Mind the Tags

Join Emily and Vee as they discuss the similarities and differences between fanfiction and original fiction, including worldbuilding, copyright, filing off the serial numbers and fanfic that becomes published, and the ever-evolving journey of the Mary Sue. 

Topics include: Publishing, legality of fanfiction, creative writing, Philip Roth shade 

If you heard on us the most recent episode of The Culture Study podcast, welcome! Check out our catalog of episodes here. 

Sources from today's ep:

• The Big Difference Between Original Fiction and Fanfiction by Margery Bayne
• Mary Sue on Fanlore
• E44: More Than The Text Of Our Book, ft. Greatest Author Chuck Tingle from the Publishing Rodeo podcast
• What Are Derivative Works Under Copyright Law? by Edward A. Haman, J.D.
• Filing Off The Serial Numbers on Fanlore
• 10 books you didn't know started out as fan fiction, from 'Twilight' to 'Star Wars'-inspired stories by Lauren Arzbaecher
• Why All Fiction Writers Should Be Learning From Fanfiction by Margery Bayne

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you Ollie for editing our sound!

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Vee and Emily interview Dr. Alexis Lothian, Associate Professor at The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland. We chat with Dr. Lothian about her foray into fanfiction in the early 2000s, as well as her scholarly work around speculative fiction, feminism and racism in fanfiction, and the power of fandom to shape political awareness and movements. 

Sources from this episode:

• Vidding: A History by Francesca Coppa
• AI Hype Enters Its Geopolitics Era w/ Timnit Gebru from the Tech Won't Save Us Podcast
• An archive of whose own? White feminism and racial justice in fan fiction’s digital infrastructure by Alexis Lothian and Mel Stanfill
• End OTW Racism: A Call To Action
• Archival anarchies: Online fandom, subcultural conservation, and the transformative work of digital ephemera by Alexis Lothian
• Fandom Is Ugly: Networked Harassment in Participatory Culture by Mel Stanfill
• Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility by Alexis Lothian

Check out Dr. Lothian's faculty bio here.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. 

Join Emily and Vee as they chat about the long and intricate relationship between fanart and fanfiction, the different legal and financial considerations between them, fanart commissions, and Vee's new venture as a lego artiste. Philadelphia vernacular warning to listeners: Emily uses the word "jawn" at least twice in this episode.

Topics include: Fanart, commissions, digital media

Sources from today's ep:

• The OFMD Craft Fair Auction
• Big Bang on Fanlore
• Fanart on Fanlore
• Zine on Fanlore
• The OFMD Fine Frames Project
• Vee's lego art

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. 

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Vee and Emily interview Elizabeth Minkel, fandom journalist, co-host/editor of Fansplaining, and co-curator of The Rec Center. We talk about Elizabeth's travels through Buffy GeoCities of yore, what she loves and has learned about fanfiction over the years, and the trends she's observed in AI in fandom spaces. Check out some of Elizabeth's articles that we discuss here:

• Why Generative AI Won’t Disrupt Books
• Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors
• The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

You can find out about Elizabeth's projects here.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. 

Join Emily and Vee as they discuss how participating in fanfiction can support writers and readers during times of uncertainty, and how the fanfic community can respond to political developments that threaten our communities.  

Topics include: Pleasure activism, anti-capitalism, gift culture, LGBTQIA+ representation, fan activism

Sources from today's ep:

• Kudos on Fanlore
• Alexis Lothian lecture from the University of Maryland Arts & Humanities YouTube channel 
• Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown
• The Best Organizing Strategy You’ve Never Heard Of: Why Fan Activism Has the Power to Radically Change Our World by Fandom Forward
• Fellowship of the Fans article by Anne Ford
• Open Letter to the OTW on Racism in Fandom

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you Ollie for editing our sound!

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Vee and Emily interview Lindie and boy, two incredible podficcers from the Our Flag Means Death fandom. Lindie and boy share what got them into podficcing, tricks of the trade, and some of their favorite things about recording fanworks. We've included some of the fics discussed in this episode below.

You can find Lindie's podfics here:
Ao3
Soundcloud

You can find boy's podfics here:
Ao3
Soundcloud

Podfics mentioned and/or referenced in this episode:

• No one would riot for less written by sacrificethemtothesquid 
• Prove It written by KnivesInFeet
• Hell or High Water written by Mottlemoth
• Life Finds a Way written by ClaireGregory
• The Long Gap written by Deanbird
• Wave Hello to the Void written by eefaevie, mxmollusca, and zacharybosch

OFMD Podfuckery: https://archiveofourown.org/series/4490566 

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you Ollie for editing our sound!

Join Emily and Vee as they discuss "femmeslash" and some of the ships that paved the way for fanfiction centered around romantic relationships between female characters. 

Topics include: Women in media, gender, the trend of burying your (sapphic) gays, and the lasting influence of Xena: Warrior Princess

Sources from today's ep:

• Blorbo From My Shows on Fanlore
• All 240 Dead Lesbian and Bisexual Characters On TV, And How They Died from autostraddle
• TV Characters' Rising Death Toll Reveals Troubling Pattern from NPR 
• The 10 greatest episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess by Sara Century
• Ao3 Ships Stats 2024 by centreoftheselights

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you Ollie for editing our sound!

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Vee and Emily interview Lani and Jo, co-hosts of The Fanfic Writers' Craft, a podcast that discusses all things fanfiction with a focus on the art and science of writing for the enjoyment of fan communities. We talk about Jo's fandom beginnings in American procedurals, Lani's journey through the RENT fandom community, and the topics that have surprised Jo and Lani as hosts of The Fanfic Writers' Craft. You can find their podcast on Spotify and Tumblr!

