Growing Up in Fandom Part I

Growing Up in Fandom Part I

Fanfic get’s a bad rap.

I should go back, some of you reading this might not have a clue what I mean when I say fanfic or fandom or WIP or a dozen other terms so, crash course:

  • fandom: “implies a community of people with similar interests, participating in fanac and interacting in some way, whether through discussions or creative works. The interaction may be face-to-face at gatherings such as conventions, or written communication, either off- or on-line.” source fanlore
    • I’ve always considered fandom so be mini “fan kingdoms” centered around a specific area of interest such as a movie or television show and encompassing all the people who take part in fannish activities (discussions, fanfic, fanart, meta, mixes, fanvids ETC)
  • fanfic: “is a work of fiction written by fans for other fans, taking a source text or a famous person as a point of departure.” source fanlore
    • fanfic is essentially transformative fiction, using a common source material as a jumping off point, inspiration, setting etc

For more reading Fanlore.org is a pretty good fannish wiki. It was created and is maintained by the people at  the OTW ( a group of fans who run fan-based projects and outreach programs).

Now, as I was saying. I wrote my first short story with my mother’s help when I was six years old. I dabbled over the following years with writing little stories of dubious quality often on the back of church programs. When I was about 12 or 13 a friend’s parents introduced she and I to a movie. This movie was called Labyrinth, you’re probably heard of it 😉 I remember feeling incredibly sad and unhappy with the ending. I desperately wanted Sarah and the Goblin King to hook but because he was totally into her duh. Through a series of events I don’t remember now, another school friend passed me a note with a web address on it. That web address was fanfiction.net; suffice is to say I immediately ran home and wrote an alternative ending to Labyrinth to post to ff.net. The rest, as they say, is history.

Image Source

From then on I was a tiny school girl fic addict. I wasn’t a very prolific writer but participation in fandom kept me writing small (and terrible, I’ll admit it) short stories through my early years in high school.

So that being said, fanfic get’s a bad rap because there is a lot of bad fanfic out there. Stuff being written by young kids essentially (though also by older people) that’s underdeveloped, that’s childish and rough and being posted without editing or beta reading etc. I would argue that this isn’t altogether a bad thing, because fandom fosters these young, developing writers, and encourages them to keep writing and to write better and to challenge themselves. So ten years down the road they aren’t just writing terrible sloppy sailor moon or Labyrinth fic anymore, they’re writing fully realized and complex, engaging narratives.

Because the other side of the coin is composed of fanfic that is incredibly well written. There are several women in fandom whose writing I have followed for years because they did their time as terrible teenage writers and honed their craft into something sharp and beautiful. There are literally hundreds of fanfic writers out there who have day jobs, who don’t write professional (though they certainly could if they wanted to) but love fandom and therefore write just for the hell of it. For their own enjoyment and their own enrichment and because it makes them happy. And they write really really well.

I can be a bit stingy. I almost never buy a book brand new, I am a hardcore used bookstore goer. If there’s one thing I really hate, it’s spending $10 for a book that is badly written or boring. I hate to break it to you, but there are lot of books being actualfacts published (we’re talking paper and glue binding published) that are not well written. My predicament then is, why should I bother paying for actual kindling when I can get a very well-written story for free from a friend in fandom?

As I’ve gotten older (well, since graduating from my ultra conservative high school and moving out into the big real world) I’ve been increasingly more open. Open about my thoughts, opinions, personal philosophies and proclivities. In the last year I’ve been a lot more open to real life friends about my participation in fandom, honest about the fact that yes, I still write fanfic from time to time.

Like I said way back at the beginning of this post, fanfic get’s a bad rap. “Regular” people (should I call them fannish muggles?) know so little about fandom, all they get exposed to are the extremes: the extreme fans, the extreme stalkers, the extreme kinks, the extremely bad examples of fanfic. Their opinions are shaped by this exposure.

I won’t deny there is badfic out there, that there is a lot of badfic out there, in fact (heh, 50 Shades of Grey is, quite honestly, an example of badfic okay? Misrepresentation of the BDSM community aside, it’s a poorly written story much like it’s source material go figure). Badfic is not the only type of fic out there, and even badfic can be a stepping stone, a learning exercise for a developing author.

I refuse to be shamed into silence because I like geeky things or because I take part in online fannish communities.

Next time on Growing Up in Fandom: why I still dabble in fic writing

World building as an author

World building as an author

Spent most of this afternoon talking world building with a friend and fellow writer. It started as a discussion about how cities themselves are often central characters of urban fantasy and sort of spun out from there. My friend (J from here on out) has read more extensively in the Urban fantasy genre and had a lot to say re: examples in pubished fiction (and also managed to add about half a dozen new books to my “To Read” list) and it was a little humbling.
Our discussion really brought to light that world building is probably my biggest weakness as a writer. I’ve spent a lot of time writing in other people’s playgrounds, and my own personal tastes tend to find world building exposition dumps extremely boring, so I tend to avoid them in my stories. This can be good and bad, on the one had I dont tend to have long dragging places full of exposition, on the other hand it makes me wonder if I’m cheating my readers out of a fully realized experience.
I’m working on a list of things I want to go back and look at before I start the first re-write of ï»¿Mages , ï»¿so far that list looks something like this
  • Day trip to Seattle to physically scout the main locations mentioned in the book
  • map out werewolf pack hierarchies and territories in the city
  • finalize a mental headcanon about how magic works for mages vs witches vs gypsies and hammer out an internal logic
  • map out headcanon for how magic being public knowledge has influenced the development of the 20/21st centuries
It’s a little disheartening to see all the places the book needs to be worked on but at the same time I feel that if I take my own shortcomings seriously and work on making them less of shortcomings, I might actually come out of second draft with (overall) a much stronger story.
There’s that old saying, “Write what you know” and I tend not to buy into it much but I think there’s something to the idea “write what you like”. For me, it’s all about characters and their relationships, preferably driven by a good well thought out plot. When I approach a new story, I start with the characters. It makes sense that world building and plot are going to take some extra specific attention for me to get them right.
What attracts you to a story? Characters? Setting? Plot? The mystery?
My Life is Fueled by Coffee, let me tell you about it

