This is mainly for the people who have had their work published in any fiction genre, but anyone can answer but, do you think fan fiction is good or bad?
I myself think it's good since it's a nice safe place for new wanna be writers to start off, since any child can come up with a character, but what they might lack is a strong plot (Or sometimes visa versa), so is there really any harm in borrowing characters and placing them in different plot point? I understand if some people wish for their characters not to be used in such away (E.g. I know Anne Rice doesn't want her character from Interview with the Vampire to be use in fan fiction), but as long as credit is given where it is due, do you agree writing fan fiction is a good idea, or do you disagree? If so please explain why.
I have nothing against fan fiction (I write some myself) but, depending on the fandom, it can be hard to find a very good story. From experience, I can tell that the bigger the fandom, the harder it is to find a story that's not focusing on getting two characters in a (mostly sexual)relationship.
I think writing fan fiction can be a great start for anyone who starts writing. There's even the choice on whether to take an already existing character an write from his/her perspective or you just make up your own, as long as it fits the setting. It's great to learn about building a character or even worldbuilding (depending on the genre). So, I think it can be a good starting point.
As a fanfiction reader, and occasional writer, I do not see any problems with fanfiction as either an enjoyable exercise, or a way of practicing the craft, or even just another project for a writer who enjoys someone else's character and world-building. I have found many fans, especially of science fiction and fantasy books, films and television shows, are themselves creative. I have read a lot of science fiction-based fanfiction, and have found very talented writers. Some of these write in other ventures and some do not. None attempt to write fanfiction for profit (unless they are commissioned to write a tie-in book) and all give credit to the original creators. I don't believe that any of these writers would look favorably on anyone not including a disclaimer and stating due credit.
When I first found out what fan fiction was I hated the idea of it. I am a big fan of Red Dwarf and although it has waned slightly the last few years, when I was at uni I was pretty much obsessed with it. Someone mentioned in a forum that they were going to write a possible new series as part of a school project and during a really boring lecture I started to do the same. Cut a long story short I wrote quite a bit of it myself as screenplays; I was basically writing a series 9. Eventually I rewrote about half of them as prose and put them on fanfiction.net. I didn't do it for money, I would never have dreamed of trying to do that. The closest I came was to rewrite my first plot again with a different outcome so it was a one off story and submit it to a competition the fan club ran, which I won. I had been writing on and off for years but writing those stories sparked my own imagination and got me writing other things.
I created my own character so my stories had something unique to me but I actually found it harder to write the well known ones in a way that fans would like. It was also difficult to think of plot ideas that would work in the context of the show. I still don't read fan fiction but as someone who has written it in the past I don't have a problem with it. Like you said though, I'd never imagine trying to make money from it. Writing fan fiction is easy, I think. Writing good fan fiction that other fans would like is really difficult. They aren't your characters so to do it well you have to think of how the original creators would write a situation you yourself have imagined, which I think is a difficult skill.