Fanfiction has been around for a lot longer than people would think. Back in the early days of Star Trek, fanfiction spawned the term “Mary Sue” to describe female characters who are perfect in every way. With the introduction of the internet, fanfiction became easily accessible to those who both read and consume it. However, there is this idea that fanfiction is subpar to actual books. That it’s insulting to the canon that it’s taking from. Anyone who writes or reads it is wasting their time and energy which could be used to create their own worlds. Well, I would like to say that it’s not like that at all. As someone who regularly writes fanfiction, let me explain the reasons why I, at least, write it.
1) The source material
Look, if I hated something, I wouldn’t waste hours of my life writing a complex narrative with it. Yeah, I’ll write alternate endings or AUs (alternate universes) if I don’t like an aspect of the work. I personally love “everyone lives” AUs because I usually fall in love with characters who end up kicking the bucket or leave in some other way that I don’t want them to. More often than not, though, I write to add my own ideas to something I love. I’ll write about my favorite characters and allow them to grow in a way that the canon didn’t. To write this, you have to spend hours watching, reading or playing the source, so you have to have a love for it.
2) I have a creative outlet
For those who don’t regularly write, let me just say, it’s hard. A lot of the time, especially with fantasy, supernatural or science fiction, you have to connect all your major plot points, world build, character build and keep it interesting all at the same time. With fanfiction, at least some of that work is done for you. Yes, you can have an AU set in a completely different time period or a scenario that never happened or even your own characters, but you are still working with an established set of rules. It’s more relaxing for me. I do worry if I’m doing characterization correctly or if I got an in-universe fact wrong, but I’m not making it up as I go. I can get out all my creative juices and de-stress myself at the same time.
3) I can actually practice my creative writing
As stated above, writing is hard. In college, we sometimes don’t get a lot of time to spend doing stuff we love unless we’re taking a class on it. Rather than telling myself I need to work on my novel without a definitive goal other than “write it,” I can tell myself that I just need to hammer out a chapter. I even wrote a friend a thousand word story for a goofy idea we had together. They’re small and I don’t have any pressure to make it the best thing I’ve ever written, so I can just practice while having a little fun. When I work with characters that aren’t my own, I’m forced to use different voices, which has been a problem of mine. If there are important in-universe facts that I don’t want to change, I have to make sure I’m consistent with it. Also, I can get feedback on my writing when I post it to Ao3 or even fanfiction.net.
4) I’m giving people (and myself) something to enjoy
People write fanfiction for free and mostly for themselves. Trust me. When I started writing my multi-chapter Mass Effect fic, I didn’t think it’d be very popular, but I wanted what I was writing. However, I now have people leaving comments about how much they can’t wait for more. People generally enjoy reading fanfiction, even if other people look down at it like it’s some lesser form of writing. What other people write can have meaning in people’s lives. People can enjoy it. Even if it’s just a few people, it’s still entertainment people can get for free. Also, please remember the fact that it is free the next time you’re reading a fic and want to leave a rude comment.
5) I’m having fun
The most important thing to remember is that people are doing this for fun. Not for fame. Not for money. It’s for the pure enjoyment of the writer and they’re sharing it with you. The thing I love now feels more personal to me because I was able to do what I wanted in it. Some people believe in the purity of the source and that’s fine, but I like to make characters and scenarios for the universe that I love so much. It has more impact. That’s what makes it truly grand.