To stick with cannon or not

The epic fanfic I've been planning for the past year or so is coming along, and should have thr forst chapture puböished in a vauge amount of time called soon.

For the longest time, I was trying to stay in cannon. I thought that if I did that, for a first fanfic, it would turn out better. Less chance of putting a self insert in, and have a well established framework to work from. However, for the points I want to get across, and for fl9w of the story, I decided to break from cannon. I've read a few fanfics the do this with very effective results. Stories like "Five Score Divided by Four", "How Many Friends Have You Made", and the Skitch stories, as well as others, are shinning examples.

By breaking cannon, there is a certain freedom given to the author. What I want to do is write a story people will want to read, as well as a vehicle for me to explore certain themes.

Well, enough planning and excusing my thought process, and time to actually get some text down.