Fanfiction- talent waster or sharpener?

For those of you unaware

In this day and age technology is the prime connector for almost all things. Looking for that recipe you lost? Why pull out a book, just type a few words in a search engine, wait a few ticks, and bam! There it is. Looking for your favorite actors bio? Drop that remote and instead tap away on the keyboard. Computers have begun to become the end all go to.

Therefore it's only natural that even matters of the printed kind (books) have become electronic. With applications, websites (amazon.com etc...), and devices like the Kindle, accessing books online is becoming increasingly easy. Not only are aspiring writers putting their chapters and concepts out there for the world to read online, professional writers are also sharing tidbits of their published or waiting-to-be published works.

Having that said, one of the more common forms of written word to be found online happens to be fanfiction. What is fanfiction exactly, one might find themselves asking (depending on ones age).

It's quite simple, as the name suggests fanfiction is fictional stories written by fans of their favorite books. shows, movies- almost anything with an already developed plot and full formed characters. It's common to also find fanfiction based off of anime (japanese cartoons).

If one were to type in 'fanfiction' in a search engine, undoubtedly a few of the results would be websites similar in nature to harrypotterfanfiction.com or fanfiction.net.

There is an increasing number of fanfictions floating the web, ranging from stories with wicked plots by talented authors, to the more unprofessional, unpolished, and sometimes annoying teenage-speak stories containing sentences along the lines of 'OMGF, tha is sooooooooo totally wrong. None 4 u!' riddled with grammatical errors and words spelled in ways unknown to man. The latter are fairly unpleasant, but perhaps that's the beauty of fanfiction- is it a skill sharpener or does it waste talent?

Pros and Cons

As with all situations, there are two sides to everything. Fanfiction is absolutely not exempt from this fact. Therefore it seems relevant to list a few of fanfictions pros and cons.

A few Cons:

Because the framework is already present, the author fails to exercise the skills needed to create a new world filled with fantastical characters.
You know only what the author has already let on about the characters you are attempting to write. As an author you should always know as much as possible about your characters, whether the knowledge is relevant or not.
Your skills of brainstorming only acquire the minimum amount of exercise.
You may continue to make the same grammatical errors if your reviewers fail to submit in-depth reviews. I cannot stress this enough, the amount of reviews akin to ones structured like, 'Can't wait for the next chapter!' offer little to no chances of growth.
Because reviews are almost guaranteed, if one fails to incur a few one becomes disheartened and may stop writing altogether for any period of time.
Some stories are so ludacrious they reader simply stops reading. And the chances of writing an original plot line as slim, most have already been written.
There have been a few fanfictions that I have read that are simply brilliant, ones that I would most certainly purchase if they were published works, but due to circumstances, publication is just simply not possible.

The Pros (to name a few):

The framework is already there.
You know the characters based upon what you've already read.
Brainstorming goes very quickly.
Others will be interested in your story simply because they are fans of the original, something which is almost the complete opposite of authors with original stories, which no one knows anything about.
It's a good exercise to sharpen grammatical skills, dialogues, enticing the reader- all things an author with hopes of publishing one day should possess.
Reviews are almost guaranteed, an essential for any author because we are greedy creatures who thrive off of feedback.
As creatures, we sometimes long for the occurrences which are unlikely to happen, as a fanfiction author you are given the liberty of taking said situations and writing them out- hooking readers.

In conclusion with a few notes

The pros and cons of fanfiction are well balanced, certainly fanfiction is not the road to publication, but it does offer a few occassions to sharpen the skills needed to get there. As a conclusion, fanfiction both sharpens skills and wastes talent, fortunately in the long run it may prove to be helpful and enlightening. Fanfiction-ers rejoice and continue to do what you will!