The Friday Five: Fandom!

[dawn_felagund]

This is the first Friday Five that's been interesting in a while, at least in my humble and hard-to-please opinion. Alas, it is not Friday, but since Friday found me without communication of any kind at work and an evening full of activities at home, then we shall consider it the Belated Friday Five.

The questions:
1.) What fandom do you center on

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

Ooh, I love your rambles. They're always so interesting. :D

Why do I get the feeling that some much of my flist is looking in your direction and fiercely going, "Shhhh! Don't encourage her!" :^D

That argument usually strikes me as non-creative itself, honestly.

Good point. :) Especially since they all wave this around like a big banner no matter how many published writers of original fiction admit to their fanfic habit, making that "argument" so obviously false...but they continue with their (non-creative) persistent use of it.

I've always been of the camp that says that anything that gets writers writing is a good thing. Part of the reason that I ramble in my LJ and in comments is that I recognize that one of the reasons that I have grown so much as a writer in the last year is because I've grown accustomed to putting my thoughts in order quickly for journaling.

I don't even know that I advocate that jumping into full stories with a cast of original characters is necessarily the only way to learn to write...or the best. Jenni (digdigil) and I are currently working on the writers' workshop for SWG, and we are keeping exercises very small and focused. Because if a person wants to work on characterization, why force him/her to also contrive a complex plot, paint a setting, write dialogue, et cetera? Fanfic is rather like a writers' workshop in that way: It is a prompt that writers interpret as they choose. Reading stories for Antithesis Common sometimes, I get the feeling that certain writers are overwhelmed by all that they have to do in a story to make it work. I'll read stories that are beautifully described...but little else. Or stories with a neat plot written so blandly that it's hard to get exited about it. I can't help but wonder if taking things one step at a time might help these writers.

Then there are fandoms like Tolkien where fanfic practically is original fic in some cases. For example, I call AMC a story that occurs between the lines of The Silmarillion because it really doesn't involve any events from the story aside from family tensions and certain character traits, like Feanor's pride; even the setting--Aman--is a place that we don't know much about. juno_magic, who does a lot of AU and 4th Age, went so far as to take the Tolkien from one of her fanfics--it had become so removed from canon--and wrote an original novel based off of it.

"Show some people some characters in a story, and they'll think of a zillion more stories to put the characters through."

How true! :) I wonder sometimes if I'll ever run out of ideas for stories. Then I think of all I still have to write, make a face like this o.O, and decide that I'll probably be 70 years old and still enjoying Posting Friday in this same LJ! :^P