30 Days of Fanfiction
Mar. 10th, 2013 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_nightI'll probably break the rules and do a few of these at a time.
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?
When I was a little kid, I made up stories based on my favorite books and shows. Barbie was never Barbie, she was Dawn Schaefer or Elizabeth Wakefield or Stephanie Tanner. When I was a bit older I wrote some of the FH episodes from Stephanie's point of view. I only discovered that this was normal and there was a name when I found a BSC site, and for a while I wrote BSC and SVT fanfic. Then I got into Harry Potter and Earth's Children, although I was more into HP fanfic than EC fanfic. Plus, they always technically had us write it in school, although we never really called it that.
I think what pulled me in was the fact that when I like something, I get really, really passionate about it. My parents encouraged this behavior, and I think with my love of storytelling, those obsessions manifested into writing fanfiction. It was never about the pairings, which I think is why I've never really understood shipping. I just want to write my own interpretations of the universe I've grown so fond of.
Conversely, I don't want to read or write fic for everything I enjoy. For instance, I love Mad Men but couldn't begin to figure out how to write a fic. And even with Harry Potter, I never felt comfortable writing from the trio's perspective, just because they were the lead characters (especially Harry). I felt there was more room for interpretation if I wrote from Remus or Tonks's POVs, for instance.
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?
When I was a little kid, I made up stories based on my favorite books and shows. Barbie was never Barbie, she was Dawn Schaefer or Elizabeth Wakefield or Stephanie Tanner. When I was a bit older I wrote some of the FH episodes from Stephanie's point of view. I only discovered that this was normal and there was a name when I found a BSC site, and for a while I wrote BSC and SVT fanfic. Then I got into Harry Potter and Earth's Children, although I was more into HP fanfic than EC fanfic. Plus, they always technically had us write it in school, although we never really called it that.
I think what pulled me in was the fact that when I like something, I get really, really passionate about it. My parents encouraged this behavior, and I think with my love of storytelling, those obsessions manifested into writing fanfiction. It was never about the pairings, which I think is why I've never really understood shipping. I just want to write my own interpretations of the universe I've grown so fond of.
Conversely, I don't want to read or write fic for everything I enjoy. For instance, I love Mad Men but couldn't begin to figure out how to write a fic. And even with Harry Potter, I never felt comfortable writing from the trio's perspective, just because they were the lead characters (especially Harry). I felt there was more room for interpretation if I wrote from Remus or Tonks's POVs, for instance.
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Date: 2013-03-10 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-11 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-11 12:07 pm (UTC)I think what pulled me in was the fact that when I like something, I get really, really passionate about it.
Likewise - sometimes when I'm in between obsessions I feel like I'm sitting around wondering what will be the next thing to take over my life!
The first book I ever obsessed over was 'Watership Down'. I don't think it ever occured to me to write fanfic as a way of diving into my obsession - at school age I tended to get lost in my own worlds. Perhaps if the internet had been around and I'd have met others... but considering some of the things I thought in my teens I am utterly grateful that they remain in ill-advised English essays and nowhere near the immortal internet!
Interesting meme - but so ship-based! I'm not sure if I find it more depressing or irritating that so many seem to associate 'fandom' only with 'pairings'. I'll be interested to see how you tackle that!
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Date: 2013-03-11 12:12 pm (UTC)I agree though that that's a problem, especially as I'm not a shipper at all. Which so many people think makes me vanilla. *Facepalm* I mean, I have ships, but not the way many people in fandom seem to.
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Date: 2013-03-11 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-11 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-12 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-15 01:19 am (UTC)My ships have been either canonical or completely anti-canonical, so there's never been the need to defend them or look for canonical justification (and ignore bits of canon that go against the desired conclusion). Nor have they been large enough to support their own subcultures. So I've been spared the tribalism of shipping (not that I don't envy those in large ships, in some ways). But even if I were an avid shipper, I can't imagine that I'd want to look at the world only through that prism - I can't imagine not being interested in speculation about minor characters, wizarding history and the like.