Confession: Despite writing fanfiction, I actually don't read it.

Yes, I know it's strange, but a fanfic author who doesn't read fanfiction? Odd, isn't it? All my books are pretty much published works. I don't even read wattpad.

Let me explain, when I first got into Fairy Tail, I tried to read Fairy Tail fanfiction, and honestly, I wasn't impressed by what I saw. I just couldn't get over how grossly out of character they were, with little respect to the original intent. Like I saw so many playboy Natsu fics? Like what? I now understand that Natsu is possibly a little more pervy than he lets on. Mainly to Lucy. Well, pretty much just Lucy, but even then, that's far from a playboy.

But regardless, I just didn't like just how OOC so much of it was. I just couldn't read anymore. In the end, I realized if I wanted to read the Fairy Tail fanfiction I wanted to read.... I have to do it myself!

So, yeah, that's why I started fanfic partly. Because nothing I read in FT fanfiction was interesting to me personally.

One of the main reasons, I still don't is because of the OOCness. Listen I am on my fourth rewatch of Fairy Tail, and I own the entire manga (I am forever grateful to ebay) and I've read it, and plan to reread it again.

One of the main reasons I have rewatched Fairy Tail so much, is because I want to keep the characters voices fresh in my head. I want to remember their personalities and speech patterns. I want to get in the habit of watching one or 2 episodes a day just to refresh my memory on the characters.

I feel that if I read other fanfiction, that the possibly occness of other writings could pollute the canon from my head, and make them speak or act in ways out of character.

So, I stick to strictly canon forms of Fairy Tail media as a result of not caring for FT fic in general and wanting to make sure I can stick as close to canon as I can.

There is also another factor of reading published books (Especially good ones) to keep my writing skills sharp and to constantly learn of new ways to innovate my writing. Not saying all published books are good, but fanfiction quality tends to be lower than published works. So, I also feel that by spending time reading published works that I am leveling up my writing skills. 

Yes, so that's it. 

I don't care for most FT fanfiction

I want to stay as close to canon

I rather spend time reading higher quality published material to strengthen my writing ability.

That's all, folks!

EDIT: I want to add another reason. I am open about being an aromantic asexual, and I tend to find smut/spice scenes a little off-putting to say the least, and the fanfiction world...well that's par the course. So, the amount of smut I ran into was a very, very big detriment for me into not reading more fanfiction.