Writing fan fiction is a lot less taboo than it used to be. 

Setting aside teenagers who write fan fiction for their friends, there was once a time when a published author having a past as a casual fan fiction writer was a potential career-ruiner. It didn’t matter if the book someone was publishing had nothing to do with their fan fiction hobby—fan fiction carried the implication that you lacked creativity at best and ripped off other writers at worst. 

But in a post–Fifty Shades of Grey world, marketing experts can use “based on fan fiction” as a selling point. Take the success of Wicked, or remakes that make significant changes to the source material, or the many franchises now so long standing that they've maybe only kept one character from the original property!

So many of the attitudes around fan fiction writing were pure snobbery and have rightfully fallen out of the mainstream conversation. It makes perfect sense that enthusiastic fan fiction writers would branch into writing original works, or even that longtime authors might have fun playing around with someone else’s characters in an appropriate context, where it’s transparent that no one is taking credit for the original intellectual property. 

But what if you don’t want to cross over? What if you want to work to improve your writing and take yourself seriously but don’t have any interest in printing your words anywhere other than your fan fiction forums of choice? 

Are you still a writer? 

Where Is the Line?

First of all, any writing makes you a writer. Plain and simple. 

But second of all, the thing people are really asking when they wonder if fan fiction writers are “real” is does putting existing characters in original situations constitute original work? 

If you think about fans taking their favorite Harry Potter characters and putting them in steamier situations than were appropriate for kids books, well, a lot of people would say that’s clearly not original work. 

But what about every mystery series that pairs an unusually sharp (and perhaps a bit socially awkward) detective with a kindhearted assistant? A romance plot where a snobby rich man and a working-class woman who initially despise each other end up falling in love? Fairy-tale retellings? 

Storytelling is a uniquely human tradition. Not only is there no such thing as a truly original idea but riffing off of existing stories is a great way to write a great book. 

The difference comes in what you bring to the table. No one has a copyright on relationship or story tropes, and experimenting with fan fiction is a great way for writers to spark their own imaginations. What about that preexisting world isn’t working for you? What would your school for magic, charming small town, or spacefaring civilization look like?

Are You Using the Existing Audience?

One way to think about drawing the line would be to consider whether or not you need the existing audience of the original work for your fan fiction. Or could someone pick up your book and read it having no idea that the original spark came from how much you loved the relationship between your two favorite characters in The Lord of the Rings? 

The way most fan fiction readers look for new stories is by searching for key words for what they want to see out of those preexisting characters that are subject to copyright. In comparison, the way people browse books in the library or bookstore is often more about broader dynamics that are universal and owned by everyone. 

If your work is directly using someone else's audience and the original work isn’t yet in the public domain, then you cannot ethically or legally make money off of it. 

Who Said Anything About Money?

That point about making money would likely make a lot of fan fiction writers bristle, not because they feel entitled to make money from what they do but because the idea that they would even try is insulting. 

Fan fiction writers are some of the biggest, most passionate readers out there. They love their favorite books so much that they write hundreds of thousands of words about them. They respect those authors so much that they line up for signings, buy special edition copies, and preorder every new installment. These are some of the last people on earth who would want to rip off an author. 

For many fan fiction writers, the fact that they do what they do for free (and often anonymously!) is very much the point. They’re in it for the love of stories, for the freedom that comes with writing for free on the internet, and for community building with their fellow fans. When even contemporary publishing norms don’t always center their stories, lots of queer young people even find meaningful representation and community in the fan fiction world. 

So, really, the question of “does writing fan fiction count?” can be boiled down to the question of “am I still an artist if I don’t make money from it?” And that’s an easy yes! 

Making art without getting hung up on making money from it, making enough money to quit a day job, making enough money for it to “count,” is basically keeping all the good parts of creativity and forgetting about outside validation. And isn’t that the best way to let your creativity thrive? 

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.