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What do you think of fanfiction? In general—do you think it’s a fun thing or a trespass on an author/producer’s world? And of course, obviously specific authors have very firm and very differing opinions about this, yet it’s getting more popular and more mainstream all the time. Do you ever read or write it yourself?

As a whole, I think it's mostly fun and harmless. People usually write fanfiction because they love the world and the characters so much. I do read it occasionally, though not as much now as I used to. There are some fanfic's I've come across that aren't so pleasant and with those I can understand why some author's/creator's put their foot down about fanfic. I've also read some fanfictions that just weren't well written at all. I know that internet literature - if we can use that term - holds to a different standard than published works, but I would really love to see more truly high quality fanfic. After all, if you're going to write, shouldn't it be the best it can be?

I personally don't write fanfiction. Well, I have dabbled in it, but never even posted anything on the internet or - indeed - even shared it with anyone. When I create a character in my own writing, I'm very comfortable with them. With pre-designed characters, fanfiction's large staple, I'm never sure I have their personality down right. So I'm usually not comfortable enough to share my work with anyone. Which does bring me to one more point. I have read some fanfictions that only seem to have the character names in common with the original work. Those are some fanfic I actually have the most problems with. It just seems like the writer thought the character looked good - but they didn't really have the personality correct.

All in all, I do understand why some authors/creators have firm opinions on this - and even why some don't want fanfiction of their work made - but I really think that as long as the fanfiction authors aren't making profit (and they seem to never) I don't have any major problems with it.

This answer ignores fanfiction that gets turned into published books because I don't know what to make of that.

What are your feelings toward fanfiction?