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Fanfiction: Is it "worth it"?
This a question I've been interested in for a while now. As a disclaimer, I don't think any less of fanfiction writers, my question is closer to this: I have ideas for fanfiction. But everytime I want to write fanfiction, I feel like my time could be "better spent" creatively on my original writing. Like I'm doing a disservice to my own creativity if I build my ideas off a preexisting universe.
So: do you write fanfiction? Do you feel like it's the same as "original writing"? How do you separate the two in your own mind in terms of their merit, if at all?
Let me know your thoughts. Hopefully I haven't offended anyone with my question. :(
Edit:
Just wanted to say thanks again for all the awesome and thoughtful answers I got yesterday for this question. It made me super happy and I got to think about a lot. This community blows other ones out of the water.
I ended up starting out the planning for my fanfic as a result! Maybe I'll post it on Imzy one of these days. :3
Thanks again!




I'm not a fanfic writer, but I can tell you any writing is good writing. It teaches you how to craft sentences, build plots, and just gets you to practice. It takes a lot of practice to get good at this writing thing--the common idea is 10,000 hours (1 million words) to become a pro. So I wouldn't worry about it. If you're having fun, working on your craft, and refilling your creative energy by writing fanfic, then go for it! Without guilt!
Yes, so much this. If you start writing your magnum opus on the same day you start writing, sorry, but it's gonna be a pile of shit. Get good at writing however you write, and doing it because you enjoy it. If you're only writing with the intent of creating the next big best seller and becoming rich, you're never going to get there anyways. Because those 10,000 hours are long if you don't enjoy it, and you'll have to throw away everything you wrote in the beginning anyways. If fan fiction sparks your imagination or makes you want to write more, you're going to end up a way better writer for having done it than not.
I always say fic is like cooking a meal for your friends, and pro-writing is like having a foodcart. They're both fun and interesting, and you can do both at the same time, but if you just want to knock back a few and not stress over the price of city licensing and what the competition is doing, it's better to stick with the hobby side.
I enjoy the challenge of writing fic, keeping to canon, coming up with new ways to say things. But mostly I love the interaction with other fans. They're my people. I have no desire to take any of my original ideas and work them out then launch into the whole business thing.
I love this!
Love this analogy!! So perfect.
This is great! What a fantastic analogy.
For the most part, I'm solely a fanfic writer. There really isn't any specific rhyme or reason; some universes inspired me to write, and that's it. I think there is a lot of misconception about the "universe" concept in fanfiction - especially once you get to crossovers - in that there's some rule that writers must stay within it. Beyond just AU stuff, just like any creative fiction, you can do whatever you want with it. I think the actual definition of fanfiction is pretty subjective.
Something I think is a unique challenge in fanfic writing is keeping a canon character...well, in character. Of course, some deliberately write main characters OOC, but for the most part people want to create new experiences and stories based on the original creator's concept. So you kind of learn how to play by the rules before you can break them when it comes to character development and worldbuilding - in your own original world you can do whatever you want and justify it, so I think that's a benefit to writing fanfic. The behavior of canon characters, I've noticed, is definitely a measure of quality in fanfiction.
Neither is better or worse. I write as a hobby, not profession or goal, so if I change my mind and decide to start writing original stuff, that's cool. And if not, I'm happy where I am right now :)
I also find that a lot of my original story ideas come from watching a show or reading a book and thinking an idea could have been expanded more, so it just makes sense to do it right there in the story too.
I think some people look down on fanfiction because its a hobby you can never make any money off of (well, unless you change the names and publish, but thats a whole nother argument). And because you can never get any monetary value from it, the effort is wasted. But any hobby you're enjoying yourself with isn't a waste, and hey, you're still building up writing skills and learning how to entertain an audience by doing it. As for the creativity thing...in my experience, writing fic doesn't mean you're being less creative, but you are flexing DIFFERENT creative muscles than usual. Instead of making up a world and characters, they're given to you already, so you learn more about how to keep them acting "in character" and consistent throughout a story. Or, for example, if you're doing some kind of fusion fic, you have to think hard about what character traits are so integral that they would stay the same even in a different context. Like, if I take Sherlock Holmes and put him in this science fiction universe, how does he act, what role does he play here, what still makes him recognizable as Sherlock Holmes? Different creative muscles, but still really interesting and helpful, in my experience!
