Six Fanfic Questions
Apr. 24th, 2020 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wrote_and_writI swiped these from naye because they seem like fun, and I’d definitely be interested to know what all y’all’s answers are.
1. Why did you start writing fanfic?
2. Why do you write fanfic?
3. How do you choose fandoms and why do you choose them?
4. Do you have themes or plot devices you return to?
5. Do you have any pet peeves?
6. Which story/stories are you the most proud over and why?
My answers are under the cut!
1. I started writing fanfic intentionally in 2014. It was a really rough year for me. My dad died in January, I started teaching middle school again after a five year break, I had a hard time concentrating on any new media, and I needed a healthy dose of comfort. I made a tumblr for some reason and found fic for Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, and I thought “sure, I want to do that.” So I did. The more I wrote, the more I realized I had actually been writing fanfic for years. I have a handwritten story I composed that my second grade teacher made into a booklet bound with wallpaper samples. It’s called “The Sunday Gang,” and it’s basically Scooby-Doo fanfic. In middle school, my best friend and I became obsessed with Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books. We spent one summer (pre-internet and pre-driver’s licenses) mailing letters to each other from our own kingdoms, stealing all the good bits from Tortall and making ourselves queens. I drew maps and wrote up official court documents with my calligraphy pens. When we were in our 20’s, my bestie took my half of the letters and made photocopies of the whole lot. I have a binder in a cabinet at my mom’s that has all our letters.
2. I write fanfic because it’s fun. That’s the root of it. Writing fanfic is like playing with Legos. I can follow the directions that come with the box as closely as I wish, or not at all. I can mix and match sets if I want.
3. Like Naye said, I don’t choose fandoms. Fandoms choose me. That said, I’m more likely to engage in fannish activities in a new fandom if I already have friends there. For example, I splashed around in the Harry Potter fandom because my amazing friend Cat encouraged me to try and because she wrote some really awesome fics. I did jump into the Guardian fandom alone, but I have poked around in other fandoms, particularly some Thai dramas and now The Untamed because people I liked or admired from Guardian life also shared things from those.
4. I like to write stories where characters just Talk To Each Other because it annoys me when conflict stems from things that could so easily be cleared up with a conversation. I also really like to write domestic slice of life stories because I enjoy thinking about the lives of characters beyond canon. I used to write So Many First Kisses, but now I prefer dropping in on established relationships and writing really small vignettes.
5. A pet peeve I have for my own writing is that I seem to be incapable of holding a plot together for more than 5,000 words. I wish I could write sprawling, multi chapter stories. I haven’t given up yet on it, but I am frustrated that I can’t write these sort of things now. As far as peeves in other people’s works, there are a few phrases that take me out of a story, although usually not so much that I give up. Right now, the sentence “I’ve got you” is driving me bananas, but also, I get why it’s used so much. Who wouldn’t want to hear that from someone you love and trust when you’re in the midst of some crisis? If I think about it as a linguist, it becomes an interesting bit of data to track. My teacher-brain engages and it gets me thinking about word choice and vocabulary.
6. I’m proud of Find a Thousand Words because I think I managed to pack a lot of tenderness into a small space. I think sensory details are a strength of my writing.
I hope to see your answers to these!
naye because they seem like fun, and I’d definitely be interested to know what all y’all’s answers are. 1. Why did you start writing fanfic?
2. Why do you write fanfic?
3. How do you choose fandoms and why do you choose them?
4. Do you have themes or plot devices you return to?
5. Do you have any pet peeves?
6. Which story/stories are you the most proud over and why?
My answers are under the cut!
1. I started writing fanfic intentionally in 2014. It was a really rough year for me. My dad died in January, I started teaching middle school again after a five year break, I had a hard time concentrating on any new media, and I needed a healthy dose of comfort. I made a tumblr for some reason and found fic for Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, and I thought “sure, I want to do that.” So I did. The more I wrote, the more I realized I had actually been writing fanfic for years. I have a handwritten story I composed that my second grade teacher made into a booklet bound with wallpaper samples. It’s called “The Sunday Gang,” and it’s basically Scooby-Doo fanfic. In middle school, my best friend and I became obsessed with Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books. We spent one summer (pre-internet and pre-driver’s licenses) mailing letters to each other from our own kingdoms, stealing all the good bits from Tortall and making ourselves queens. I drew maps and wrote up official court documents with my calligraphy pens. When we were in our 20’s, my bestie took my half of the letters and made photocopies of the whole lot. I have a binder in a cabinet at my mom’s that has all our letters.
