Everyone reading this editorial knows about fan fiction in general. We all know it is a fan's interpretation of an existing work. Fan fiction is additionally an extremely popular genre on Watt Pad, which in some cases can create millions of views for one story. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that fan fiction is an existing genre, especially in the recent years, that has the ability to blend with other types of stories, such as fantasy.
However, with a fan creation of an existing work comes debate as to whether or not it is exactly legal. A good majority of people frown upon it as they see the genre as copying or at worst plagiarism. They see any fan creation of a work as disrespect towards the original creator. Thus, it is not uncommon to see some fan fictions get taken down or worse get reported by someone. Because of this, a lot of people, (including myself), are afraid of even creating one. Those who believe fan fiction is plagiarism in our minds could report on the work at any time and possibly blacklist us as a result from publishing any original work in the future. The consequences of these reports scare us.
In truth though, fan fiction can be in a lot of cases the highest compliment you could give the original creator. With fan fiction, the creator of a fictional work will know that their work has a large and very passionate fan base. This fan base can suggest plot changing ideas in their work, that the author of the original work may stumble upon. Heck, the ideas expressed sometimes even have the power to correct a mistake existing in the original work. Saying that fan fiction is entirely bad is a terrible cliché. As long as credit is given, I say it is an acceptable form of respect and art.
This does not apply to every fan fiction though. There are copycats out there and those stories are the ones that truly need to be reported. Additionally, if the story disrespects an established character or a real person, it is not acceptable. The writing has to stay fair.