That 30 days of fanfic meme

[pensnest]

Oh, wottheheck, I might as well do that fanfic meme that's going around. Now I can stop filling my mind with Pirates. (Hah. If the music would get out of my skull, I could.)

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?



I've always re-imagined stories. When I was little, and reading fairy tales and Arthurian legend, I'd think about the Crown Prince's youngest brother, or the hero's friend, etc. I remember watching "Alias Smith and Jones" while at school, and I definitely had stories in my head about them.

First time I ever bothered to write stuff down was when I became addicted to Star Trek:The Next Generation, in, hmm, about 1993 (late as usual). I found my way to the edge of the fandom and subscribed to the wonderful IDIC newsletter, where I saw a little ad for a fic zine, and by great good luck, the very first story in the very first issue I got was a Data story which I adopted as part of my 'personal canon'. (I wrote to the author, too, and she became one of my many penfriends.) Anyway, I thought, Other people do this too, and they write it down, and then people read it! I can do that. So I promptly converted a few fantasy storylines into actual stories and sent them off.

I think it was the fellow-feeling in the IDIC newsletter, and the pleasure of getting actual post instead of bills and junk mail that got me addicted to fandom, and then at my first convention spending most of Saturday night in the café laughing helplessly with three other fangirls as we discussed… well, things like, when Picard is naked and being tortured by the Cardassian, don't you kinda lean sideways to see past that computer monitor? Hmm. Anyway, yes. Meeting other people who were genuinely as excited by our canon as I was, and who had the same *kind* of interest in it that I did, getting to discuss this stuff with fellow enthusiasts, that's what hooked me.


I'm not going to post the remainder of the list, because I'm sure you'll have seen it posted around the place.

On a not quite completely unrelated note, can anyone tell me if Berkeley Hunt, scourge of fangirls, is on LJ or DW anywhere? She was my very first beta, and if she has a journal she'd be awesome to read.

Comments

[kira-j.livejournal.com]

pen! you should write more, just in general, stories, thinky posts, you always make sense!

i like 'this is how it all started...' stories. i can't believe it took til '93 for you to write something down!!! you must have scribbled stuff down before that right?

[pensnest]

Oh, yeah, sure! I wrote something in primary school which my teacher adapted into our class play - to my great indignation she did not appear to interpret the material correctly. I seem to remember it was inspired by a tiny model of a stag my Grandma gave me. And when I was thirteen or so, I wrote an epic multi-generational fantasy... thing... which to my vague recollection was always about the Crown Prince's youngest brother, whichever generation he might be. No wonder I was never fascinated by Justin Timberlake! Sadly, at the sophisticated age of sixteen I threw it away.

I wrote three and a half Mills & Boon-ish novels on our first computer, so mid-1980s, I suppose - it was a Sinclair QL, we probably still have the romances somewhere on tiny microdrives - but didn't get anywhere with them.

But fandom is more inspiring, there being generally an actual readership for what one produces, yay! And I find it hard to write long stuff, so attempting Great Novels wasn't really my thing. There have been a lot of years when I couldn't be bothered to write down the stories in my head, of course.

[kira-j.livejournal.com]

my favorite thing about your stuff is your language, the words just fit in the mouth properly. i'm not really a substance-y person lol so i don't always pick up on storytelling prowess, stylistically i like how you word things, i like the structure. your poems are heavenly SORRY TO GET ALL FANGIRLY ON YOU it just needs to be said.

OMG PEN i wrote royalfic too lmao. i threw out all my crap out at 17! must be something that happens around that time in a girl's life.

There have been a lot of years when I couldn't be bothered to write down the stories in my head, of course. i like this quote: a writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people (thomas mann). i'm always really suspicious of people who find it easy.

[pensnest]

Hee - you think I'm gonna object to praise? Hah! And I love that you wrote royalfic too. I suspect it is indeed Something Girls Do, like falling in love with ponies, and such.

I've never - well, apart from when I was thirteen*, I hope (oh, lawd!!!!) - been interested in going to the trouble of writing when I didn't expect someone to read what I produced. So fanzines were such a great discovery for me. I'm vaguely baffled by people who honestly don't care about feedback! Heck, if I go to the trouble of actually writing stuff, I want readers.


* On reflection, I probably had enough Stuff to deal with that writing happy things with a generous dollop of Poor Misunderstood Hero was very comforting at the time, so. That would make sense.

