December Posting Meme, December 29 (a day or so late)
My fannish trajectory or history for 
princessofgeeks
Warning: massive long rambling post ahead. Seriously, folks, I don't even know what I've said here...
I've always found comfort in fannish-type activities. I tend to find something I like and immerse myself in it. I am very loyal in my fannishness -- both in strength of affection and duration. There are some fandoms that I simply appreciate, rather than play any active role. These include The Lord of the Rings novels and The Chronicles of Narnia, both of which I was introduced to before I was 10. To this day, I love to discuss and dissect these works, but usually in a more face-to-face setting.
I was into fanfiction (although I didn't know that was the name for it, nor did I ever actually write anything down) by the time I hit my pre-teens. I think at that point it was Fame and Star Wars that held my interest, got my mind thinking about different 'what if' scenarios, etc... I found, by that point, that TV shows and movies made great talking points, especially given that I suck at small talk!!
So, most of my early fandoms heralded a lifelong interest in sci-fi/fantasy. I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation and followed the franchise through Deep Space Nine and Voyager. I eventually found a crowd of sci-fi geeks, and we would spend many nights at Denny's in deep conversations starting with Star Trek and ending with diagrams of the nature of time sketched onto paper napkins. Definitely some awesome times!
I found online fandom when I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I consider my true leap into Fandom. I loved the show and was busy telling anyone who would sit still for long enough how awesome Joss Whedon was, and then somehow stumbled across these Yahoo groups that were talking about the same things I was. Of course, I pretty much lurked, but there was really such a feeling of belonging to see that so many other people were as passionate about something as I was.
This is also when I first discovered transformative works. I think it was the videos that I found first, just absolutely awed by how people could make this visual story to match a song, and have it work so well. From there, it was a very short step to mainlining fanfiction stories. Yahoo groups led to ff.net, and that's where I stayed for a long time. I don't know what prompted me to write, just an idea popping into my head I suppose. It had been a very long time since I had written anything, but I was really enjoying it. I never really finished anything back then, though. Lots of stories in Buffy, and later Angel, fandoms still sitting unfinished on my hard drive, carried through at least two new computers.
As the Buffy online fandom started to die down, and my favorite authors stopped posting or moved on to different fandoms, and as my RL circumstances changed, I kind of dropped out of online fandom for a time. I stopped writing again, but I would sometimes go back and re-read my favorite stories.
Then, I was introduced to two new (to me) sci-fi, when my husband and I started dating and had a 'share our sci-fi' fest. I showed him Firefly, and he showed me Farscape and Stargate SG-1. My love for SG-1 was almost instantaneous, especially for Daniel and Jack.
I remember deliberately sitting down at a computer and searching out SG-1 fanfiction. Google was my friend, and soon led me to Livejournal and AO3, where I discovered a lot of really awesome fic. And with LiveJournal, I actually found myself stepping out of the shadows a little bit, speaking up every now and then, joining communities, etc... It was like a whole world was opening up!
I started writing in SG-1 pretty much at the same time that I started writing in the Bones fandom. I think we all know which one stuck! Bones was okay, but felt way too formulaic for me, and I never really felt the need to seek out anything more than just reading some of the fic (which got old pretty quickly), and writing the one story.
Of course, I've bounced around different corners of the SG-1 fandom as well, but I really felt like I found my home once I found the J/D. We can pretty much thank AO3 for that. I remember when I was devouring fanfiction, I would pick someone who'd left kudos or comments on a work I liked, then see if they had any stories bookmarked and pop on over there. I'm pretty sure that's how I found most of the writers I read most frequently.
SG-1 is the first fandom where I've actually spoken up, and our J/D corner of fandom is probably the first place where I've reached out. It's such a mainstay for me: writing, reading, discussing, thunking. I love the mix of intelligent discussion, humor, and support that I've found. Sometimes things just line up in the right way, and I think that's what happened here for me.
