what you see is what you get

[ivy_chan]

I've noticed that I am much more interested in writing and reading fanfic for visual-based fandoms, such as TV shows, movies, and cartoons, rather than writing-based fandoms, like book series. I wonder why that is. Is it because the writing-based fandoms offer enough insight into the characters that I feel I don't need to explore more, or do I get

Comments

[hungrytiger11]

I wonder. Most of the visual media you mentioned is much more serialized (TV shows, comics etc are all series) and also they mostly update quite regularly. Some books can be series, but many are, and those that are often take a year or more to update.

Plus, with the exception of HP, Twilight and maybe Hunger Games I don't think the fandoms for books are as active. And all of those books have a movie counterpart too. Oh, I take that back... P&P fandom is and I've seen one or two others that are small but active. Book fandoms besides those first mentioned though... They are very different fandoms than I've seen and are largely NOT lj based.

It could be too that you are just a visual learner, and/or that in Gardener's theory of Multiple Intelligences you would show strong preferences in spatial intelligence.....

[ivy_chan]

I will note here that the books that do take forever to update are the ones I'd like to read fic for. I was totally digging the HP fandom when the books were still pumping out, for example. (And wasn't fond of the movies.) The other book fandoms I've dabbled in are Black Jewels Trilogy and Discworld and Animorphs, but I'd like to read Neverwhere or Secret Garden or Anne of Green Gables fanfic.

Visual learner thing might be likely.

[hungrytiger11]

I will note here that the books that do take forever to update are the ones I'd like to read fic for me too, though my point was that comparitively slower updating might make a difference in the type of fandom such books produce.

Though- not always. HP is like the definition of fandom and Narnia fandom is pretty active. (both have movie counterparts too though. Maybe Fandom is just very visual?)

[omnicat]

I'm the same way. I think part of it is that with books, the original writing style stifles my own. As in, when there is already a distinct narrative voice, I don't feel as free to mess around with my own - because it ends up feeling untrue to the source. Of course, visual media have their own moods and stuff too, but at least there they're not expressed as words on a page.

But yeah, the amount of internal/emotional description in books vs shows/cartoons is a big factor too. I never realised how much of a difference it makes until I started reading tie-in manga for my favourite anime fandoms (I'd never had an emotional/artistic investment in comics before, and my consumation of them has thus always been scarce) and realised that that I had no way of dealing with the balance of visual expression and internal description of that medium. It's kind of bizarre. It feels like I'm learning to read in a whole new language.