Snowflake challenge, day 2
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Yeah! I already had one 5 years ago, but I will complete it!
When I was a child, I had no idea that some thing called fandom existed. Of course, when I played with my sister, sometimes I pretended out LEGO character were a bit crossover from our favourite shows, and even when we made OC they were inspired by our favourite characters anyway. Or put into a story inspired by one I had read.
I think I wrote a Brer Rabbit original story when i was a kid that could have counted as first fanfic. Later, I became a big fan of rewritings of mythology. As a kid I hadn't loved them because they weren't "the true story", as a teen I devoured them (while still complaining about the characterisation sometimes).
I think I never got out this specific fandom :-D
When I was a teen, I stopped writing for fun. I had read very good books in the meantime, and felt I couldn't compare. When I had a story idea, it was bullet points.
I had a fandom-ish obsession for some of the high literature books I was discovering. Like for Emile Zola's The Rougon-Macquart, I was embarrassed about how much I loved it, and about the next gen original characters I was imagining, and about the vaguely erotic (no porn yet) scenes in my head.
No one ever knew, even my sister.
And then, I was about 19 when I discovered in rapid succession shipping, fanart, then fanfic. At the time, it was just reading fanfic, not writing. And not reading in English either, which made it hard, but I discovered some French fandom mailing lists! One about Clamp, one about anything yaoi, and later, one about yuri.
And you know, I had the moment of "I can do that". It wasn't high writing, but it still made me laugh or cry. And that's how I started writing again.
And I no longer had to be embarrassed about it!
My fandoms at the time: mostly anime/manga. Evangelion, Tokyo Babylon, Rg Veda and Clamp in general, Kenshin (my first fic was for this), Slayers, Utena, Trigun, Houshin Engi, Noir. I also had IRLs from the mailing-lists in question.
I was able to share the love for fandom and anime with my younger sisters, it was awesome!
I was also rediscovering some older passions with a fandom edge, like Tolkien, that I had read before, of Buffy. I also bought Harry Potter for my youngest sister, and read it in the process.
I started publishing my fanfictions on ffnet (instead of only mailing-lists) in 2003. I had been reading here for a few years, first commenting without an account, then creating one just for commenting, but then I was there! Posting! At the time, I was not writing a lot, and never finished my chaptered fics.
Maybe not surprisingly, writing so many queer fics and belonging to groups casually talking about gayness allowed me to understand I was bisexual. It would probably have happened sooner or later, but still, counts as a fandom win!
In 2004 I discovered Fullmetal Alchemist, and I started writing a lot. It awoke something. Or maybe it was my professional situation, I don't know. But it was the first fandom where I was really productive.
The year after, I discovered Death Note and Bleach, and I was in full fandom obsession again! I also created a livejournal. I read a lot of fics, I was able to read in English now. I also kind of expanded my horizons. Discovered I could try to write porn. Discovered it wouldn't hurt me to write fics for a ship I didn't actually ship, that just interested me. I also suscribed to lots of livejournal writing comms in French, for new fandoms or for old ones! It was fun!
I think it was the time where I globally wrote the most. New fandoms, and also old fandoms, where I had had ideas, but hadn't been able to write them at the time!
I joined a lot of writing comms, and also tried to create some, but the only one that's been living though all this is obscur_echange, my exchange comms for rare fandoms in French!
I also acquired a few new big, obsessional fandoms, like Ergo Proxy in 2006-2007, Heroes in 2007, Doctor Who in 2007-2008, Code Geass in 2008, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2008-2009.
And then I had my Marvel Comics phase! It was big, I think, 2009-2014! Also Farscape in 2010, in the middle of it. Also, 2012 is also the year I caved in and made an AO3 account. It hasn't been welcoming for non-English speaking people before, but it had gone better. It was still hard to find readers, but it was not their fault. And to find English fics to read? It was very good. Ha ha it's the last year I obsessively looked for fanfic on ffnet I think.
In 2012-2013, I fell into the Les Misérables fandom. I had loved this book far before, cried in front of the inexistence of fics, and all at once there were hundreds of them! Not on LJ, or even on dreamwidth, so it was the time I created a tumblr. There was a lot of good content. Lots of bad content too! I had to learn how to filter it. I wasn't very good at it, but I stayed. Also, I had a full French Revolution revival because there was so many good posts about it, by people I met through Les Misérables. It has always been a period I loved, my high school history teacher explained it very well, and we had lots of 200-year anniversaries at the time, but it was good to discover it again.
2015-2017: Gravity Falls phase.
2018-2020: The Magnus Archives phase.
I met a lot of anglophone people in these fandoms
It's the fandoms I've started to really write in English for. Of course, I still need betareaders for grammar and style, but it's becoming easier!
In 2018 I also joined Discord.
In 2020, one of my sisters had a brief coming back to fandom, writing Haikyuu!! fics, and it was wonderful to talk with her about it, exchange ideas and betaread again.
2022: Our Flag Means Death, Arcane
2023: Lupin III
It at a no obsessive fandoms phase again, which is a bit sad, but well, I'm still doing lots of exchanges and writing in a lot of fandoms, and even when I have no obsessive ones, the old faithfuls are still here (I reread Tolkien last year)
Yeah! I already had one 5 years ago, but I will complete it!
