Meme

[brigdh]

Gacked from many people, but most lately: daeger: Ask me my fandom opinion

How this works:
1. Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc
2. Just one question, please, but it can (and perhaps should) have sub-parts. ETA: Ask as many as you want, actually.
3. That's it. It can be as normal or odd as you like.

Remember about a week ago, when I mentioned a story I was writing for a ficathon? I wrote a little over 800 words that night; Wow! I thought, I'll finish this in time to have it beta'd for once! No problem here! And then I haven't written anything since. Gah, I am such a terrible procrastinator.

Comments

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

What is your approach to fandom?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I tend to lurk for a long time after my introduction into a new fandom; I'll search out stories, and might stalk the journals of a few favorites, but the most interaction I'll go into will be leaving feedback, if that.

If I end up becoming comfortable, I'll write my own stories, and post them to the bigger communities. Once upon a time I used to try to start up friendships by writing long, incredibly detailed feedback emails to writers I admired, but now that seems sort of weird, so I usually friend their journal and hang around silently for a while, commenting only on their most public and generic of entries. I guage their response back to me to judge whether or not to go for more interaction.

In general, though, I seek out a few close friends instead of being hugely popular. I like getting feedback, of course, and if I can hit the point of name recognition in a fandom that makes me happy, but I'm too introverted to really be able to deal with interacting with large numbers of people for long. Sometimes I get lucky, and end up with my circle of close friends being the ones who are hugely popular and who enjoy interacting with large numbers, so that I get all the benefits of being in an inner circle with none of the work, but it's fairly hard to arrange those circumstances. *grins*

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Heh, I also enter a new fandom the same way, via lots of lurking, then narrowing down to semi-stalking my favorites. I also prefer friending comms/newsletters over people, because there's less puzzling social implications invovled.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Friending comms seem pretty awesome, but I've yet to get one in a fandom I actually participate in. I've been in small fandoms for the last few years, and it's almost unnecessary in them- you can get to know the majority of the fandom without needing introductions. I used to be in BtVS, which I'm sure has some friending comms now, but that was back before the idea had spread.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Heh, language is so ambiguous and twisty. By "friending comms" I meant adding comms to my f-list. I've been in big fandoms before, but I never was into comms for friending. I always wonder what people did if they didn't hit it off with the person they had common interests with.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, whoops. *laugh*

But, yes, I still agree with you. It's much less nerve-wracking to add a comm than a friend.

[avenger-pudding.livejournal.com]

1) Do you think it's predictable to have (or more) deaths in the Sanzo-ikkou by the end of the journey? If yes, who?

And for an odd question...

2) I don't know if this qualifies as a fandom-related question, but here it goes: If you could ask Minekura to make you ONE artwork, what would you ask for? =)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

1) I think either no one will die, or they all will. Offing one or two seems, to me, to leave the story strangely hanging. We need the endings of all four characters to be tied up for it to feel finished, and that seems to mean keeping them together.

Possibly I could see Goku alone surviving, if he is indeed immortal.

2) Dude, that would be awesome! I would love to have some original artwork to hang up. I'd ask for either a picture of Sanzo (OTC!), or one of all four of the ikkou being puppy pile-ish, like in this icon.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Why are ficathon stories so haaard to finish?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I wish I knew! Will totally be finishing up my latest ficathon story moments before the deadline

Possibly it is just an effect of having a deadline. Once you know something had a due date, it seems to make me want to procrastinate more on it.

[b-hallward.livejournal.com]

Are you drawn to certain characters as narrators/POV characters in your writing?

a) Why? Do they have anything in common?
b) Are they in general your favorite characters? Or, at least, characters you like?
c) Is there a character you'd really like to use as a POV/narrator and either can't or don't write nearly as well as you'd like?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting question.

I do tend to have a default narrator for each of my fandoms, and they're usually not my favorite characters, though I like them well enough, and tend to come to like them more as I spend more time thinking through them. For YnM, it's Tsuzuki, and for Saiyuki, it seems to be Gojyo.

There are a couple of advantages to having narrators who are not your OTC, particularly when you're writing a sex scene- you get to wax on and on about the beauty and talents and general awesomeness of your favorite character, who wouldn't think such things about himself. But I think, more than anything, it's a result of my OTCs tending to me very short-spoken, introverted people who I have so much trouble getting a grip on their voices. I had so much trouble writing Sanzo's section of 'We Are Pain and What Cures Pain', and I don't know how many YnM fics I went through before I even attempted writing from Hisoka's POV.

I very much wish I could use them as narrators more easily, but they just don't seem to transfer simply to my style of writing.

[b-hallward.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating -- now I want to go up to all sorts of people on my flist and ask them to explain their narrator-tendencies to me. Must somehow turn this into a meme.

There are a couple of advantages to having narrators who are not your OTC

Yeah -- believe me, I agree. I used to have this very separation -- OTCs and narrators and never the twain shall meet. And then they did meet -- refused to stop meeting, in fact. All my post-Yami fandoms have had this problem. Really, it's very frustrating.