[kira-j.livejournal.com]

someone on tv said they thought that showing his writing to someone reminded him of those guys who expose themselves on the street!

i have to admit i sort of think if someone writes something and then someone responds to it, that's sort of the end of the first stage of rapport, if someone makes an interesting point/query/finds offence then i think it's more strange than rude to not respond.

however if you've put in a lot of effort, it does matter that there is an engageable(?) audience. i think alot of writers would be satisfied with more recs than comments.

[pensnest]

I've occasionally read comments by people who write and hate showing what they've done to anyone... I admit to a bit of trepidation, usually, particularly when I'm showing something to a fierce beta, but if I didn't think it would be worth reading I wouldn't write it down, so... I really don't get it. It reminds me, tenuously, of the people at school who were terrified of exams, even though they were just as capable as I was of passing them. I never got that, either.

I think part of the fun of fandom+fanfic is that the writing really sets up a dialogue amongst us all. Sometimes it's a straightforward one: Here's my story/Ooh, I love it/Yay! Sometimes it's a lot more sophisticated, with remixing and deriving other stories at a tangent, and looking at aspects in depth, and re-imagining things as a result... all kinds of stuff. I love the way fic can be a commentary on the source material, or on ourselves, or on something else the writer is interested in. I love the way meta discussions can inspire stories. I love the way stories can sometimes make me think. I think that communication is one of the best things about the fanfic community.

As to whether it matters if there are actual comments or not, hmm. If a story gets reflected through the fandom and commented on in other people's journals because it sets up a debate, I guess comments to the author would be less necessary. Recs are, of course, probably the best kind of "I liked it" response of all, but within popslash we're not doing a lot of reccing any more, and, well, it's nice to have comments to know for sure someone's taken notice.

[kira-j.livejournal.com]

dialogue is definitly at the centre of fanfic! but tacit dialogue is good too. like in popfic, there's more disputes over gossip than stories which always triggers my rpf issues to resurface, it was all well and good when kids were writing out their daydreams with carter but there's alot of hyper-aware-of-everything/trying-to-be-as-real-as-possible stuff which is good, really good, but like i dunno i think i mean that i'm not interested in someone's opinions on girlfriends but if someone wants to go put their jbiel issues into a fic i'm suddenly okay with it LOL HYPOCRISY. man i dunno, it's like i don't get fanfic anymore, i'm too old.

remix is seriously the best thing ever, the quality is just out of this world, it really brings out peoples' skills! 2003 was my fave year, gems all round tbh.

[pensnest]

It's a bit of a shame we haven't really got a meta culture in popfic, at least, not in the last few years - I dare say the Is RPF Eeeeevil? debate counted for a lot early on. I tend to ignore most of the real life goings on, with girlfriends and the like... it's often a lot more difficult to write 'contemporary' stuff because to me it feels a bit more gossip-like. I don't do Lance/actual boyfriends stuff either (except that one time, koff), or Adam/Sauli.

Remix is such a great challenge! I'm really pleased with most of the stuff I've done for Remix, and awed by some of the ideas other writers come up with. I think it's a very 'writerly' challenge, which frightens off people who don't do writing in a meta-ish way... or something...

[ninjetti75.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I know I arrived at fanship of ST:TNG later than its premier in '87, but I was still in high school, so it was earlier than your '93, heh.

OTOH, I didn't start writing fannishly until I got my LJ, ten years after that, so.....

I recall your autographed picture of Andy Hallet (RIP!) as Lorne, so I do believe you might enjoy

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Hmmm, I know I arrived at fanship of ST:TNG later than its premier in '87, but I was still in high school, so it was earlier than your '93, heh.

OTOH, I didn't start writing fannishly until I got my LJ, ten years after that, so.....

I recall your autographed picture of Andy Hallet (RIP!) as Lorne, so I do believe you might enjoy <a href="http://www.uberwillowtara.com/fruitcake07.htm" _this_</a>. It's a holiday!fic; the co-op it came from was based on the 12 Days of Christmas, but it's quite delightful in its own right. *g*

[pensnest]

That's a cute story - I hadn't come across anything like that before.

I got the impression from the alt.startrek.creative newsgroup that TNG didn't inspire nearly as much fic as other incarnations, particularly original Trek and Voyager.

[ninjetti75.livejournal.com]

[D'oh. I fail at tag formatting...]

I've not actually pursued Star Trek fanfic, oddly enough. It does seem strange that TNG would have less, though...after all, it's the version that revitalized and inspired the whole franchise. How very odd.