Many believe when a book ends, it ends. You might believe this too. The author has made his or her decision, and you, the reader, have to live with it. You can’t change the fate of any character, because you are not the author. You have no control over the setting, characters, or plot. Only that is not true. Fanfiction is your voice in the story. It allows you a second chance. It gives you the power to rewrite and continue the story. Fanfiction allows you to add your own thoughts. Fanfiction is a dynamic genre, and authors have written well-regarded fanfiction that contribute to creative genres. These works are also worthwhile to include in possible future works of literature.
  

Fanfiction or fanfic has many different definitions depending on who you ask. Dictionary.com’s definition is fiction written by fans of a TV series, movie, etc., using existing characters and situations to develop new plots.
  

Many authors, from Mark Twain to Cassandra Clare, have written some form of fanfiction. Many other authors support fanfiction as a creative genre. J. K. Rowling said once that she was “flattered”  that anyone would like to write fanfic based on her stories. In an article on dailydot.com by Aja Romano, author Neil Gaiman is quoted as saying, “I’m not sure where the line gets drawn — you could say that any Batman fan writing a Batman comic is writing fan fiction. As long as nobody’s making money from it that should be an author or creator’s, I don’t mind it. And I think it does a lot of good.”

   On the other hand, many authors feel that fanfiction steals their ideas and talents. In a tweet, George R. R. Martin states, “Every writer needs to learn to create his own characters, worlds, and settings. Using someone else’s world is the lazy way out.” Browsing fanfiction.net, you will paradoxically find that many comments made by authors of fanfiction insult another piece of work as “a copy and paste” or that they “do not compose of a single original thought.” It would seem like the most anti-fanfiction supporters are located on fanfiction.net itself.
  

Until the 18th century, many works were fanfiction because there were no copyright laws or cultural views that prevented fanfiction. Back then, basing your ideas on another author’s works was not a stigma, as many of the authors back then did so.
   Shakespeare was one of these authors. Often, the wealthier section of society, the patrons, would pay for an author to create works based on another work. In fact, an article on shakespeare-online.com by Henry Brown claims that Queen Elizabeth herself funded many of Shakespears’s plays, including A Midsummer’s Night Dream, King Henry IV, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Jordan West, author of the blog The Mary Sue asserts, “Pick a [Shakespearean]play at random and bet your bottom dollar that it’s based on myth, legend, or historical anecdote, with a liberal splash of that Shakespeare je ne sais quoi. (Okay, it’s not je ne sais quoi; it’s iambic pentameter. Shush.)”
  

Take A Midsummer’s Night Dream. A play in the play includes the characters, Pyramus and Thisbe. These characters were made popular by a Roman poet, Ovid, who borrowed them from a Babylonian myth. Shakespeare wrote the characters’ personalities quite differently from what Ovid portrayed them as, but the general plots are similar.
  

Shakespeare’s works show that not all fanfiction is mindless duplication, but can rather be a creative genre. Not all of his characters and plot may have been original, but his writing style and talent was certainly one of a kind.
  

Perhaps another time of history where fanfiction popped up was “the Great Hiatus” as it was called by Sherlockians. Emily Nussbaum says in The New Yorker, “In 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed Sherlock Holmes, chucking him off Reichenbach Falls. Protesters wore black armbands in the streets. Even the author’s mother was opposed, writing to him, “You won’t! You can’t! You mustn’t!” . . . When the author retreated his fans stepped in, writing their own Sherlock mysteries.” This period of time got fans thinking about their own abilities to continue the story.
  

Sf Mazhar is a contemporary author that writes fanfiction. She has published two original books, Run to Earth and its sequel Playing with Fire. She is not very well known for these two books, though. What she's really famous for is her fanfiction series, The Dark Prince Trilogy, based on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. These works can be found online with notes about how all characters belong to J. K. Rowling. Her pen name, Kurinoone, is a big word, literally and figuratively, among readers on fanfiction.net. Her fanfic was her road to fame and what got the publishers to notice her. All her works are well-written and deserving to be considered creative writing even if their topics are not always original.

 Sometimes, fanfiction can be published, as long as the author does not admit that it is fanfiction. Christopher Paolini published his first book, Eragon, at age 19. It was big hit with readers. Soon, three sequels were written. Paolini himself made no mention about their being fanfiction, but did say on his personal website that he was inspired by Lord of the Rings and “Star Wars”. A closer look at his books reveals that he may have been more than inspired by these sources. The arc of his series resembles the arc of “Star War” series in almost every way. His characters and backstories could have been lifted straight out of Lord of the Rings. Many critics have wanted to charge Paolini for plagiarism. His fans, though, reply that his stories are enjoyable and well-written.
  

Fanfiction has also inspired other things, like fan-based media and music. Many TV shows, like BBC’s “Merlin”, 2008, and “Sherlock”, 2010, are based off of previous stories. StarKid productions, a Chicago based theatre group, produced “A Very Potter Musical”, often shortened as AVPM, a parody of the Harry Potter books and movies. Ministry of Magic is a band that writes music using themes from Harry Potter.
  

We live in a time where fanfiction is a rapidly expanding genre. Like Linda McRobbie says on Mental Floss, “For as long as people have been dreaming up characters, fans have been dreaming up ways to create new situations for them to try on, copyright laws be damned.” Expect to see fanfic in the future because it isn't going away anytime soon.