Snowflake Challenges 2 - 6
Jan. 15th, 2025 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tinny
Since a lot of the challenges this year seem to be centered on fannish things, and most of all different from previous years, I'm motivated to take part.
So, let's see.
Challenge #2
my fannish origin story
I've always enjoyed watching tv, the product itself and the details going on behind the scenes. I don't know where that love came from, but I feel like it was always there.
I've always had a particular liking for English-language shows, despite my native language not being English. I think this stems from the fact that my father was away on company trips to the US a lot when I was a child, and he always brought me back English children's books. I always tried to watch as many US tv shows as possible (which wasn't a lot, all of it was dubbed, and there were no DVDs yet, which were later going to introduce the concept of multiple languages).
The first online thing I did was lurk on a Northern Exposure newsgroup in 1992. I wasn't interested in fanfic yet.
The idea that fanfic could be something I'd be interested in followed four years later, when I watched the X-Files, and canon just did not provide the romance I craved. That was when I joined an X-Files fanfic mailing list (in German). I didn't write anything, but I read a lot.
I joined LJ after meeting
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
rez_lo on an Alias forum, I think, and she invited me to LJ.That's where I fell headlong into iconmaking. My participation in fandom consisted of writing reviews and making icons (and talking to my flist) for 10 years after that. (I wrote one fanfic at that time, longhand, on paper, in German, but I never published it anywhere. It didn't feel like my kind of fannish activity.)
In 2013, the Librarians changed all of that. I finally felt like I had a handle on both protagonists, which made it easy for me to start writing. I then kept writing in my respective main fandom of the time, until about a year ago, when I slowly slid out of Zhu Yilong fandom and my muse dried up along with it. So now I'm back to writing reviews and making icons - and I'm happy with that.
Challenge #3
a fannish opinion that has changed over time
A few...
writing
When I first started out with fandom, I wasn't interested in fanfic. Then I started reading it, and then I started writing it. I thought that I wasn't any good at it, but given the right fandom (and the right characters that felt close enough to myself to be easy to write), something changed, and I slowly started to think that I wasn't half bad. I suddenly enjoyed the process, which had not been the case before that, and I think I have developed a lot of skills through writing. I never would have thought that writing would play an integral part of my life.
rpf
This always makes me think of CSI's opinion on serial killers: "they always escalate". It kind of feels a little like that. Being fannish to me is an addiction, and as such it's a slippery slope. RPF is one of the things that I wouldn't have considered at first, but once SPN came around (and RPF seemed less fraught than incest), I started reading it. And then I started writing it. Basically, over time, more and more topics sounded interesting. I read fanfiction to learn things about the human condition (which is something that has never changed in all those years), and I need more things to read about that I don't know by heart yet. So even though the underlying reason to read has stayed the same, my opinion on specific genres/themes has definitely changed.
discord
I still cry over the old monolithic platforms like LJ and DW. I thought tumblr was okay, but not really my thing. None of the tumblr spinoffs/replacements really caught on. Now we have lots of distributed fannish hubs like Mastodon and Discord. At first I hated all of them, but I have by now started to appreciate discord. It took me a while to figure out how to not let it take over my whole day (easier than with tumblr), and how to chat with a lot of strangers (much more immediate than dw and thus scary). I'm still not really happy with any of the platforms outside of dw, but I have made my peace with discord. It can be a nice place, if you manage to find a good server (sadly I often don't find any at all), and it brings back some of the family feeling that dw used to have. More sporadic and random than dw, but still nice.
Challenge #4
I always set myself iconmaking goals, and I have done so this year, too: here at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bestof_icons.Challenge #5
what has improved in my life thanks to fandom
Oh my, so much. First of all, the community I've come to know. Some have become good friends. Watching a tv show is fun in and of itself, but watching with a group of friends - or at least talking with a group of friends after the fact - elevates the experience to a whole other level. Being a fan has made my life better, and certainly more fun.
Secondly, I've learned so many things. About important things like racism, colonialism, gender dynamics - important topics on which fandom has educated me. But also small things, things I've picked up from watching shows or reading books. How to make icons and gifs and other artwork. My goal is always to learn something new every day. And fandom provides a source for that.
Thirdly, languages. As already mentioned, my love for learning English started at a young age. I have since also learned Chinese and a bit of Swedish, both prompted by a show/movie I watched. I'm currently diving back into French because of a French show I'm watching.
Challenge #6
favourite piece of original canon
Way too many to count. Here are a few:
My favorite tv show: Bridgerton, The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place (too many)
My favorite BL/gay tv show: Heartstopper
My favorite movie: Everything Everywhere All At Once, and When Harry Met Sally
My favorite book: everything by Peter F. Hamilton (please don't make me choose)
My favorite poem: The Panther by Rainer Maria Rilke
My favorite song: Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
My favorite artwork: A sunset by Emil Nolde (It's not exactly this one, but similar. I can never find that one online, but I have it as a postcard.)
no subject
on 2025-01-16 05:42 am (UTC)And very important parts of fandom participation they are! Fandom is for everyone, no matter their chosen form of playing along.
no subject
on 2025-01-16 08:11 pm (UTC)Now that I've tried it, and enjoyed it while it lasted (and who knows, maybe the muse will return someday), I'm actually happy. I like making icons, it's fun!
no subject
on 2025-01-16 02:01 pm (UTC)I'm glad Discord is good for you--I haven't found a group-discussion I'm totally comfortable in but I really like it for one-on-one chatting (we should do more of that ;) )
and as you say, fandom has been such a gift for friends and learning and languages! (Still impressed by your goal to learn something new every day, and how successful you are at it.) <3
no subject
on 2025-01-16 08:14 pm (UTC)Just another proof that things you enjoy make you do them more, and thus get better at them. Doing a thing you love is very important.
I'm glad Discord is good for you--I haven't found a group-discussion I'm totally comfortable in
I tend to discuss a bit in new groups, and then slowly clam up the longer I'm in a server and the larger the server gets. While I have the impression that it's a small family, I can do it, but that never lasts long.
but I really like it for one-on-one chatting (we should do more of that ;) )
Yes! <3 The time difference is a bitch, though. Just like Australia. *sigh*
(Still impressed by your goal to learn something new every day, and how successful you are at it.) <3
I'm slowly getting back into it. this month was slower than the last two, but I'm feeling good about having picked it back up.
no subject
on 2025-01-16 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2025-01-16 08:19 pm (UTC)Discord has the disadvantage (for me) that it's much too fast. dw is great in that the comments wait for you - if you're offline for a few days, you can still carry on the discussion. Discord... not so much. Otoh, I remember the first Guardian server I was on, people used to write live comment fic, and post lots of manips and gifs, and the amount of fannish output was immense. In that sense, the sense of community is definitely helped by the speed of the interaction. Ah well. It's not all bad, is what I'm saying. :)
And LOL at the "they always escalate" comment, I think I was similar...
I do think my fannish obsessions are somewhat like addictions, so I'm trying to keep the escalation speed down if I can. I figure I'll escalate anyway, just slow enough for it not to end up in bad places before I've grown too old. ;)