I'm uncertain about posting this topic, but I can't think of anywhere else to do so and expect anything resembling a fruitful discussion. Also, it might be taken as commitment; I'm afraid of wasting my time haring off in the wrong direction or even pursuing this idea, period. Oh, this is my pessimism, as you can see he's very healthy...

To boil down How to Read a Fanfiction to six words:

Fanfiction is good for culture.

The question is, how best to amplify these sixfive words into a sticky opening chapter, much less a coherent manuscript that provides evidence for that position.

For instance, I know I have strong feelings about the thorny issue of copyright and its excesses, [1] but I need to figure out more ways to elaborate on the idea. The last thing I need is to tear off a manuscript that just bangs on and on about 'four legs good current copyright model bad'.

So far, I suspect I'll need to include a little history of fanfic for people who think it's all gay sex between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy/Voldemort/Optimus Prime, or Gary Stu power fantasies, or whacking the lead singer of One Direction in the balls. [2]

Also, my models for this work are the Awa Press Ginger Series [3] of short works, which tend to include records of hobnobbage with respected experts in their fields. Seeing as I've never hobnobbed with well-known fanfiction writers and never will, this might be troublesome.

So, I post this in the forlorn hope that you may be able to provide ideas or illumination that this humble dimbulb lacks. Or tips on how to make the work fit for human consumption. Or put down my pessimism. He's very healthy you know.

Step one: Decide if Fan Fiction is one word or two.
Step two: Count the words the same way you decided in step one:
Step three: Look a lot more like you know where your towel is.

But seriously, for copyright, I suspect that there will be a lot of nuances based on whether the source material is itself a literary work. Here we write FF based on a video game series, but with the novelization of some of that material, the FF becomes greyer than it was. There's a "prior art" argument since some it was written before the sanctioned books, and we're probably safer avoiding that material. But that's a consideration for writing one, not reading it. If you're discussing the interpretation of derivative works, it's probably not an issue to bring up.

In music "Variations on a theme of ..." are often more highly considered than the original. The important thing is acknowledging the source, and giving credit where it's due. I write FF based on my mods to TES games, which is a second level of derivation, and those also use content from other mods, so there's some additional levels involved. The modding analogy may also be useful to your project, especially in this case where it's actually encouraged by the provision of the CS/GECK/CK tools.

That's actually a good point. I came to writing fanfic from the Quake modding community, so the idea of celebrating, elaborating on, spinning off from, or questioning the canon (such as it was; id Software's 'Start here; Go there; Thank you for not dying' plots can fit on the back of a cigarette packet) was more or less second nature.

At the same time, I want to avoid the whole narrative being me talking about me and asking rhetorical questions.

I also find myself generalising to cover other forms of fan art, such as illustration, filk, short films and so forth; the media that tell stories.

And at some stage I'll have to discuss the notion of quaternary intertextuality as well. There's two sides to the story: personal credentials on one, and academia on the other. I wonder if I still have a copy of that paper from my university days...