
Like, a novelist has to come up with their own original characters and figure out how to communicate those characters traits to the audience. A fanfic author has to observe an existing character’s traits and understand them well enough to emulate & adapt, which is a thing casual enjoyers rarely do. Given low barrier to entry some ppl don’t do this and write dogshit, sure. But it’s still writing.
To do it well is a skillset relevant to a lot of professional writing—book to screen adaptations, novelizations for big franchises, ghost writing long-running series, etc. Some ppl who get paid to use those skills also don’t do it and write dogshit. So like anyway don’t devalue urself like that, your work is work. And i say all this as someone who lowkey hates fanfic lmao