changing the
medium of the work. For example, students can reimagine a traditional story as a comic book
using an online tool, such as the one provided by MakeBeliefsComix.com. This task involves
reinterpreting the characters, setting, and plot without making substantial changes. See an
example comic book assignment from my class here.

Bending the Characters: Other fanfiction activities can involve changing the story itself.
Students can experiment with self-insert fanfiction, in which they place themselves in the
story, reimaging themselves as one of the main characters. They can also experiment with
issues of diversity and inclusion by changing the gender, nationality, or religion of the

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characters. In fanfiction, this is called “bending” characters and is a popular practice online
(Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016). These changes to the characters’ identities can have ripple
effects on the relationships and on the actual outcome of the story. Read this example of a
gender and race-bent Harry Potter by an Arab female author on Fanfiction.net. In it, Harry
Potter is an Arab girl named Amira Potter.

Creating New Story Elements: Other types of fanfiction might deviate even more from the
original work; writers might create a new ending or use known characters in an entirely new
storyline or setting. For instance, students might imagine the next time two characters meet
and how they might interact. In these cases, students are applying what they know about the
characters’ personalities to new situations. The results can be wonderfully creative. Explore
an English language student’s continuation of a Sherlock Holmes story here.

Example Fanfiction Project

In an upper intermediate reading class, students can create a choose-your-own-adventure
version of a novel they are reading. Unlike traditional novels, choose-your-own-adventure
stories (CYOA) aren’t linear. Instead, they invite the reader to make decisions that affect the
characters and plot. This CYOA writing project can be done over 5 weeks.

Before starting, you should identify two to four points in your source novel where the story
could have taken a different turn. The following example uses The Giver by Lois Lowry. In
this dystopian novel, a young boy is assigned to be the new keeper of the community’s
memories. For the CYOA, students summarize the story and imagine alternative paths where,
for instance, the main character might be assigned a different job or given different types of
memories. They also write alternative endings. Developing these alternative paths alongside
the summary encourages students to deeply analyze the plot, characters, and setting.

Week 1
Students are put into groups of four. They have read the first few chapters of the
novel. They write a summary of the beginning of the book that can serve as the first
section of their CYOA. They also work on the first decision point at which the reader
will choose the direction of the story. With students’ CYOA versions of The Giver,
the first choice is to decide on the main character’s job. Specifically, they summarize
the actual job the main character was assigned and write a few paragraphs imagining
different versions in which the assignment was changed.

Week 2–3
Groups continue to summarize parts of the book and to create new alternative paths.
You can decide what these alternative paths might be by assigning specific writing
prompts or allowing groups to select these themselves. These paths allow the CYOA
writers to choose what will happen next. The students’ CYOAs may also include
alternative endings. Many of these alternative paths ended quickly with hilarity and
absurdity.

Week 4
Students have finished reading the novel and writing the first draft of their CYOAs.
They publish their CYOA story on a page-building site, such as Google Sites, where
each page contains part of the story and ends by asking the reader to choose what
should happen next. Then, students read through their CYOA. Each group member

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has a different editing task (vocabulary, grammar, coherence, style), and they work to
improve their CYOA.

Week 5
Students share their CYOAs with their classmates. They laugh as they experience
surprise and adventure at every turn. They compare the different outcomes in the
CYOAs and discuss which one they like the best. See an example student-created
CYOA of The Giver here.

Conclusion
Fanfiction encourages active reading and listening by changing the student’s role from
consumer to producer. These fanfiction tasks can be incorporated into many different classes
or become an entire course. I recently taught a fanfiction elective at my university based on
the Sherlock Holmes canon. Whatever form fanfiction takes in your class, it has the potential
to engage students while increasing their reading, listening, writing, and digital literacy skills.

References

Cook, G. (2000). Language play, language learning. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.

Jamison, A. (2013). Why fic? In A. Jamison (Ed.), Fic: Why fan fiction is taking over the
world (pp. 17–24). Dallas, TX: Smart Pop Books.

Sauro, S. (2014). Lessons from the fandom: Task models for technology-enhanced language
learning. In M. González-Lloret & L. Ortega (Eds.), Technology-mediated TBLT:
Researching technology and tasks (pp. 239–262). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John
Benjamins.

Thomas, E. E., & Stornaiuolo, A. (2016). Restorying the self: Bending toward textual justice.
Harvard Educational Review, 86(3), 313–338.

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Katie Mitchell has taught in Albania, Germany, Thailand, and the United States. She earned
her master’s in TESOL from Portland State University. She is interested in curriculum
development, computer-assisted language learning, writing instruction, game-based
learning, and English for specific purposes. Katie has presented internationally on these
topics and has worked on large-scale curriculum projects, including an online business
English product and an Xbox game.

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