Calendar of Requests:
on Dreamwidth
on LiveJournal
This entry was originally posted at http://magickmoons.dreamwidth.org/38624.html.
princessofgeeks
Warning: massive long rambling post ahead. Seriously, folks, I don't even know what I've said here...
I've always found comfort in fannish-type activities. I tend to find something I like and immerse myself in it. I am very loyal in my fannishness -- both in strength of affection and duration. There are some fandoms that I simply appreciate, rather than play any active role. These include The Lord of the Rings novels and The Chronicles of Narnia, both of which I was introduced to before I was 10. To this day, I love to discuss and dissect these works, but usually in a more face-to-face setting.
I was into fanfiction (although I didn't know that was the name for it, nor did I ever actually write anything down) by the time I hit my pre-teens. I think at that point it was Fame and Star Wars that held my interest, got my mind thinking about different 'what if' scenarios, etc... I found, by that point, that TV shows and movies made great talking points, especially given that I suck at small talk!!
So, most of my early fandoms heralded a lifelong interest in sci-fi/fantasy. I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation and followed the franchise through Deep Space Nine and Voyager. I eventually found a crowd of sci-fi geeks, and we would spend many nights at Denny's in deep conversations starting with Star Trek and ending with diagrams of the nature of time sketched onto paper napkins. Definitely some awesome times!
I found online fandom when I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I consider my true leap into Fandom. I loved the show and was busy telling anyone who would sit still for long enough how awesome Joss Whedon was, and then somehow stumbled across these Yahoo groups that were talking about the same things I was. Of course, I pretty much lurked, but there was really such a feeling of belonging to see that so many other people were as passionate about something as I was.
This is also when I first discovered transformative works. I think it was the videos that I found first, just absolutely awed by how people could make this visual story to match a song, and have it work so well. From there, it was a very short step to mainlining fanfiction stories. Yahoo groups led to ff.net, and that's where I stayed for a long time. I don't know what prompted me to write, just an idea popping into my head I suppose. It had been a very long time since I had written anything, but I was really enjoying it. I never really finished anything back then, though. Lots of stories in Buffy, and later Angel, fandoms still sitting unfinished on my hard drive, carried through at least two new computers.
As the Buffy online fandom started to die down, and my favorite authors stopped posting or moved on to different fandoms, and as my RL circumstances changed, I kind of dropped out of online fandom for a time. I stopped writing again, but I would sometimes go back and re-read my favorite stories.
Then, I was introduced to two new (to me) sci-fi, when my husband and I started dating and had a 'share our sci-fi' fest. I showed him Firefly, and he showed me Farscape and Stargate SG-1. My love for SG-1 was almost instantaneous, especially for Daniel and Jack.
I remember deliberately sitting down at a computer and searching out SG-1 fanfiction. Google was my friend, and soon led me to Livejournal and AO3, where I discovered a lot of really awesome fic. And with LiveJournal, I actually found myself stepping out of the shadows a little bit, speaking up every now and then, joining communities, etc... It was like a whole world was opening up!
I started writing in SG-1 pretty much at the same time that I started writing in the Bones fandom. I think we all know which one stuck! Bones was okay, but felt way too formulaic for me, and I never really felt the need to seek out anything more than just reading some of the fic (which got old pretty quickly), and writing the one story.
Of course, I've bounced around different corners of the SG-1 fandom as well, but I really felt like I found my home once I found the J/D. We can pretty much thank AO3 for that. I remember when I was devouring fanfiction, I would pick someone who'd left kudos or comments on a work I liked, then see if they had any stories bookmarked and pop on over there. I'm pretty sure that's how I found most of the writers I read most frequently.
SG-1 is the first fandom where I've actually spoken up, and our J/D corner of fandom is probably the first place where I've reached out. It's such a mainstay for me: writing, reading, discussing, thunking. I love the mix of intelligent discussion, humor, and support that I've found. Sometimes things just line up in the right way, and I think that's what happened here for me.
Calendar of Requests:
on Dreamwidth
on LiveJournal
This entry was originally posted at http://magickmoons.dreamwidth.org/38624.html.