As one of my favorite fanfics once said, “Do you know what I think you should do if you don’t like a story? If you don’t like the ending or you think a couple of your favorite characters got the shaft? Rewrite it.”

As for the authors who ban fanfiction, well, sometimes it’s because they’ve refused to let their publishers think about having anyone else write their world (Anne McCaffery) but I think they’re um… silly because, a) no one’s making any profit, b) great way to attract new fans (SPN’s gotten about 100 dollars out of me because of a fanfic obligation and boredom had me reading two summers ago, not to mention Doctor Who that I really got into because of a Firefly crossover…) and c) only in extreme cases will a fanfic be accepted over cannon, and then only by a fraction of the population. And any one who commits an extreme act of story WTF deserves it. (See Torchwood Children of the Earth).

This brings me to another benefit of fanfiction. Is your favorite show going to hell and a handbasket? Do epsiodes 1-3 suck beyond human endurance? Can you think of a really clever way for Donna to get her memories back without her brain melting? Have the writers broken your heart for no other reason than to… be artistic/awful and/or make sure a character will be slightly miserable until their a head in a jar? Then the fix-it fan-fic and a healthy does of fannon is just what the doctor ordered.

Oh, and the next article could also be titled “They who will pay student loans till doomsday, or possibly longer”

And you know who else is on the ‘no fanfiction’ list? Anne Mccaffrey. She once threatened legal action. It’s a sad thing. But only the crazy ones are like that.

Kristen Britain is another author who says “No Fanfiction!” She’s the chick who wrote the Green Rider series that Alex and I have read.