fandoms
Reading all these surveys about fandoms, got me to think about my own fangirl-ness. If you'd asked me before this weekend, what was the first fandom I ever wrote for, I'd have said Gundam Wing. Not a doubt. First fanfic and first fanart I ever did. Turned it in for my Comedy class final project and got an A. Sure, looking back on it, the pic was horrible (edited photo, not hand-drawn) and the fic was fairly crappy, but it was the first time I'd ever created a story for an already partially-explored world.
Or so I thought until this weekend.
Which was when I read "The Lark and the Wren" by Mercedes Lackey and remembered back to junior high. And remembered my real first fanfic. It was for Andre Norton's "Witch World" series. I hadn't read many of them, but I loved fantasy and adventure, and I'd re-read "Songsmith" (which was the only title they had at the public library) about five or six times.
And we were doing some project or another in my G/T class. And so I decided to write a story. A story about a girl. Kind of pretty but not unusually so. Not a bard, or a soldier, or a mage, or a princess. A scholar. Who is on her way back from the library and get caught in a magical trap along with a prince (who is also a mage) by a strange old woman who wants to suck out his magic for herself. And so she helps him escape, and they discover that she has some magical powers too (just a little) and that she is, in fact, related to the evil old woman and must stop her.
Very derivative, you say. It's all been done. Ho-hum, don't even bother to hide the yawn, so why are you bringing this up?
Because there is one part of that story that gets to me. The heroine's occupation. She's a scholar. Think about that. Think about how rarely you see scholars in any fantasy books. Think about how many of those few are women. Think about how many fantasy books you've read in which women are treated as second-class citizens, at least in the smaller towns and villages, so that they are forced to run away from home so that they can become mages and bards and fighters and rangers. Now think about what it must be like for one girl, who loves reading and writing and theorizing and debating and calculating and experimenting and really thinking about how the world works. And who is told that instead she must marry and have children and run the farm and the house and maybe if she is lucky her husband will be willing to let her read the three books that he owns. And who decides to take a chance on finding the life that she wants.
That is the story I wish to write.
Or so I thought until this weekend.
Which was when I read "The Lark and the Wren" by Mercedes Lackey and remembered back to junior high. And remembered my real first fanfic. It was for Andre Norton's "Witch World" series. I hadn't read many of them, but I loved fantasy and adventure, and I'd re-read "Songsmith" (which was the only title they had at the public library) about five or six times.
And we were doing some project or another in my G/T class. And so I decided to write a story. A story about a girl. Kind of pretty but not unusually so. Not a bard, or a soldier, or a mage, or a princess. A scholar. Who is on her way back from the library and get caught in a magical trap along with a prince (who is also a mage) by a strange old woman who wants to suck out his magic for herself. And so she helps him escape, and they discover that she has some magical powers too (just a little) and that she is, in fact, related to the evil old woman and must stop her.
Very derivative, you say. It's all been done. Ho-hum, don't even bother to hide the yawn, so why are you bringing this up?
Because there is one part of that story that gets to me. The heroine's occupation. She's a scholar. Think about that. Think about how rarely you see scholars in any fantasy books. Think about how many of those few are women. Think about how many fantasy books you've read in which women are treated as second-class citizens, at least in the smaller towns and villages, so that they are forced to run away from home so that they can become mages and bards and fighters and rangers. Now think about what it must be like for one girl, who loves reading and writing and theorizing and debating and calculating and experimenting and really thinking about how the world works. And who is told that instead she must marry and have children and run the farm and the house and maybe if she is lucky her husband will be willing to let her read the three books that he owns. And who decides to take a chance on finding the life that she wants.
That is the story I wish to write.