When Did Devoted Followers Start The Fanfiction Community?

I often think about how weirdly timeless fanfiction is. Fans creating new stories about beloved characters probably goes back to when stories were shared around fires, but documented communal fan writing shows up in the 20th century. Sci-fi fanzines from the 1930s were a real thing, and 'Star Trek' fandom in the 60s/70s formalized the practice with zines and clubs. The internet then scaled it massively: Usenet, mailing lists, and later 'FanFiction.net' and 'Archive of Our Own' made it global. So devoted followers started forming community networks in earnest roughly mid-century, with the online boom in the 1990s turning it into the modern phenomenon I love browsing now.

I tend to explain this to younger fans using a fold-out timeline in my head: first, literary pastiches and continuations (think 'Sherlock Holmes' spin-offs) show people have long loved rewriting stories. Then organized fan communities emerged — science fiction fans in the 1930s shared fanzines, and 'Star Trek' fans in the 1960s-70s created a recognizable subculture of zines, conventions, and circulated fan fiction. Those decades built the social practices and norms fans still use today.

The internet rewired everything. In the late 80s and 90s, Usenet groups and listservs let fans meet beyond local clubs; by 1998 sites like 'FanFiction.net' offered searchable archives and easy publishing, and later platforms like 'Archive of Our Own' and 'Wattpad' provided better tools and community features. Legal questions, creator responses, and evolving etiquette (like disclaimers and tagging) matured alongside these platforms. When people ask when devoted followers started the community, I say: roots centuries back, organized fandom mid-20th century, global internet community from the 1990s onward — and it still evolves whenever a new show or game captures hearts.

I get asked this a lot at conventions, and my short mental timeline looks like layers. The literary tradition of reworking characters—writing new tales about beloved figures—goes back ages. But a recognizable community of fans sharing fiction? That really picks up in the 20th century.

By the 1930s, science fiction fans were publishing fanzines where original fan stories circulated. The real cultural turning point was the 'Star Trek' phenomenon in the 1960s and 70s: fans created zines, swapped stories through fan clubs, and formed the earliest dedicated fandom networks. The slash movement (romantic pairings between same-sex characters) also surfaced strongly among those fans. Then the internet era democratized everything: Usenet groups and mailing lists in the late 80s/early 90s seeded online fan communities, and then platforms like 'FanFiction.net' in 1998 and 'Archive of Our Own' in the 2000s provided archives and communities on a massive scale.

So, while devoted followers have been playing with other people’s worlds for as long as stories have existed, the fanfiction community as we recognize it today really crystallized mid-20th century onward and exploded online in the 1990s. I still treasure those zine-era stories — they feel handmade in a way that early web archives don’t always capture.

I’ve always loved digging into the history of fandoms, and to me the story of fanfiction feels like a slow-burning river that’s been flowing for centuries. If you trace it back, people were riffing on beloved characters long before the word 'fanfiction' existed — think of the endless sequels, plays, and pastiches inspired by 'Sherlock Holmes' or the myriad continuations of epic tales from the 19th century. Those were early forms of fans refusing to let stories end.

Fast-forward to the 20th century and you get organized communities: science fiction fans trading fanzines as early as the 1930s, and then the huge splash made by 'Star Trek' fans in the 1960s and 1970s who produced zines, fan fiction, and even created what we now call slash with 'Kirk/Spock' pairings. The internet changed everything — Usenet groups and mailing lists in the late 80s and 90s allowed fans to share and collaborate, and then sites like 'FanFiction.net' (1998) and later 'Archive of Our Own' brought the community to a global scale.

So when did devoted followers start the fanfiction community? In spirit, centuries ago; in organized modern forms, mid-20th century; and in the online era that shaped today’s culture, the 1990s onward. I still love imagining some kid today discovering an old zine and feeling that same thrill I felt finding my first AO3 bookmarks.

Sometimes I tell friends that fanfiction didn’t pop out fully formed — it grew. I’ve read Victorian-era pastiches and old fanzines at thrift shops, and those show fans have been tinkering with stories for a long time. Many point to early 20th-century fanzines and the vibrant 'Star Trek' zine culture of the 60s and 70s as the places fandom coalesced into recognizable communities.

The internet was the accelerant: Usenet and mailing lists in the 80s/90s let fans collaborate across continents, and platforms like 'FanFiction.net', 'Archive of Our Own', and 'Wattpad' made sharing universal. So, devoted followers began forming fanfiction communities in earnest in the 20th century, and the 1990s made it explode. If you’re curious, dig into old zines or early AO3 tags — the continuity between eras is fascinating and oddly comforting.