Before I discovered Wattpad, I had no idea what fanfiction was. Well, at least I didn't realize it was a category all its own. In an effort to find out some juicy gossip on a certain celebrity I was following, I was surfing all over Google and reading the search results when I ran into an excerpt of a story that someone had written. I only read a small blurb but it got my attention quickly.

The excerpt consisted of a young woman speaking in first person going up to said celebrity and after a year of dating, told him that she was pregnant. He was so overjoyed he told her he loved her and proposed marriage right there on the spot. Now, you may be thinking, "So what's the big deal about this?" Well, said celebrity has clearly expressed in the real world that he does not want to get married or have any kids, first off. Second, he is smoking hot with a strong female Twitter following. So many women fangirl him and makeup the primary audience gender for his show, that just reading this small part of this story could put any of those women in the role of the young woman pregnant with his child in their fantasies and certainly all would jump at the chance to say yes if he ever proposed to any of them.

Having enjoyed this story, I clicked on it and it brought me to Wattpad and that's where my own journey started. My first story ever on Wattpad was a fanfiction about the celebrity I have just mentioned and let me say, it was such a joy to write. I did feel apprehensive at first thinking, "Oh my goodness, what if someone knows someone who knows him and will run and tell him all about what I wrote about him?" and some panic set in.

Then I did some research on Wattpad and there are tons upon tons of fanfiction stories not only about this person I wrote about, but so many stories about boy bands and one particular band member whose name starts with an 'H'. Then, I started to relax because these stories were promoted and featured with millions of reads, votes, and comments. So, if writing fanfiction was a bad thing, why would they be promoted and advertised on Wattpad? There are even fandoms about that fanfiction series and even fanfictions written about those fanfictions and now it seems a movie might even be made about it.

Writing fanfiction is fun because just like with any character, you can design whatever world you want to put your character in. I know for me, meeting a celebrity makes me a bit shy and I shake with nerves, afraid to say the wrong thing. Writing about the celebrity puts you in control of the situation and it's a story you have created so what is there to be nervous or scared about? In a sense, you are allowing your imagination to drift and make them say and do whatever you fantasize about.

I do have limits. I won't put my celebrity crush in a situation I wouldn't want to see in real life that would be life-threatening, gory, or make them do anything that could ruin the fantasy for me and my readers who also feel the same way I do. For example, my chosen fanfic hero loves animals. In real life, he volunteers at a no-kill shelter in his hometown. He helps to fundraise to maintain the animal shelter and tweets when an animal is ready to be adopted or when one has found a home. There are even pictures and video of him spending time with the animals, playing with them and feeding newborn puppies. In my fanfic, I couldn't fathom the thought of making him harm any animals because that would certainly ruin the fantasy that makes him so special to his loyal fan base. Having him hurt any sentient beings goes against the fabric of what makes him, him.

Not everybody is a fan of fanfiction, and that's ok but I can say it is a heck of a lot of fun to write. If you haven't done it for whatever reason, think of it like eating broccoli. It may seem unpleasant but once you make it cheesy, it's not so bad. It can be very good, in fact. Don't knock it 'till you try it! Maybe on a small level, but try it out regardless. It's just another genre in the writing world and it doesn't hurt anybody when written respectfully.