Fanfiction Rules!

I read a LOT of fanfiction, generally F/F stuff (that's girl on girl fanfiction for the uninitated) and thought it was time I did my own guide to what's absolutely fabulous out there.

Fanfiction varies hugely. HUGELY! There is some fantastic fanfiction around, and some total dross. My own personal bugbear is the badly written stuff, that is full of spelling and grammar errors that is just painful to read. While I applaud anyone for having a go (I've tried and my own is pretty awful generally) it is a trial to read a lot of the stuff out there.

F/F fanfic can also tend to forgo the plot for just sex, sex, sex! Dramatic tension is not something many young authors seem to grasp. Plotting and dialogue seems to be incidental to "moist folds" and "throbbing buds" eek!!

I started out with X Files Mulder/Scully fanfic, before getting into Xena:Warrior Princess Xena/Gabrielle stuff. In many ways, Xena was a huge leap for fanfic. Some really fabulous work came from Xena fans. I also read Star Trek:Voyager Janeway/Seven stories, Buffy Willow/Tara stories, UK TV show Bad Girls Helen/Nikki fanfic, X Files Dana Scully/Monica Reyes and Babylon 5 Ivanova/Talia Winters. fiction. Uber fiction is a big part of many of these stories too - taking the same characters but in different settings, and sometimes with different names.

More recently I moved on to Glee fanfiction. Bizarrely, the biggest femmeslash couples in fanfiction are ones that are not together on their TV shows, and Faberry (that's Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray for those not up on their portmanteaus!) fights it out for top spot with Rizzles (Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles from Rizzoli & Isles) and SwanQueen (a more imaginative name! Emma Swan and Regina 'the Evil Queen' Mill on Once Upon a Time). There are some fantastic Faberry stories, really good quality. Ditto on the SwanQueen fic too. However, not read that many really outstanding Rizzles stories - or that may just be that I've not found it!

I find Faberry a fascinating case as it really all started with the actors rather than the characters! When Glee started, Lea Michele and Dianna Agron gave lots of interviews together and were VERY touchy feely and spoke about how they lived together and how it was so hard being so mean to each other at work and then going home. Of course, they were 2 young actresses on their first network shows and no doubt it was all innocent enough(??). Watch Glee and you won't see much interaction that could be interpreted as attraction at all. As the Faberry faction grew, the girls were seen much less together and despite a few in-jokes in the last season, nothing really was ever seen on screen.
Unlike Rizzoli & Isles.
This is a show that really teases its lady loving audience A LOT. Jane and Maura spend a lot of time gazing lovingly at each other and it seems like they put in quite a bit of it for the fans. Male love interests have been around - but not for too long! They've pretended to be together a few times. They appear to virtually live together. The actors and producers are very ware of if but enjoy the tease.
Once Upon a Time is again a different case. This show has two strong women who initially clash frequently and their nose to nose confrontations were often quite charged. Of course from the actors and producers point of view, it was all pure animosity, but some saw this antagonistic relationship as more. In later seasons, they are friends and of course, share a son. Henry really does have two mommies and the show often shows them working together for their son. While the actors and the producers are aware of it, they seem surprised and not inclined to really even tease us! However as the last season ended with Emma sacrificing herself to the darkness to save Regina, SwanQueen lives on!

Another interesting pairing is Myka/Helena on Warehouse 13. This humourous fantasy show about artefacts with magican powers introduced HG Wells as a female Helena Wells played by Brit Jaime Murray in Season 2. Helena wavers between a goodie and a baddie, but almost straight away there was a spark between her and agen Myka Bering. Helena's off the cuff remark 'many of my lovers were men' in an episode had our ears perk up. What makes this pairing interesting is that it was pretty much all started by the actors! Jaime Murray has kissed a lot of girls on screen and is a favourite and she and Joanne Kelly apparently came up with the backstory that Myka and Helena had a thing going and looked at each other is a particular way in their scenes. Interestingly, gay male showrunner Jack Kenny didn't seem to be a fan. I listened to a podcast where Eddie McLintock was joking about them Myka and Helena being together and Kenny was quite negative about it. When HG returned in Season 4 living with a man, and then had no more scenes with Myka - indeed they hooked her up with Pete - it seemed our ship was sunk!

A few other couples to mention

Sarah/Cameron on The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Is it just our Leda Headey love showing? Another antagonistic relationship but some good stories came out of this fandom during the show's (too) short run.
Root/Shaw on Person of Interest. Lesbian pin up girl Sarah Shahi as Sameen Shaw seemed to capture the attention of hacker Root (geek favourite Amy Acker) when she was introduced. Shaw's apparent death in season 5 (not really, she is revealed to be alive thankfully!) was preceeded by a nice big smooch! The fiction around this show isn't very prolific but a few good ones.
Alex/Olivia on Law and Order: SVU. Looking at my introduction I realised I didn't mention this very important pairing in the history of femmeslash. One of the early fandoms that had some great writers working within it.
Cophine - that's Cosima and Delphine on Orphan Black. I love this show and this relationship is a really good one - and the most romantic one - on the show. Season 3 has left this ship on tenterhooks after Delphine was shot and fans are ready to be VERY angry if she is dead! The fanfic generated by the show is variable but some excellent stories.
Doccubus - Doctor Lauren and Bo the succubus on Lost Girl. This is a real relationship on the show and one of the most popular for lesbians as Bo is such a refreshingly angst free bisexual. Has there been a character who embraces her sexuality more on tv? No guilt about who she sleeps with, only who she kills/might kill! Love the relationship but I must admit, not that many great stories for me, although I've not read a lot in this fandom.
This page is my own personal recommendations of the best of fanfic out there. It's very VERY subjective of course, but hey, what can I say? It's all my own opinion!

Go to my Recommendations