2. I write fanfic because it’s fun. That’s the root of it. Writing fanfic is like playing with Legos. I can follow the directions that come with the box as closely as I wish, or not at all. I can mix and match sets if I want.
3. Like Naye said, I don’t choose fandoms. Fandoms choose me. That said, I’m more likely to engage in fannish activities in a new fandom if I already have friends there. For example, I splashed around in the Harry Potter fandom because my amazing friend Cat encouraged me to try and because she wrote some really awesome fics. I did jump into the Guardian fandom alone, but I have poked around in other fandoms, particularly some Thai dramas and now The Untamed because people I liked or admired from Guardian life also shared things from those.
4. I like to write stories where characters just Talk To Each Other because it annoys me when conflict stems from things that could so easily be cleared up with a conversation. I also really like to write domestic slice of life stories because I enjoy thinking about the lives of characters beyond canon. I used to write So Many First Kisses, but now I prefer dropping in on established relationships and writing really small vignettes.
5. A pet peeve I have for my own writing is that I seem to be incapable of holding a plot together for more than 5,000 words. I wish I could write sprawling, multi chapter stories. I haven’t given up yet on it, but I am frustrated that I can’t write these sort of things now. As far as peeves in other people’s works, there are a few phrases that take me out of a story, although usually not so much that I give up. Right now, the sentence “I’ve got you” is driving me bananas, but also, I get why it’s used so much. Who wouldn’t want to hear that from someone you love and trust when you’re in the midst of some crisis? If I think about it as a linguist, it becomes an interesting bit of data to track. My teacher-brain engages and it gets me thinking about word choice and vocabulary.
6. I’m proud of Find a Thousand Words because I think I managed to pack a lot of tenderness into a small space. I think sensory details are a strength of my writing.
I hope to see your answers to these!
no subject
Date: 2020-04-25 11:18 am (UTC)I'm one of those "always wrote fanfic even before I knew what it was" kids too. I love what you said about it being like playing with Legos, how there's a suggested structure but you can go wherever you want from there. What was your Scooby Doo fic about? Did you make it like an episode or do something else with the characters?
I love the story about you and your friend putting yourselves into Tortall and writing letters in character. I used to do things like that at that age - create maps and other artifacts inspired by books and games. I guess those were fanworks too!
I'm a short fic writer too, but it doesn't bother me. I enjoy honing short fics and trying to express a lot in a small space. I love reading long fics but I leave the writing of them to the experts. If you wrote a sprawling plotty epic, what would it be about?
no subject
Date: 2020-04-26 05:36 pm (UTC)I’m not necessarily bothered that I can’t seem to write longer things, but it’s just a skill I wish I had the patience to develop. I don’t even have an idea of anything I would like to write. I “won” NaNoWriMo once, in 2008, and I’ve not come anywhere close to writing that much since. It’s not that I want to become a mountain climber, but I’d like to be able to do it once in awhile. :-P
no subject
Date: 2020-04-25 04:55 pm (UTC)What a lovely analogy.
Thank you for the self-rec! I missed that one and it is now in my Marked For Later. Something to look forward to!
no subject
Date: 2020-04-26 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-27 08:54 am (UTC)This sounds magical. I would absolutely watch the whimsical Taika Waitit movie mingling your adventures as queens with your everyday lives and letters.
It's fascinating how almost everyone (or absolutely everyone?) I know who writes fic was always writing fic. The internet just formalized how we do it.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-27 05:06 pm (UTC)I keep going back to this Henry Jenkins quote when I think about fics: “Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of by the folk.“ — myths, fairy tales, it really doesn’t surprise me that so many people write fics, especially those who grew up on a steady diet of Disney and their fanfics of fairy tales and myths. And the internet definitely makes it easier to transmit our stories.