Is fanfiction worth the time?

Do you like it? Does it bring you joy? Have any writers of the original work e-mailed you a cease and desist notice? I think those are the main questions. I agree with what the poster above me said, it's not necessarily good practice if you really want to write for a living. There are some people who disagree with this, some of them professional writers, but that's my position on the matter. I think it's on the lowest end of writing, personally. It can help you practice structure, finishing things (which might be your problem with writing, as you said in your original post), and weaving a plot together, but in the end you're still playing in someone else's imagination and not your own. If it's not fun for you, then it's not worth devoting any time to. If it is fun, it might be worth devoting a little bit of time to. I like a little bit of fan-fiction, and I've written a little bit myself, plan on writing a bigger one in the future, but I think the greatest thing it can bring you is just a connection to other fans of a work you admire.

I think you shouldn't be asking us that question, I think you should ask yourself. You're the one who's writing one or had experienced writing a fanfic so would you have written them if you didn't enjoy them? What had pushed you to start writing one? Did you do it to satisfy yourself or for the readers? If you're not really enjoying it then I guess it's understandable that you'd stop writing, but if it gives you happiness even if it doesn't benefit you financially then that's another story. For fanfiction readers, being able to read stories about their favorite shows or books is a wonderful thing, so in the point of view of readers of course it's worth the time because they're able to experience another universe for the show/movie/characters.

I think it depends. I imagine that most people who write fan fiction write it for fun. They don't write it when the intention to publish it or make any money from it. It's worth spending time on it for them because they are doing what they like. It's basically like saying you shouldn't do anything if you can't make money from it even if you like it. If you want to publish your writings, then I suppose writing fan fiction would then be a waste of time. But even then, you could write it to gain practice.

I also wondered if it was worth the time. It depends on the individual and his motives for writing fanfiction. It's good for writing practice and it is fun. Plus you get to interact online or offline with people who share this interest. As long as it doesn't affect our lives in a bad way, then fanfiction is perfectly fine.

I don't think it is a waste of time. Its fun, it helps you develop writing and language skills, it helps get your creative juices going and sometime it can lead to more. Here's an example, the book that every house wife is going gaga over, 50 Shades of Grey", started off as a Twilight fanfic. Once it became popular the writer changed the characters, cleaned it up, and submitted it to a publisher. (I know its a horrible example that makes you want to burn something, but its true.)