Traditionally published authors are the names that are praised by the New York Times Bestseller's list and in English classrooms across the country. Writing and publishing a book is an enviable feat that can take years or even decades to accomplish and it seems that, as long as that person's name is on the cover of their book, they are an official and legitimate author. So, where does that leave the writers who post on online communities like Wattpad? Where does that leave the millions of users on sites like FanFiction.Net, Tumblr, and Archive of Our Own? Are fanfiction writers "real" authors too? Are their stories new and valuable or replications of preconceived notions of characters and worlds that already exist?

I never readily admit that I write fanfiction. It's not something that I'm ashamed of, but, beyond the anxiety of having people read writing that I've written, it frightens me because I don't know how it will be processed. I've only ever written fanfiction for my favorite series, one that not many have read. Will non-readers understand? Will the friends who tease me about looking up my fanfiction judge me for posting regurgitations of a book that I love?

I get enough reader feedback to feel confident in my writing. I love sitting down with a word document and crafting a story between two characters, building tension, and creating dialogue in my head. However, I have no ideas of my own. I have no outlines of characters drafted in my head. I don't have deep, cavernous chunks carved out in my brain for stories that I want to tell in the future. What I do have is a set of characters who I am already painfully familiar with and a world that I've grown attached to (and often wish that I could live inside).

I have found out recently that fanfiction is the only fiction writing that I take real enjoyment in writing. Adhering to a preconceived personality of a character comes more naturally to me than writing my own and hoping that it sounds realistic enough. Writing about characters who I already know and love is comforting and exciting. I don't copy the world and the characters, I expand them. I take the moments in the original text when I thought, "Man, I wish X, Y, or Z would have happened," and then I collage them into a story of my own. I establish new concepts that the book may have omitted. I draw in details of scenes that readers have already read and loved, playing with different perspectives and flashbacks.

So many fanfiction authors online are discredited for their unoriginality. Many stories are made for "fluff," little filler scenes that are intended to satisfy audiences of a series, because they may desire a refresher of what it's like to see a character come off of the page for the first time. Other fanfictions are novel sized, written for free and for the enjoyment and feedback of others. Many times, works of fanfiction are better than published books.

Here's a secret. Some fanfictions get a facelift (i.e. renaming the characters) and are published traditionally, occasionally becoming bestsellers. Did the tropes of "Fifty Shades of Grey" seem familiar? Maybe it's because it's based on "Twilight."

Many authors recognize the honor in having fanfiction published in response to their works. For someone to dedicate time to writing fanfiction means that they have a voracious interest in the literature so much so that they would write an actual sequel for themselves, instead of waiting for the author to publish more (even though, in many cases, fanfiction is published for series that are set-in-stone and finished). Fanfiction is what drives books, TV shows, and movies to retain an immortal quality. As long as there's fanfiction, as long as there's a reader or viewer out there who is saying to him or herself, "I wonder what would happen if," then that work will still be alive in the hearts of its admirers.