I don’t discuss this a lot — because it doesn’t usually come up — but writing fan fiction in middle school was what started me on the path to establishing a career as a writer and editor. Specifically, I used to write Star Wars fan fiction. I wrote original material too, but I loved the universe, and at the time, there wasn’t nearly as much material as there is now. I wanted to write. I wanted to have fun. And I did!
As a former fan fiction writer (admittedly, I don’t have a lot of time for it these days), I still roll my eyes whenever someone in a writing forum or somewhere else online claims fan fiction writers aren’t real writers. Sorry, but if someone writing isn’t a writer … what are they?!
There’s a huge stigma, still, around fan fiction and those who write it. Often, anything seen as unoriginal or even childish (sigh) is dismissed as real in some writing communities. But don’t worry — not everyone looks down on it, and if you’ve found this post, you’ve come to a supportive and hopefully encouraging place.
Profiting Off Fan Fiction Is Actually Illegal
Fan fiction itself is legal — no one can stop you from writing and posting your stories set in other creators’ universes, featuring their original characters and places. Thousands of people write fan fiction, and you would think that at this point in time, the stigma surrounding it would have died off at least a little bit.
While you can — and really should, if you want to — write fan fiction, you can’t legally make money that way. Fan fiction is technically infringing upon copyrighted material, but generally — especially in the United States — non-commercially, it’s fine. What you’ll definitely get in trouble for is publishing that copyrighted material as your own with the intent of making money. You can’t, for example, self-publish your fan fiction and sell it to other people.
That’s okay, though. Not all writing is for profit, and writing something for fun doesn’t decrease its value or importance.
But Fan Fiction Writers ARE Real Writers!
The only real prerequisite for being able to call yourself a writer is that you’re actively writing. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing poems, song lyrics, original high fantasy epics, or Star Wars fan fiction. You’re writing. And as long as you’re writing, you’ve automatically earned the right to call yourself a writer.
Anyone who tries to add other parameters to the label is both over-complicating it and, honestly, being pretty weird about it. If you regularly sit down and write words that are your own, you’re writing. You’re a writer. Fan fiction writers do work that is just as valuable as other writers, even if their work isn’t technically profitable.
Fan Fiction Counts As Writing, and You Should Keep Doing It
As an aspiring writer, it’s easy to forget that not everything you write has to be done with the intent to publish. In reality, a sizable portion of the writing you’ll do throughout your life will never be read by a large audience. But that doesn’t mean such writing isn’t important.
Writing fan fiction can teach you a lot about storytelling and craft, and the best way to develop your unique voice and style as an author is to practice writing. Why not do that in a universe you love, whether it belongs to you or to someone else?
Never let anyone tell you that writing of any sort “doesn’t count.” It counts because you’re doing it! So keep doing it. Keep practicing. Write what you know and love. If you get to a point where you want to write original stories, you’ll have a good foundation already for doing that. And if fan fiction writing is a hobby you want to keep engaging in exclusively — hey, you’re still writing. That’s more than a lot of aspiring writers can say.
Meg Dowell Writes 