#a multitude of sins are usually overlooked in good fanfic because we have such a deep and established investment in the characters

[hussyknee]

No shade to fanfic, because god knows there are some excellent ones, but when you get back to reading published novels after a long time, you realize how readable and consistently good even average professional writing is. I mean, the fact that there's more professional grade published writing than there is professional grade fanfic should be obvious, but it's easy to forget when you spend long enough immersed in fic alone.