Fandom Meme Update
May. 3rd, 2010 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aearwenI've changed my mind: I do have a deep, dark, fandom secret. It occurred to me today, as I was finishing up my emails and workshop and LJ and FB readings so that I could (1) be free to do errands when JJ gets home; and (2) make a farewell supper for L&L, who depart for Oregon tomorrow; and finally (3) hopefully do some productive writing on at least one of my on-going WIPs. But it is more or less secret, because I've never copped to it before; and I wonder how many others are in the same boat.
My deep, dark fandom secret: The bulk of the LotR fan fiction that I follow is being written by people in one or the other of the online writer's workshops I belong to - The Lizard Council or In The Hall of Fire - or in here, on LJ. Between those first two places, I get to watch authors I have admired ever since finding this fandom post their non-final drafts for comment and constructive criticism; and in that way, I often have seen the entirety of a work long before the regular fan even knows the author has something new in the pipeline. Half of the time, the only folks I read on the archives are the ones I've watched in the workshops, beta'ed myself, or see post in here and want to leave a FFN review too.
There are a few - VERY few (I can count them on one hand) - fics or authors that I follow elsewhere. I browse the New Arrivals lists on FFN, OSA, HASA, SoA, and LOTRFF; and as a rule, find not much worth looking at from a first glance at blurbs. There's a heckuva lot of girl-falls-into-M-e lately, most of which is dreck. I'm honestly hoping that The Hobbit: The Movie/s will bring new life to the Tolkien fandom - even if most of those authors tend to write hobbit tales - because the bulk of the stuff being produced nowadays sux major sileage.
Of course, there are always those gems that one has to watch out carefully for – stories that show that the talent is still there. Unearthing those jewels from the layers upon layers of dreck and same-old-same-old is the only thing that keeps me checking those Just In lists.
But otherwise, with very few notable exceptions, the only consistently good fics are found here, on my friend's list, or in the two workshops.
I can't quite decide if that's sad, bad, or just a sign that I've finally become picky enough that I demand quality of the stories I am willing to spend my time reading. Either way, I'm a tough sell now.
And that's my secret.
My deep, dark fandom secret: The bulk of the LotR fan fiction that I follow is being written by people in one or the other of the online writer's workshops I belong to - The Lizard Council or In The Hall of Fire - or in here, on LJ. Between those first two places, I get to watch authors I have admired ever since finding this fandom post their non-final drafts for comment and constructive criticism; and in that way, I often have seen the entirety of a work long before the regular fan even knows the author has something new in the pipeline. Half of the time, the only folks I read on the archives are the ones I've watched in the workshops, beta'ed myself, or see post in here and want to leave a FFN review too.
There are a few - VERY few (I can count them on one hand) - fics or authors that I follow elsewhere. I browse the New Arrivals lists on FFN, OSA, HASA, SoA, and LOTRFF; and as a rule, find not much worth looking at from a first glance at blurbs. There's a heckuva lot of girl-falls-into-M-e lately, most of which is dreck. I'm honestly hoping that The Hobbit: The Movie/s will bring new life to the Tolkien fandom - even if most of those authors tend to write hobbit tales - because the bulk of the stuff being produced nowadays sux major sileage.
Of course, there are always those gems that one has to watch out carefully for – stories that show that the talent is still there. Unearthing those jewels from the layers upon layers of dreck and same-old-same-old is the only thing that keeps me checking those Just In lists.
But otherwise, with very few notable exceptions, the only consistently good fics are found here, on my friend's list, or in the two workshops.
I can't quite decide if that's sad, bad, or just a sign that I've finally become picky enough that I demand quality of the stories I am willing to spend my time reading. Either way, I'm a tough sell now.
And that's my secret.
