Why fan fiction?

Why write fan fiction? That’s a question many people ask. In fact, it’s a good question. It all depends on what you’re after really. If you want to be published by a publisher on paper, then obviously writing fan fiction won’t be very helpful. The same applies if you just want to be ‘clever’ and get admired for your writing.

On the other hand, whatever your ultimate goals, writing is always helpful, no matter what kind it is. Some people write journals/diaries etc. Others write ‘practice texts’ that aren’t really useful for anything beyond the actual writing practice you get. Then again, if you find it fun and rewarding, you might as well write fan fiction as anything else.

And there are plenty of people who enjoy this type of writing enormously, either as writers or as readers or both.

So if you have fun using other people’s characters, don’t feel guilty. Fun isn’t bad, it’s good for you. And if you make friends who share the same interests then that’s good too.

There might be reasons why not to write fan fiction or types of fan fiction you might want to stay away from, but those are other topics, to be covered elsewhere.