Mind you, concerning the fanfiction argument, I know there's a hell of a lot of horrible things out there that would make your skin crawl and yourself die in a corner of agonizing torment while muttering 'Why? Why god, why do you let this live?'
At the same time, I wouldn't be able to write half as decently as I do now without having used Fanfiction as a starting point. The only real working tip for anyone wishing to become a writer is to 'write and write'.
So yes, I agree, it doesn't take much to write a 'shitty' story.
Still, better a completed shitty story than no story at all.
Because along the way people will comment on it, which is something you won't normally have. People will say if the story is good or not, if there are some points of the plot that are agonizingly horrible or good and that kind of feedback is the type you'd normally find in those literary clubs where you have to stand up and speak your own point of view.
Only, with the internet and fanfiction, you have something like a pool of at least a good thousand hundreds of potential reviewers. That then translates in reviewers for at least a good ten-to twelve per chapter, and in those ten to twelve reviews, the majority will be about 'please update soon' or 'great story!' but one, or two, will be constructive criticism.
"You should use less commas and more periods." "Careful when you make a spoken sentence, because if you finish it with the comma," the reviewer said, "you don't need to put the T of the as a capital letter."
And so on. Yes, fanfiction is a kiddie pool, but it's way better to start in a kiddie pool then start to swim in the ocean, rather than fly down a cliff and smash against the rocks below.
(Btw, I'm Italian. So it's twice as hard for me to write grammatically correct sentences in English...but I try all the same.)
I know I'm far from perfect or even good...but I'll get there. Word after word that I spew I will get there. Writing fanfiction if I have to.
So don't offend the genre. Offend the thirteen year old with hormonal imbalances that suddenly found it interesting to write a story of Harems because they'll never have one in their lives.