Real Person Fiction (often known as RPF) is a type of fan fiction centering on or featuring celebrities, or real people, hence its moniker.

At one point words like actorfic were (and, in some instance, still are) used to refer to this type of fan fiction, due to the fact that it was mostly written about actors. More recently, however, the genre has branched out to include other celebrities. These include singers, television personalities, bands (more popularly boy bands such as *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys), and even politicians.

Previously, the community dedicated to such stories was mainly located on a major fan fiction website, FanFiction.net. However, when the Real Person Fiction section was removed from this website (along with all stories rated higher than an NC17 rating), the community migrated into smaller, less popular websites and story archives.

Like all fan fiction, Real Person Fiction has stories with ratings from G to NC17. Often, these stories take the form of a self insertion or Mary Sue, due to the nature of people wishing to meet and interact with their idols.

Real Person Slash

Real Person Slash (RPS) became popular with boy bands, with male members said to be involved in romantic relations with another male member of the band (and sometimes more than one). It is a type of slash fiction which is equal in popularity to Real Person Fiction. With the popularity of different bands in the general age bracket of the Real Person Slash community, various other bands became popular. On the website Fanfiction Log, the largest categories - before it was closed due to financial issues in 2004 - were Linkin Park and Good Charlotte, much of which was slash.

Various members of the community are under the belief that a celebrity is involved in a relationship with another celebrity, and go as far as to spend large amounts of time searching for proof of this relationship.

Just as frequently as Real Person Fiction, these stories take the form of a male self insertion, sometimes known as Marty Stu or Gary Stu, who is written to be in a relationship with an actor or band member. These are uncommon, compared to Mary Sue stories.

Controversy

The legality of Real Person Fiction is debated, as is that of all types of fan fiction. But to date, unlike traditional fictional person fiction, there has only been issued one known Cease & Desist letter to a website hosting real person fan fiction. This Cease & Desist was sent to FanDomination.Net on March 17, 2003. It was sent by a representative of one of the members of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. There is also the moral consideration that the author is not merely using characters that belong to someone else, but that these characters are real people.

In an attempt to avert possible legal action, websites which host stories involving real people include a piece of disclaiming text, which can also be found on many other fan fiction websites. Some authors also include these disclaimers in the header of their stories.

Links

• Fandomination
• FanWorks.org