When someone tells a fanfiction writer that they’re “not a real writer,” I say to that person, “You don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to write a scene and a a character in the English language, with images and words chock full of received meaning.” I do think there’s an innocent bravery to saying, “I’m going to write another Sherlock Holmes story,” but of course it’s already a new Sherlock Holmes the moment you start writing it. It’s not Doyle’s. It’s yours.