My Life is Fueled by Coffee, let me tell you about it

I freely admit it: I am a true coffee addict. My day, productively speaking, doesn’t start until after I’ve had my first couple shots of espresso (or at the very least a cup of strong Irish Breakfast tea during the winter).

traveler's mugI used to work as a barista for an independent coffee roaster. I LOVED my job. I learned so much about coffee, met amazing people who took coffee as seriously as I did, and had what amounted to an all access pass to high quality, hand crafted espresso. Since I left that job to move across the state, I’ve struggled finding a good cafe to call my own. My last six months in Pullman, I did eventually develop a good raport with the baristas in our local Starbucks there (I know, I was shocked but these people actually COULD make coffee).

I recently moved back home to finish my BA at Evergreen and to start writing full time. We have a lot of local indie coffee shops in town but they are definitely not all created equal. It’s a delicate process finding a place that makes coffee to the standards I prefer and has a atmosphere and clientele I find creatively energizing. And it helps if they keep really late hours since my best work is done in the evenings 😉 I found a place that fits these bills. They’re a little expensive but I don’t actually mind paying a little extra for a place where I can sit and write unmolested and find mentally stimulating without being distracting.

The thing about caffeine addicts, when you need it to wake up, when you get the headaches from not having it, when your whole day starts with that first sip: if someone serves you something shitty it has the power to wreck your entire day. Yes, this happened to me this morning and no, I’m not quite over it. I thought blogging about, getting all my angry feelings and frustrations out would help flush the mental block it’s managed to create so I can actually get some work done today. My writing habits aren’t complicated. The fact is I get more work done when I’m working in a public space away from home, so I liked to go into a cafe in the evenings, buy a cup of coffee, and write my mandatory words for the day (anywhere between 1000-2000 words, which usually takes me about 60-90minutes).

It’s in the low-mid 80Fs today and I was craving something cold, blended and creamy so I went in and ordered a dirty blended chai. Mmm, a truly sinful indulgence. I paid $5.86 (with $.50 tip). I was handed something that more closely resembled dirty dishwater, and it TASTED like dirty dishwater too. To say I was upset it understating things. I didn’t yell, though I probably should have demanded a refund. I gagged about an inch of it down before I had to give up, left it on my table and left. I went home, pulled out a packet of Starbucks Via (those little instant coffee packets which aren’t GOOD but are palatable and have caffeine) and blended one up just so I could be awake enough to do anything.

I’ve managed to salvage my mood but this was a real blow to my schedule. I’ve managed no words and I wasted the last of this week’s spending money for nothing (I really do try to ration how much I actually spend on my coffee addiction since I’m technically unemployed right now).

I had an interesting conversation with a former classmate the other day about the “expectancy to tip” she encounters from baristas. I argued that making good coffee really is something that should qualify someone for tipping, that it’s something you should do when you get consistently high quality espresso. Is this terrible experience some sort of bizarre attack by karma? I’m not sure, lol.

Are there things that can make or break your day? Have you had exceptionally bad coffee (or restaurant!) experiences? On the flip side, have you had a barista give you something amazing and improve your entire day? I’d love to hear about it.

Mages & Werewolves, oh my!

Mages & Werewolves, oh my!

69000 / 80000 words. 86% done!

Just hit 69,000 words on the first draft of my Mages and Werewolves story. And yes, before you ask the Scrivener file is actually still titled Mages & Werewolves, oh my! because I’m still not 100% satisfied with my other working title (Bone and Blood, which my writing partner has pointed out could imply vampires, not something I want to really imply with this story!)

I’m still pretty blown away by this word count. I know in the grand scope of writing it’s actually not very impressive but for myself, it’s pretty damn monumental. Prior to this story, the longest thing I’d ever written and come close to finishing hit 21,000 before going on hiatus.

My original goal for this first draft was 65k; that obviously didn’t happen. I’m now looking at about 80k with the idea that at least 10,000 words will probably get cut in the first revision. I know the weakness with my writing style on this story has been unnecessarily wordy action descriptions and I definitely want to trim some of that out before I send the story off to beta. Overall, and at the end of the day, as long as the final draft is 60k I’ll be happy. I think that’s an admirable goal for a debut novel. Not too long or weighty, with hopefully tight enjoyable narrative. If there’s one thing I’ve learned going to Evergreen, it’s that short and good is much more difficult to achieve than long and…less good. 😉

From Bone & Blood

You’ll never find a married witch. Women are just smarter about these things. Occasionally you may run across a warlock trying to make a go of it, but this inevitably ends in disaster. Heavy magic users tend to share a common, and disastrous, personality type: narcissistic, self-absorbed and forgetful. And if you think they make terrible spouses, then the truth is, they make even worse mates. This is something every wolfcub knows, in his gut. 

In his heart.