Reality has no place in our world.
So, I'm trying to maybe post more frequently! I'm also trying to maybe finally finish reading Harry Potter so I can get started on the stack of books next to my bed and actually finish the great Alias rewatch I started in March and the Band of Brothers rewatch I started in July and the easy_academy re-read I started around the same time, but I have the misfortune of suffering from the short attention span of my generation, which, combined with my procrastination, can be deadly.
And I will always post in the middle of the night, obviously.
Anyway, first I'd like to talk a little bit about Harry Potter. I got into Pottermore on Monday, and I got my wand (unyielding, just like Bellatrix Lestrange's) and got sorted for the very first time ever (minus the time I tried on the Sorting Hat during my Warner Bros tour, which doesn't count even though it came up with the same response) and apparently I'm in Slytherin? I've never exactly felt an affinity for one particular house, but I've also never really cared for the Slytherins. Sure, the Malfoys and Snape are some amazingly written characters, but there are a lot of evil or just plain mean people in Slytherin. But the opening message sounded really nice, and apparently Merlin was in Slytherin, and the common room sounds wonderful, all cool and damp underneath the lake, with the sounds of the lake gently lulling people to sleep at night, and green and silver are kind of beautiful, and I can at times be a bit of a bitch/sometimes it is kind of fun to make fun of people, as terrible as that is, and I suppose you can't be a dunce if you're cunning, so I've been sort of coming to terms with it. I just absolutely never expected it - I thought maybe Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.
Also, during my re-read I've finally hit Order of the Phoenix, which is officially my favorite book right this second. It opens so wonderfully; it seems a little like it's going to be slow for a few pages, and then BAM! Shit starts going down. Dementors chase down Harry and Dudley, crazy old Mrs. Figg is a Squib, Harry has my favorite conversation with his aunt and uncle out of all of their interactions which is mainly just exposition but which is not full of Vernon screaming himself purple or Harry thinking nasty little thoughts, but an actual REAL conversation, and then Petunia gets some character and the second chapter is my favorite. The third chapter feels a little like a return to books 1-4 Dursley action, but then Lupin and some other wizards show up to get Harry and Lupin is basically Harry's dad throughout the whole thing and I have so many feelings. So far the story just moves so much faster than Goblet of Fire, and includes my favorite of Harry's father figures acting much like Harry's father, and that's why it's my favorite HP book.
I thought I'd also do that fanfiction meme that's floating around, though I've never finished a 30-day meme (the last one I tried was abandoned on day 2) and haven't published any fanfiction in at least a year. Oh, well. Day 1!
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 through the message boards on the Warner Bros. website in 8th grade (like, spring of 2002). I was obsessed with Friends in 8th grade, and so Friends was the first thing I ever wrote fanfic for. It was a terrible script-style story, full of actual jokes from the show instead of my own, and it was basically an excuse for me to show off how much of the show I could quote. It is still in my ff.net profile, actually. From the message boards, someone pointed me to Fanfiction.net, and I poked around until I found Gilmore Girls, which was my next obsession, and then I wrote actual prose stories for the next 6 years, only about Gilmore Girls.
I think my favorite thing about fandom was finding people who cared about the same things as much as I did. No, my absolute favorite thing is that it always seems to start as one thing - one TV show or whatever - and then it expands. Like, I watched Buffy because of Gilmore Girls. Ah, maybe GG was the best fandom to get into first, because the girls themselves were so into all sorts of pop culture that people drawn to that also cared about pop culture, and it just spread from there. I watched Serenity and Firefly because of s-h.org, the message board I used to hang out on. I listened to Leona Naess, who I ended up being obsessed with for a few months, because of those girls. I actually think I started The Office because of uptheapples, who I met at s-h.org, and I know I started Doctor Who because of her, and even as a TV major who had conversations with other TV majors about really good TV shows, I still feel like most of my favorite shows I ever started watching were because of fandom. Fandom to me is basically a group of enthusiastic people, who genuinely like things that are good, and who only want to expand upon the source material because they feel so much about it that they almost can't help it.
2 - Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.
3 - For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?
4 - Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the story isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
5 -If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
6 - When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?
7 - Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?
8 - Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
9 - Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
10 - Pairings - Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11 - Genre - do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12 - Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" story of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13 - Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14 - Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15 - Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a story?
16 - Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 - Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the story? Also, if you do chaptered story, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 - Where do you get the most inspiration for your stories (aka "bunnies") from?