I think there's functionally no difference between fanwriting and original writing.
What most people mean is, "Professional writing vs. writing for free." But I can write 100% original fic and post it for free online--that's the entirety of sites like Fictionpress and Literotica. Not all original fic is even marketable. Something like, "A character who reminds me of myself gets hugs for 20 straight chapters" might feel good to write, but that doesn't mean there's any profit in it.
Meanwhile, derivative fiction, historically, IS fiction. Copyright is a relatively new invention, and before that, derivative fiction was the norm. What we think of right now as fanfic was the preferred kind of professional writing--much as most of the main Hollywood movies are reboots and sequels. Speaking of! If I get paid big bucks by Marvel to write the screenplay for the next Avengers movie, that's not a waste of time, but on a pure ideological level, it's no different from writing Avengers fanfiction on AO3. The only difference is that someone paid me for it. Someone has to write all those novelizations, tie-in novels and comics, screenplays, new episodes, and everything you expect from canon that isn't created by the creator. Most major franchises are 100% fanfiction at this point. Gene Roddenberry died in the early 1990s, and all Star Trek since then has been fanfic.
And there's so many endless shades of gray in derivation anyway. The genre of "Vaguely European Fantasy With Elves And Stuff" is 100% a response to Tolkien. It's not Tolkien fanfiction, but it might as well be. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as well as Wicked, took advantage of public domain works. Anything that's based on fairy tales or Shakespeare is fanfiction. SHAKESPEARE is fanfiction. I don't think he had one original idea, just good execution.
If you want to make money but have no taste for original fic, try 1) public domain fanfic, 2) Amazon Worlds, or 3) being a tie-in novelist/scriptwriter/screenwriter for properties you like, or 4) blatantly ripping it off while changing enough details that it's not technically plagiarism. The idea that Pure writing has to be ideologically self-made and descended from nothing is hogwash anyway.
You're wondering if it's worth it to do unpaid labor. That's an extremely valid question. You do get more nonmonetary benefit from fanfic (community, interest, feedback, free editing services) but you won't get money, at least without filing off the serials. Not wanting to work for free is a completely legitimate sentiment. But you might find it's not as closely tied to original/derivative as you think. I'm 100k into a ridiculously bloated tropey fantasy story that's mostly original (it's OCs in a modified D&D setting, which would be absurdly easy to serial-file) and I doubt there's a market for it, I have anxiety issues about submitting to publishers, plus I might even never finish it and no one will publish an unfinished book! So right there, I'm working for free, and I'm doing it out of genuine interest and love for the story. Which is a pretty fanficcy experience, but without the fandom.
Love the thoughtfulness of your reply.
Disclaimer: I write both fanfic and self-publish original work. Since most of my fanfic inspiration is an extension of a canon someone else created and springboards from there, it's not really comparable to creating my own universe from scratch, so I'm not wasting my words, as they'd be non-transferable for the most part to original fic and nothing helps your writing overall like, well, writing.
As for merit, writing is writing is writing. It all has its own intrinsic merit, irrelevant of genre. Do fiction writers think they are wasting their time when they could be writing Very Serious Non-Fiction? Do romance writers think they are wasting their time when they could be writing The Great American Novel? I doubt it (and don't think they should.)
For me, I mostly write to write, if that makes any sense; there's something immensely soothing to me about trying to figure out what I want to say and how I want to say it, and to watch the numbers on my document slowly tick upwards as the words build up. For me, both fanfiction and original fiction (and poetry, for that matter) fill that need equally well.
