Meet the Fandomers

[author_by_night]

You know, it's sort of weird when you combine real life with fandom.

As some of you may know, in a week anda day, I'm meeting with two of my oldest and closest fandom friends (Apryl and Julie), and  my cousin Michelle is coming as well, because I promised her a mini vaycay this year. (Well, and my Mom kept telling me she'd rather I not fly alone, and admittedly, it would get boring. And confusing - yeah,  I flew all the time as a kid, but Ididn't understand anything, and I was always with at least one adult).

It just sort of occured to me how much she might find out about me in the next few days. She always knew about my fanon life, and she's a huge Harry Potter fan herself, but I'm not sure she realizes how involved I am. I've  never told her about Livejournal, or that I've made fandom_wank two times, and would've more had  I not deleted my LJ a few times. (Never deleting again though, it's made me lose friends who took the deletion the wrong way, but that's another post). I've never told her how well known Apryl was on fanfiction.net, that one of the fandomers I know is in the Navy, or the real reason I suggested we have Pumpkin Pie this Thanksgiving (not against the H/Hr shippers, just against one who more or less tickedme off, and by the time Thanksgiving actually rolled around, I didn't even care anymore). She doesn't know about Sugar Quill (except that I'm a Ron/Hermione shipper - a ship she dislikes), or... yeah. A whole chunk of stuff.

I think I've just kept so much to myself the past six years, and it almost feels like I've been living a secret life, and that I'm letting someone in on everything all at once. I don't mind, obviously, but it's just going to be interesting, you know? The stuff I never told her. (And there are things I probably never will... there's stuff about this fandom that I'm not necessarily proud of). 

Anyone else ever had the real life/fandom thing? I know for some, it may have been even more major (Apryl's not really into the fandom anymore, and Julie's more of a lurker now, but they're still in it - I know some of you on LJ are even more into fandom than I am!)

Comments

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

I've had the real life/fandom thing in a sort of not pleasant way which led to some one outing where I worked to some one in fandom I don't like. :/

But keeping things secret makes sense a lot of the time. It just is easier.

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

I felt the same apprehension: (weirdly enough, fandom_wank is the one thing I do bring up with friends and family, usually because it's so damn hilarious). However, I have met fandom people now and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so. I now catch up with some very regularly and I don't regret it. If you get on with them online you'll get on with them IRL, I find.

[beaustylo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I definitely know the feeling. My fan life is completely secret from almost everyone I know, including my family. My sister is the only one who knows to some extent, but she's never gotten as involved as I have and when she backed off participating, I backed off telling her things. She doesn't know I have this livejournal for one thing. Early on she helped me write HP fan fiction, especially helping me with the plot development for "Revelations" and some of my earlier work. But she always thought it was a bit nerdy, so eventually I stopped talking to her about it.

I know many people who enjoy HP and some who will even theorize about it, but I don't know any who are so into it that they would even read fan fiction, much less write it. My writing name is a closely guarded secret and I write behind closed doors.

I'm very proud of my accomplishments in the HP fandom - I've written more than 200 pages of a story with over a thousand reviews between three sites, but I don't feel that I can really share it with anyone I know. That's difficult. And if I say ships, canon, etc., people are more likely to think I'm talking about pirates than anything else. And since I know most people won't understand, I have to hide my online identity. Very few of the people I know online know my real name, but even fewer people in real life know my fandom name.

[linda-lupos.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you made fandom_wank, and twice at that! Sucks that it made you delete your lj though. :(

Yeah, fandom 'clashes' with real life sometimes. It comes up every time I explain how I met my housemate, for one thing. ;) Although I usually translate it to 'I posted stories on the internet, and Linda (meaning Pixiedragon of course) read them and we began chatting..." etc. I don't want to go into the whole explaining-fanfiction thing...
It sort of feels like a dirty secret almost! I'm not a nerd or a geek, at least not really in the stereotypical sense (I like to think my social skills aren't that bad), so I don't want to be labelled as such. And I think a lot of people just won't understand what the fun is in chatting with people from all over the world (heh, I was recently discussing the incredibly warm weather we've been having, and I was like "oh yeah, and it's warm in Britain too, and in Texas as well from what I've heard, but that's usual of course..." International friends. ;)) and the love- and hate-sites (I recently 'enlightened' my younger brother about hatekatieleung.com; he boggled) and theorizing about the deaths of fictional people and writing stories about someone else's character (or even rereading books to look for clues: "but you already know the story, don't you?!" Gah, I hate that argument so much.), let alone getting psyched about the newest book and dressing up for it and keeping that day as 'filled' in your agenda and stuff. :p

and it almost feels like I've been living a secret life Yes, exactly!

[lotuseyes.livejournal.com]

i'm envious that you have friends who are in your fandoms (offline friends that is). the only offline friend I have in my fandoms is Kinbrae, and even then we met through the 'net and only share a couple fandoms we both care about...

I say 'anime' to my current friends and they say 'and you may...'?

or ask me to not remind them I am so weird XD

[talimeeka.livejournal.com]

Well I have three RL friends who know, two of which who are also into fandom, but that that's pretty much it. I mention fandom stuff to a few people in passing, but nobody truly knows how into it I am. I think it would be pretty difficult for anyone to really know unless they're a part of it.

On a different note, you've made fandom_wank twice? Wow, go you. ;)

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I try to keep my RL and fandom life as separate as possible. My sister knows all about it, my mother knows a little bit. But that's kind of it. It feels sad sometimes - to have to keep so much of myself secret. But again, I *like* that I have this to myself. It's mine, and no one else can have it.

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

I've been meeting a lot of fandom friends in RL lately -- being in NYC has its advantages as lots of people tend to visit and would like to meet up with local fans when they're in the area. I'm also going to Lumos, so I'll be meeting a lot of fandomers over the next few days.

I've only had a handful of RL friends know about my writing and my fic journal. At least one of them already knew about the HP fandom when I linked her to my slash story, and all of them more or less knew about fandoms and fan activities, whether through previous contact with anime or fantasy play like Dungeons and Dragons.

It's good to be able to talk with people face-to-face about a part of my life that means so much to me. Just today I was sitting in Starbucks with a couple of HP fans talking about our ship, and it was so refreshing to not have to explain to them what fanfic is or what my corner of fandom is like :)

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

You never know, she could be a closet fandomer too. :)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely, Ijust think the combination of real life + online will be interesting. :) I'm certain that I'll be as close to the friends IRL.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone IRL knows my fandom name, either.

And yeah, I've had people who found out sort of raise their eyebrows and either tell me I'm risking being murdered, or just a nerd.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Having international friends is great. Especially when to them, it's fall/winter right now, and you're hot and they're freezing. Or vice versa. ;)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Well, they started out as online friends, and simply went beyond that, enough that I'm willing to fly out to meet them.

Anime... it's a bit surprising that they don't know what that is, but then, I've found myself running into loads of anime people. So maybe it's just me. But yeah, it sucks when your friends and loved ones at home will never understand.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Eh, yeah, once because I don't think JKR is teh ebil (they'd been wanking someone who did) and another time because of the Poll Incident.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I'm mixed. I really don't like telling "just anyone," but sometimes it would be nice if someone close by shared my passion. However, I suppose in some ways, it is nice to have a bit of a private life, too. In High School, I think it kept me from going insane.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Nice! :) I'd really like that. I did almost meet two HP fandomers who live in my town, but it never worked out. And I knew a girl in HS who wrote fanfic, but she was so insistent on not talking about it for some reason.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Hee! Nah, she's not, she would've told me, because she does know some of it.