Okay, I have an ulterior motive this week

This week's topic is fanfiction. The reason I have an ulterior motive is because Reogan absolutely detests fanfiction. I write it. Thus, I'll present both the positive and negative sides to it. I'll allow comments for now, but if Reogan and I get into a huge online fight about this, I'm disabling them.

Also, may I insert here: I have my own blog now! It's called Elphaba's Writing Space. I write stuff and post it on there (hard to figure out, I know). The address is http://elphabaswritingspace.blogspot.com. Minus the period after the ".com". But I digress...

So, fanfiction. What is it? Basically, it's people taking previously concieved stories, movies, or TV shows, and putting their own twist to it. They can show a scene from a different character's point of view, make up their own scenes, add characters... whatever works for their stories. They use their own imaginations to make something theirs. That way, they get to control the story.

Some people (coughREOGANcough) think that the authors of fanfiction are stealing someone else's story, and not being creative enough to come up with a story themselves. I disagree. The authors are still creative--they have their own characters, circumstances, and way of writing. They like a character in a certain book or TV show, and they want to put them in a situation of their own making. Is that not creative? They're asking the question, "what if?" Is that so wrong?