Sarah Loch’s introduction to fanfiction was through the Netflix show Supernatural. “I don’t remember what led me to the first Supernatural fanfiction, I just know that it didn’t take long before I was well and truly hooked,” she said. After binge-watching the TV show on Netflix, she discovered fanfiction as an opportunity to consume more of her favorite content, characters and storylines. Then after exploring some fanfic stories and not being able to find the right type of material she wanted to read, she began writing her own.
“Writing it down for the first time was an incredible experience,” said Loch. “That fic isn’t one of my most popular, but it’s still the longest work I’ve ever completed and I learned so much from writing it.”
Loch may consider herself relatively new to the fanworks community, but she’s already submitted more than 500,000 words of fanfic on the Archive of Our Own (AO3), writing for at least eight different fandoms. As a writer of fanfiction, Sarah relies heavily on fair use protections to ensure that her work is protected. So far, she has been fortunate not to run into any copyright challenges or be faced with any DMCA takedown notices.
“I’m lucky to write primarily for fandoms where the rights holders either openly encourage fanworks or at the least understand that fandom helps grow their bottom line,” said Loch. “Restrictions on allowable content that can be posted online would most likely be the death knell of my fanfiction writing and my original fiction work.”
For Loch, the most rewarding part of being a member of the fanfic community has been meeting other fanfiction writers who share the same interests as her. “We rely on the internet, not only for fiscal support, but for the emotional support of being connected to a larger community of people who share our interests,” she said.
Building off her fanfiction passions, Loch hopes to one day become a published young adult fiction writer. “Humanity has been telling stories since before we had written language. In whatever form future technology takes, we will continue to tell stories. I just want to be a part of that,” reflected Loch.