Captain of the Hans Capon Defence Force

Art is communication. When you make art you do it to express something, share ideas, convey a message, introspect, vent, etc — it's why generative AI is incapable of making anything worthwhile, because it's insubstantial, purposeless, meaningless hogwash. It's all product, no process. When you write fanfiction, the same principle applies. I would argue it applies even more strongly because you are creating something that will, most likely, be interacted with by a community. There's a prestablished nexus point — fandom — that brings individuals together the way you may not get by creating purely original fiction. It's part of the allure of creating any fanwork to begin with. It's even in the definition of fanwork provided by fanlore dot org: "A fanwork is a creative work produced by one or more fans, generally intended for other fans." Ergo, to pretend that creating fanwork is detached from community building is absurd and ahistorical. People used to mail each other fics decades ago. MAIL. As in LETTERS. Why didn't these people simply keep that shit to themselves? Because if they did, then there would be NO FANDOM. Yes, people create for the joy of creating, for the inherent satisfaction of the creative process, but people SHARE it because they want to engage in the process of communication. There's something you want to say, and so you say it in hopes that someone will hear it.