Fandom Snowflake: Challenge 9 Fandom Wrap
Jan. 17th, 2022 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithFandom Wrap Challenge
Last month, Spotify sent out their yearly “Spotify Wrap” - summary of our listening habits over the past year, divided into categories of “Top 5 __”. We don’t have Spotify’s ‘scientific algorithm’ but we can do what we do best - estimate! These rankings are based on TIME spent on a particular item. If one of these categories doesn't apply to you, feel free to skip. You also don't have to list all 5 or just 5. ^_~
And that's not all! If you'd like to make up your own top 5 category, go for it!
You can post your answers without comment/context or you can explain.
Challenge #9
In your own space, list your Fandom Wrap categories. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
What are your top five fandoms for 2021 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. The Avengers (see Love Is For Children)
2. Frankenstein (see Frankenstein's Family)
Everything else is just bits and pieces, an item here or there based on whim or prompts I get. There are very few fandoms where I've written more than one or two things.
What are your top five fandom spaces in terms of time spent? (AO3, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Dreamwidth, and others)
1. Dreamwidth
2. LiveJournal
3. Facebook
That's pretty much it, and I use the latter two mostly to echo DW content. Few contemporary venues have any appeal for me.
What are the top five ways you interacted in these fandoms? (Reading fanfic, writing, commenting, watching videos, chatting with friends, making art, or anything else you can think of).
1. Reading fanfic. (I keep a best-of list per year, you'll see that later in the rec challenge.)
2. Writing.
3. Discussions with friends. (I like digging into how and why things work.)
4. Commenting.
5. Reviewing content. (See my posts about Coyote & Crow.)
Probably the biggest thing isn't in fandom, though. It's outside. I mine fanfic for ideas. I look for the things that readers want so much that they'll make their own. Two boys kissing. People making up after a mistake. People taking care of each other, even in really messed-up situations. Other ways to stop supervillains than by punching them in the face. That sort of thing. Then I load those ideas into my original canons.
If you're familiar with Scott McCloud's 6 Layers, normally I start original writing with either 1 or 2, then do the other one, then do the rest from the core out. With fanfic, however, I do the opposite. I start at the surface where something caught my attention, and dig down to see why it's that way. Once I have either a canon or a headcanon core concept, then I turn around and think about how that would affect future stories. So I write fanfic "derive in, extrapolate out."
EDIT 1/22/21 --savageseraph wrote a reply to this discussing different ways of writing fanfic and original work.
What are the top five things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
Basically the same as the above.
What things did you create that took the most time?
1. "Everyone Should be Free to Choose" (13 pages)
2. "The Only Difference Between Screwing Around and Science" (7 pages)
3. "White Chrysanthemums" (6 pages)
4. "Carefully Considered and Respected" (5 pages)
5. "A Place of Light, of Liberty, and of Learning" (5 pages)
Bear in mind that the first four come from Love Is For Children and would make more sense read in series-chronological order. The last is at the end of Frankenstein's Family and will probably work even out of context.
Have a Top 5 List you'd like to share?? By all means!
Longest original series:
1. Polychrome Heroics
2. An Army of One: The Autistic Secession in Space
3. Monster House
4. The Steamsmith
5. Fledgling Grace
Longest threads in Polychrome Heroics:
1. Shiv
2. Officer Pink
3. Antimatter & Stalwart Stan
4. Pain's Gray
5. Calliope
The top 5 threads of Polychrome Heroics are all longer than the next series, Frankenstein's Family (which is fanfic) in 6th place. The next-longest original series is the 10th entry on the list, An Army of One. I tally these up as collections which are available as perks to my regular supporters.
Last month, Spotify sent out their yearly “Spotify Wrap” - summary of our listening habits over the past year, divided into categories of “Top 5 __”. We don’t have Spotify’s ‘scientific algorithm’ but we can do what we do best - estimate! These rankings are based on TIME spent on a particular item. If one of these categories doesn't apply to you, feel free to skip. You also don't have to list all 5 or just 5. ^_~
And that's not all! If you'd like to make up your own top 5 category, go for it!
You can post your answers without comment/context or you can explain.
Challenge #9
In your own space, list your Fandom Wrap categories. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
What are your top five fandoms for 2021 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. The Avengers (see Love Is For Children)
2. Frankenstein (see Frankenstein's Family)
Everything else is just bits and pieces, an item here or there based on whim or prompts I get. There are very few fandoms where I've written more than one or two things.