When I was a child, I had no idea that some thing called fandom existed. Of course, when I played with my sister, sometimes I pretended out LEGO character were a bit crossover from our favourite shows, and even when we made OC they were inspired by our favourite characters anyway. Or put into a story inspired by one I had read.
I think I wrote a Brer Rabbit original story when i was a kid that could have counted as first fanfic. Later, I became a big fan of rewritings of mythology. As a kid I hadn't loved them because they weren't "the true story", as a teen I devoured them (while still complaining about the characterisation sometimes).
I think I never got out this specific fandom :-D
When I was a teen, I stopped writing for fun. I had read very good books in the meantime, and felt I couldn't compare. When I had a story idea, it was bullet points.
I had a fandom-ish obsession for some of the high literature books I was discovering. Like for Emile Zola's The Rougon-Macquart, I was embarrassed about how much I loved it, and about the next gen original characters I was imagining, and about the vaguely erotic (no porn yet) scenes in my head.
No one ever knew, even my sister.
And then, I was about 19 when I discovered in rapid succession shipping, fanart, then fanfic. At the time, it was just reading fanfic, not writing. And not reading in English either, which made it hard, but I discovered some French fandom mailing lists! One about Clamp, one about anything yaoi, and later, one about yuri.
And you know, I had the moment of "I can do that". It wasn't high writing, but it still made me laugh or cry. And that's how I started writing again.
And I no longer had to be embarrassed about it!
My fandoms at the time: mostly anime/manga. Evangelion, Tokyo Babylon, Rg Veda and Clamp in general, Kenshin (my first fic was for this), Slayers, Utena, Trigun, Houshin Engi, Noir. I also had IRLs from the mailing-lists in question.
I was able to share the love for fandom and anime with my younger sisters, it was awesome!
I was also rediscovering some older passions with a fandom edge, like Tolkien, that I had read before, of Buffy. I also bought Harry Potter for my youngest sister, and read it in the process.
I started publishing my fanfictions on ffnet (instead of only mailing-lists) in 2003. I had been reading here for a few years, first commenting without an account, then creating one just for commenting, but then I was there! Posting! At the time, I was not writing a lot, and never finished my chaptered fics.
Maybe not surprisingly, writing so many queer fics and belonging to groups casually talking about gayness allowed me to understand I was bisexual. It would probably have happened sooner or later, but still, counts as a fandom win!
In 2004 I discovered Fullmetal Alchemist, and I started writing a lot. It awoke something. Or maybe it was my professional situation, I don't know. But it was the first fandom where I was really productive.
The year after, I discovered Death Note and Bleach, and I was in full fandom obsession again! I also created a livejournal. I read a lot of fics, I was able to read in English now. I also kind of expanded my horizons. Discovered I could try to write porn. Discovered it wouldn't hurt me to write fics for a ship I didn't actually ship, that just interested me. I also suscribed to lots of livejournal writing comms in French, for new fandoms or for old ones! It was fun!
I think it was the time where I globally wrote the most. New fandoms, and also old fandoms, where I had had ideas, but hadn't been able to write them at the time!
I joined a lot of writing comms, and also tried to create some, but the only one that's been living though all this is obscur_echange, my exchange comms for rare fandoms in French!
I also acquired a few new big, obsessional fandoms, like Ergo Proxy in 2006-2007, Heroes in 2007, Doctor Who in 2007-2008, Code Geass in 2008, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2008-2009.
And then I had my Marvel Comics phase! It was big, I think, 2009-2014! Also Farscape in 2010, in the middle of it. Also, 2012 is also the year I caved in and made an AO3 account. It hasn't been welcoming for non-English speaking people before, but it had gone better. It was still hard to find readers, but it was not their fault. And to find English fics to read? It was very good. Ha ha it's the last year I obsessively looked for fanfic on ffnet I think.
In 2012-2013, I fell into the Les Misérables fandom. I had loved this book far before, cried in front of the inexistence of fics, and all at once there were hundreds of them! Not on LJ, or even on dreamwidth, so it was the time I created a tumblr. There was a lot of good content. Lots of bad content too! I had to learn how to filter it. I wasn't very good at it, but I stayed. Also, I had a full French Revolution revival because there was so many good posts about it, by people I met through Les Misérables. It has always been a period I loved, my high school history teacher explained it very well, and we had lots of 200-year anniversaries at the time, but it was good to discover it again.
2015-2017: Gravity Falls phase.
2018-2020: The Magnus Archives phase.
I met a lot of anglophone people in these fandoms
It's the fandoms I've started to really write in English for. Of course, I still need betareaders for grammar and style, but it's becoming easier!
In 2018 I also joined Discord.
In 2020, one of my sisters had a brief coming back to fandom, writing Haikyuu!! fics, and it was wonderful to talk with her about it, exchange ideas and betaread again.
2022: Our Flag Means Death, Arcane
2023: Lupin III
It at a no obsessive fandoms phase again, which is a bit sad, but well, I'm still doing lots of exchanges and writing in a lot of fandoms, and even when I have no obsessive ones, the old faithfuls are still here (I reread Tolkien last year)