monsters and magic, dragons and vampires - well, I think the world of Harry Potter could be counted as fantasy, so, here I am ... of course Harry Potter is not mine, Rowling wrote those books originally, and he belongs to her - I'm just borrowing him to play a little bit in her sandpit ... people might say that writing fanfiction does not really count as 'writing' - however, as a fanfiction author we face the challenge to work with preset characters and settings, we can play with them, throw them into different situations, and even have them growing, without changing their core characters or the world she has been creating ... I'm taking this seriously, and I try my best to write something that my readers can enjoy, that perhaps cause them to laugh or to cry, or to get angry, or to smile with joy ... so - well, fantasy it is ... :) ...

as a lover of fanfic writing myself I'd say that fanfic writing most definitely counts as writing. Then again I am biased. It's a challenge to keep characters true to themselves and not change personalities. And it's definitely a challenge to work with the rules of the known universe. Sometimes it fails miserably (*cough*CursedChild*cough*) and you end up with a son who wishes to murder his father. Personally I love writing about characters who will meet a tragic end, and make them go through their mundane days, doing mundane things, and experience life, just to give their characters a little more body, and maybe a bit more emotional charge for once they eventually do end their untimely demise. Fanfics are a whole different beast to tackle. They are not lesser, they are just different