Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 2

[armanya]

Challenge #2
In your own space, talk about your fannish history.

I guess my first fannish interaction with something was various mid- to late 90s boybands. I was pulled into liking Backstreet Boys by friends, and I had a bunch of posters (BSB was also my first concert), but it wasn't really until Hanson came on the scene that I really became obsessed with a something. Me and a friend wrote what essentially was fanfic about them - mostly self-inserts but some elaborate AUs - but fanfic wasn't a concept I would become aware of until a few years later. 

My point of entry to online fandom came in 1999. By then, my family had moved to Ireland from Sweden, and my main fannish focus was Westlife. We got internet at home, and I searched for pics of my favourite band online, ended up finding an unofficial fanclub, and through there found mailing lists. Over the next few years I ended up running a local Irish branch of that unofficial fanclub, running a website about them, meeting a bunch of people from the mailing lists, making graphics, and eventually discovering fanfic was an actual thing other people did too and writing fun self-insert  fic where I married my favourite member and held "auditions" for friends to be featured in my fics (and likewise auditioned to be featured in other people's fics). 

In 2001 I started branching out from that one fandom. At first because the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, and I had found another obsession. This fandom is where I started writing fanfic which was not self-insert, which really was a turning point both in how I wrote fic and interacted with fandom - because now I was writing fic based on canon rather than just my fantasies, which meant I started discussing headcanon and engaging with meta. For me personally, those things are to this day some of my favourite things about fandom - I  love analyzing (and over-analyzing) canon material and discussing different headcanons. So this is really the point at which I started interacting  with fandom partly because I loved fandom, rather than it just being the space in which I could talk with other people about this thing I loved. 

I started actively looking for fanfic to read, rather than just reading whatever people posted on mailing lists. At some point I found Bad Fanfic! No Biscuit! which was what made me have 3 new revelations about fanfic: 1) It could be smutty! 2) It could be gay! 3) It could be kinky! (These were three very big revelations for me, because at this point in my life I was questioning my sexuality and kink intrigued me. Yes, I very much learned a lot about my own sexuality through fanfic.) 

Funnily enough, finding that queer, smutty fanfic was a thing didn't immediately make me go look for fic like that in the fandoms I was in. Instead I went looking specifically for queer/kinky smut fic, which is how I started reading The Sentinel fic even though I hadn't watched the show (and wouldn't until about 6 years later). There was some really great fic in that fandom though, and I lurked and read a bunch of it. It wasn't until I decided I wanted to write smut that I went looking for smut in my own fandoms. Which is the point at which I started writing slash about boyband members and hobbits. (Separately. Not crossovers. Though that could have been interesting.) Basically, I read a lot of fics in a lot of fandoms, and I wrote a bunch of fic in a few fandoms.

I started University in 2003, and had access to a huge library. I read a bunch of books that had nothing to do with my studies. At some point I found a book about the history of fandom and slash fic? I don't remember what book it was, I remember it had a bunch of theory about why women write gay smut. I went searching for more academic books about fandom, found them, read them, developed a more solid interest in fandom itself and fannish history. 

I fell out of fandom for a while after that. University was busy, I got a job, moved away from home (or rather, my family moved back to Sweden but I decided to stay in Ireland?). And I guess, on some level, I thought I was too old for fandom, in the way you might when you're in your early 20s and trying to adjust to adulthood. I wrote some original fiction and poetry, I published some on a blog, I had dreams about publishing, but ultimately I realized that I didn't find writing as fun when I wasn't doing it in a fannish context where I could theorize with other fans and I actually got feedback and it was valid to write just for fun? 

Sometime towards the end of 2008, I started to dip my toes back into fandom. At first it was became I came across (old) publicity for Hanson's The Walk, and feeling nostalgic for my first big obsession, I ended up buying the CD, loving it, wanting to connect with other fans again. At first I mostly hung out on the message boards on their official site, but I joined Livejournal 2009, since that's where most of fandom hung out at that stage. (And I just went back to my earliest imported post to figure that out, and found this post, so I guess I can pinpoint that I started writing fanfic again in early May 2010.) At some point, not actually sure when now, I came across a video of Adam Lambert kissing Tommy and deep dived into that fandom. Which is to this date the fandom I have written most fic for. 

And this is the point at which finding new fandoms became much easier - through Twitter and AO3 and Tumblr happening. I picked up a bunch of new fandoms through things friends were into - my most active fandoms have been MCR, One Direction and Pentatonix but I have written one or a few fics in quite a few fandoms at this stage. I have interacted with and read fic in a lot more. (I listed most of my fandoms in my intro post from day 1 of this, so I won't make the whole list again). 

By the end of 2018 I kind of hit a rut where I wasn't all that into any of my fandoms any more, I felt uninspired to write, and recent negativity in fandom just got the best of me. I wrote nothing at all for the first half of 2019 and didn't interact all that much with fandom other than chatting with close friends. And then Good Omens happened. And it has been such a breath of fresh air! Neil is so fandom/fanfic positive (as is Sheen), all the fans I have interacted with have been so friendly, there is so much great fic. I may only have finished 4 fics in 2019 but Good Omens made me excited about fandom and writing again! 

So, here we are. I feel excited and positive about starting the new year. I have found my joy for fandom again and I know that alone will make the year much brighter. 

Comments

[fadedwings]

And then Good Omens happened
This pretty much sums up 2019 for me ♥

[james]

I'm pretty sure *someone* has written boyband-hobbit fanfic. ;-)

[shipperslist]

I just realized I was into NKOTB back in the day and was SO furious when my parents didn’t let me seethem when they toured in my hometown. 😂

And I so agree with you on Good Omens and Neil & Michael.

[armanya]

I mean, if my time in fandom has taught me anything is that there is fanfic about everything so yes, this seems likely. (Now I kind of want to find it...)

[armanya]

Haha I had that problem with Hanson, when they were in Sweden my parents didn't want to take me and then there's actually been a couple of times later on in their career where I could have seen them but I never have. (Like, when I was in University one of my Uni friends was saying how she won tickets to Hanson but didn't go because no one wanted to come with her, not knowing that I was a fan. xD)

[armanya]

It's really been just the fandom I needed to escape into... judging by its popularity, the fandom most of us needed. It's so gentle, compared to most other stuff around at the moment. ♥