Welcome to the Fanfic Symposium!

Attention: Returning visitors, please check out the announcements page for some important information!  

If you're a new visitor, let me take a moment to introduce you to the Fanfic Symposium.  

Back in the days before blogs and live journals (or at least before everyone had one), there were these things called "rant pages."  Rant pages were exactly what they sound like: pages where individual fans would hold forth on various fannish topics.  Generally, they were part of a larger web site that held that fan's fiction or other activities.

I loved these pages.  I haunted them, checking obsessively for updates. Most of all, I wanted one of my very own.  There were two problems: first, since my fiction writing is, to say the least, sporadic, I didn't have anything to draw people to a larger web site; second, even I didn't have enough to say to keep an organized essay site active on my own.

That's when it occurred to me: if I wanted a space to hold forth, maybe other people did too.  And the Fanfic Symposium was born.  Three years and over one hundred columns later...I'd say I was right.

A symposium is a collection of essays on a similar topic (it's also a party involving feasting and drinking, but we won't go there).  The topic in this case is fan fiction, and the essayists are, well, you.  

My role is that of site maintainer.  I do want to stress that this site is not meant to be just about fandoms or topics that I'm interested in - it's meant to be about fandoms and topics that anyone reading it might be interested in.  I do not screen columns except for general topic - they do have to be about fan fiction, fandom, or something of interests to fans.  I also do not edit unless specifically asked.

So read, enjoy.  You can browse columns by year or by topic, or look at the ten most recent columns.  And if you find yourself thinking, "Hey, I have something to say about that," check out the submission guidelines.  If you want to discuss a column you've read, go to our LiveJournal Community, or check out the announcements page for directions.