The Star Wars universe extends far beyond the original and prequel trilogies; there are hundreds of books, comics, video games, and other media in which our favorite galaxy far, far away has been explored. And Star Wars fans aren't content to just consume: they want to create.

There are Star Wars fans out there that are so into George Lucas' magnum opus that they're happy to spend hours writing stories based in the Star Wars universe. Here are six websites you can visit to read, search, write, and share Star Wars fan fiction.

What Is Fan Fiction? (And Why Should You Read It?)

Fan fiction, as the name implies, is fiction written by fans of a particular work. That work could be Star WarsHarry PotterThe Chronicles of Narnia, CSI, romance novels, Westerns, and anything else that you can possibly imagine. Thousands of people around the world enjoy writing and want to not only read, but take part in, their favorite stories.

You would be mistaken for thinking fan fiction originated recently with Star Trek or vampire books; Alice in Wonderland generated fan fiction in the early 20th century. Sherlock Holmes fan fiction was written in the late 1800s. There's even a historical record suggesting that some unauthorized sequels to Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded were published in 1741.

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And while fan fiction has a very strong presence in Star TrekHarry PotterStar Wars, and other similarly modern fantastic works, there is plenty of other fan fiction out there. People bring their experiences, thoughts, and narrative styles to these stories to create works that the original authors never would have dreamed of.

The act of reading isn't passive, it's active, and to what degree it's active depends on the reader and how they relate to a work. Many times, that relation takes the form of writing (I once wrote a fan fiction prequel to The Magician's Nephew for NaNoWriMo, and let me tell you, it makes you read a book in a whole new way).

So whether you're interested in writing Star Wars fan fiction as a way to engage with the massive universe in a new way, you want to read some new perspectives and unique takes on the Star Wars mythos, or you just want to see what all this "fanfic" stuff is about, welcome to the world of Star Wars fan fiction. It's a wild and fascinating one.

FanFiction.net

If you want any kind of fan fiction, FanFiction.net is a great place to start looking. And with over 29,000 pieces of Star Wars fan fiction, there's something for every Star Wars fan here. It can be hard to get started, but clicking on Filters and changing the Sort option to Favorites will put the most highly rated stories first.

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You can sort using all sorts of other elements too, so whether you're looking for novel-length fan fiction, short stories, certain characters, or specific genres, you can search specifically for those too. You can find a huge variety of ideas and storylines here, from horror to family drama to time travel. New stories are posted all the time, so if you're looking for a go-to Star Wars fan fiction site, this is probably your best bet.

TheForce.net [Broken URL Removed]

One of the largest and most important Star Wars fan sites, TheForce.net's fan fiction archive contains a wealth of stories. Although it hasn't been updated since 2011, there's enough content here to keep you occupied for quite a while.

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As with FanFiction.net, each story has a rating, so you can focus on the higher-rated stories if you want. You can't sort by rating, but the advanced search does give you the ability to filter by genre, timeframe (from ancient history to the time of the trilogies to the New Jedi Order era and into the Star Wars future), and characters.

Dragon's Library [Broken URL Removed]

Although this list was created in 2002 or so, hasn't been updated since then, and has a smaller selection of fan fics than other sites, it is at least a curated list, which means that each story has been chosen for its high quality. Of course, the person doing the curating is the judge of that, so you may or may not agree with the choices.

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The stories here cover quite a range of styles and timelines, and there are a number of short series that you can get absorbed in. Which makes this is a good place to get your feet wet if you're jumping into Star Wars fan fiction for the first time. Maybe if enough people start using the page again, we'll see an update!

All the Tropes Star Wars Fan Fiction Recs

This is a page on the All the Tropes wiki where fans of Star Wars fan fiction can post their recommendations. The recommendations are split into categories, so you can look at stories that are in the trilogy timeline, take place in the expanded universe, are humorous, or involve character romances (known as "Shipping" stories).

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Because these are user recommendations, there's really no telling what you'll find here. However, read through the list and you're sure to find something that you like.

Archive of Our Own

A site dedicated to "transformative works," which includes fan fiction, fan art, and podfics (fan fiction authors reading their fics aloud). This is a very active community; I'm writing this article in the early afternoon, and there are already eight entries for today. If you spend some time looking around the site, you'll see that it's absolutely huge, and constantly growing.

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As with the sites listed above, you can sort by a variety of things, like genre, warnings, ratings, characters, and relationships (though the possibilities for sorting are rather limited). If the tags are any indication, this archives features a lot of fan fiction exploring the relationships between characters.

Star Wars Fanon

This is an entire wiki devoted to "fanon," or fan fiction. In addition to a very large repository of fan fiction, there are categories for characters, places, battles, organizations, events, and more. There's even a collaborative writing project that you can take part in (if you love writing, but starting up your own story sounds intimidating, trying a collaborative story project is a great way to get started).

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Finding your way around the site isn't easy, but once you get the hang of it, you can usually find the kinds of stories you're looking for. It might help to open a Wikia account and change your layout preference to "Monobook"—this is the layout used in the screenshot above.

A Great Time for Star Wars Fan Fiction

With the release of The Force Awakens only a few months away, more and more people are getting excited about the Star Wars universe. Lifelong fans, newbies to the scene, and people who used to only have a passing interest are reading, watching, and writing more about Star Wars than ever before. It's a great time for Star Wars fan fiction.

Whether you're a long-time Star Wars fanfic aficionado or a newcomer to the genre, we want to hear all about what you have found in your searches. Please scroll to the comments below to either share your favorite stories and collections, let us know if you're a fanfic writer yourself, or tell us which fan communities you're a part of.