30 posts of fandom meme
Ok! So I'm going to try this. It's supposed to be "30 days", but fuck that - I'll post them whenever. Meme stolen from rexluscus.
1 - How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
Well, this is totally three questions, not just one. But I'm going to try and be succinct anyway instead of rambling. Which, gauging from the last two sentences, I'm already failing at.
Lord of the Rings was my first fandom. I saw FOTR in January 2002, about a month before I began university. (Yep, I'd just finished high school!) I was commuting to uni from my parents' place in the countryside - it was a 2 hour journey each way with various forms of transport, and had to pre-arrange my movements with parents/siblings (who had cars). Basically, I had no room to socialise with my uni peers and make friends, so resorted to the internet to actually connect with people. It filled this gap admirably. This is probably what really pulled me in to the community side of fandom for the first time.
I was also studying creative writing at the time - since I could write, I had written, and it was the closest thing I had to an idea of what I wanted to "do for the rest of my life". Unfortunately, the classes I took at uni in that year were deeply demoralising and disappointing. Fortunately, there was fanfiction: the fundamental things I'd wanted out of writing was a) have fun writing, b) have other people enjoy what I wrote, & c) have other people tell me they enjoyed it.
So basically, instead of becoming a profic writer, I became a fanfic writer, and have never looked back :D
That's the psychological reason, I suppose. In terms of the actual process that occurred: I gobbled up things on theonering.net, and stumbled on fanfiction there (a fantastic mary sue story, oh it was so great!). I emailed the author to ask if there was more, and lo and behold, she linked me to fanfiction.net. From there I somehow found yahoogroups - I think frodoslash in particular - and the loving, encouraging and enthusiastic community there fuelled my own inspiration until I finally put some of my own words down.
See above re: never looking back :)
This entry crossposted from hope.dreamwidth.org, where there are
comments. All comments posted here will be archived on the dreamwidth entry also.
1 - How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
Well, this is totally three questions, not just one. But I'm going to try and be succinct anyway instead of rambling. Which, gauging from the last two sentences, I'm already failing at.
Lord of the Rings was my first fandom. I saw FOTR in January 2002, about a month before I began university. (Yep, I'd just finished high school!) I was commuting to uni from my parents' place in the countryside - it was a 2 hour journey each way with various forms of transport, and had to pre-arrange my movements with parents/siblings (who had cars). Basically, I had no room to socialise with my uni peers and make friends, so resorted to the internet to actually connect with people. It filled this gap admirably. This is probably what really pulled me in to the community side of fandom for the first time.
I was also studying creative writing at the time - since I could write, I had written, and it was the closest thing I had to an idea of what I wanted to "do for the rest of my life". Unfortunately, the classes I took at uni in that year were deeply demoralising and disappointing. Fortunately, there was fanfiction: the fundamental things I'd wanted out of writing was a) have fun writing, b) have other people enjoy what I wrote, & c) have other people tell me they enjoyed it.
So basically, instead of becoming a profic writer, I became a fanfic writer, and have never looked back :D
That's the psychological reason, I suppose. In terms of the actual process that occurred: I gobbled up things on theonering.net, and stumbled on fanfiction there (a fantastic mary sue story, oh it was so great!). I emailed the author to ask if there was more, and lo and behold, she linked me to fanfiction.net. From there I somehow found yahoogroups - I think frodoslash in particular - and the loving, encouraging and enthusiastic community there fuelled my own inspiration until I finally put some of my own words down.
See above re: never looking back :)
This entry crossposted from hope.dreamwidth.org, where there are
comments. All comments posted here will be archived on the dreamwidth entry also.