writing motivations
Atlantis Countdown!
I'm in an Early British Lit class this semester, and something we were talking about this morning got me to thinking about the seeming two schools of thought about fandom writing...
What we were talking about this morning was the difference between publishing in say, 16th century England, versus today. Today, a professional author's goal is publication--yes, you have a story to tell, but there's also the external motivation, your story will need to sell. Back then, people like Donne and Sidney were writing for coteries (sp?), their intellectual circles and friends. And typically not published for the public until after they died. (Not a bad idea, since some stuff could've gotten them killed anyway.)
In fandom, anyone who's ever been to a major fic archive, like Fanfiction.net, has seen the entries "Plz leave feedback omg!!!!! I need eleventy billion responses before I'll post the next part!! LOLZ!!1!11"* The same kind of thought seems to come up in the sockpuppet debacles, the "fandom has been so mean to me I'm leaving! UNLESS you all leave responses telling me how much you love me!" announcements.
So where I'm going with this: we all enjoy feedback, we all want to know people have read and appreciated on some level the thing we slaved over and crafted and invested not a small portion of ourselves into. However, the people who make the above kinds of comments, who solicit responses, seem to have the modern feeling about writing. They're being moved by the external motivation rather than the internal.
Then there's the other portion of fandom that's more like a coterie. It's an intellectual circle; where we create things to entertain each other, to strut our stuff, to share our mutual obsession.
*My attempt at net-speak
I'm in an Early British Lit class this semester, and something we were talking about this morning got me to thinking about the seeming two schools of thought about fandom writing...
What we were talking about this morning was the difference between publishing in say, 16th century England, versus today. Today, a professional author's goal is publication--yes, you have a story to tell, but there's also the external motivation, your story will need to sell. Back then, people like Donne and Sidney were writing for coteries (sp?), their intellectual circles and friends. And typically not published for the public until after they died. (Not a bad idea, since some stuff could've gotten them killed anyway.)
In fandom, anyone who's ever been to a major fic archive, like Fanfiction.net, has seen the entries "Plz leave feedback omg!!!!! I need eleventy billion responses before I'll post the next part!! LOLZ!!1!11"* The same kind of thought seems to come up in the sockpuppet debacles, the "fandom has been so mean to me I'm leaving! UNLESS you all leave responses telling me how much you love me!" announcements.
So where I'm going with this: we all enjoy feedback, we all want to know people have read and appreciated on some level the thing we slaved over and crafted and invested not a small portion of ourselves into. However, the people who make the above kinds of comments, who solicit responses, seem to have the modern feeling about writing. They're being moved by the external motivation rather than the internal.
Then there's the other portion of fandom that's more like a coterie. It's an intellectual circle; where we create things to entertain each other, to strut our stuff, to share our mutual obsession.
*My attempt at net-speak