This article is by A.L.S. Vossler.
Fan fiction is the lowest life form of the writing universe.
If you had asked me what I thought about fan fiction about a year ago, that is what I would have said.
I had not always looked down so fiercely on fan fiction. I was never a huge proponent of it, but I did not always thumb my nose at it, either.
In college, however, I took a creative writing class. We talked about “developmental” stages of writing, and the most infantile of those stages was the “writer’s personal fantasy.” The idea behind this stage was that the writer was living vicariously through the characters and only producing, more or less, self-indulgent tripe.