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Though the term was not coined until 2000 by the editors of the fiction-hosting site Englishchick, critique of poorly written fanfiction has been around just as long as fanfiction itself. As early as 1973, tropes that were considered low quality by the majority of other writers in the fandom were critiqued in fan zines. That same year, the Star Trek fanzine The Menagerie published a story titled “A Trekkie’s Tale” to satirize the frequent appearance of overly idealized original characters in fanfiction stories, as encapsulated in the female protagonist character Mary Sue.
“Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,” thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise. “Here I am, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet – only fifteen and a half years old.” Captain Kirk came up to her.
“Oh, Lieutenant, I love you madly. Will you come to bed with me?”
“Captain! I am not that kind of girl!”
“You’re right, and I respect you for it. Here, take over the ship for a minute while I go get some coffee for us.”
Mr. Spock came onto the bridge. “What are you doing in the command seat, Lieutenant?”
“The Captain told me to.”
“Flawlessly logical. I admire your mind.”
Badfics are often characterized by their poor grammar, absence of a plot and vague sex scenes. The authors of these stories tend to put sincere efforts in the writing process and unintentionally gain notoriety as a result of various shortcomings and lack of experience. Instead of the serious response the author was hoping to elicit, many of these types of stories yield an ironic “so bad it’s good” type of appreciation.
Online communities devoted to discussing and sharing such poorly written stories began popping up in 1998 with the creation of the Godawful Fan Fiction Archive (shown below, left). The next year, two more communities were created, Citizens Against Bad Slash (shown below, right) and Englishchick, the latter of which went on to coin the term “Badfic.” Similar groups also emerged on fanfiction.net, such as WTFfics and Crapfics That Will Hurt Your Brain, to highlight notorious examples of badfics as well as generally weird excerpts found in stories submitted to the site.
In 2001, Something Awful featured a series of poorly written short stories authored by people who hated the fandom in question. In 2006, LiveJournal user svmadelyn held the Badfic Summary Mini-Ficathon, a 48-hour workshop event during which more than 70 participants wrote and submitted trollfic stories. Since then, more than 350 questions have been asked about bad fanfic on Yahoo! Answers. Selections from these works are also available on Tumblr under the tag #badfic, where some users will sometimes add the text into a poorly drawn image.
On LiveJournal, communites like Twitchfic and WTF Fanfiction? specialize in collecting badfics from across the web and dividing them into categories and fandoms, sometimes also providing dramatic readings of certain instances. On Blogspot, Crap Fic Theater also offers dramatic readings of various badfics. The Protectors of the Plot Continuum also put special sections on their Wikia for badfics, with a separate page for ones considered legendary, which contains shockfics such as Agony in Pink and Cupcakes.
Trollfic is a subgenre that takes the elements of badfics to an extreme level for comedic effect. The core distinction between the two lies in that the author of the latter type intends to write poorly for either the sake of humor or to satirize other badfics. Due to the main difference being the author’s intent, it can be hard to tell a trollfic and a badfic apart. Various examples of trollfics can be easily found on Tumblr and the Fanfiction.net community, which has logged at least 970 stories as of October 2012. Outside of fanfiction, similar examples of trollfics can be found in creepypasta stories like THEN WHO WAS PHONE as well as bait-and-switch copypasta stories.
Badfics are often used as content for dramatic readings, oral interpretation commonly used in reader’s theater where a reader would read a story in a dramatic voice. Because of the abnormal situations presented in a badfic, along with the commonly found bad grammar, dramatic readings often create hilarious results. Certain fanfictions, like Half-Life: Full Life Consequences, also gained more popularity due to the videos created of it.
WTF Fanfiction Tumblr
The Tumblr blog WTF Fanfiction takes texts of confusing or absurd moments found in fanfics, making them into shareable image macros. These are also shared through their Twitter account. The popularity of the site has also resulted in spin-off blogs such as WTF Pony Fanfiction, which specializes in fanfics from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom.
My Immortal, often described as The Worst Fanfiction Ever, is a fanfic that takes place in the Harry Potter universe and was created by fanfiction.net user Tara Gillesbie. It became famous for containing a large number of spelling and grammatical errors and sudden unexplained sex scenes. The story may have been a trollfic, but its origin has yet to be confirmed.
Half-Life: Full Life Consequences
Half-Life: Full Life Consequences was created by fanfiction.net user Squirrelking, who had already earned notoriety on the site for his stories with grammatical and spelling errors. The poorly written fanfic didn’t take off until a dramatic reading was created, which was later turned into a Garry’s Mod machinima, shown below.
DOOM: Repercussions of Evil
DOOM: Repercussions of Evil is an amateur fanfiction written by fanfiction.net user Peter Chimaera that takes place in the universe of the videogame DOOM. The notorious short story gained a large following for its carefree grammar and punctuation. Similar to My Immortal, it is often questioned whether the fanfic was perhaps a trollfic. The story also gained popularity through the snowclone catchphrase “No, X. You are the Y”, which pokes fun at the ridiculous plot twist at the end.