darkfic

English

Etymology

From dark +‎ fic.

Noun

darkfic (countable and uncountable, plural darkfics)

1. (countable, fandom slang) A fanfic which deals with disturbing situations and themes.
   • 2000 February 10, Chris Schack, “Re: [Ranma] [FanFic] The Surprise Announcement”, in rec.arts.anime.fandom‎^[1] (Usenet):

     This is supposed to be a darkfic? Darkfics tend to involve a great deal of suffering and/or death.

   • 2010, John Lennard, Of Sex and Faerie: Further Essays on Genre Fiction, →ISBN, page 283 (footnote):

     'Tides' is not in the narrow, torture-room sense a darkfic but does provocatively posit great destruction and suffering.

   • 2013, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 116:

     Like other forms of revisions, darkfics are “canon-corrective,” and specifically aimed at what are considered to be underdeveloped “images of intense violence and broody introspection,” which, if dealt with at all in the canons, are “forgotten by the time the next episode or issue comes around” (Fanlore, “Darkfic” n. pag.).

2. (uncountable, fandom slang) Such fan fiction collectively.
   • 1998 January 27, MegaZone [username], “Re: Creating a Fanfic”, in rec.arts.anime.fandom‎^[2] (Usenet):

     If you are that sensitive and can't seperate^[sic] things, don't read darkfic - or fanfic in general.

   • 2006, Catherine Driscoll, “One True Pairing: The Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance”, in Karen Hellekson, Kristina Busse, editors, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 85:

     Fluffy romance differs dramatically from angst romance; the latter, however, usually conforms to the rule against sad endings (Radway 1984, 73), or becomes darkfic rather than romance.

   • 2013, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 116:

     Darkfic creates a sense of realism stretching beyond the canons, lingering on the physical effects of traumatic events, and reading characters' reactions from the perspective of human psychology.

Synonyms

• (fan fiction dealing with disturbing situations and themes): shockfic, sickfic