General Fandom Meta

yhlee - A personal history of anime(/manga). Explosions, military, sf/f worldbuilding...a little culture. - I mean, sf/f! And it wasn't in the pages of a book [...] and it was animated and pretty!

laurelwood - The one that hooked you - Anyway, I'm sure this question has been asked thousands of times, but I hope you'll humor me anyway. What was the story that pulled you in? How long did it take you to find it? And is the pairing/genre that initially pulled you in close to what you're reading now, or have you traveled far from your original fanfic stomping grounds?

shadowkat67 - Fanfic credibility and a visit to the tummy doc - We scoff at fanfiction we don't like. But I'm not sure there is such a thing as the wrong way to write it. Any more than there is such a thing as the wrong way to do anything that involves creative energy. Whether we like it or not is more of a subjective thing I think. Is there bad fanfiction? Well, I suppose so, there's certainly quite a bit of fanfiction out there that makes me roll my eyes, irritates, unnerves, or just plain bores, but then there's also some bad published writing out there in my opinion that does exactly the same thing.

riverlight - there's a limit to my willingness to suspend disbelief. - There's such great writing out there, but sometimes I really wonder at these sorts of plots. 'Cause really? In my life, things don't so much happen like this. My best friend, whom I was in love with forever, definitely hasn't Come To Her Senses. So here's my question for you all: does all this stuff happen in real life? Do you know anyone to whom the best-friends-become-lovers thing could be applied? [...] I'm sure I'm forgetting many cliches. But the basic question's the same--do any of you know anyone to whom these cliches have actually happened? Or is there some other reason why these are so popular in fic, beyond their reality, so that I just have to continue suspending my disbelief?

azdak - Where's yer Wully Shakespeare the noo? - Over and over again I've read the claim that "Shakespeare wrote fanfic". People, he didn't. I don't care if he based some of his plays on historical or even literary works by other writers, because the important part of the word fanfic is not the "fic" it's the "fan".

mistful - A Love Letter to Fandom - I don't know why I love you, but I'm prepared to make a guess. [...] This might be why. Because I seek to love writing in the old, high way (to be all Yeats about it) and so do you. In this world of popping on the telly, it is considered more than a little eccentric to be truly enthusiastic about books. Declaring to a room that Pride and Prejudice was one of the definitive events in your life will win you no friends. (Indeed, perchance you may even be labelled a bluestocking! And then who will marry you?)

aubrem - aubrem: The HP Slash City-State - Now that I've been in fandom for two years (much of that anonymously, but still) I'm beginning to see that it resembles an entire functioning society: a City-State, if you will. I suppose because human beings are social creatures we naturally form complex social organizations.

scifantasy - On Spoilers, or Spoiler Warning For Pretty Much Anything - there are some movies (or books, or possibly even video games) that have spoilers, now long since past expiration of course, that qualify as Big Deals, or would have when they came out, or are just ones that people pretty much know or know about. Revelations that really change the equation, or are historically significant. I'm curious what some of you think they are.


Fandom-Specific Meta

jennyo - This is my brain on BSG. - But the real surprise is that I really like Lee Adama. Now, I like him better when he's with Laura Roslin (because for reasons I cannot explain, she is my OTC for the show), but he's that kind of Conflicted Young Man that usually earns some of my bitterest disdain.

hermionesviolin - 675 minutes - Firefly, the series - [Commentary on a marathon viewing of the entire series]

tzikeh - House fans, Due South fans, or both - - Back in the House episode "Role Model", House told an Inuit story about fishing. This was a direct quote from one of David Shore's episodes of Due South. I was wondering if anyone posted about this in their lj when it happened [...] I'm curious about how the first two seasons of dS have held up on the 'net.

piperx - In Defense of Dumbledore - For quite some time now, I’ve been frankly baffled at the amount of Dumbledore hate that has spread through the fandom since OotP came out. I’ve read a few essays on this subject in an attempt to understand it and it seems that the most popular reason is that Dumbledore is manipulative. Well... yes. He is manipulative. Are people just now realizing this?

idlerat - Did you want some spam with that HP? - It's not just the characters, or Harry's perceptions in a narrow sense, that change over the series. It's the type of story. Partly it's the scope, which gets wider, and the type of things that happen, which get scarier and more painful. But it's also the type of story- I don't know how else to put it, except step by step.

phylogenetics - BSG: No respect! - With the recent flurry of positive reviews for BSG, the overriding theme in many of these articles is that, "Don't let the title bug you! It's not really scifi! It's actually good, with *drama*." This irks me to no end.

toysdream - Fantastic Thoughts - I went to see Fantastic Four last night, and to my surprise I really enjoyed it. [...] Bear in mind, we're a pair of bigtime comics geeks, so you might have expected us to squawk in protest at the many changes the writers made to the story and the characters. Maybe hearing about the changes ahead of time took the sting out of it, but I was actually more impressed with how many of the key elements of the story the filmmakers got right.

swordmage - HBP and Spoilers. Is all the hush-hush necessary? (none mentioned, so you can read it guilt free) - Am I the only one who thinks JKR/her lawyers/publishers/etc are going a bit overboard? Spoilers are a part of life in this age-there are spoilers for books, movies, tv shows, you name it. We accept them, and know they're out there and easy to find. So why the extra security over Half Blood Prince?


On Reading/Writing/Creating

telesilla - can you take back your own history as a writing exercise? - I'm using something that is painful to remember -- dunno about you but I find it much harder to remember the times that were good in a bad relationship, because the instinct is to deny there ever was anything good about it -- as fodder for a story. And I think it's going to help me as a person as well as be a good story.

reenka - ~~ crackfic vs. AU: taste the rainbow - Basically, I object to the concept that AU = anything goes. No, my friends, that is what we call crackfic.

sir_mocha in fanficrants - Ignoring reviwers... - Just because an author is good or popular, it does not give him or her the right to be rude. If a reviewer leaves a particularly long, detailed, helpful, or complimentary review, they really deserved to be thanked for it. If a reviewer even goes as far to EMAIL said author a long, detailed, helpful, and complimentary review, the author should really take the time to respond. The reviewer spent time and effort reading the story, and writing the review/email – the least the author should do is take five minutes to send a response.


Miscellany

minisinoo - Bloody Meta - [humor]

gershwhen - Readers Poll for Books that Come in a Series - In light of the release of a new book in an existing series (::cough::HarryPotter::cough), I've been wondering how others read series books. [Poll]