Three books that you may or may not know started as fan fiction

If you're a reader, you're probably familiar with platforms like Wattpad and AO3. Sometimes, when a series ends or has been stalled for a long time, we need a little fan fiction to help keep our hearts from exploding. We need somewhere to channel our love for the series and/or characters.

In fact, some popular books, series, and movies started out as fan fiction. As it turns out, renaming characters, taking out anything copyrighted, and tweaking the setting could make your fan fiction a work of art in its own right. That's exactly what these books and series did.

The Love Hypothesis

STEM romance queen Ali Hazelwood's debut novel actually began as fan fiction. Originally, the title was "Head Over Feet" and it followed the Star Wars characters Rey and Kylo Ren. She published this story on AO3.

Looking at the characters, the resemblances sure are uncanny. A tall and muscular and dark-haired grumpy man and a much shorter gal with brown hair... On one hand, it could be every romance novel ever, but it does sound a lot like the popular Reylo ship. And the deeper you dig, the closer the resemblances get.

Even so, Hazelwood took this fan fic and made it a staple for all the BookTok readers. Now, with the movie coming out later this year, it's the perfect time to check this book out if you haven't yet.

50 Shades of Grey

People are shocked when I tell them that 50 Shades is a fan fic. But if we look at the, uh, content, are we really that surprised about where it started?

The truth is, this series began as Twilight fan fiction of Edward and Bella, set in an alternate, all-human universe.

All E. L. James had to do was take out the explicit Twilight references and change the characters' names, and she was able to birth an entirely new, completely smutty story. (No shame to the smut readers!)

Alchemised

I think a lot of people already know this one, but if you haven't heard, this book started as a Draco and Hermione fan fic.

Author SenLinYu certainly put the work in, though. The author's story, though based heavily on those two characters, underwent massive rewrites to remove all of J. K. Rowling's intellectual property and swap out all names, setting, and conflicts. The story also features an entirely separate and distinct magic system from that of the Harry Potter books.

And the success of Alchemised has been massive, earning a major movie deal, too. So get ready to grab your popcorn!

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If you've learned anything today, I hope it is that publishing your own fan fiction could one day earn you a massively successful novel and a movie deal. Catch you next time, my fellow nerds!