I misunderstood Twine and created my own story with the links:

FANFICTION: DECLARATION OF LOVE

I am a big fan of fanfiction. I discovered this guilty pleasure in 2006-2007 and have been a devoted reader ever since.
Quite often I have only a vague idea of the source, not having read or watched the original story. For example, I am not fond of Tolkien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien, I prefer Zelazny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny, and therefore, I missed watching “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies, but I am familiar with tons of fan-written stories about Middle Earth instead.

Books and movies about Harry Potter did not spike my interest either, but those surprising fan stories and especially unexpected crossovers with other fanfiction communities? Definitely worth checking out. Look at “By Chance” by Femme, for example https://archiveofourown.org/works/1254.

There are many established authors in the fanfiction world famous for their mastery of words, high-quality content, and a recognizable unique style – Tamaris, Lenore, Roseetta, Meyari, Danceswithgary, C. S. Pacat, P. L. Nunn, Astolat, Telera, Rivkat, Wicked R to name a few. It doesn’t matter to which fandom or category their writing belongs, their pattern is recognizable and plot twists – unpredictable. Some of these seasoned authors have already died, others stopped writing fanfiction, and some started writing commercially. However, I will always be grateful to them for their wonderful stories.

I especially recommend Astolat https://archiveofourown.org/users/astolat to all the English language lovers – if you never read her before, you are for a delicious treat. For instance, a currently popular TV series “Witcher” has a nice little prequel “By Any Other Name” created by Astolat to explain the origin of the Witcher and his colleagues https://archiveofourown.org/works/12210708

The love theme is less important for me there, but a great injustice and a masterful way to deal with it is what really attracts attention there. Plus, a rich language of course.

I am aware that a fanfiction became a focus of academic attention long time ago. Some university professors routinely include a fanfiction section into their literature courses while others serve as research advisors for the Master’s papers on fanfiction. Look here https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/9593v148 or here https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/760842/McCain_georgetown_0076M_12977.pdf for a sample.

There are numerous articles on different aspects of fanfiction all over Internet, though for me this is just a pure pleasure. So, everything about this literary genre looks quite decent, accepted, and serious; therefore, imagine my surprise last week when I found out that all fanfiction is actually illegal.

What a strange world we live in where something that big, amazing, and meaningful as fanfiction exists outside the law, as an infringement of copyright!