Fanfiction is defined by Urban Dictionary as: “Fanfiction is when someone takes either the story or characters (or both) of a certain piece of work, wheter it be a novel, tv show, movie, etc, and create their own story based on it.”
I know that fanfiction is really easy to brush off and call it nonsense and horrible, but why? Now, if you’re thinking about 50 Shades of Gray and how it was originally Twilight fanfiction and are loading up your cannons, hold on a second before you light that fuse.
We all have that one book, show, or movie that we absolutely love. We get entranced by the characters and their stories, and they inspired us. In our excitement, we begin to imagine potential storylines and let the world take us away. Is there anything wrong with that?
No.
So, when it comes to fanfiction, why is it so easy to attack? It really makes no sense.
Instead of keeping the feelings of being swept away within us, we create our own stories about our favorite band of characters. It gives us the freedom to express our love with other fans, and ultimately, it gets people reading and writing. We are writing the stories we want to read.
Isn’t that what writing is all about?
Yeah, not all fanfiction is written well and it sometimes becomes saturated with sex, but so do “real” and published works of fiction. Is there really any difference between the two? The main difference is that one is a published in the traditional sense, and the other is usually on the Internet specifically written for other members of that fandom.
I personally do not write fanfiction, but there’s absolutely no reason to put down people for doing so. They’re writing and reading something, and that’s what is important. People are exercising their creativity through a different medium, and that is great. If it makes them happy, and makes them feel like apart of a community of other fans, then keep on writing.
Megan Larson 