Word art created using  the wizard on wordclouds.com

And that is a very pertinent question, to all of us who write fanfiction or fanfic for short. 

I love writing fanfic for it gives me a chance to create new worlds or alter some scenes of my one and only OTP - SwaSan of Swaragini fame. I have written vignettes, short stories mostly based on the serial track and others which, though have the characters from the serial, are in set in an Alternate universe. 

But the purpose of this is not to set out my writings, it is because,  of late, I have been having increasing doubts - are my stories being read only because of a deep adoration that we have for the couple we ship or is it because the story is interesting? But that is not easy to answer, for I myself find it difficult to answer that question, me who does read quite a bit of fanfic and yes, would not read fanfic on any other couple. There is a huge amount of fanfic and quite a bit of fiction too that I do not read, because of bad grammar, poor syntax, (I am not exactly a grammar Nazi but after a certain limit, those grammatical errors are a huge turnoff),  skimpy plot lines or stories that go along the famous billionaire / caveman stereotypes (not my type - though I will not rant on it here, I need a topic for another day, right?)

Which brings us to another question, why this doubt? Am I ashamed to be writing fanfic? Rest assured, I am not, I am proud of what I have written, quality and quantum notwithstanding, my OTP is my muse, has been the inspiration behind everything I have written and through those stories, I have discovered brilliant writers who are now even better friends. 

But a part of me, (and of late, a large part of me) really wants to know if my story, any story of mine would be accepted if it were not a fanfic. And there is only one way to find out, to take the step and post it as one. And yet doubts assail me, the greatest being the fear that in my attempt to seek a different set of readers I would alienate the one group that has helped me discover myself and grow as a writer. 

Which brings me back to the start - To fanfic or not to fanfic?

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Any comments would be appreciated. Very very much.