March Meta Matters Challenge, Check-in No. 1

[yourlibrarian]

Welcome to year 4 of the Meta Matters Challenge! I'm your moderator, yourlibrarian.

These posts will be used for us all to check-in with one another, offer encouragement and answers to questions, and maybe tips we come up with as we copy our work to another location.

Before we begin, some reminders. Please look over the FAQ as there are some important bits for everyone to follow, namely:

Remember to tag all your posts with the "Nonfiction" tag (in the "Additional Tags" section of the posting form if using AO3 or SquidgeWorld).

Remember to add your meta to the March Meta Matters Challenge community on either AO3 or Squidgeworld (if posting on those sites).

If you've already begun copying over your meta, you can always edit the files to add in the tags and collection assignment.

Also, as stated in the previous post, it's a good idea to glance over the FAQ as there have been changes made this year.

Since this is our first check-in, please comment with one or more of the following:

1) Details about you: This could include canons (if any) you've written meta in, years in fandom, things you tend to write about (if you've noticed themes), or whatever else you'd like to share.

2) Details about your meta: How much of your past work are you going to be looking through? Have you already started reviewing fandom accounts? Have you archived a lot of it already in past challenges?

3) Goals you have: Maybe you want to back up a certain number of posts. Maybe you want to update older meta. Maybe you're looking forward to writing new meta. We all have hopes of what we can accomplish this month. Feel free to share them!

Also, if you have any questions not already covered in our introductory post or in our FAQ, include them here.

Remember, this account accepts anonymous comments, so if you don't have a Dreamwidth account we still want to hear from you and have you take part. Just sign your messages with your username and we'll all get to know you!

Comments

Introduction

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Remember to tag all your posts with the "Nonfiction" tag (in the "Additional Tags" section of the posting form if using AO3 or SquidgeWorld).<<

I typically post my meta on Dreamwidth, and some of the older stuff is on LiveJournal. Some is in notes under fiction I've posted on AO3. I'm not on SquidgeWorld and after reading about AO3's erratic handling of meta I'm not inclined to post it there either. But if anyone wants to copy it to another site, that's fine as long as you leave the credits intact.

One of my goals this year is to do more archiving through sites like the Wayback Machine and Archive.fo so that is where I will probably be copying my meta.

My Meta tag (or the older one on LiveJournal) includes descriptions of genres from another world, meta about some of my other writing worlds, links to other other people's meta often with discussions, meta about fanfic/fandom in general, some musings on how to handle particular topics, identity literature, and a few bits that touch on some particular canon. A lot of it involves me poking holes in other people's arguments, pointing out how suggestions are troublesome, and suggesting other alternatives instead.

I just realized that, while I have a lot of discussions and link lists that started as answering a friend's question, I don't tend to tag these as meta even if they are. Bother. Those more often land in my How To tag, so you can skim that for the meta entries if you wish. I should probably go through How To and add Meta tags where relevant. I did just go back and tag as Meta several major pieces that lots of people refer to, like Nonsexual Intimacies and Skills Heroes Need. So that's one thing accomplished.

>>1) Details about you: This could include canons (if any) you've written meta in, years in fandom, things you tend to write about (if you've noticed themes), or whatever else you'd like to share.<<

Canons: I have a lot of original writing and I write meta for most of it. Hardcore meta. I mean I have oopsed a book repeatedly doing that and not all of them were even dictionaries. I have Tolkienesque amounts of notes and other meta. A Conflagration of Dragons and Daughters of the Apocalypse are a couple original series where I've posted substantial amounts of the meta because those settings really benefit from seeing their background materials.

I wrote massive amounts of meta for the Torn World project but that website is no longer visible to the public. :( I did most of the work building three related languages and several ecosystems, and other folks did different ecosystems and scads of other worldbuilding entries, how-to-write guides, etc.

One of the bigger pieces I've posted about someone else's stuff is a guide to The Ursulan Cycle, which is genderbent King Arthur. The Shared Worlds page has links to other background materials.

I've written fanfic in many canons. *chuckle* Some of my earliest hardcore meta is still being passed around the Valdemar fandom, because they're demifiction guidebooks on how to do stuff. If I remember right, there was one on games and one one dyes/disguises. My biggest fanseries is Love Is For Children (The Avengers). That landing page has a bunch of meta in it along with links to the entries.

Time in fandom: I have decades in fandom, and more before that when I was a fan but had not yet discovered fandom as a community.

Things I tend to write about: I have a bunch of recurring themes that I address both in meta and fiction/poetry. These include but are not limited to adoption (including found-family and interspecies), boundaries and consent, ethics, family of choice and diverse family shapes, fish out of water, how to make the world a better place, identity, implications of special abilities, languages-linguistics-xenolinguistics, sex/gender dynamics (especially alien/fantasy iterations), sociodynamics, spirituality, trauma and recovery.

>> 2) Details about your meta: How much of your past work are you going to be looking through? Have you already started reviewing fandom accounts? Have you archived a lot of it already in past challenges? <<

I hadn't really focused on this aspect before, but I probably should go through and archive my previously posted meta. And try to remember other stuff that is meta but not tagged as such, and tag it.

>> 3) Goals you have: Maybe you want to back up a certain number of posts. Maybe you want to update older meta. Maybe you're looking forward to writing new meta. We all have hopes of what we can accomplish this month. Feel free to share them! <<

What I really want to do, if I can squeak in the time for it, is write several new pieces of meta about Wednesday. I think I made notes for three: the series as a whole, Wednesday, and Thing.

Finally, my next Poetry Fishbowl will be on Tuesday, March 7 with a theme of "Crafts." If you want to drop by and leave me meta-related prompts, I can write characters talking about meta; I've done a few pieces of that in the past.

Re: Introduction

[yourlibrarian]

I just realized that, while I have a lot of discussions and link lists that started as answering a friend's question, I don't tend to tag these as meta even if they are.

Yes! I've found so many references in my meta to another person's post. Sometimes it wasn't even a response, as that they made me think about something I wanted to discuss.

Guides are something so useful to fandoms and yet so rarely thought of for preservation so it's good yours will still be found 🙂

Nothing like a large body of work to make you recognize themes. I don't know as I've seen something in my own work but as discussed with osteophage above, I can at least classify them in groups.

Good that you'll be writing some new works as well, especially for such a new fandom. I plan to address that in our next check in.