30 Days of FanFic Meme
In celebration of LJ finally getting its shit back together (something I have yet to accomplish myself .... and something I've just found out they've only partially managed themselves, "internal server error" message that I've gotten for the last hour *headdesk*), and in acknowledgment of the fact that I've been horribly remiss in my fanficcing duties for the last forEVER, so I'm trying to kickstart myself back into Skin Deep before my next deadline buries me six feet under again, here's a fanfic writing meme I gakked off ficwriter1966 and izhilzha .
Day 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 got into fanfic long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away by reading a novel-length fanfic written by a very, very talented woman. On my second foray into SF conning, I met up with a group of gals who'd adopted me during my first foray, and the four of us drove half way across the country to see the object of our mutual affection. During that trip, I kept hearing about this novel 1 of the gals had written, the other 3 gals going on and on and on about how great it was. Until that trip, it did not occur to me that one might presume to write one's own version of the characters and shows I'd been watching like a fangirl my entire life.
TBT, it actually didn't occur to me during that trip either, as in my ignorance and arrogance, I was convinced that no one I knew could possibly write anything worth reading, particularly not about a character on a show I held sacred.
After 4 days of no sleep (and by no sleep, I mean ZERO sleep) and no food (and by no food, I mean ZERO food ... evidently I was both broke and stupid when I was young), however, I was somewhat up for doing fucking ANYTHING, so on the half-way-across-the-country drive back home, I decided to read this oh-so-epic-tale-of-greatness I'd spent the last 4 days hearing about ad nauseum.
Imagine my surprise to find it was actually quite awesome ... not only the first time I read it (dramatically sleep-and-food deprived as I was, I might have found Stephanie Meyers's writing awesome at that point), but also every time thereafter I read it again. And again. And again.
I was a college freshman at the time, and less than 3 months later, my roommate and best friend was killed in a car accident the only weekend she went home that I didn't ride with her. Given that she, too, was an art major, in addition to being my roommate and constant companion, there was no place on campus, in class or out of it, where I could hide from the abyssal vacuum of her loss.
So I hid in fanfic. Writing it, though, not reading it. And my conning friend spent hours and hours and hours on the phone with me, long distance and all on her dime, in the middle of the night until the break of dawn --- because phones were not in your room back then, they were in a room down the hall and I was far to polite a kid to take up one of only 3 phones for hours at a time anyone else would have wanted to use it --- while we took turns reading our stories to one another over the phone (because yes, I am old enough to have written vast amounts of fanfic before Al Gore invented the internet).
Those marathon reading-and-feedback sessions may well have saved my life that year. Certainly, the friend who footed the bill for every one of them saved my sanity.
The fandom was for a little SF show that only ran for 4 episodes before being cancelled. It was called The Phoenix. And I think what pulled me into writing about it --- other than the mere fact that I realized I could write stories about a TV show, which had never really occurred to me before --- was first, the combination of spiritual and fantastical themes in which the show was footed and second, the generosity, charisma, humor, and yes, flat-out hotness of the star, who was incredibly personal and interactive with his fans, and who always made time to hang with us far above and beyond the scheduled activities at conventions, forever spoiling me for being impressed by anybody else.
Day 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 got into fanfic long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away by reading a novel-length fanfic written by a very, very talented woman. On my second foray into SF conning, I met up with a group of gals who'd adopted me during my first foray, and the four of us drove half way across the country to see the object of our mutual affection. During that trip, I kept hearing about this novel 1 of the gals had written, the other 3 gals going on and on and on about how great it was. Until that trip, it did not occur to me that one might presume to write one's own version of the characters and shows I'd been watching like a fangirl my entire life.
TBT, it actually didn't occur to me during that trip either, as in my ignorance and arrogance, I was convinced that no one I knew could possibly write anything worth reading, particularly not about a character on a show I held sacred.
After 4 days of no sleep (and by no sleep, I mean ZERO sleep) and no food (and by no food, I mean ZERO food ... evidently I was both broke and stupid when I was young), however, I was somewhat up for doing fucking ANYTHING, so on the half-way-across-the-country drive back home, I decided to read this oh-so-epic-tale-of-greatness I'd spent the last 4 days hearing about ad nauseum.
Imagine my surprise to find it was actually quite awesome ... not only the first time I read it (dramatically sleep-and-food deprived as I was, I might have found Stephanie Meyers's writing awesome at that point), but also every time thereafter I read it again. And again. And again.
I was a college freshman at the time, and less than 3 months later, my roommate and best friend was killed in a car accident the only weekend she went home that I didn't ride with her. Given that she, too, was an art major, in addition to being my roommate and constant companion, there was no place on campus, in class or out of it, where I could hide from the abyssal vacuum of her loss.
So I hid in fanfic. Writing it, though, not reading it. And my conning friend spent hours and hours and hours on the phone with me, long distance and all on her dime, in the middle of the night until the break of dawn --- because phones were not in your room back then, they were in a room down the hall and I was far to polite a kid to take up one of only 3 phones for hours at a time anyone else would have wanted to use it --- while we took turns reading our stories to one another over the phone (because yes, I am old enough to have written vast amounts of fanfic before Al Gore invented the internet).
Those marathon reading-and-feedback sessions may well have saved my life that year. Certainly, the friend who footed the bill for every one of them saved my sanity.
The fandom was for a little SF show that only ran for 4 episodes before being cancelled. It was called The Phoenix. And I think what pulled me into writing about it --- other than the mere fact that I realized I could write stories about a TV show, which had never really occurred to me before --- was first, the combination of spiritual and fantastical themes in which the show was footed and second, the generosity, charisma, humor, and yes, flat-out hotness of the star, who was incredibly personal and interactive with his fans, and who always made time to hang with us far above and beyond the scheduled activities at conventions, forever spoiling me for being impressed by anybody else.