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you to Ollie for editing our sound!

Join Emily and Vee as they discuss why some fanfic writers create stories centered around M/M (or "slash") romance. 

Topics include: Gender expression, queer representation in media and fanfiction, and late breaking news about the patriarchy

Sources from today's ep:

• Queerbaiting on Wikipedia
• How Do We Solve A Problem Like “Queerbaiting”?: On TV’s Not-So-Subtle Gay Subtext by Rose
• Please Do Not Bait the Queers by Emmett Scout
• Ao3 Demographics survey by centreoftheselights
• The Bechdel Test on Wikipedia
• Performance, Property, and the Slashing of Gender in Fan Fiction by Sonia K. Katyal
• Tumblr post by prokopetz
• 'The Tent’s Big Enough for Everyone’: online slash fiction as a site for activism and change by Lucy Neville

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you Ollie for editing our sound!

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Vee and Emily interview Diana, a writer and editor interested in queer theory, feminist theory, and media studies. We talk about some of Diana's favorite fandoms (including Inuyasha and Star Wars) and discuss the importance of fandom community when writing fanfiction. Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you to Ollie for editing our sound!

Join Emily and new co-host Vee as they discuss alternate universes (AUs), including their own experiences reading and writing AUs.

Topics include: Canon and cannons, Gulliver's most...interesting travels, and the limitless possibilities of expanding universes to infinity and beyond.

Sources from today's ep:

• Alternate Universe on Fanlore
• In Favor with Their Stars by mxmollusca
• Fanfiction episode of the "Let's Learn About..." podcast
• William Hogarth's piece in the British Museum

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you Ollie for editing our sound!

Join Emily and Jay Castello as they discuss Jay’s 2022 article on The Verge: Archive of Our Own’s 15-year journey from blog post to fanfiction powerhouse. Emily and Jay dive into their own fanfiction experiences and share their perspectives on Ao3's important history and future.

Topics include: The mysterious business of tag wrangling, what makes AO3 different from all the fanfic sites that came before, and why Emily still hasn’t written Spirk fic.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Kristin and Emily interview Elf Herself, a fandom archivist who supports the Organization of Transformative Works (OTW), where she works on the Fanlore and Open Doors projects. We talk about Elf's own fandom journey, her involvement with the OTW at its launch, and her ongoing work for the organization.

Follow Elf on Tumblr here and on Dreamwidth here.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you to Ollie for editing our sound!

Join Kristin and Emily as they talk about a quirky invention called the World Wide Web, and how the internet changed the landscape of fanfiction. We talk about Usenet groups, Fanfiction.net, and The Great Purge of 2002.

Sources from today's ep:

• A Brief History of Modern Fanfiction: the Migration of Online Communities by Katherine
• alt.tv.x-files (ATFX) on Fanlore
• ATFX Newbie Kiosk
• The Internet is for Fic by Jill Bearup
• Fanfiction.net on Fanlore
• Moving Across Lands: Online Platform Migration in Fandom Communities by Casey Fiesler and Brianna Dym

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design. Thank you to Ollie for editing our sound!

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Kristin and Emily interview Jay Castello, a freelance writer who covers fandom among other topics. We talk about Jay's own fandom journey, some of her journalistic work, the importance of fanfic preservation, and the future of fanfic. 

Follow Jay on Bluesky here and on X here.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Kristin and Emily discuss the history of fanzines, their rise in popularity, and the changing landscape of zines during the age of the internet. Today's word of the day is "tropes!"

Sources from today's ep:

• Trope definition on Fanlore
• History of Media Fanzines on Fanlore
• Zines and the Internet on Fanlore
• Star Trek Usenet Group
• Alien Romances Blog
• Meta: Profiting from Fandom

• Portions of Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins accessed via UW Libraries

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Kristin and Emily interview Killabeez, creator of the K/S Fanfiction Archive. We talk about Killa's fanfiction journey and her love of Star Trek.

Follow Killabeez on Bluesky here and on Dreamwidth here.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.

Fandom. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship fanfiction. Its continuing mission: to explore the love fans have for their favorite characters in media; to connect with other people who are also feral for their ships of choice; to boldly go where no fan has gone before! Join Kristin and Emily as they talk about the legacy of Star Trek in fanfiction, particularly the Kirk/Spock relationship and its influence on "slash" writing. Today's word of the day is "fanfiction!"

Sources from today's ep:

• StarTrek.com article
• History of K/S on Fanlore
• MarySue article about K/S
• Polygon article about Star Trek fanfiction
• Fansplaining podcast about slash
• Jill Bearup video about K/S

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.

On this episode of Mind the Tags, Kristin and Emily interview Alexandra Edwards, author of Before Fanfiction: Recovering the Literary History of American Media Fandom. We talk about Alexanda's fanfiction research and her own experience as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan on The Bronze. 

Check out Alexandra's book here!

Follow Alexandra on X here.

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.

On the first full-length episode of Mind the Tags, Kristin and Emily dive into the origins and early history of fanfiction and showcase their first word of the day: "fandom!"

Sources from today's ep: 

• Fanlore.org pages:
  • Fandom
  • Fanfiction
  • The Three Generations of Fanfic
• Before Fanfiction by Alexandra Edwards
• "Fan Fiction Was Just as Sexual in the 1700s as It Is Today" by Shannon Chamberlain

Thank you to Erik Potteiger for producing our song and Haflacky for our logo design.