19 - When you have bunnies ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 - Do you ever get bunnied inspired from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 - Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a story you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 - Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 - When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 - Betaing - How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your story? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25 - Music - Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your story? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 - What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a story?
27 - Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 - Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your story?
29 - What is your current project or projects?
30 - Do you have a favorite story you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!
And I will always post in the middle of the night, obviously.
Anyway, first I'd like to talk a little bit about Harry Potter. I got into Pottermore on Monday, and I got my wand (unyielding, just like Bellatrix Lestrange's) and got sorted for the very first time ever (minus the time I tried on the Sorting Hat during my Warner Bros tour, which doesn't count even though it came up with the same response) and apparently I'm in Slytherin? I've never exactly felt an affinity for one particular house, but I've also never really cared for the Slytherins. Sure, the Malfoys and Snape are some amazingly written characters, but there are a lot of evil or just plain mean people in Slytherin. But the opening message sounded really nice, and apparently Merlin was in Slytherin, and the common room sounds wonderful, all cool and damp underneath the lake, with the sounds of the lake gently lulling people to sleep at night, and green and silver are kind of beautiful, and I can at times be a bit of a bitch/sometimes it is kind of fun to make fun of people, as terrible as that is, and I suppose you can't be a dunce if you're cunning, so I've been sort of coming to terms with it. I just absolutely never expected it - I thought maybe Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.
Also, during my re-read I've finally hit Order of the Phoenix, which is officially my favorite book right this second. It opens so wonderfully; it seems a little like it's going to be slow for a few pages, and then BAM! Shit starts going down. Dementors chase down Harry and Dudley, crazy old Mrs. Figg is a Squib, Harry has my favorite conversation with his aunt and uncle out of all of their interactions which is mainly just exposition but which is not full of Vernon screaming himself purple or Harry thinking nasty little thoughts, but an actual REAL conversation, and then Petunia gets some character and the second chapter is my favorite. The third chapter feels a little like a return to books 1-4 Dursley action, but then Lupin and some other wizards show up to get Harry and Lupin is basically Harry's dad throughout the whole thing and I have so many feelings. So far the story just moves so much faster than Goblet of Fire, and includes my favorite of Harry's father figures acting much like Harry's father, and that's why it's my favorite HP book.
I thought I'd also do that fanfiction meme that's floating around, though I've never finished a 30-day meme (the last one I tried was abandoned on day 2) and haven't published any fanfiction in at least a year. Oh, well. Day 1!
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 through the message boards on the Warner Bros. website in 8th grade (like, spring of 2002). I was obsessed with Friends in 8th grade, and so Friends was the first thing I ever wrote fanfic for. It was a terrible script-style story, full of actual jokes from the show instead of my own, and it was basically an excuse for me to show off how much of the show I could quote. It is still in my ff.net profile, actually. From the message boards, someone pointed me to Fanfiction.net, and I poked around until I found Gilmore Girls, which was my next obsession, and then I wrote actual prose stories for the next 6 years, only about Gilmore Girls.
I think my favorite thing about fandom was finding people who cared about the same things as much as I did. No, my absolute favorite thing is that it always seems to start as one thing - one TV show or whatever - and then it expands. Like, I watched Buffy because of Gilmore Girls. Ah, maybe GG was the best fandom to get into first, because the girls themselves were so into all sorts of pop culture that people drawn to that also cared about pop culture, and it just spread from there. I watched Serenity and Firefly because of s-h.org, the message board I used to hang out on. I listened to Leona Naess, who I ended up being obsessed with for a few months, because of those girls. I actually think I started The Office because of uptheapples, who I met at s-h.org, and I know I started Doctor Who because of her, and even as a TV major who had conversations with other TV majors about really good TV shows, I still feel like most of my favorite shows I ever started watching were because of fandom. Fandom to me is basically a group of enthusiastic people, who genuinely like things that are good, and who only want to expand upon the source material because they feel so much about it that they almost can't help it.
2 - Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.
3 - For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?
4 - Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the story isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
5 -If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
6 - When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?
7 - Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?
8 - Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
9 - Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
10 - Pairings - Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11 - Genre - do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12 - Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" story of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13 - Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14 - Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15 - Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a story?
16 - Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 - Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the story? Also, if you do chaptered story, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 - Where do you get the most inspiration for your stories (aka "bunnies") from?
19 - When you have bunnies ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 - Do you ever get bunnied inspired from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 - Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a story you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 - Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 - When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 - Betaing - How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your story? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25 - Music - Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your story? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 - What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a story?
27 - Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 - Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your story?
29 - What is your current project or projects?
30 - Do you have a favorite story you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!