2011: a year of fandom

[saucydiva]

I wrote up a master list for my fic. Doing so has caused me to reflect on this past year.

I have never done the fandom thing before. And life was good!

But then Road Trip happened, and everything changed.

Comments

[throwingpens]

Visiting a friend from college.

Welcome to your first year in fandom. We in the Parks community were more than happy to have you. :D

[saucydiva]

Awww, thanks! It's been such a blast!

[stillscape]

This show inspires us to do the weirdest stuff, does it not? Not that I would know anything about any of that.

I am trying to remember how exactly craponaspatula got involved in "Dear Friend," and I can't remember the exact details. I think I just said "This part needs a picture!" I do know I couldn't tell her what I wanted illustrated until she read part 1 of the epilogue, and when I finally did there was a lot of virtual flailing. As I think there was when I told you where the epilogue was going. And then everything kind of spiraled out of control. I wish I had asked you, or someone, to help out with the monster fic sooner; it might have wound up being slightly less monstrous.

I have written something like 133,000 words of fic since July (good lord), and somehow, no one in my real life has noticed.

[saucydiva]

It's amazing how easy it is to hide these things with a minimal amount of effort.

Remember when you were writing "Dear Friend" and I would leave huge insane flail-y comments on your stuff and then you became my friend anyway? It was pretty excellent.

[stillscape]

Remember the time I sent you ten thousand really specific questions about Ben's mayoral tenure and then was like "Let me tell you my head canon about Leslie losing her virginity!" and then I immediately had mild freakouts about writing angst for about a week and kept sending you parts of two chapters at once, and then you became my friend anyway? That was also pretty excellent.

[craponaspatula]

I can't remember how it came about, either. You and I had been messaging about non-fandom related stuff for a while at that point, I think? However it happened, I'm SO GLAD IT DID. Hooray for spiraling out of control.

I have no idea how you hide it because I have been almost caught about 1,000 times in the past, oh, 10 days or so while BF has been here. How you manage with someone who actually lives in your house year-round is beyond me.

[rikyl]

Well, I'm glad you found us. And that you tricked me into befriending you. That has worked out well for me.

I can't remember exactly when I started lurking ... sometime early season 3. I think I just went looking for anyone, just anyone, anywhere who knew who Ben and Leslie were. It seemed like nobody in the world watched my show and nobody else was excited about this back then. And then I found some fic and read something out of curiosity, can't remember what it was I read first. Come to think of it, I probably got here through shornt's tumblr too. But it was so gooooood, I went looking for more. And then there was a hiatus fest, with challenges, and I wrote something for that. God, that was scary. And then it's addictive, isn't it? I just made my own fic master list, but I'd be afraid to add up the word counts.

"Online writers critique group." Ha ha ... that's sort of what I tell people too. People can know I write, and they can know I'm a Parks fan, but not that the two are connected!

[saucydiva]

I don't know why it never occurred to me to look on the internet before that moment. I got a friend to start watching the show and I remember she powered through everything in two weeks, but she was still on 3x03 when I was on 3x08 and I just wanted her to catch all the way up so we could flail. The only website I really thought about as having fans was TWOP, and they are a little flail-y but not really.

Sometimes I wonder if I give myself away by knowing too much about the show... I'm just waiting for someone to notice that I really love discussing it!

Some day I am going to add up with word counts for you and just send you an email with a number. It'll be fun! For me, mostly.

[popgurlie]

you are the cutest! welcome to fandom in general! i totes did the "friend in college" thing in buffy. now if someone asks me how i know someone, i just name the fandom.

and what a lovely fandom to start off in! i swear, P&R got me back in fandom -- i had really missed it and no others felt right. i do love everyone in this bar!

(i apologize, i'm def a bit drink taken. but still. yay!)

[saucydiva]

Everyone in this bar is awesome... just very friendly and chatty. And speaking of bars, I hope to use the phrase "drink taken" from now on, because that's fantastic. I'm not drunk, I'm drink taken.

[popgurlie]

it IS! i totes stole it from an irish boy i met while at a bus stop waiting for another bus in some random town in ireland. i love, love it. please, take and pass on!

[saucydiva]

True story. NYE, 1 am my time. I read this comment on my phone while my party hostess was drink taken in the bathroom and we were all awkwardly sitting there, trying to decide what to do about that fact.

[ballroom_pink]

Awwwwww! (I like how all the links to fic are visited when I look at this post.)

I hope you enjoy this video as a token of my esteem and appreciation (and our congenial nerdiness.)

[saucydiva]

This is so delightful. I mean, you are calling me Meryl Streep, who is a goddess, and you get to be Anne Hathaway, who I adore so much I sat through Love and Other Drugs for her.