The University of Connecticut Rainbow Center hosted Fanfic Night on Sept. 22, inviting good vibes and creativity to the space. The center, located on the fourth floor of the student union, was created to promote equity and provide a welcoming community for LGBTQ+ people at UConn.
Fanfic Night was advertised on the Rainbow Center’s Instagram as a place to “Learn about history of fandom, play fanfic games, and write your own (fan fiction) while chatting with like-minded people!”
One of the event organizers, Poorna Choudhuri, a fifth semester law, rights and business major, expanded more on what inspired the event.
“When we were talking with a lot of people who come by the center… they were in homes where they couldn’t outright find queer media.” Choudhuri said. “I think a lot of people turned to fan fiction to find queer media, and I saw that there was a huge correlation between queer people and finding comfort in fandoms and fan fiction because they felt understood there.”
Co-event organizer Vergil Hart, a fifth-semester structural biology and biophysics major, was amazed by the turnout.
“I’m very excited about the turnout.” Hart said, “I knew that it was going to be popular because so many people are passionate about fan fiction, but I had no idea that we were almost going to run out of room in our space.”
After introductions, there was a brief overview of the history of fan fiction writing — like how the origins of fan fiction writing date back to Star Trek and the “shipping” of Captain Kirk and Spock. Fans of the show, taking inspiration from scenes they believe have homoerotic undertones, would write their own stories expanding on these dynamics. The genre became popular on the internet with the rise of platforms like Wattpad, Tumblr and Archive of our own
The writing workshop began shortly after. They played a game called “Trope Exchange,” sharing many commons plot points in the fan fiction genre. Each person wrote three tropes, put them into a hat then took turns drawing a trop from the hat. They then had 45 minutes to write a fan fiction piece using their chosen trope.
I talked to Ella Figlar, a first-semester speech, language and hearing sciences major, about her writing ideas and gave a brief overview of the “Omegaverse” trope. The omega-verse is described as a hierarchy of dominance akin to wolves.
“It’s like a set of second genders, essentially. There’s alpha, omega, and betas. alphas are strong sigma males.” Figlar explained. “Then there’s betas who are just normal people as they make up most of the population. Omegas are — the only different thing about them is that they can get pregnant.”
We also discussed her piece that focused on the band One Direction and a couple of its members.
“We decided to do Larry Stylson: Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.” said Figlar. Very fun stuff, I say.
The event concluded with those who were comfortable sharing aloud the stories they drafted. A good time, that was very accommodating to those who participated.
Events like this with a topic that is not referred to much on campus are a good way for those interested to talk about the interest.
“I found it was really niche,” Alexa Malerba, a seventh-semester communications major, said. She also added the importance of events like this on campus.
“I feel like they bring community together,” Malerba said. They bring a lot of people together, and it helps to meet new people, make new friends, potentially form long lasting friendships.”
I highly recommend checking out The Rainbow Center for fun, inclusive events that may tailor to your niche.