I like Fanfiction

I really like fanfiction.  I've liked fanfiction since I was in middle school.  It started with Eragon.  I didn't like how ambiguous the end of the Inheritance cycle was.  I wanted Arya and Eragon to be together, so I found fanfiction that depicted that relationship.  I wasn't hooked after just that, it took a bit more to get me well and truly hooked.
I started watching Naruto.  I watched all of Naruto and when there were no more episodes left I delved into the fandom.  At first I identified with Sakura quite a bit because her crush on Sasuke mimicked a lot of my crushes.  So I shipped SasuSaku for a very short time.  Then I found SasuNaru and I was hooked.  They had much better chemistry together than Sasuke and Sakura and I liked their dynamic, it helped that I thought it was hot.  Later I moved from SasuNaru to NaruSasu and others.  I branched out to other fandoms and I wrote a few short fics, even started two long ones, which are still unfinished up on Fanfiction.net.
When I first started to read fanfiction I didn't know why I liked it so much.  After many years of liking it and being able to discuss it online and in-person with my friends I have a much better idea.  There are many things I like about fanfiction and why I continue to read it despite not reading as many books any more.  One of the biggest reasons at the moment is there aren't that many novels about people my age.  While YA fiction exploded in popularity causing an up-shoot in books written about 12-16 year olds, there aren't that many written about 20-somethings.  There are some good ones that have come out more recently in the New Adult fiction section.  But there are even more reasons I like fanfiction more which makes picking up even these stories more difficult.  I like to read about LGBTQ+ relationships, which are often depicted in fanfiction.  There are great books out there depicting these things as well, but I think many fanfiction authors do a much better job of making the main story arc a romance, or adventure, rather than about the LGBTQ+ struggle.  I think I also like to stay with the same characters longer, I never have to leave them with enough fanfiction.
There are a good number of reasons why I prefer fanfiction to books, however I don't see why it should be a competition. Fanficiton is often ridiculed and seen as lesser than books.  Mostly this is because it is perceived to, largely, be written by middle school girls.  I can tell you from experience, it isn't.  There are all kinds of fanfiction authors, mostly female, but that shouldn't matter (it does though).  I've read fanfiction that is far better than any book I've ever read.  I hate it when people look down on fanfiction as if it is somehow lesser than a novel.  The only thing easier about writing fanfiction is that you don't have to do quite as much characterization.  In that same vein though, you have to make an accurate portrayal of the character so they don't end up feeling weird to the reader.  Fanfiction shouldn't have the reputation it has, it is a legitimate form of creativity and I wish it were respected as such.

More to come on this,
Leah