My mom was all, "Why can't you just do the exact same thing, only with all your own characters, nd get published, sweetie?" when I showed her some of my RP logs. Not same thing at all. For one thing, I can't do dialogue without having someone else do the other character ... too masturbatory. For another, the 'creating a whole consistent world with interesting people and conflicts' part, which you get for free with RP and fanfic, is in itself a fiendishly hard skill, and one I do not posess yet. Even aside from the issues raised in the essay.