The last time I wrote anything that was fictional was in 6th and 7th grade, when my BF and I basically created an entire RPF universe with people from school. We called it our "soap opera".

Published for profit doesn't un-fic it.

Right.

So then what is fic? Is it anything that isn't written by the original author? Whatabout once an author is dead but stuff is still "published" by her like V.C. Andrews?

Inquiring minds want to know.

There are only 2-3 fic authors out there who I can read (the rest of the genre almost literally gives me hives - even if it's really well written, I just can't for some reason), and even then most fandoms don't interest me all that much, so I read fic about once a year.

I'll make exceptions for pure comedy (which hits me in a different place than serious fic writing) and premises too intriguing to pass up (like that one Aubrey/Maturin where they were in space and Jack turned into a woman for some reason? yeah, that kind of premise).

I'll only read fic on someone's recommendation; sometimes I'll like it, sometimes I won't. Wicked (the book) made me a little cranky (did love the musical, though). I get unreasonably angry about the portrayal of Eeyore in the Tao of Pooh. If Brian Herbert's prequels to Dune count as fic, I certainly hate those (I hate them no matter what, but that may or may not be relevant. So it's a dicey area for me to poke into.

OTOH, I am like Sophia when it comes to mystery and scifi authors - I'll come upon one book I like and feel compelled to find d read everything else by that writer. It's almost inevitable that I'll eventually read something that is disappointing or that I'll out and out hate. So, not exactly safer.

If Brian Herbert's prequels to Dune count as fic, I certainly hate those (I hate them no matter what, but that may or may not be relevant.

If they're fic, they can't be canon, right? So yeah, I vote we count them as unfuckingbelievably bad fanfic.

like that one Aubrey/Maturin where they were in space and Jack turned into a woman for some reason?

That's two different stories, though they're part of the same series by the same author.

I do think fanfic as a term carries with a connotation of something that's not written for a profit, though. I'm trying to think of the fancy word given to stuff like Wicked and the Jane Austen spinoffs, and not coming up with it, though.

Wicked and the Jane Austen spinoffs

Also Wide Sargasso Sea. Basically.

I'm trying to think of the fancy word given to stuff like Wicked and the Jane Austen spinoffs, and not coming up with it, though.

Well, there's a whole long literary tradition of basically writing fic and there's been a ton of it in the last twenty years.

The first one I can think of is The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys which tells the story of Rochester's wife.

But there's been Ahab's Wife and Foe (Robinson Crusoe from the pov of Friday), Updike's rewrite of The Scarlet Letter etc. etc.

Yeah, Wide Sargasso Sea, H (which was a novel of Heathcliff's lost years) -- there are a lot of them. I think the literary community, since most of them usually deal with classics or the canon in one way or another, usually call them "reimaginings" or something.