[PhoenixStarr]

Why do you write fanfiction?
I need to know for a research paper, thanks!

[Viva America]

Because you want to explore in the world of writers.

And when you don't have enough skill developed yet, you can use one writer's characters and world and write your own plot and story

[Wikkid X]

Because writing anything is practice, and the most important thing in any skill is practice.

But why, specifically, fanfic? For fun. It's an outlet for my dangerous obsession with Doctor Who. And they're fun to collaborate as well.

[dragon_god]

It gives you a chance to answer questions that you have about something you might have already read. If you feel like you could expand on something that was never really explained, that's a prime opportunity to give your version of the story. It's what I'm doing now and in all honesty, I never thought I would get this far. I was just writing to build my own story and I've written so much when I wasn't planning on it. It's just good fun.

[Warden]

Writing a fan-fiction gives you the chance to improve your writing skills and let's you embrace yourself even deeper with the books that you love.

[dragon_god]

It also gives you a chance to expose yourself. You get to put down your emotions and your thoughts on life and leaves you out there in your story realm rather than in the physical realm. You lose yourself and track of time as you become submerged a world where anything can happen if you want it to. If you don't want to be too serious or aren't ready for a more serious genre, then a good place to start in fan-fiction where nobody really cares about what you say or what happens. In your story, you take the role of God.

[Rhine Maiden]

Personally I write fan fiction as an creative outlet and for an escape from the norm. Writing in general is a great way to express yourself; with fan fiction, it takes a lot of the hassle out of the process. By which I mean not having to create your own little universe and characters. You can develop on the already established plot, or forge a whole different story for the characters you know and love.

Alternatively, you can take a story that you loved at first, but the ending wasn’t exactly what you wanted or expected. So you can manipulate the story to suite your own preferences and change the outcome of the story. If there’s a horrible love pairing (at least a horrible pairing as you see it) you can kill off the hated Mary Sue and create the perfect mate for your favorite character.

Practice different styles of writing or improve on your own style; expand upon your own knowledge of literature in general. Fan Fiction’s are perfect also in the way you can expose yourself to others before showing your own personal works. It helps to develop a tough skin against critic, allowing you to learn to appreciate criticism oppose to hate it.

As some have already mentioned, it allows you to experiment with plot ideas for your own stories. To see if your first idea was better than your second, and also allows you to see what you need to improve upon. Detail, conversations, character development; I find that I can sit down and accomplish more in a fan fiction than I can in my own stories. Simple because I have already established characters I don’t have to introduce to the audience. And a land that I can move freely in with out worry, because it too has already been established.

Fan Fiction is like a pair of training wheels; it gets you up and running. You can only go up from where you start, until eventually the training wheels are off, and now its onto protective gear. Knee pads, elbow pads, the helmet (which should not come off at all); slowly you gain confidence in your ability to write until you no longer depend upon other peoples works. Until all that remains is the helmet, and you can go confidently and start your own book. Of course fan fictions are still there for you to try out new ideas.

[hrothgarknurlan]

I write it partly because I wanted to see if I could do a better job than CP on his story, and partly because I was inspired by all the other excellent fanfics here on the forums.

[Kari]

Because you like the world you're going to 'explore' a lot and want to add your own plot and events, while being unable at the same time to write your own story.

[Buddhist]

Because Inheritance is boring, and I wanted to change that.
Not like anybody knows what the F@#! I'm talking about

[SergantMajorJefforson]

To practice character interaction and dialogue, without having to set up a back story and universe to place characters into. Also, to explore more possibilities in fictional universes that interest you.

[Lord Murphy]

I decided to write a Fan Fiction because of all the other ones I read. Every person on here that has read the books has a different idea of what will happen and I think it is a good way to show the others out there. Let them read a book about it instead of just ideas and thoughts.

[SwordofTruth]

I write fan-fiction for a few reasons. Mainly I feel inspired to write fan-fiction after reading the books that I feel like writing a fan-fiction off of. I have the "high" feeling of finishing the book, and need a way for there to be 'more' of it, and obviously you can't snap your fingers and make the next book come out, so the next best thing is writing your own fan-fiction.

I also just purely enjoy writing, so why not combine my love of reading and writing together, and write about my favorite books? It provides an excellent way to make the story the way you want it to happen. If I really dislike a character, I have the power to kill that character. I can be in control of my favorite books, and that feeling is great. Of course, nothing I do will compare to the actual book, for example book IV of the Inheritance Cycle, but why not give it a go?

[Arthryn]

I originally started writing fan fiction in order to conduct character studies on my own original characters. I'd place them in an already-made world with a history, conflict, map, cast, and everything already laid out, and see what happened. Like others have said, it makes a very good practice ground, because you don't have to devote time and effort into creating everything you need to write a story, because CP (or any author) has provided it for you, so you can get down to what you want to work on right away.

The other reason I write fan fiction is that it's an excellent release for all sorts of ridiculous concepts and interactions I'd never want to include in a serious piece of work, and in the past, it has alleviated sexual frustration. I took a lot of pleasure taking my own characters, placing them in someone else's universe, and creating some super fun scenes out of that, which I would never include in a serious piece of work.

[Malus Rune]

It can be for a number of reasons.

- If you find a character in a book or film or whatnot interesting, it's fun to try and explore what they'd do under your reign. This is why I write Doctor Who fanfics sometimes. I love Doctor Who characters and villains, and I am constantly hit by what I think are fascinating plotlines involving them that Russell T Davies should've used. So I write them myself.

- You may be disappointed with the ending, or the like, if you really enjoyed the rest, so you add an additional, more suitably epic ending.

- You may just want to express your love for the thing.