When I was younger, I did worry some about whether I was writing worthy enough things--is fanfic okay? Is fantasy and science fiction okay? Should I be working on 'serious literature' instead if I want to be a real writer?--but by now I've stopped caring. I like to write because it makes me happy, and beating myself up over whether my subject matter is good enough just takes away from that (and, for that matter, distracts me from trying to improve my skills).
I know full well that I don't have the business-savvy needed to focus on writing things I think will sell, which means I treat my original writing the same way I do my fanfic--I stick it up somewhere online (normally using the same account I post my fanfic on) and hope someone enjoys it. Acknowledgement is what I'm really thirsty for, haha.
Writing because it makes you happy is so much more important. It's better for you, for the story, and for whoever gets to read it.
With fanfic, one has a built-in audience that's willing to give feedback and talk plot ideas. I'd actually recommend doing a bit of fanfic for all beginning authors – even if it's just to see what drives one to write. Sharing ideas with people? Writing down all of one's thoughts? Entertaining people?
Yeah, I think in a way writing fanfic can be like having training wheels on. You don't have to worry about as much of the character development and world building, because those things are in place, so you can figure out how to really make an emotional scene resonate and be emotional, figure out how to make dialogue sound natural, figure out pacing and structure of a scene, etc.
Agreed! It was a safe place for me to learn how to write and to illicit the emotional response I was looking for, and the fandom provides quick feedback, which you will likely not get upon first publishing an original story.
Fanfic is an activity that sets you within a community — that's always been one of the reasons I love it. Yes, you have an audience and the possibility for a lot of feedback, and it's a marvelous place to learn and experiment, but you're also part of a gift economy built purely on love and enthusiasm, always a plus in my mind.
Thanks for all the responses y'all! Given me much to think about.
I like fanfiction, and have been reading it on and off since I discovered it back in my teens, but I have trouble writing it. While it's true that on some level I also feel my time would be better spent writing about my original characters and settings, I don't believe original fiction is superior to fanfiction in any way. Creating original material might make it easier to develop skills relating to world building, but at the end of the day, writing is writing, and I think people should write what they love the most, what they're most comfortable with.
The main reason I have trouble writing fanfiction is because I find it hard to get really creative with characters that didn't emanate from me. It's hard to explain... I feel I need to know the characters inside out, mind, body, and soul to truly be able to write about them. And I can only get that feeling from my own characters. I find many popular characters interesting and enjoyable, but they feel like strangers compared to my creations, like I can never truly get into their head.
I envy fanfiction writers sometimes. It looks fun, but it seems I just can't do it. I can draw fanart, probably because a simple picture typically doesn't carry the same depth as a story. But even with visual arts, I'm more comfortable making my own stuff.
Does anyone else feel this way?
I don't feel this way myself, but I understand what you are saying. I personally learn about my characters as I write them in the story, but I know many writers want to/need to know everything about them to begin with.
That's why character sheets are such big thing as pre-writing.
I never could get into character sheets for my characters though. I might plan my plot to death but those sheets had me thinking I don't know, it hasn't happened yet too much for them to work for me.
I suppose that means I'm plot then character. Meaning you're probably character then plot. You have gist of a plot but you don't have that solid as it depends on your character's actions to get to the end.
I need my character open when I write to make my story work with the plot I have set in stone, and as I write I make sure it makes sense for that character to do those things even if it doesn't work with their character to begin with.
My fandom is Harry Potter, for example, and I recently discovered that I like to write dark!Harry. Which is clearly out of character for him.
Yet, in my comments I get how in character he is doing all these dark things because of the backstory they went through to get there. I never know how he is going to get there in the beginning. I just know the plot requires it and as I write, I figure it out.
This gets me thinking of plotter vs panster.
Like, when we talk plotter we mean all the stories events. I wonder how many panster need to know the character very well before they start vs. plotters who need to know the plot very well before they start.
Thank you for your very thoughtful reply!
I think you are right that I'm more character than plot. I daydream a lot, so I have tons of characters floating around in my head, entire fictional universes where everyone has a fully developed personality and quite a bit of backstory. Yet creating an overarching plot to put those characters in can sometimes be challenging. They have relationships with one another, and there are collections of scenes I picture them in, but they just kind of exist in my mind.
