hope: Art of a woman writing from tour poster (Default)
puddingsmith ([personal profile] hope) wrote2011-08-10 10:14 pm

30 posts of fandom meme

Ok! So I'm going to try this. It's supposed to be "30 days", but fuck that - I'll post them whenever. Meme stolen from [livejournal.com profile] rexluscus.


1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

Well, this is totally three questions, not just one. But I'm going to try and be succinct anyway instead of rambling. Which, gauging from the last two sentences, I'm already failing at.

Lord of the Rings was my first fandom. I saw FOTR in January 2002, about a month before I began university. (Yep, I'd just finished high school!) I was commuting to uni from my parents' place in the countryside - it was a 2 hour journey each way with various forms of transport, and had to pre-arrange my movements with parents/siblings (who had cars). Basically, I had no room to socialise with my uni peers and make friends, so resorted to the internet to actually connect with people. It filled this gap admirably. This is probably what really pulled me in to the community side of fandom for the first time.

I was also studying creative writing at the time - since I could write, I had written, and it was the closest thing I had to an idea of what I wanted to "do for the rest of my life". Unfortunately, the classes I took at uni in that year were deeply demoralising and disappointing. Fortunately, there was fanfiction: the fundamental things I'd wanted out of writing was a) have fun writing, b) have other people enjoy what I wrote, & c) have other people tell me they enjoyed it.

So basically, instead of becoming a profic writer, I became a fanfic writer, and have never looked back :D

That's the psychological reason, I suppose. In terms of the actual process that occurred: I gobbled up things on theonering.net, and stumbled on fanfiction there (a fantastic mary sue story, oh it was so great!). I emailed the author to ask if there was more, and lo and behold, she linked me to fanfiction.net. From there I somehow found yahoogroups - I think frodoslash in particular - and the loving, encouraging and enthusiastic community there fuelled my own inspiration until I finally put some of my own words down.

See above re: never looking back :)

[personal profile] nixwilliams 2011-08-10 01:03 pm (UTC)(link)
yay for fandom! :)
newredshoes: possum, "How embarrassing!" (<3 | I love whales.)

[personal profile] newredshoes 2011-08-10 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Meeeemorrrryyyyy... I don't actually know the song, but: ♥.
anatsuno: a women reads, skeptically (drawing by Kate Beaton) (Default)

[personal profile] anatsuno 2011-08-10 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
yes, yay for fandom! :)
msilverstar: (billy-viggo kiss)

[personal profile] msilverstar 2011-08-11 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
That's a great story, writing for pleasure instead of publication!
laurenthemself: Rainbow rose with words 'love as thou wilt' below in white lettering (LotR: HobbitLlama.)

[personal profile] laurenthemself 2011-08-11 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
And by pure good luck, your sister was my O-week guide and you and I bonded liek whoa. Which still makes me terribly happy.