An Experiment

[dawn_felagund]

Over on heartofoshun's journal, Oshun, pandemonium_213, and I have been talking about the experience that is posting to Fanfiction.net. I haven't posted there in years. Once upon a time, the ability to reach a very broad audience (who might not be inclined to read on a Silm-only archive like the SWG or even a Tolkien-only archive like MPTT or HASA) appealed to me. I quickly

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

Your experience with the anime fandoms definitely illustrates why ff.net can be a good thing. :) I've also met people on ff.net who have become friends (and I only post in Silmarillion), and I've certainly had good conversations with people. The first fanfic I read, many years ago, was on ff.net.

The Tolkien fandom is a large and steady one: We have a long history, lots of people involved, and aren't going anywhere anytime soon. From reading on groups like metafandom, I get the impression that the loyalty (and multiple archives!) of the Tolkien fandom is rather the exception than the norm.

As for concrit, I'm the type of person who will offer it unsolicited (in all aspects of life, not just fanfic - I'm the person who will jump into your conversation while you're waiting in the checkout line), but I generally try not to assume the author is interested in hearing about it

As a writer, I definitely believe that readers are not only allowed to have but also to share whatever thoughts they have on my story! :) I certainly get my share of concrit here on LJ, when I post a story. The tone of it on ff.net tends to be different, however, in my experience. Readers tend to assume something they don't understand is my mistake rather than asking, and the assumption often seems to be that any publicly posted story is undergoing constant and endless revision, so I'm willing to do major rewrites on a character seven years after publishing the story, simply because one reader disagreed with me. I can't say, of course, whether that is universal on the site itself or just the Tolkien sections.