I’m an avid bookworm — as in, I will literally give up an hour’s sleep if it means I get to spend that much more time with my favorite book. I cried through a tutorial session after school once because the author had just killed off the romantic interest in the Gemma Doyle trilogy.

So you can imagine the trials of having an engaging book come to an end (or having the author leave off at a cliffhanger and realizing the publishing date for the sequel is more than a year away).

Fanfiction is the common fangirl or fanboy’s solution to these sorts of problems whether we’re talking movies, books, films, shows or dramas. Fanfiction is pretty self-explanatory — it’s fiction written by fans usually taking place in an already constructed universe, often borrowing characters and plot lines from established works.

Fanfiction gives you a world of possibilities to explore. There are stories taking place in familiar universes with completely new characters, stories that extend beyond what the author or film director planned, stories that craft out alternate endings and relationships for favorite characters. There are even crossovers between universes (so Percy Jackson and Harry Potter fans can raise a flag of truce and find fiction with the best of both worlds).

Fanfiction also offers a lot to novice writers. When I’m struggling with writer’s block or want to play out a scenario with some character, it’s a relief to be able to dive into a ready-made world and live out the character’s life through my writing. And writing fanfiction also beings more opportunities to interact with fanfiction writers from across the globe.

You can be as anonymous as you like but there’s definitely something exciting about having an entire community of individuals who are just as hard-core fans as you about some book or movie or ship. Of course, not all fanfiction is the best — I’ve seen some rather shoddy work but it’s important to remember that everyone puts in some effort to develop their ideas and that they’re doing it to please themselves. And with that said, there are some stories that are so realistic I was half-surprised it wasn’t the original author that had decided to be benevolent and continue the story.

Whether you think Katniss and Gale make a much better couple, you need someone to fangirl over the latest season of Game of Thrones with or you’re not ready to leave one of your favorite make-believe worlds yet, I’d say a good fanfiction site is going to be the salve for your soul.

(I did go back and read through about a dozen Gemma Doyle fanfictions where the love interest somehow survives before I managed to convince myself that he had, indeed, stayed alive and went on to live happily ever after.)