fifteen words
That words meme that's been flying around! I have now collected three sets.
From shaggydogstail, ages ago:
Writing
Writing is definitely a hobby that I fell into, entirely thanks to fandom, but one I can't see myself dropping in the foreseeable future. Stories have always been the thing that I like best - by and large I'm less interested in abstract artworks of various sorts, for instance - and working out how to tell my own is a constant and very fun learning process. It's something that I find relatively straightforward to do when my brain's in gear, mostly because my subject matter is rarely very difficult. Once I've ploughed through that tricky first draft, usually I'm close to finished - I don't have the patience for extensive/detailed revision unless I think the story really needs it. I'd much rather tell the story I want to tell and move onto the next thing, you know?
Doctor
I've said it before, I think, but for all that he's the eponymous character I really don't watch Doctor Who for the Doctor. Especially so at the moment because much as I think David Tennant does a great job I just do not care about Ten's angst any more, I really don't. But more generally, I mostly consider the Doctor to be a vehicle for other parts of the show, I suppose, whether it's time and space and aliens or companions and their development. That's what I tune in for. I am looking forward to Eleven, though, in the hopes that I'll start to like the Doctor a little more again! I'm much more excited about Amy Pond, however.
Philosophy
That thing I do when I'm not in fandom! If stories are my hobby, then ideas are my passion - the high-concept, the analytical, the theoretical. Not that philosophy is without its application in ordinary life, mind - for my final year I'm doing a combination of political and social justice issues through a philosophical lens, and courses that deal with the metaphysical and the mental, cool stuff like that. The latter is the sort of thing that makes people roll their eyes when you tell them what degree you're doing and ask what on earth you're going to do with it.
Women
... are awesome! No, okay, well. I want good female characters in my fiction and in my fandoms, which these days I think is something I can manage pretty successfully - all the fandoms I've ever really been involved in, HP, Whoverse, Merlin, SGA etc, even though they have problematic portrayals of women in canon, the characters themselves are fantastic. I still don't always write about them quite as much as I should or want to, but it's important to me that they're there, being awesome.
Fun
Fun is good! Fun is what fandom is about, ultimately. Which isn't to say that it isn't 'real', or serious business or even painful sometimes, but if it stopped being fun, I'd stop being here. It's good to remind myself of that sometimes, especially after the last few weeks when fandom has been decidedly unfun for a number of reasons.
bodlon gave me:
Change
I am excited by the possibilities inherent in change, I just get skittish when things are actually changing. It's better than getting stuck, though.
Flight
When I was younger I had a real fixation on flying in any form possible - planes, balloons, gliders, growing wings, you name it. I used to be able to lucid dream, and every night I did, I'd kick off from the ground in whatever scenario I was in and zoom through the sky.
Stability
Stability is nice - if I find a good thing, I want to hang on to it! See above re. getting stuck, however.
Torchwood
(Note that this is the part where I do not talk about COE even a little bit!)
Torchwood is the fandom I seem to have settled down in, after I drifted away from HP. I find it strange - it's far from the best show I watch, and you'd think I'd be more involved in the Who side of things than I actually am. Partly, I have more interest in poking around the Torchwood-verse between seasons than I do with Doctor Who, which I mostly get excited about when it's actually on-air. Fannishly, I'm more drawn to teams, also, the camaraderie and little off-screen moments and ordinary days.
Even with the wank and ridiculousness from time to time, Torchwood fandom feels cosy and familiar and full of good people who do things that I like a lot. I've put down roots, in torchwood_house and doing the newsletter from time to time, I even RPG. So in spite of certain events we shall not speak of, it looks like I'm here to say.
Strangers
A little scary, a little exciting, like most things. I'm not too bad with new people, but I find it hard work.
And lefaym gave me:
Fix-it
I've yet to meet an ending I didn't like that I couldn't find some way to make better. (CoE was touch and go for a while, actually.) I like writing codas and episode tags and things, it's a good way of processing how I felt about an episode or picking up on something I liked. I find writing fix-its incredibly therapeutic - And Tomorrow is undoubtedly the most indulgent thing I've ever done. I wrote it entirely for myself, to inhabit that headspace for a while, but I figured that it wasn't awful and that other people might get something out of it.
Femslash
Femslash is delightful and there should be more of it. I should write more of it. It occurs to me that I haven't actually dived into thelittlebang too much as of yet, and I really should do that sometime. I've had netgirl_y2k's Gwen/Morgana story open in tabs ever since she posted it, and somehow haven't quite found the time to sit down and read it properly, which is strange considering how excited I am the prospect! So I should get on that with that and the other promising-looking stories being posted and then get back to you. :D
Merlin
The fandom I tripped and fell into! The show is lovely, the fanworks are lovely, and I can mostly just enjoy it and switch my brain off and focus on how adorable the four leads are. I am so looking forward to S2.
Vidding
I was thinking about this the other day after having both written and vidded about Torchwood, and I realised something - writing, for me, is mostly about the process of actually doing it, having a finished project and posting it is an afterthought. Vidding, on the other hand, is something that I do in order to get to the end product, the vid that was in my head as best I can. I rewatch my vids, with all their flaws, far more than I reread my fics. I enjoy vidding a lot because it uses parts of my brain that otherwise don't get out much, and because I can feel myself getting better over time, which is gratifying.
Geekiness
I always have been and always will be a total dork (in more ways than one, I suspect *g*). I grew up reading Star Trek books and magazines and theorising about Harry Potter, and now I read fanfic about any number of shows and theorise about Doctor Who. Not much changes. The internet is a beautiful facilitator.
