General Fandom Meta

painless_j - Give myself a shake - When I read my f-list, I identify most people not by their names but by their icons.

aubrem - The Only Measure Is Pleasure : D - I've been trying to figure out what makes "good" fanfiction and how that differs from good literature.

altariel1 - John Sutherland - At the end, he talked about ways in which the relationship between author and reader is changing and becoming a more equal and active transaction. "Oh," I thought, "wouldn't it be funny if he mentioned fanfiction?" He talked a bit about reading groups [...] and then - bingo. There he was, talking about 'more of' and 'more from' and character rape and slash and Cassie Claire.

hafren in fanthropology - [untitled] - Is there a name for a character who is not a Mary Sue, in that she isn't who the author wants to be, but is clearly there to fulfil the author's fantasy rather than the needs of the story?

dsdragonster - Ship Manifesto Meta - So so so so I was talking about ship_manifesto again in my last post and about how you can do a ship manifesto of a pairing that's alreayd been done before (because now there are two IchiRuki manifestos) and looking through the archives and I saw a clear pattern in the Good Manifestos that separate them from the Mediocre or Bad Manifestos.

kyuuketsukirui - Blahblah procrastination cakes - More about what bothers me so about aubrem's post. // In a comment to someone, she said, "My point was that fanfic can succeed very well without hitting the goals set for "literature" and so shouldn't be judged by those goals. It's a different beast." // To which I responded, "But that's not true across the board. As a reader, what's successful for me, what's a good story for me, is the same whether I'm reading fanfic or professional fic"

dragonscholar in fanthropology - So When do people REMOVE works? - When do people usually take fanworks down (off of sites, archives, etc.) and for what reasons? Do people usually leave stuff they're no longer happy with up, or remove it as they re-evaluate it? Do people remove works when they change fandoms, or keep works up in something they no longer participate in?

kyuuketsukirui - Emotional reactions to fiction - I find I'm not at all sure what's meant by emotionally satisfying or emotionally catharctic. She also talked about modern lit often being depressing, so I'm wondering if my not getting it has to do with the fact that fiction doesn't affect my mood (there can be no "depressing stories" for me).

neo_bindi in babysittersclub - Fan Fiction - I feel that some authors merely use the characters that were originally portrayed in the series to create their own works of fiction. This is seen when stories become almost bigger than themselves, to a point where much of what is written cannot be connected back to the original series, and instead is almost all created by the author. At this point, I find it hard to classify these stories as true fan fiction.

partly_bouncy - Dear Heidi Tandy... - Understanding your actions is important to understanding fan fiction history. This is not because I think it is so. It is because you made it to be so.

heidi8 - Fwd: Use of real last names on your "fanhistory" website - But you don't need to use my last name to discuss fandom history; any reference to Heidi is already a reference to me. [response to partly_bouncy's post]

mommanerd - Blame It On The Full Moon - No, MNFs does not refer to "Mommanerd Fans" [...] but rather to those hordes of us who are Medium Name Fans. You know who you are, and I dare say there are more of you out there than there are BNFs, because, honestly, how many BNFs can there be if that is to be a classification?

themostpotente - Fandom Discussion: The Fine Line Between Fandom and Fanaticism - So where does fandom end and fanaticism begin?

On Writing/Creating

drusillas_rain - Why I love drabbles - When I first discovered drabbles, I finally felt like I'd found my corner of fandom.

viciouswishes - Four Lessons I Learned In Writing - Someone on my flist posted about writing tonight, and I made me think about where I learned to write and how I learned to write.

medawyn in hpwriterschoice - Let's Talk About... First Lines - How many writers have sat, pen poised above paper, waiting for the perfect opening sentence to strike them? As readers, first lines can draw us into a story, making us excited, angry, or just plain curious. They can be memorable or forgettable, interesting or banal.

musesfool - everybody's had to fight to be free - And then I thought about a different kind of post about writing, about canon and fanon and mynon, and how I'm so flexible about actual events we will never know the story of, which allows me to write five, ten, fifty stories about the same exact events and while I certainly feel some of those stories are probably closer to canon than others, I don't necessarily feel circumscribed by that. I don't understand people who aren't able to hold conflicting ideas at the same time.

cedarlibrarian - An invitation to dance, but is it the tango or the foxtrot? - Author Theresa Nelson says that the opening line of a story is "an invitation to dance." But what I never asked myself until now was: What kind of a dance is it? Dance styles are a little easier to tell right from the beginning. A minuet has a different accent pattern than a waltz, for example. What Miss Snark gets, and what I think is missing from the discussion is the idea that your first line means nothing if the rest of the story falls apart, just like you can write a great query letter and submit a terrible sample.

isiscolo - demystifying plot - It's odd to me that not only are most writers apparently scared of plot, many of them can't even recognize it in their own stories. For me, plot is a natural aspect of story; story ideas "bring their own plots," so to speak, and I find plotty stories natural and enjoyable to write.

Miscellany

liviapenn - Fandom cliches - tell me your favorite "The one where..." stories - So! The question is, what are your favorite fanfiction tropes, plots, cliches, cracktastic elements, and/or emotional kinks? And, not just *fannish* tropes, but the plots that you see in your favorite sf/f shows or soaps over and over again, etc.

shaddyr - Wank is in the air... - Applications are now being accepted for the Sooper Sekrit Cabal of Fannish Ev0l. [...] As a member of the Sekrit Cabal That Runs Fandom Sekritlee, you will provide proactive and reactive wank in a high-paced, internet environment, while seeking to cross-pollinate other fandoms with paranoia and divisiveness.

sclerotic_rings - Completely unrelated - Anyway, there's nothing quite like the realization, borne from far too much DVD viewing on a gloomy weekend, that Doctor Who and The Red Green Show are the same television program.