Just because something is popular on the Internet does not necessarily make it worth a publisher's, or indeed a reader's, time and effort.

The act of creation is one thing, but the act of sharing it with likeminded fans is a whole host of fun unto itself.

All superheroes have a great love story, or several, given the ongoing nature of comics. Steve Rogers and doing the right thing is a good example. Diana Prince and Steve Trevor. Professor X and Magneto. And now, Eddie Brock and Venom. 

It's love at first page, episode, or scene. And suddenly, there it is! Your dream ship. These two characters couldn't be more perfect for each other, right? You take to your social media platform of choice, ready to spread the good word about your new OTP. But something's wrong. Everyone else ships your favorite character and someone else.

It's easy for us all to think of our favorite fanfic tropes and announce them to the world, but very rarely do we think about why those happen to be our favorites. For me, I cannot get enough of two friends who are forced to share a bed and, in doing so, finally admit their feelings for one another—which, arguably, says a lot about me as a person. Friend-to-lover tropes tend to be my favorite because I tend to have crushes on men who are, first, my friends.

Only lemons, please.

I can't stop thinking about "A Fragment Out of Time" and how far fandom and particularly fanfiction with LGBTQIA+ themes and characters have come since Diane Marchant's story in 1974.

There is always, always more room for coffee shop AUs in fandom, and the world at large. If you have suggestions for where I can take my coffee-loving, hopeless romantic attentions to next, I’m all in.

Today in the worst things I have ever read comes an interview on Lithub with a writer named Lonely Christopher. Even though he has reworked Stephen King's The Shining, Christopher claims that his book is "not fanfic" for a variety of reasons that seem to coalesce in his need to quote literary theorists.

The creative mind behind Pushing Daisies, Hannibal, American Gods and a good chunk of Star Trek: Discovery is working on bringing Anne Rice's literary vamps to the small screen.

One of the best fan narratives to emerge from "The Force Awakens" was the suggestion of a romance between heroic ex-Stormtrooper Finn and the dashing fighter pilot Poe Dameron. But as we approach The Last Jedi's release, the fact remains that it is unlikely Disney will explore any pairing of the kind.

I didn’t have time for actual sex and romance. Instead, I needed vague, non-threatening man-boys who sang and danced in perfectly choreographed harmony.

From time to time, we here at The Mary Sue have Slack conversations that spin off wildly into "Are We Just Writing Fanfic Now" territory. Submitted for your approval, here is a fanfic that grew out of the above image that quickly spiraled out of control and crash landed in ... the TMS Slack Zone.

We could all use a distraction right now, so hopefully this is a welcome one. This week's edition of Graham Norton will feature a couch made up of James McAvoy promoting the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Split, Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard for Assassin's Creed, and Room 101's Frank Skinner.

There is a safe space that fanfiction provides for autonomy and feminism through an exploration of kink and sensuality, dominated by the written word.

In case you missed it the first time around, HBO is going to be re-airing Beyonce's visual album Lemonade tonight (which originally premiered one night only before being released exclusively via Tidal and then, eventually, iTunes as a part of Bey's album, where anyone who bought a copy also received a download of the film). It'll be on HBO at 10 PM EST, so if you haven't watched it yet, now's your chance!

I consider myself a mostly functional adult. I have a job. I attend graduate courses and write papers about academic things. I pay bills and stuff. I'm a good friend and a good kid to my parents. I'm a fairly upbeat person. I don't like to be sad, I don't cry a lot, and some people even think I'm funny. Why, oh, why, then am I obsessed with reading the angstiest fanfiction ever?