Still, I'm a big cheerleader for plotting in advance within the confines of story structure. I like to have something I can fall back on if the story gets too complex. For this reason I consider myself more of a plotter than a panster. I try to plot my stories thoroughly before I start writing them down, it makes me feel safer, somehow, although I have to admit I seldom stick to my original plans once I get writing.
I also fill out character sheets before I start, but the ones I use are not very detailed. Like, I know my characters' strenghts and weaknesses, what they look like and how they generally behave, but I don't give much thought beforehand about their favorite color or meal, unless it's a huge part of who they are. From your comment, I think we are similar on that point; super comprehensive character sheets often make me go "How am I supposed to know that yet? How is that important? I'll figure it out if it comes up during the story."
I enjoyed reading about your experience writing Harry Potter fanfiction. It sounds like you keep him in character within the contexts of your stories. One thing I love about fanfiction, that I feel is a huge draw to many others as well, is that it allows the exploration of many "what if" scenarios that could never be explored in canon, because the author's personality and interests, as well as their background and life experiences are different from those of the original creator.
I have been working on my own original story and I have been working on a Fanfictions story. I find when I'm stuck on my original working on my fanfic helps clear my head. I feel like working on my fanfic gives me a better handle on shaping my ideas. I don't think working on fanfic in anyway is a waste because it gives you a creative outlet and makes you feel good when it comes out good or someone else really enjoys it.
Fanfiction makes really great practice, as others above have so powerfully noted. Yes, the audience brings a lot to the table that isn't there in original fic so there are some differences, but fanfiction is a fun way to practice writing while enjoying yourself
"Like I'm doing a disservice to my own creativity if I build my ideas off a preexisting universe."
Ok but like most of literature and oral literature ever is based off of/in reaction to someone else's ideas, and the idea of fetishizing "making your own" the way you're doing here is very, very peculiar to the last century-and-change, when "big content" became a thing, and more particularly the latter half of that span when copyright terms soared. "Shared literary universes" with multiple, sometimes contradicting stories and implementations of characters used to be very, very normal in "mainstream" fiction. Now they're only considered "normal" for those who can foot the bill, which is mostly big content companies, and those who write and distribute their work under wholly informal channels.
This isn't confined to reading for enjoyment either. What we think of as folktales and mythology and the narrative side of religion are pretty much just the aggregate bodies of a bunch of different authors riffing on past (re)interpretations of the same exact mythos.
And the result of that? Oh, not much, just literally most of the meaning and narrative significance every human in every culture, even our own, which is still heavily influenced and enriched by these cultural commons.
So I want to ask you: what makes your creativity so special, that it is somehow lessened by speaking directly to and in the language of the source that inspired you, rather than filing the serial numbers off and pretending that genius happens in a vacuum? I get that it's a pretty normal idea now, but you realize that every bit of creative work ever, even the "completely original" stuff, was written by someone standing on the shoulders of giants who came before them, right?
I started as a fanfic writer and have transitioned to original writing and am now transitioning to publishing. I honestly feel ALL writing is good - whether it's as a hobby or a career, fanfiction or original, it's all still words and ideas, learning pacing and plot and dialog, and exercising those is nothing but good.
For myself, I find fanfiction is undeniably faster - I can bang out a fanfic in a day or two, max, while I spend endless days or weeks agonizing over an original short story. Partially this is because the fanfic has a pre-created world that I don't have to worldbuild for. Partially it's because of the social aspect of fanfic, which tends to be inspiring if you like that sort of instant gratification feedback (I totally do). On the other hand, the original writing gets me money, so that's also a good incentive! ^_^
But really, I still do both. When I'm beating my head against an original story I'm stuck on and tired of worldbuilding, I can go write some fanfic, get the words flowing, and then go back to working on my own stuff. It's similar but different enough that it helps break writer's block, imo.