What are your top five fandom spaces in terms of time spent? (AO3, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Dreamwidth, and others)
1. Dreamwidth
2. LiveJournal
3. Facebook
That's pretty much it, and I use the latter two mostly to echo DW content. Few contemporary venues have any appeal for me.
What are the top five ways you interacted in these fandoms? (Reading fanfic, writing, commenting, watching videos, chatting with friends, making art, or anything else you can think of).
1. Reading fanfic. (I keep a best-of list per year, you'll see that later in the rec challenge.)
2. Writing.
3. Discussions with friends. (I like digging into how and why things work.)
4. Commenting.
5. Reviewing content. (See my posts about Coyote & Crow.)
Probably the biggest thing isn't in fandom, though. It's outside. I mine fanfic for ideas. I look for the things that readers want so much that they'll make their own. Two boys kissing. People making up after a mistake. People taking care of each other, even in really messed-up situations. Other ways to stop supervillains than by punching them in the face. That sort of thing. Then I load those ideas into my original canons.
If you're familiar with Scott McCloud's 6 Layers, normally I start original writing with either 1 or 2, then do the other one, then do the rest from the core out. With fanfic, however, I do the opposite. I start at the surface where something caught my attention, and dig down to see why it's that way. Once I have either a canon or a headcanon core concept, then I turn around and think about how that would affect future stories. So I write fanfic "derive in, extrapolate out."
EDIT 1/22/21 --
savageseraph wrote a reply to this discussing different ways of writing fanfic and original work.What are the top five things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
Basically the same as the above.
What things did you create that took the most time?
1. "Everyone Should be Free to Choose" (13 pages)
2. "The Only Difference Between Screwing Around and Science" (7 pages)
3. "White Chrysanthemums" (6 pages)
4. "Carefully Considered and Respected" (5 pages)
5. "A Place of Light, of Liberty, and of Learning" (5 pages)
Bear in mind that the first four come from Love Is For Children and would make more sense read in series-chronological order. The last is at the end of Frankenstein's Family and will probably work even out of context.
Have a Top 5 List you'd like to share?? By all means!
Longest original series:
1. Polychrome Heroics
2. An Army of One: The Autistic Secession in Space
3. Monster House
4. The Steamsmith
5. Fledgling Grace
Longest threads in Polychrome Heroics:
1. Shiv
2. Officer Pink
3. Antimatter & Stalwart Stan
4. Pain's Gray
5. Calliope
The top 5 threads of Polychrome Heroics are all longer than the next series, Frankenstein's Family (which is fanfic) in 6th place. The next-longest original series is the 10th entry on the list, An Army of One. I tally these up as collections which are available as perks to my regular supporters.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-17 06:47 pm (UTC)Looking forward to your rec challenge post when we get there!
Thank you!
Date: 2022-01-17 07:00 pm (UTC)I have been doing this for decades. It just jumps right out at me. Every fandom has its own cluster of motifs that appear over and over again. Star Trek gave a huge boost to gay liberation by making it cute with Kirk/Spock. Valdemar, it's Choosing stories. Sherlock, it's casefic and asexual/aromantic relationships.
We just did a list challenge -- think of your favorite fandoms, what are their most popular or common motifs? Then compare that list to mainstream entertainment. Usually at least one of the leading items is something that is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere.
Frex, we don't have much really good, healthy entertainment about gay relationships. "All these years wasted fighting each other, Charles." *wince* I spent the early seasons of Smallville thinking "My gods, I went to high school with these boys!" and wanting to drag them behind a barn to give them a copy of The Joy of Gay Sex. So Charles/Erik and Clark/Lex -- and their queerfix fanfic -- are major inspirations for Antimatter & Stalwart Stan.
I want to give my readers what they desire most. And I want to write well enough that fans don't feel compelled to run along behind me fixing what I broke.
>> Looking forward to your rec challenge post when we get there! <<
Yay! I started keeping a best-of list when I realized that the rec challenge repeated every year. That way I can just paste it in rather than trying to look it up at the last minute, and it's always fresh rather than repeating my top favorites.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-18 04:09 am (UTC)I suppose I will have something to post about tomorrow. ^_^
Thank you!
Date: 2022-01-18 05:47 am (UTC)I'm happy to hear that.
>> I'm now trying to think about how (and if) I approach writing original fiction and fan fic. Is it the same? Must ponder.... <<
I'd say, think about how you get started, and why you write it.
>> I suppose I will have something to post about tomorrow. ^_^ <<
Yay!