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Challenge #2
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I think I've written about this before somewhere, but I was introduced to fan fiction when I was looking up theories about what would be in the next Harry Potter novel at school one lunchtime. I was, at the time, selectively mute and completely friendless, which is why I was hiding on a computer in the school library. And OotP was just taking so long to come out, you know?
I don't remember the first site I read fic on, but I do remember that the first fics I read were het and featured Mary Sues. Then I stumbled across a Drarry fic and, despite not sticking with the pairing, it changed my life because damn was I hooked. I started writing fic of my own. Not posting, but writing. Writing by hand, even. I'd done things like make mock-up Daily Prophet covers for the stories in my head before, but I didn't know that was a hobby you could, like, share with other people and while my brain was always full of stories, I hadn't thought about writing them down and sharing them with other people.
I began looking for fic for other things I liked too. Namely Lord of the Rings and Yu Gi Oh! - the Jackson movies were very, very recent (still coming out? Possibly. I can't remember) and YGO was airing on TV on Saturday mornings and both fandoms were very active back then. I was well fed.
I didn't post anything until I left high school and went to sixth-form college. It might have been the summer in between, so I'm thinking 2005? 2006? Was it crap? YES. Was I kind of proud of it? Actually, yeah. Other people seemed to like it well enough, so I kept going. And going. And going.
In college I became a Death Note fangirl and branched out into Yu Yu Hakusho as well. University brought Naruto.
In short, I've always flitted between fandoms. I've liked various pairings down the line as well, and only rarely has a pairing stuck so hard with me that I can call it an OTP.Hiei/Kurama forever, fight me.
I mostly read. And lurk. And leave kudos on things. This has been a trend since forever. I love participating in fests, but sometimes my lack of time management outside of the work place gets in the way. I've never run a fest (although I'd love to) and I have a tendency to become more vocal in fandom when I'm experiencing some sort of life upheaval.
What else can I say?
Oh, yeah.
I'm bad - and I mean bad - at writing multichapter fics. The last one I wrote, and completed, took something like six years for me to write ten chapters. It now has an ongoing sequel and there's a chance I'll die of old age before getting it finished. (Who finishes their WiP first? Me or George R R Martin? Place your bets!) My least favourite comments to receive are the ones that can be summed up as 'short stories aren't real stories' because fuck you. Not everything can be 150k words. If you want everything to be a novel, look at the word count before you click the link and don't assume that because it's one chapter that no effort went into it. Do you know how hard it is to fit slow burn into less than a thousand words?
My favourite comments are the 'there are three fics for this pairing and now you've put it in my head forever, screw you' ones because mwahahaha, that's what I'm here to do.
One of the reasons I suck at writing multichapters is that I find it hard to write for a fandom that I'm not currently hyperfixated on. Hard as in near-impossible and I will cry, thank you. Because of that, there are a few stories I have in my head that I'm not sure I'll ever get round to writing, and a few more that are partially written and clogging up my harddrive. Every so often, hints of them will appear in something shorter as a throw-away line because why not? It's the only way those stories are going to be shared.
Fan fiction has helped me grow as a person and develop skills as a writer. For all that this is a disorganised mess, I'm like. Published and shit.And I still need to make an author's website. It also brought me my best friend because, after she took pity on me, we talked long enough to discover a mutual love of Yu Gi Oh! slash. We liked different pairings, of course - she likes Seto/Jou and I was deeply into Bakura/Ryou at the time - but the combined power of smut and duel monsters built the foundations of an eighteen-year-long friendship.
I may drift in and out a lot, but fandom is a big part of my life and I'm definitely here to stay.
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I think I've written about this before somewhere, but I was introduced to fan fiction when I was looking up theories about what would be in the next Harry Potter novel at school one lunchtime. I was, at the time, selectively mute and completely friendless, which is why I was hiding on a computer in the school library. And OotP was just taking so long to come out, you know?
I don't remember the first site I read fic on, but I do remember that the first fics I read were het and featured Mary Sues. Then I stumbled across a Drarry fic and, despite not sticking with the pairing, it changed my life because damn was I hooked. I started writing fic of my own. Not posting, but writing. Writing by hand, even. I'd done things like make mock-up Daily Prophet covers for the stories in my head before, but I didn't know that was a hobby you could, like, share with other people and while my brain was always full of stories, I hadn't thought about writing them down and sharing them with other people.
I began looking for fic for other things I liked too. Namely Lord of the Rings and Yu Gi Oh! - the Jackson movies were very, very recent (still coming out? Possibly. I can't remember) and YGO was airing on TV on Saturday mornings and both fandoms were very active back then. I was well fed.
I didn't post anything until I left high school and went to sixth-form college. It might have been the summer in between, so I'm thinking 2005? 2006? Was it crap? YES. Was I kind of proud of it? Actually, yeah. Other people seemed to like it well enough, so I kept going. And going. And going.
In college I became a Death Note fangirl and branched out into Yu Yu Hakusho as well. University brought Naruto.
In short, I've always flitted between fandoms. I've liked various pairings down the line as well, and only rarely has a pairing stuck so hard with me that I can call it an OTP.
I mostly read. And lurk. And leave kudos on things. This has been a trend since forever. I love participating in fests, but sometimes my lack of time management outside of the work place gets in the way. I've never run a fest (although I'd love to) and I have a tendency to become more vocal in fandom when I'm experiencing some sort of life upheaval.
What else can I say?
Oh, yeah.
I'm bad - and I mean bad - at writing multichapter fics. The last one I wrote, and completed, took something like six years for me to write ten chapters. It now has an ongoing sequel and there's a chance I'll die of old age before getting it finished. (Who finishes their WiP first? Me or George R R Martin? Place your bets!) My least favourite comments to receive are the ones that can be summed up as 'short stories aren't real stories' because fuck you. Not everything can be 150k words. If you want everything to be a novel, look at the word count before you click the link and don't assume that because it's one chapter that no effort went into it. Do you know how hard it is to fit slow burn into less than a thousand words?
My favourite comments are the 'there are three fics for this pairing and now you've put it in my head forever, screw you' ones because mwahahaha, that's what I'm here to do.
One of the reasons I suck at writing multichapters is that I find it hard to write for a fandom that I'm not currently hyperfixated on. Hard as in near-impossible and I will cry, thank you. Because of that, there are a few stories I have in my head that I'm not sure I'll ever get round to writing, and a few more that are partially written and clogging up my harddrive. Every so often, hints of them will appear in something shorter as a throw-away line because why not? It's the only way those stories are going to be shared.
Fan fiction has helped me grow as a person and develop skills as a writer. For all that this is a disorganised mess, I'm like. Published and shit.
I may drift in and out a lot, but fandom is a big part of my life and I'm definitely here to stay.
