I’ve talked in length about my history with Hey Arnold! fanfiction.
What you may not realize is that my first COMPLETED fanfic was not about Hey Arnold! – it was actually a crossover between Pokémon and Barney the purple dinosaur.
In 1998 I created a website on Angelfire dubbed Pokécutie; it was a fanpage dedicated to all the cute characters from the original 150 roster.
The page was a moderate success; I had a very tiny but active audience if my guestbook was any indication (remember guestbooks?!), and I got my first taste of web design and learning how to code with HTML.
The centrepiece of Pokécutie was the fanfiction section. Nestled within was a link to a simple text page ( later “improved” to a garish eyesore combo of blue and purple courtesy of my fledgling HTML skills) that sent unsuspecting visitors to my infamous creation, Barney vs. Pokémon.
In contrast to the kid-friendly content that made up the rest of the site, BVP was like the hot coffee mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
It was crass, peppered with vulgar language, and chockful of what I thought was the pinnacle of humour to my 11 year-old brain.
I hadn’t realized it then, but I had created a troll fic.
According to allthetropes.com, a troll fic is a deliberately offensive, intentionally bad and poorly-written piece of fanfiction intended to annoy and antagonize its audience. The best examples of such a piece are My Immortal, the Mary Sue Harry Potter concoction that launched a thousand memes and parodies, and Half-Life: Full Life Consequences.
It’s been over 20 years since I wrote the abomination that was Barney vs. Pokémon….and you know something? I’m still proud of it to this day.
Even after I lost the ability to edit my page in the early 2000s, I was still able to find my fanfic, and anonymously share it on occasion. Surprisingly, it had a brief second life nearly a decade after its inception.
This got me to think of troll fics in a new light: is there actual merit in writing something that’s intentionally bad? I believe there is – here are some of the unsung, unexpected reasons you should pen the next horrible piece of fan literature:
Troll Fics Get You Writing
You can’t get better unless you start. Sure, you may create epic Dumpster fire of a troll fic, but you can at least take comfort in knowing than when you DO start writing seriously you will create something worthwhile.
Troll Fics Let You Flex Your Creative Muscles (No Holds Barred)
Wanna create an AU-high school Attack on Titan/Miraculous Ladybug slash fic with gratuitous violence? Sure, be my guest! The beautiful thing about fanfiction is that there are no rules; this is especially true with the troll fic. Allow your creativity to run rampant with the most absurd plot points you can imagine.
You Get to Have Fun Writing a Troll Fic
War and Peace does not a troll fic make. You’re not writing for a publication or for a school assignment; the story you create is 100% you, and in no way are you obligated to even publish the thing for public consumption. That said…
With Troll Fics, You Learn How to Elicit an Emotional Response from Your Readers
The worst type of media is not an awful story, it’s a mediocre one. When a movie comes out, people are quick to praise it if it’s a masterpiece, and lampoon it if it’s a hot mess. Whether the reaction to your work is positive or negative, you’ve at least tapped into the emotions of your reader. That is a skill that’s worth honing for when you write something for which you truly feel passionate.
So…what say you? Are troll fics a boon are a bane to the fanfiction community? What advice would you give to write the ultimate troll fic? Leave your comments down below!