Yes. I write them. Blasphemous, isn't it? I am trying to get published someday, after all. It would seem that writing something as lowly as fan fiction would be bad, wouldn't it?

Or not. I've been writing my own stuff, surprisingly, longer than I have fan fiction. It generally goes the other way around, but I recall both my first story and my first fanfic. Both were horrible. I've been writing fan fiction since...oh, probably 2001? I had never heard of it before, so it must have been when I first encountered the Internet, when I was in sixth grade. Like I said, the first was horrible and the many attempts after that were just as bad.

I've progressed with them the same way I progressed with my original stuff. When I write fan fiction, sometimes it's for fun (AKA it's comedy and doesn't really have a good storyline going for it), but I generally try to make it as good as my original stuff. Why? Because I take pride in ANYTHING I write. As far as I'm concerned, fan art and fan fiction are acceptable when the fan gives credit to the original author(s) and just has fun with it. If I get published and someone wrote something for my stuff, I'd be flattered! It just means that people have enjoyed a story so much, they want to add onto it. I think that's acceptable then.

Lately, I've been working on some pretty intense fan fiction, which are all as "serious" as I get with my own personal stuff. I have more fun with serious fan fiction, however, than I do with my own stuff sometimes because with fan fiction, I already have a waiting audience to look at it (the existing fan base) and it doesn't matter. It'll never get published, so it doesn't have to be perfect. I can just relax and do what I like to do.

My friend Buzzy (whom I am working on some art/writing projects with; he's a creative genius) mentioned how he dislikes fan art/fiction because "people use what isn't theirs" and that's true to a point. But its not like we make money off of it, or claim it as our own. If people do, they're breaking the law. If you give proper credit and simply enjoy the universe that someone else created, I think that's acceptable--because you're having fun, which is what the original book/series/movie/etc. was supposed to do for you anyway.

I have fun doing what I do with fan fiction and I will never claim it as my own. It's a creative retreat for my mind, to get away from the stress of creating an original story, and just to write for fun. :)

Now, excuse me, I have some giant alien robots to write about.