Imagine having the power to take your favorite story and making it into anything you could dream of. That’s the idea behind fanfiction. Ordinary people like you and me can actually rewrite scenes from any TV show or movie out there and make it into something completely different, then post it for other fans to read. The most popular changes made in fan-fictions are to make ships happen for people’s OTP. Didn’t understand that sentence? That’s OK, let me explain.

A “ship” is what is referred to as support or to have a particular interest in a romantic pairing between two characters in a fictional series. Often this relationship is one portrayed by fans rather than depicted in the series itself. When the writers of the show place two characters together and one of them is someone a fan had “shipped” with someone different that means the fan’s “ship” sinks and the new relationship is canon.

“Canon” refers to the original body of work that a fanfiction came from. When fans say that something or someone is “canon” it means that it’s actually depicted in the show. An “OTP” stands for One True Pairing, which is basically the same thing as a “ship” but is the strongest type of shipping possible and when someone claims to have an OTP that means they have the strongest devotion to that pairing of characters.

Now you might be thinking, “Why is any of this important?” The world of fanfiction is important because it’s encouraging a generation of creative and intelligent individuals to share their talents with others. People may think that it’s just a bunch of teenage girls with no life sitting in their room making up stories about a bunch of fictional characters but it’s not.

Fan-fiction has actually come to be a very respected piece of art in some cases. Many of the cast members in TV shows such as "Sherlock" and "Supernatural" have outwardly admitted they sometimes read the fan-fiction based around their show and have enjoyed it. Supernatural even gave a respective nod toward the fans by making their 200th episode based around fans and the fiction they have been dishing out since season one.

BBC’s "Sherlock" received a rise in fanfiction after Sherlock’s death in season two because there were so many theories of how Mr. Holmes could have survived. Some of these theories were portrayed in Sherlock’s fanfiction episode in season three, "The Empty Hearse."

Aside from TV shows, there have been many published books that were once just fanfiction stories on a website somewhere. Two of the best examples are "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "The Mortal Instruments" Series that started out as just "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" fanfiction but are now mega best sellers themselves.

Now as if that wasn’t enough reasoning to be supportive of fanfiction, here’s one more. Longtime contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired, Clive Thompson, wrote an article about the importance of fanfiction. In it he states, “you could, as many do, cluck disapprovingly at this activity. Haven’t these folks got anything better to do with their time? To which I reply: No, they don’t. Because they’re creating paracosms – an activity that, research has shown, builds creative skills that pay off in real life.”

So there you have it, fanfiction has a larger and greater purpose than just fueling the imagination of fans all over the world. When we read, we are allowing ourselves to think the impossible can truly be possible and that mindset is the kind we’re going to need to make an impact with our lives.

Ready to start reading fanfiction? Head over to Archive of Our Own (AO3) or FanFiction.net to search for anything and everything your heart desires. Don't be afraid to take the leap and start writing some fan fiction yourself, the possibilities are endless.