If you are like me you tend to follow fiction as it releases via mainstream media. For those of you who like to explore new authors and writers of a variety of artforms used to tell a story, then FanFiction Plus is place you may know all too well. Now, FanFiction Plus has gone mobile. Available first as an Android app, it has made a strong showing as an iOS app, starting the summer of last year. If you don’t know what it’s all about, allow me to let you in on a few details.
FanFiction Plus has been available for some time now, as a website. So, if you have an account already, all you have to do is download the app and login. If you don’t have an account, you can create one in the app and get started right away. Once you are in, you will have access to a multitude of authors, genres and creators of a variety of entertainment media. Categories include:
- Books
- Movies
- Comics
- Cartoons
- Anime
- TV
- Plays
Across these various forms of fictional categories, you’ll get access to millions of stories that you can enjoy and critique, if invited to, to help in the process of building a better story. On a very basic user consumption level, you can perform all types of searches to find what you are interested in or you can throw caution to the wind and pick something at random. The beauty of this app is that you get to choose from so many up and coming artists who have something to share. You may discover something that becomes your new favorite.
For avid readers, there are so many short stories and books to choose from. As authors are putting their new chapters out there, you get a chance to read and review. Some may even ask for your opinion, allowing you to put your two cents in and help mold the final product. This could be a great learning experience for anyone looking to be a writer themselves. The biggest advantage to FanFiction Plus is that the content is free.
When you first download the app, you will like the ease with which you can navigate your way around. The background and layout are clean, making it easy to focus on the content. As you would expect with a good reader, you can change the background colors and fonts of text to cater to your needs, making the reading experience all yours.
When you find a story to read or watch, you simply add it to your library, which means you’ll be able to access it across all devices running FanFiction, and it will keep your place, so you don’t have to. If you are following a story that is “under construction” you can sign up to get alerts when it updates.
The feature I really liked was the text-to-speech option, allowing me to listen to my stories, so I could enjoy them while doing other things, which is especially useful during my dreary drives to and from work. It makes the commute much easier and it allows me to enjoy more content.
I would like to be able to easily discern which part of a story updated when I am alerted to updates. Sometimes, it is hard to tell what chapter or paragraph changed.
Other than that, this app is the tops. It has opened my eyes to new stories and writing styles and I have also heard from some friends whose high schoolers follow it that their writing has improved, as well. It’s a great app for discovering new stories and artists.
