Glee has been a television and cultural phenomenon since its debut in 2009. Centring around a high school glee club in the fictional town of Lima, Ohio, the series has made household names of its stars Lea Michele, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison. The cast’s musical recordings have broken chart and touring records, while the producers have launched a successful companion reality series entitled “The Glee Project”, which seeks to find new singers for the mother series.

However, now in its third season, Glee is facing a number of challenges both on and offscreen, the latest of which is the announcement that this summer will not see the cast embark on a US and UK tour, one which proved to be one of the most successful tours of 2011. While FOX insists that the absence of a tour this year is simply a way of giving give the cast a break after three years of continuous work, the decision comes as the latest in a line of challenges which the show has had to face in recent times.

Firstly, the show has experienced a steady ratings decline during this season. In its last airing on February 14, Glee garnered 6.99 million viewers, down 24% from its season premiere on September 20. More worrying, on a year-to-year scale this marked a 34% decline from the 10.53 million it attracted on February 15, 2010.

This comes in spite of high-profile tributes to West Side Story, Michael Jasckson, and a well-publicised episode depicting several major characters losing their virginities. The series has even started being beaten in the coveted 18-49 demographic by new comedy series New Girl, which airs straight after Glee on FOX’s Tuesday night line-up.

Secondly, the show has come under intense scrutiny over the long-term futures of its stars Lea Michele, Corey Monteith, Dianna Agron and Chris Colfer, among others, as their characters approach graduation. At first, reports surfaced that several of the departing characters would be spun-off into their own series set in New York, depicting them attending a performing arts school, with even Colfer releasing a statement indicating his probable departure at the end of season three.

However, those rumours were later dismissed by show runner Ryan Murphy, but confusion remains over how exactly the stars would continue to figure into the show’s storylines once their characters have graduated.

Thirdly, Glee’s attempt to segue onto the big-screen got off to a lukewarm start when ‘Glee: The 3D Concert Movie‘ failed to perform as well as expected, grossing just $18 million at the box office. The movie opened to mixed critical reviews, and its failure marked the first significant sign of the franchise’s vulnerability after just two years of production.

Finally, but perhaps not surprisingly, the series has gone out of fashion with major award voters. Despite winning three Emmys for its freshman season, that tally decreased to one for its sophomore season, and the show walked away empty-handed at both this year’s Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

This is not surprising as Glee has been accused repeatedly of uneven storytelling and relying too heavily on stunt casting, with the last 12 months featuring appearances by Gwyneth Paltrow, Ricky Martin, Britney Spears and John Stamos. Add that to the fifteen actors already comprising the main cast, and the criticism begins to take on merit.

Ratings-wise, Glee has never been the number one show on television – it has yet to rank in the top 30 for a whole season – but its online presence, chart records and critical buzz have ensured it a prime spot on FOX’s broadcast schedule. Yet, facing a continuing ratings decline, the potential loss of its stars and dwindling industry support; FOX’s former powerhouse may be in need of some significant revamping if it hopes to stick to the same formula and with the same cast members for its as-yet-unconfirmed fourth season.

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Fanfiction, just as the name describes, is fiction that is written by a fan to satisfy imaginative curiosity and devotion. Anything that has a fan base has Fanfiction being written for it. The current strongest example of Fanfiction at this time would be Harry Potter. With more than 500,000+ stories based on the Harry Potter universe, it has become a thriving hub of fandom and fan expression.

Written in more than 36 languages and with some stories reaching a 500k word count, this is a powerful force not to be taken lightly. Writers of Fanfiction may change the story to suit their own interests, but one thing that remains unyielding is the respect for the original author or creator.

Often including an anonymous username, a standard disclaimer exists for each story and usually becomes an ode to the original creator. Fanfiction writers often pay homage to their favorite creators in lengthy paragraphs before a story begins. This not only sets the stage for the changes that a Fanfiction author makes, but also legally covers the new writer from infringement issues.

One aspect of Fanfiction writing that is vastly different from the regular publishing medium is that there are rarely editors at the beginning of a first chapter publishing. Often, first chapters are published with only the editing done by the writer. The Fanfiction is in its most raw form here, and even veteran Fanfiction writers need a beta. A beta reader helps catch mistakes in grammar, formatting, and spelling.

Successful writers and editors of Fanfiction are often also writers and editors of some kind in real life. Many Fanfiction authors grow to become published writers of original fiction. Thus, Fanfiction helps their development as writers. Conversely, there are also published authors that sometimes publish Fanfiction to experiment with different plots or even gauge fan responses.

The mind of a writer, regardless of traditional fiction or Fanfiction, is a curious mind, so it is not surprising to see either of the aforementioned actions developing. Yet, beyond the edits and the changes, the act of writing is very much like a conventional authorship. The path to writing a Fanfiction is the same and is actually often filled with just as much research as a traditional writer. The research a traditional author does is usually specific to their niche of writing.

Science fiction writers will research science, and military fiction writers will research the military. A Fanfiction writer, on the other hand, has another layer of research on top of that. Fanfiction itself builds on a world that is already formed, so research into the rules and history of that universe is also a key aspect to developing a good Fanfiction story.

In the case of Harry Potter Fanfiction, there are writers who know nearly as much about Harry Potter as J.K Rowling herself. It may be hard to believe, but every interview, every piece of literature and movie that is publicly visible is taken into account for the vast database that is compiled for Harry Potter research.

The same process is true for Fanfiction on virtually any other entertainment medium that the human race has invented. In some cases, there is even Fanfiction created by Fanfiction authors that spawn their own Fanfiction. A complex case of Fanfiction life that imitates Fanfiction art imitating original fictional writing.

Fanfiction on Harry Potter, specifically, has grown into its own subculture, with websites that come up with data on Harry Potter through scientific knowledge and educational guesses based purely on a world created by one person. That is the power of Fanfiction, to influence lives and to build on worlds that fans love so much they cannot help, but write more about it. The media is not blind to it, so there have been authors and actors interviewed about Fanfiction based on their characters, created or portrayed.

Only recently, Ralph Fiennes from the Harry Potter movies read a few lines of Fanfiction on a nationally broadcasted program during an interview on Bravo TV. Thus, as an extension for another aspect of writing, technology has now allowed us in the last decade to shape and change the way stories are spread between different cultures.

Other notable Fanfiction topics that have developed a large following are the Japanese Anime Naruto,  the Twilight literary series, Marvel’s X-Men, Star Wars, and Glee, just to name a few. Written in more languages than most major universities teach and with more growing acknowledgement, Fanfiction is sure to grow stronger, so long as there are worlds created by others to further expand and connect the imaginations of everyone.

Image Courtesy of    https://www.facebook.com/harrypottermovie

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