First let me state that I have always written original stuff (Mom still has a "book" I wrote when I was 7 or so). Very few things have been completed; a lot of ideas faded away and died out after an intial excitement phase.
In college, I was deep into
Highlander: The Series, and no one else I knew was. I found kindred spirits online - probably the first online community of which I was an active member. I discovered fanfic, but I thought I'd never write any (I thought it was presumptuous to impose oneself on another's world). However, some of the people on the HL board were
really good writers, and I enjoyed some of their stories; other stories, it was a struggle to find anything nice to say. After I'd spent enough time obsessing over Methos (my favorite character), studying him and the "rules" of the HL universe, discussing the show, and reading some fanfic, I got an idea that wouldn't go away. And so I wrote a fanfic. That was almost nine years ago, IIRC, when I was 19.
The main character was an extension of myself, because I wanted to go into that universe and play (I didn't know at the time self-insertion was a no-no, and still don't care, to this day; she was my stand-in to start, and grew into her own character). There was no sex involved. Very few of Methos's 5000 years of life have been detailed, so there were a lot of lovely blank spots to play in without overtly breaking universe rules/canon. I stuck to the two existing characters I knew best: Methos and Joe, with guest starring roles from characters I felt I had a pretty good feel for. The major deviation I wrote in was a reincarnation plot - something HL never included.
And yes, I posted the story on my now defunct website. If nothing else, that story holds the distinction of the first longish story I actually brought to a conclusion. ... I enjoyed writing it and amused myself, but didn't think it was that great (but I never like anything I write). I got a lot of lovely, positive comments on it (three in particular still stand out in my mind, but I'll spare you). Many people thought I had a good sense of the characterizations of those existing characters I used. Several people suggested I submit the story for publication - but that is the line I would
never cross - I was fully aware I was playing with someone else's toys. (I did start a sequel, but it died.)
However, though I would never submit
that story, there was enough interest in it and I liked the plot enough that I started trying to think of a way to adapt the story using my own characters. About four years later, an entirely new character (outside any existing universe, with some new "rules" I don't remember ever having seen before) walked into my head and I'm currently wrestling with him, trying to develop his story into something I
can submit for publication. If not for that HL fanfic, he wouldn't exist; so writing the fanfic WAS a positive thing for me.
Soon after I'd written my own fanfic, I got tired of digging through all the drek to find the few fanfics I could stand to read, so I just stopped looking. The typos, bad grammar, overly self-indulgent writing, universe-rule-breaking... I couldn't stand it - if you're going to play in someone else's universe, you need to follow their rules as near as possible, IMNSHO. And I HATE slash - to me, that is the ultimate in disrepectful, canon-twisting rule-breaking. .... However, fanfic as an entity is not going away. People inclined to write have always done it, will always do it. There is some good stuff out there, but I have neither the time nor energy to look for it, so my solution is simply ignore it. If I ever manage to get published, I will make it publicly known that I'd really rather fans stay away from slash (if I want my main character to have same-sex relationships, I'll write that; but if I write him straight, I'd rather the fans respect that); but other than that, I'll probably adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Because I have to feel like I have a firm grasp of the universe and its characters before I would dare to write in it (and I have to have an idea that won't go away), the only other fanfic I've written and shown to people was a tiny, two-page piece that filled in a gap in the film
V for Vendetta - I simply described something that logic dictates did happen, but it wasn't shown in the movie. The board I currently Admin liked it and wants me to write more, but I can't - there's not enough playspace/wiggle room in the universe; HL was big enough, V4V isn't. (The only exception I'd possibly make would be to rewrite the movie novelization - I used to love reading novelizations, but I know too much now, and that officially licensed, published book was just horrid.) I also haven't read any of the V4V fanfic my board members have created, except for the pieces written by a writer friend who is *this close* to getting her original novel published (same friend loved my little fill-in and praised me for sticking to the rules of the V-verse). ... I'm so judgmental of others' fanfic, I'd just rather stay away from it altogether.
More recently, I dug out that old HL fanfic to share with a couple people on my board and read it myself for the first time in years. Looking at it now, with a B.A. in English-Creative Writing under my belt, I had to laugh at myself and how proud I was of that piece. There are still some passages that I read as someone else's writing ("I can't have written that - it's too good."), but I can see how my writing has evolved since then and how inexperienced I was. I even, to my chagrin, found some typos!
Wow. Sorry I went on so long. To sum up: Fanfic can sometimes have a purpose and some of it can be quite good, but there's too much simply BAD writing out there for me to bother looking for what's worth reading. It's not going away, so I'd rather ignore it than fight it. As long as they're not trying to make money off it and are acknowledging that they're playing with someone else's toys, I'm okay.