Snowflake Challenge #2 - Talk About Your Fannish History

[jedibuttercup]

Challenge #2 - In your own space, talk about your fannish history. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Where to start with this one? I literally don't remember when I became a "fan" - my dad grew up watching the original Star Trek show live, and my parents went to see the original Star Wars on a date, and Dad brought home epic fantasy novels (ex: Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince series) and left them bookmarked in the bathroom all the time, so my brother and I were just naturally around genre properties from our earliest days.

I know TOS was in reruns when I was little; we were allowed two hours of TV per day, and one was usually post-school cartoons, but the other was always, always Star Trek. My first Star Wars in theater was ROTJ when I was a kindergartner. I learned my first French words from Picard swearing on TV, and drank my first flavored tea because of Earl Grey, Hot. Some of the first books I owned were Narnia, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Rings, and several Star Trek novels, all before the age of 10. So I was pretty much always doomed to be in the fannish sphere. :)

I also started writing fiction when I was very small; I learned to read when I was three, and I have a copy of a journal published by my first grade school that included the best story submissions from every year level, starting with one written by Wee JB, Aged 5, about a momma cat and her kittens. By high school I was writing the most ridiculous Mary Sue tropes imaginable longhand in notebooks to keep from being bored during class, starring yours truly and all her closest friends becoming spies or learning magic or discovering we were reincarnated historical characters or what have you. (Very, very glad that was all pre-Internet, because the world never needs to see any of it).

I was mostly too busy and tired to keep up with it in college; so falling into online fandom the year after I graduated was a breath of fresh air. I had ideas, and a place to put them, and people would read them and give me feedback! Luckily I started with a fairly popular fandom - the Buffyverse - on a popular site - ff.net - and within a year or two tripped over the crossover site Twisting the Hellmouth. That introduced me to writing for challenges and prompts, which led me to LJ and then DW and finally AO3, and I've never looked back. I flit between fandoms often - I blame that on the ADHD - but have some that I perennially revisit, too. It's harder to write when I'm depressed, but I'm also very aware that creating and publishing gives me back more energy than goes into it, so. I doubt I'll ever leave fanfic entirely.

Outside of fanfic, I've been to several conventions over the years, mostly with family and friends, and have spent probably too much money on POPs and autographs and branded LEGOs and logo'ed clothing and tie-in novels. (Not to mention Disney Plus.) But it gives me joy. And it gives many other people joy. And ... well, the very last conversation I ever had with my dad before his sudden death was the weekend I got back from getting Shatner's autograph, geeking out with him about it. Being a fan has just always been part of my identity, and always will be. *shrug*

Comments

[james]

I love how we try things in the real world because it happened in a show or movie we loved. I once tried to learn Czech, because of Stargate. ;-) (Did not go well.)

[jedibuttercup]

Aw, Radek! For a while right after college I wanted to learn hieroglyphics because of Daniel, but that didn’t work out very well either. :-). I do own more books about ancient Egypt and archaeology because of him than I would otherwise though!

[seleneheart]

We need a poll of how many people got their on line start in Buffy.

[jedibuttercup]

It hit it just the right time, I think, when the Internet was finally getting to be a big deal. Among the fans of a certain age range, the percentage is probably pretty high!

[mk_tortie]

Just stopping by (from the snowflake_challenge post) to say that I've read so much of your stuff on TTtH over the years and always enjoyed it. So thanks!!

[jedibuttercup]

You’re welcome! And, thanks! The people on that site have always been so welcoming and enthusiastic in my experience, I’m very glad I found it early on in my fanfic career.

That reminds me, I’m probably a little behind on posting there from last August’s crossovers. I ought to get on that! :-)