Rossi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deathpixie) wrote2002-02-16 11:50 am
deathpixie) wrote2002-02-16 11:50 am
Fanfic, or, Hmm, why do I do this?
There's been a few posts in my Friends list concerning feedback and the lack thereof, and other posts about the CBFFAs and what they mean, and then I re-read a comment I made in response to a comment about validation and the fanfic community... and this ramble is the result. :) That and the fact it's sticky and steamy here today and I can't be bothered doing anything particularly active at the moment and I have two bikes needing maintenance of the particularly messy sort and I'm putting it off in favour of nice clean typing.
First up, I write fanfic because I enjoy it. Fairly simple - it's a hobby, something I do in between work and sleep and various sporting activities. It's something I'm good at (three CBFFAs can't be wrong) and that I like to share with people online. It is not the be all and end all of my existence. If I had to stop writing tomorrow, I'd probably get irritable, but I'd get over it. There is no compulsion, no obsession, just the pleasure of stringing together words to make characters and settings and plots.
That said and done, let's move onto the second question, the one every fanficcer needs to ask themselves - why do I post? I don't have to - in fact, there are some things I've written that have not been seen by anyone much at all, and some things that would have been better not being posted - but I still do. I do it for a couple of reasons; to share my viewpoint on a character or an issue with other people, to entertain, and to see what people think. Yes, I post for feedback. And I think we need to be honest with ourselves and admit that yes, we all post for the feedback. Maybe not solely for the feedback, but it's an important element.
This is where the validation/recognition thing comes in. It's a facet of human personality that we all have this desire to be special. To be recognised. To make connections with others. It may be a function of this increasingly-faceless society we live in, or a side effect of living in huge numbers in cities, or just an urge to make a mark on the world before we die, but whatever the reason, we have it. It drives us to excel, to do crazy things for the Guinness Book Of Records, and to do whatever it is we do better than most. And one of the ways the fanfic community trades in that recognition is through feedback. Through coming into a chat room and having someone you've never seen before say "Hey! You wrote "such-and-such", didn't you? That was a great story!". Through awards ceremonies like the CBFFA/CMFFAs. To have someone send you feedback lets you know that yes, you did something worthy of comment.
Feedback has strange habits. Some stories will get scads, others won't. The audience is a fickle creature, prone to biting us on the arse when we get too cocky. And as much as I love the thrill of finding feedback in my inbox, especially long, well-thought-out detailed feedback like the one Acey sent me for Crisis Point, I'm not going to tear myself up if I don't get it. Because I know I'm a good writer without it, and I don't have my identity tied up overmuch in the fanfic thing. I know there are off periods for feedback, just as there are peak periods. I might hold off on posting something until I'm satisfied with it, but if I've done the best job I can, then that's all I can do.
I think one of the reasons why I think like this is because I tend to write in fandoms that don't have the cult following of the X-fics. I wrote a total of one X-fic for 2001, Justice, and that idea had been sitting around in a notebook for almost a year. My other stories were TCPs, Midnight Nation and Hellblazer. Feedback, when I get it, tends to come from the same people, the ones who I know read my work and enjoy it. And I'm thrilled to bits to have a 'following', however small. ;) I won't deny that I sometimes miss the feedback swamping my inbox I used to get when I was writing GenX and X-Men, but do get that again I'd have to write stories I no longer wish to write. I'd have to write by the numbers, so to speak. So while audience is a factor in my writing, so is personal preference. And I'm not going to write something I have no feeling for just so I can get feedback.
Besides, it would suck anyway. ;)
First up, I write fanfic because I enjoy it. Fairly simple - it's a hobby, something I do in between work and sleep and various sporting activities. It's something I'm good at (three CBFFAs can't be wrong) and that I like to share with people online. It is not the be all and end all of my existence. If I had to stop writing tomorrow, I'd probably get irritable, but I'd get over it. There is no compulsion, no obsession, just the pleasure of stringing together words to make characters and settings and plots.
That said and done, let's move onto the second question, the one every fanficcer needs to ask themselves - why do I post? I don't have to - in fact, there are some things I've written that have not been seen by anyone much at all, and some things that would have been better not being posted - but I still do. I do it for a couple of reasons; to share my viewpoint on a character or an issue with other people, to entertain, and to see what people think. Yes, I post for feedback. And I think we need to be honest with ourselves and admit that yes, we all post for the feedback. Maybe not solely for the feedback, but it's an important element.
This is where the validation/recognition thing comes in. It's a facet of human personality that we all have this desire to be special. To be recognised. To make connections with others. It may be a function of this increasingly-faceless society we live in, or a side effect of living in huge numbers in cities, or just an urge to make a mark on the world before we die, but whatever the reason, we have it. It drives us to excel, to do crazy things for the Guinness Book Of Records, and to do whatever it is we do better than most. And one of the ways the fanfic community trades in that recognition is through feedback. Through coming into a chat room and having someone you've never seen before say "Hey! You wrote "such-and-such", didn't you? That was a great story!". Through awards ceremonies like the CBFFA/CMFFAs. To have someone send you feedback lets you know that yes, you did something worthy of comment.
Feedback has strange habits. Some stories will get scads, others won't. The audience is a fickle creature, prone to biting us on the arse when we get too cocky. And as much as I love the thrill of finding feedback in my inbox, especially long, well-thought-out detailed feedback like the one Acey sent me for Crisis Point, I'm not going to tear myself up if I don't get it. Because I know I'm a good writer without it, and I don't have my identity tied up overmuch in the fanfic thing. I know there are off periods for feedback, just as there are peak periods. I might hold off on posting something until I'm satisfied with it, but if I've done the best job I can, then that's all I can do.
I think one of the reasons why I think like this is because I tend to write in fandoms that don't have the cult following of the X-fics. I wrote a total of one X-fic for 2001, Justice, and that idea had been sitting around in a notebook for almost a year. My other stories were TCPs, Midnight Nation and Hellblazer. Feedback, when I get it, tends to come from the same people, the ones who I know read my work and enjoy it. And I'm thrilled to bits to have a 'following', however small. ;) I won't deny that I sometimes miss the feedback swamping my inbox I used to get when I was writing GenX and X-Men, but do get that again I'd have to write stories I no longer wish to write. I'd have to write by the numbers, so to speak. So while audience is a factor in my writing, so is personal preference. And I'm not going to write something I have no feeling for just so I can get feedback.
Besides, it would suck anyway. ;)
Re: Addresses, addresses...
(Anonymous) 2002-02-16 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)Wondermouse
Re: Addresses, addresses...
The best stuff for you to read would be the Collective Mutants and Crisis Point fic - the rest is more fan-ficcy, and I know you don't read comics so it might be uard to understand. But it's up to you. *grins* Best two places for Rossi-fic are:
The Itty Bitty Archives
and here for the TCPs and here for some less cuddly stuff.