Singing the Body Electric

Fandom 50 #30

Untitled Fix-It Comic by yeehawpim
Fandom: Panfandom, Doctor Who, Avengers, Sherlock
Medium: Comic
Length: 6 pages
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: drama, happy ending, au: canon divergence, writing

Description:

A black-and-white cartoon comic follows its creator from their teenage years reading fic in a classroom, through glimpses of canon moments from Doctor Who, The Avengers, and Sherlock, to the experiences of other fans and back to the now-older creator as they muse on their changing opinion of fix-it fic.

( Transcript of Comic Text )

Yeah, this got me. I'm a sucker for a good fix-it fic, and it's a storytelling impulse that I feel warmly about in general. I've especially been thinking about this topic lately—and some of the related canon moments—thanks to a bit that hit home in JessieGender1's recent Star Trek Strange New Worlds Is a Centrist Space Fantasy video essay that talked about the storytelling worldviews in which change requires a body count and about the narrative incorporation of ungrievable lives. (Two recs for the price of one in this post!)

This comic is sweet and touching, with great pacing and choice of visuals. I especially love the spot where we see darkness giving way to light and the shots of people writing. It gave me some fuzzy feelings about fandom and encouraged me to open back up a fix-it draft of my own.

Fandom 50 #15

bethefirst is a challenge that invites participants to create the first fic for an otherwise fic-less fandom (terms and conditions may apply), and this year's collection is now live!

Be the First! 2025 Collection

It features 41 fics in 41 fandom of all sorts, including books, movies, TV shows, comics, and video games—and ranging from "I can't believe there wasn't already fic for this" to "I've never heard of this in my life, I need to check it out!"

There are also some fandom promos available on the DW comm, where writers have given a run-down of the canon they were hoping to write for.

I'm still making my way through the collection, but I definitely recommend checking it out and manually browsing, since not all of the fandoms have been canonized as AO3 tags yet. You might find something you've been waiting years for, or discover a tantalizing new canon to check out.

Fandom 50 #41

i.e. the places I posted my last fic, which I thought I'd put out there for anyone else who's been looking for more fanwork communities.

historium
For fanworks, discussions, and promotions of any historical fandoms (defined as anything set at least fifty years ago), whether fictional or RPF.

ourflagmeansgay
For all things Our Flag Means Death. Despite the name, all varieties of fanworks are welcome. (Note: the default link colours are pretty inaccessible against a white background, so you'll probably want a different skin or setting if you're going to read directly on the community page.)

polyamships
For polyamorous ships in both fannish and original contexts. Also regularly hosts events.

rare_ships
For fanworks, recs, and promotional posts for any ships involving canon characters that have fewer than 50 completed English works on AO3. I checked with the mod before cracking the seal on this comm, and they advised that while they weren't actively modding it, people were free to go ahead and use it. Knowing how many other rare ship fans we have around here, I particularly wanted to flag this one!

Fandom 50 #7

Sign-ups for bethefirst are now open!

From the sign-up post:

This is a low-pressure challenge to write a fic, of any length, for a fandom that previously had none. That's it! If you want to take part, just reply to this post :)

Quick rundown: You have two months to write. The deadline is at 23.59 GMT on the 20th of April, and the archive will go live at 00.01 GMT on the 22nd of April. You can submit up to four stories, as long as they are for different fandoms.

I'm ambitiously (always over-ambitiously) considering maybe doing a drabble or double drabble for an additional fandom, but I'm mostly going to work on a ficlet for Lost Lad London (+ vol.2 and vol.3), a 2021 manga series by Shima Shinya with an English translation by Eleanor Ruth Summers and English lettering by Abigail Blackman. It's a contemporary drama/murder mystery about Al Adley, a university student who is framed for murdering the mayor of London. While the case looks increasingly bad for Al, Detective Inspector Lenny Ellis believes in Al's innocence and brings him into unofficial protective custody at his flat while pursuing the case on his own. Some nice seeds of shippiness, especially with themes in the mix of making yourself vulnerable enough to rely on others—and also lots of dirtybadwrong opportunities with regard to those who are out to get Al.

Sign-ups are open for the 2023 round of rarepairexchange, and I wrote up some ship/fandom promos that I thought I'd drop here as well for future use.

There are 26 promos at time of posting, delightfully varied and all worth checking out. The following six were my contributions, which I limited to ships I was requesting that seemed worth promoting - i.e. reasonably bingeable canons with nominated characters who appear in a significant or at least discrete chunk of the source material.

( Cracker (UK TV) - Stuart Grady/Bill Preece (aka Bill Nash) )
( Death and Cremation (2010) - Jarod Leary/Stan )
( Dimension 20: A Court of Fey and Flowers - Andhera/K. P. Hob + Andhera/K. P. Hob/Delloso de la Rue )
( Our Flag Means Death - Multiple )
( Uncle (TV 2014) - Andy King/Val Pearson )
( We Only Kill Each Other - Jonas Kaminsky/Levi Solomon )

fffx (the Five Figure Fandom Exchange) set up a post for folks to promote the canons they were requesting and share where to find them. I wrote a few for my smaller canons and figured I'd link them here, in large part as a bookmark so I can scavenge from these for future promos and sign-ups, and also to share in case anyone's ever wondered about any of them. The post as a whole is definitely worth checking out to browse the rarer fandoms people are eager to plug.

My Promos:
Arkham Horror Files (Games)
Kaptara (Comics)
The Old Guard (Comics)
Ristorante Paradiso (Manga)
Rod Allbright Alien Adventures (Children's Books)
Team Fortress 2 (Video Game/Comics/Short Films)
The World of Black Hammer (Comics)