The primary reason for the growth of fan fiction is due to the readily available access to the internet. Attempting to eliminate fan fiction would be an expensive and tedious task. For example, the website www.Fanfiction.net, a site completely based on fan fiction, caters to over 1.3 million users.  In 2005, it was announced as the largest and most popular fan fiction site in the world; however, there are hundreds more fan fiction sites similar to this one.  These sites allow fans to upload stories they have created from several authors. As of March 21, 2009 the top ten fandoms submitted to the website were:

1.      Harry Potter (393,073)
2. Naruto (185,726)
3. Inuyasha (85,572)
4. Twilight (70,489)
5. Yu-Gi-Oh (47,148)
6. Lord of the Rings (41,865)
7. Kingdom Hearts (41,510)
8. Gundam Wing/AC (39,675)
9. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (34,054)
10. Digimon (31,287)

Stephanie Meyers, the creator of the Twilight Series is a supporter of fan fiction. She has a link posted on her website, www.StephanieMeyers.com that is exclusively for fan fiction sites that are devoted to characters from her series Twilight. She has over 300 sites posted on her website. From a Stephanie Meyer’s article on Times Online, “Twilight has generated innumerable internet websites, both laudatory and mocking”. Many of Stephanie Meyer’s fans adopt the characters as their own. Stephanie Meyers had an interview in Voltera in respond to the question about the growth and popularity of fan fiction. From the website www.twilightsighter.com

 Tw Staff: The world of fan fiction is growing up bigger and bigger. Do you think is useful for a young writer to write a fan fiction, or should they stick to their own stories and characters?

Stephenie: It’s kinda hard, it’s difficult to say because it’s new, I don’t know if in ten year fan fiction  writer are became writers. If that will happen, I don’t know if that’s the right evolution. In one hand I think practice would be good, and you can put your stories where other people could see them and advise, and it’s a way to learn how to write.

But it does seem a little dangerous to me not be using your characters, plus somebody put very much effort writing this fan fictions, like Alphie and her Lion and the lamb, that I had to stop reading as she cut up where I was, and I don’t want to be tainted at all. She is writing a book-like novel, and she can never use it, she could never publish it, it seem unfair to me, putting so much effort. There’s not enough reward for that, so I think that if people have to write it should be about their own stories and characters, but if fan fictions existed when I was thirteen or fourteen and I was reading Anne Macaffrey and the Dragon Books I probably would have written them, I would have probably got into them

Although, Stephanie Meyers is an advocate of fan fiction it is still hard for her to fully agree or disagree of the popularity of fan fiction. She has had many issues with the fifth book “Midnight Sun” because of the fan fiction. There are so many versions of the fifth book that fans have written themselves, Stephanie Meyers postponed the release of her fifth book of the Twilight series. The creator of the Harry Potter, J.K Rowling, wonders how Stephanie Meyers takes the neurotic fans.  J.K Rowling asked “I’d love to hear her take on fan fiction and the idea that the fans own the characters”. As she said in her interview, fan fiction writers use characters that they did not create; furthermore, they put a lot of time and effort into a story plot that will never be published. Which leads to the point of view of writers that believe that fan fiction is derivative work?

There are other authors who are not as sympathetic to fan fiction, for example, the author Anne Rice. Anne Rice is the author of many famous gothic novels like, The Queen of the Damned, The Mummy and Interview with a Vampire. On Anne Rice’s website www.AnneRice.com she posted a comment on her view of Fan Fiction.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ANNE ON “FAN FICTION”
Anne has posted the following message regarding fan fiction: “I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.”

            Anne Rice posted that comment on April 7, 2000 after many fans used her characters to create their own storylines. Anne rice viewed fan fiction as derivative work.  Fan fiction, to author Robin Hobb defines fan fiction as, “Fan fiction is fiction written by a ‘fan’ or reader, without the consent of the original author, yet using that author’s characters and world.” To add to one of the many definitions of fan fiction, Oxford English Dictionary’s 2004 edition has :fan fiction, usually fantasy or science fiction, written by a fan rather than a professional author, esp. that based on already-existing characters from a television series, book, film, etc.; (also) a piece of such writing. Individuals like Chelsea Yarbo Quinn, and Lee Goldberg are other famous writers who are strongly against fan fiction. Robin Hobb believes that fan fiction is essentially a form of identity theft. Hobb writes in his essay on fan fiction. Identity theft, the thief can ruin your credit rating. Likewise, when it’s creative identity theft fan fiction can ruin your credit with your readers. The writers create their books with their own imagination and ideals; fans writing their own story with the same characters are thieving the authors’ identity as the original creator. Chelsea Yarbo Quinn states that fans who engage in fan fiction, “show a profound disrespect” for the work and the author. Quinn also stated that she has “no sense of humor …. about copyright infringement”. Robin Hobb quotes all fan fiction writers are really saying is, “Look, the original author really screwed up the story, so I’m going to fix it. Here is how it should have gone”. On this website, http://swiftywriting.blogspot.com/2005/11/in-defense-of-fanfiction-guestblogger.html is a debate Robin Hobb had with a fan fiction writer and their views of fan fiction and how they view things completely different form the authors.

Fan fiction writers believe that they are not partaking in any illegal activity or violating any moral codes. A another definition that fan fiction writers offer is , “Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk.” Henry Jenkins, Director of media studies at MIT. For example Jeanne Rudmann Grunert a fan fiction writer, on her website http://personal.linkline.com/enik1138/html/why.htm  explains the reasons why she writes fan fiction. Grunert claims, “For those who do not read the genre, fan fiction consists of stories written by lovers of a novel, television show, or movie, who take the original creation and using the characters, craft new adventures for them”. Harry potter sold over 400 million books all over the world, meaning that there were 400 million readers. J.K Rowling’s mass audience became eager for new narratives. Harry Potter fans found a way to by time until the next book, by creating new stories themselves. As a fan fiction writer I completely understand why fans write their own stories. There are always unanswered questions in a novel that the author did not make clear, but by creating your own story you can elaborate on the story and answer those plaguing questions. As a fan of Twilight I saw the characters go far beyond Stephanie Meyers would ever take them, no matter how many sequels she created.  The enjoyment of understanding the characters and the relationship between Edward/Bella made me grow fond of writing fan fiction. Being a Fan fiction writer grants one many benefits and freedoms; they can change situations and the outcomes of the original text. For example: what if Bella met Jacob before she ever knew about the Cullen Family? Most fan fiction writers like to explore the what- if and back stories and other aspects of the text. Fans also write fan fiction to share with a community about their ideas about the source with other fans.  

In the end, fan fiction writing has created a huge controversy; there are many conflicting views and opinions between professional writers and the fan fiction supporters. I understand the rights of an author to control derivative work, but I believe that by attacking fan fiction they are attacking their most devoted fans. Generally, the individuals writing the fan fiction are the most loyal fans of the authors’ original work. In my opinion, authors should adopt the same ideology Naomi Novik has about fan fiction, “I love for people to put up posters and make costumes and invent their own stories and fantasize about my characters. If they did, that would mean I was doing something fundamentally right — that I was creating characters that people wanted to make part of the shared culture by which we communicate with one another.”