I started my writing career with fanfic. The story was burning a hole in my brain, and I had to get it out. I'd love to write the sequel to that novel (Star Wars/Avengers crossover), but with trying to write things that I can actually get paid for, I don't have time.
That being said, I think fanfic is a wonderful creative outlet. I learned so much about writing from writing that first novel. I think you get to explore your craft, the characters and the world(s) so much more, because the ground work has already been laid.
So if the story's burning in your mind, write it. It doesn't matter if it's fanfic or an original piece. You will learn and grow from everything you write.
Writing fan fiction has made me a better writer than writing original ever would have simply from the community surrounding it. It motivates me to write, to get it done for the fests I've sign up for, to make the person I'm writing for happy. I looked for things like this in the original writing community for years finding nothing until stumbling upon fan fiction.
Here is the big difference: no one wants to read your original fiction, but everyone wants to read your fan fiction.
Of course, that depends on your fandom. If you aren't writing in a big fandom with a ton of readers thirsting for more it's much like writing original fiction in that regard.
One of the major problems I had when I was writing original was that I never had pressure to finish anything. So I didn't. I'd work on the same project or many projects never getting close to the end, constantly making it "better" but really not getting anywhere with it.
We now have places to post original online and having that community helps writers I'm sure. But just like fan fiction, you're not selling this either. So I think your question is more a: is it worth my time to write for free.
And all this comes down to why you write to begin with. If you are doing it just for money, then fan fiction is a waste of time. How the internet is now you can get the same community around it as with original, which would still be a waste of time to you if all you are after is selling your work.
If you are writing to get better at writing and you know not everything you write will sell and want to take that pressure of it must be good enough to sell off yourself to let yourself learn how to write: fan fiction is the perfect way to do this. But so is posting your original online for free. Don't force yourself to write fan fiction just because it works for others.
However, for most people fan fiction is a hobby. Like, you might be a professional baker, but that doesn't mean you don't bake for fun at home sometimes. This is what fan fiction for the most part it.
Yes, you are practicing writing as well, but what you are doing is just fun.
Once again, so you have an idea for fan fiction. Do you want to write it? Then write it. Write everything you have ideas for or write them down in case they come in handy later. No idea is just not worth it to write. If you like it do it.
But, I wouldn't suggest someone try to write fan fiction if an idea isn't already burning inside them. Fan Fiction really relies on a passion underneath it all. You're posting for people who love and are passionate about the source material. If you don't know that material people will notice.
We do have "fix-it" fics as well, but that isn't the same as not knowing the canon.
Most of the feedback you'll get is positive. You'll see the parts that you did right because people will tell you those parts. Leaving you to figure out how you didn't do so well on your own.
For me, finishing is and having motivation to finish because people are begging for the next chapter helped me write and write more than I ever had without getting frustrated and throwing it all away.
I can see how well my writing has improved from (well, I've edited them all now as they were still posted online, how embarrassing) comparing my first stories to my newer ones.
And of course the comments. They are going to make you feel like you can actually do this when people tell you that you made them cry or they love your stories. When you get that one person (over and over again) that discovers your work and reads everything you've ever posted in a week.
I write some on commission. (Fanfiction for me is EXTREMELY difficult; I rarely can write it without financial motivation.) And since it pays just like anything else, I have absolutely no problem with it!
For me, fanfiction is harder to write. The research is harder, working with existing characterization and plot is hard, it's just overall more strenuous unless I cheat and focus on extremely minor characters or settings.
I would say they're equally good. Why wouldn't they be? I mean, pretty much all superhero comics are fanfiction--the original creators are mostly dead. And then you have all the modern Holmes retellings.
To be honest, I think that writing fanfiction gives you some very unique marketable skills in its own right. If you are hired on as a writer for any sort of series (be it movies, tv, video games, books, or comics), you have to be able to work with other people's worlds and characters. Whenever new writers come in and do a poor job of meshing styles or respecting the existing lore of the world, fans notice. Thus, fanfiction writing does actually have real-world skill application.