From shaggydogstail, ages ago:
Writing
Writing is definitely a hobby that I fell into, entirely thanks to fandom, but one I can't see myself dropping in the foreseeable future. Stories have always been the thing that I like best - by and large I'm less interested in abstract artworks of various sorts, for instance - and working out how to tell my own is a constant and very fun learning process. It's something that I find relatively straightforward to do when my brain's in gear, mostly because my subject matter is rarely very difficult. Once I've ploughed through that tricky first draft, usually I'm close to finished - I don't have the patience for extensive/detailed revision unless I think the story really needs it. I'd much rather tell the story I want to tell and move onto the next thing, you know?
Doctor
I've said it before, I think, but for all that he's the eponymous character I really don't watch Doctor Who for the Doctor. Especially so at the moment because much as I think David Tennant does a great job I just do not care about Ten's angst any more, I really don't. But more generally, I mostly consider the Doctor to be a vehicle for other parts of the show, I suppose, whether it's time and space and aliens or companions and their development. That's what I tune in for. I am looking forward to Eleven, though, in the hopes that I'll start to like the Doctor a little more again! I'm much more excited about Amy Pond, however.
Philosophy
That thing I do when I'm not in fandom! If stories are my hobby, then ideas are my passion - the high-concept, the analytical, the theoretical. Not that philosophy is without its application in ordinary life, mind - for my final year I'm doing a combination of political and social justice issues through a philosophical lens, and courses that deal with the metaphysical and the mental, cool stuff like that. The latter is the sort of thing that makes people roll their eyes when you tell them what degree you're doing and ask what on earth you're going to do with it.
Women
... are awesome! No, okay, well. I want good female characters in my fiction and in my fandoms, which these days I think is something I can manage pretty successfully - all the fandoms I've ever really been involved in, HP, Whoverse, Merlin, SGA etc, even though they have problematic portrayals of women in canon, the characters themselves are fantastic. I still don't always write about them quite as much as I should or want to, but it's important to me that they're there, being awesome.
Fun
Fun is good! Fun is what fandom is about, ultimately. Which isn't to say that it isn't 'real', or serious business or even painful sometimes, but if it stopped being fun, I'd stop being here. It's good to remind myself of that sometimes, especially after the last few weeks when fandom has been decidedly unfun for a number of reasons.
bodlon gave me:
Change
I am excited by the possibilities inherent in change, I just get skittish when things are actually changing. It's better than getting stuck, though.
Flight
When I was younger I had a real fixation on flying in any form possible - planes, balloons, gliders, growing wings, you name it. I used to be able to lucid dream, and every night I did, I'd kick off from the ground in whatever scenario I was in and zoom through the sky.
Stability
Stability is nice - if I find a good thing, I want to hang on to it! See above re. getting stuck, however.
Torchwood
(Note that this is the part where I do not talk about COE even a little bit!)
Torchwood is the fandom I seem to have settled down in, after I drifted away from HP. I find it strange - it's far from the best show I watch, and you'd think I'd be more involved in the Who side of things than I actually am. Partly, I have more interest in poking around the Torchwood-verse between seasons than I do with Doctor Who, which I mostly get excited about when it's actually on-air. Fannishly, I'm more drawn to teams, also, the camaraderie and little off-screen moments and ordinary days.
Even with the wank and ridiculousness from time to time, Torchwood fandom feels cosy and familiar and full of good people who do things that I like a lot. I've put down roots, in torchwood_house and doing the newsletter from time to time, I even RPG. So in spite of certain events we shall not speak of, it looks like I'm here to say.
Strangers
A little scary, a little exciting, like most things. I'm not too bad with new people, but I find it hard work.
And lefaym gave me:
Fix-it
I've yet to meet an ending I didn't like that I couldn't find some way to make better. (CoE was touch and go for a while, actually.) I like writing codas and episode tags and things, it's a good way of processing how I felt about an episode or picking up on something I liked. I find writing fix-its incredibly therapeutic - And Tomorrow is undoubtedly the most indulgent thing I've ever done. I wrote it entirely for myself, to inhabit that headspace for a while, but I figured that it wasn't awful and that other people might get something out of it.
Femslash
Femslash is delightful and there should be more of it. I should write more of it. It occurs to me that I haven't actually dived into thelittlebang too much as of yet, and I really should do that sometime. I've had netgirl_y2k's Gwen/Morgana story open in tabs ever since she posted it, and somehow haven't quite found the time to sit down and read it properly, which is strange considering how excited I am the prospect! So I should get on that with that and the other promising-looking stories being posted and then get back to you. :D
Merlin
The fandom I tripped and fell into! The show is lovely, the fanworks are lovely, and I can mostly just enjoy it and switch my brain off and focus on how adorable the four leads are. I am so looking forward to S2.
Vidding
I was thinking about this the other day after having both written and vidded about Torchwood, and I realised something - writing, for me, is mostly about the process of actually doing it, having a finished project and posting it is an afterthought. Vidding, on the other hand, is something that I do in order to get to the end product, the vid that was in my head as best I can. I rewatch my vids, with all their flaws, far more than I reread my fics. I enjoy vidding a lot because it uses parts of my brain that otherwise don't get out much, and because I can feel myself getting better over time, which is gratifying.
Geekiness
I always have been and always will be a total dork (in more ways than one, I suspect *g*). I grew up reading Star Trek books and magazines and theorising about Harry Potter, and now I read fanfic about any number of shows and theorise about Doctor Who. Not much changes. The internet is a beautiful facilitator.