11 | Writing, Fan-Fiction & Stray Thoughts

Is it okay to write a story in the fictional world someone else created? Is that the definition of Fan-fiction?

I'm only asking because I crave to write a story but in the depth of my heart there is a irrational fear that i would not be able to create a world that is interesting and characters that readers would root for. With fan-fiction there is a lot of things that are no longer in your control. The characters are formed, all you have to do is answer how would the character respond in that scenario. Of course that is an over simplification. There are many types of fan-fiction. It could be in the form of a rewrite of the current story for a canon divergence. A missing scene or moment that the original artist did not include. An alternate universe(AU) with a lot more questions to answer, such as why did the character become like the one we so loved in the original source material. In the end though, a fan-fiction helps to answer some of the questions about the story you are writing, thus simplifying the process.

Sidetracking, I think I just found out why I love to read AUs in fan-fiction. It gives the writer the most freedom to be creative about the characters and stories we had fallen head over heels for. It is the epitome of wanting to read a new story without the baggage of getting acquainted to a new cast of character.

On another note, re-reading what I have written the term 'source material' stood out to me. With things like movie adaptation of a book and a TV show based on comic, it is all based on a source material like the original book and comic. The question is are the movies and TV show created considered fan-fiction?