Berit Glanz on Fan fiction  Doing it for the Plot

In her final language column, Berit Glanz explores the many faces of fan fiction. After all, who hasn’t dreamed of stepping into the spotlight as the hero – or even side character – of a thrilling or romantic tale?

The popular yet sometimes controversial format of self-insert stories has existed in fan fiction for a number of years. In these stories, readers place themselves into an already established fictional world. Often, the abbreviation Y/N (“your name”) is used as a placeholder for the protagonist’s name. The character is deliberately generic, allowing readers to project themselves easily into the role of the main character.

Stepping Into the Story

Our engagement with fiction is often tied to identification – we enjoy mentally immersing ourselves in imagined worlds. When fictional characters allow for such identification, it heightens the pleasure of reading or watching the story. In this sense, self-insert fan fiction is an extreme manifestation of this general phenomenon.

The online fanfiction community is especially good at understanding, analysing and creating stories. There are lively online debates about how and why narratives work, and over time, the community has developed a sophisticated vocabulary to describe tropes and narrative structures. Some terms, like Y/N, have even crossed into mainstream internet culture, eventually appearing again in memes.

Memes – a Playground for Side Characters

In November 2025, a new meme emerged on TikTok and Instagram that humorously highlights the perspective of side characters caught up in the romantic relationship between Y/N and a CEO. On BookTok, romance novels where protagonists enter into relationships with powerful CEOs or mafia bosses are extremely popular. The meme transforms this theme into funny videos that imagine how other characters in the story’s world react to the affair – such as having to deal with the mess left by the protagonist Y/N.

This meme belongs to a whole series of formats that humorously engage with storytelling phenomena. For years, short videos have circulated in which people parody themselves as the main character of a film, mimicking cinematic scenes set to soundtracks. These clips are not only comedic, they also reveal a sharp awareness of film clichés – bathroom singing scenes, reflective twilight walks – that filmmakers commonly use to characterise protagonists. The genre also includes videos that recreate the typical aesthetics of memory sequences for deceased characters: golden light, tender waking moments or playful beach scenes.

Driving the Plot

Some of these memes have entered everyday language. Perhaps the best example is the now ubiquitous “doing it for the plot”, in other words, doing something primarily for the sake of an interesting story.

It actually makes sense that people who constantly construct and share their own stories on social media eventually start to borrow the vocabulary they use to analyse narratives and discuss story structures. Sometimes, it even becomes a source of motivation, as they treat certain actions as moves to advance the “larger plot” of their own lives. Other times, it’s a playful acknowledgment that, more often than not, we’re simply the overlooked side character in the love story of Y/N.

January 2026