meta | why are you in fandom?
1 I think I may actually start posting in this journal. :O Not so much real life stuff -- go to thelios for that -- but just general fandom-ish thoughts. I feel a bit strange, commenting and reading the f-list, and giving only radio silence in return.
2 Reading fic is interfering with my ability to write in the past tense. -- No, it really is; yesterday I was attempting to write my Regulus train!fic in past tense, just so that I wouldn't get out of practice, and I found myself shifting into the present every few sentences. (Why I'm writing Regulus fic when I have five Remus/Sirius stories in progress I have no idea, but that isn't the point.) Present tense simply seems more natural for me these days, but it's worrying; I'd still like to be able to write in the past, as it's the more generally-accepted tense for most published fiction. :( Which sort of brings me to the actual point of this post.
meta: why are you in fandom?
This is somthing I've been wondering for a while. It was the fic that attracted me to the HP fandom at first, but I've written things for as long as I can remember. (There was a long period of time where it was only journaling, and another when it was only crappy poetry, but for the past half-year I've been into stories again.) The writing and the reading sort of... collided -- oh, I'm writing things, and oh, I'm reading these really excellent fics -- HEY, I could write fic! -- and landed me here.
I must admit to harboring dreams of being a brilliant author someday. Not necessarily rich and famous -- The Great Gatsby was never commended as a great literary work while Fitzgerald was alive -- but I'd like for my work to be discovered and eventually appreciated. And so, in line with my eventual goal, I write. At the moment I probably have as many original fiction pieces on the go as I do fanfiction works.
But I've noticed that a lot of fic writers don't, and that puzzles me a little. Original fiction has always been it, for me; ever since I was young I've wanted to write for a living. Fic is a side project, something that hones my writing skills. I'm of the opinion that one can learn almost all -- if not all, but that's an issue for another time -- aspects of writing by writing fic; but fic is unpublishable, unless you happen to enjoy expensive lawsuits, so eventually my plan is to move on to creating my own worlds.
But most of writing fandom doesn't seem to write original stuff (or, at least, we don't hear about it). So I'd like to pose a few questions to fandom in large...
1. Do you write original fiction in addition to fanfic?
2. If not, is your eventual goal to write original fiction? How does this tie into your fandom involvement?
3. And if your eventual goal isn't original fiction, why are you in fandom? If you stopped writing fic, would you stop writing? Obviously part of your reason for being here is that you like the writing, considering you write, but I'm especially curious of the motivation behind this one... ;)
4. Was it the fandom that attracted you to the fic-writing, or did the writing come first and the collision of it with fandom afterwards?
So, yes. Any thoughts you happen to have on this topic of writing & fandom, I'd be glad to hear. :)
2 Reading fic is interfering with my ability to write in the past tense. -- No, it really is; yesterday I was attempting to write my Regulus train!fic in past tense, just so that I wouldn't get out of practice, and I found myself shifting into the present every few sentences. (Why I'm writing Regulus fic when I have five Remus/Sirius stories in progress I have no idea, but that isn't the point.) Present tense simply seems more natural for me these days, but it's worrying; I'd still like to be able to write in the past, as it's the more generally-accepted tense for most published fiction. :( Which sort of brings me to the actual point of this post.
meta: why are you in fandom?
This is somthing I've been wondering for a while. It was the fic that attracted me to the HP fandom at first, but I've written things for as long as I can remember. (There was a long period of time where it was only journaling, and another when it was only crappy poetry, but for the past half-year I've been into stories again.) The writing and the reading sort of... collided -- oh, I'm writing things, and oh, I'm reading these really excellent fics -- HEY, I could write fic! -- and landed me here.
I must admit to harboring dreams of being a brilliant author someday. Not necessarily rich and famous -- The Great Gatsby was never commended as a great literary work while Fitzgerald was alive -- but I'd like for my work to be discovered and eventually appreciated. And so, in line with my eventual goal, I write. At the moment I probably have as many original fiction pieces on the go as I do fanfiction works.
But I've noticed that a lot of fic writers don't, and that puzzles me a little. Original fiction has always been it, for me; ever since I was young I've wanted to write for a living. Fic is a side project, something that hones my writing skills. I'm of the opinion that one can learn almost all -- if not all, but that's an issue for another time -- aspects of writing by writing fic; but fic is unpublishable, unless you happen to enjoy expensive lawsuits, so eventually my plan is to move on to creating my own worlds.
But most of writing fandom doesn't seem to write original stuff (or, at least, we don't hear about it). So I'd like to pose a few questions to fandom in large...
1. Do you write original fiction in addition to fanfic?
2. If not, is your eventual goal to write original fiction? How does this tie into your fandom involvement?
3. And if your eventual goal isn't original fiction, why are you in fandom? If you stopped writing fic, would you stop writing? Obviously part of your reason for being here is that you like the writing, considering you write, but I'm especially curious of the motivation behind this one... ;)
4. Was it the fandom that attracted you to the fic-writing, or did the writing come first and the collision of it with fandom afterwards?
So, yes. Any thoughts you happen to have on this topic of writing & fandom, I'd be glad to hear. :)