March Meta Matters Challenge, First Writing Prompt

[yourlibrarian]

Hello everyone! It's check-in time again to see how we're all getting along with our meta importing.

It's also time for your first writing prompt! Are there common threads among the fandoms you've been involved in? This could be:

* certain types of characters
* particular genres or formats
* themes or moods
* stories that connect to elements in your life

Writing new meta this month is optional. If you do write something though, share a link to it in a future check-in post!

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I am probably not going to be writing for this particular prompt, but that's because I have already written new meta! Thanks to another of our participants, osteophage, I ended up writing about commenting behavior. I also have a different post started which may fill out into something longer, we'll see.

As a result I've only added one more post since the last check in but will probably have at least another few transferred by next check-in.

[osteophage]

Copying over my PF comment:

Hm... It's hard to think of one uniting common thread, but I guess there's a distinction to be made between liking a thing and being involved in the fandom.

From about 12-18, I used to be way more involved with a few different fandoms for various series aimed at kids, but when I think about it... I dunno, have I been involved with any distinct fan communities as such since then? There's a lot of stuff I've liked, and maybe discussed, here and there, including stuff I feel pretty strongly about, but as an adult I think I've have had more of a zoomed-out relationship to the associated fandoms. And by that I mean I haven't joined or posted on any fan forums, which I guess now I'm realizing is my barometer for feeling "involved" in a fandom. :b I've joined and posted stuff to plenty of PF comms, of course, but that doesn't necessarily feel the same.

[yourlibrarian]

That is true. I know that somewhere in the past I wrote a piece of meta about levels of fan involvement and what I considered being in a fandom. It's probably on SquidgeWorld now but I've no idea what it might be called!

There may be some people who only ever watch or read something because they're fannish about it but I imagine almost everyone likes way more things than they ever become involved with.

[alexseanchai]

I think I'm just about ready to post the revised episode order meta. (possibly without reference to the video game; depends if I finish playing in the next couple days.) I've just been staring at all this so long I'm entirely unsure of whether I'm repeating myself, and so far nobody familiar with Miraculous Ladybug has answered my beta request. granted I've only asked in fandom-specific Discords so far; I suspect someone who doesn't know the fandom would simply be bewildered.

the chronology meta still has to wait until I've finished rewatching 4x06 through 5x12 and reviewed the in-character Insta posts. I am avoiding rewatching 4x06 thoroughly enough I transcribed the only episode currently available for rewatching on the French network's website—VPN to convince the site I'm in France, then retype the subtitles, which I know is missing dialogue anywhere they abbreviated for subtitle reading speed as well as any descriptions of visuals—even though I don't speak French. I don't know why I'm avoiding rewatching 4x06.

[yourlibrarian]

Yeah, that does sound like something that requires a beta fairly knowledgeable with the canon. Well one option is always to post and request in the author's notes someone's help if they find any errors.

However it does sound like it will be a valuable post for the fandom when you share it!

[atamascolily]

I imported one piece from Tumblr to AO3 with revisions: Metaphor vs. Worldbuilding in Star Wars Landscapes.

I wrote one new piece, which was inspired by a tumblr post I found while digging through my backlog: Time is an illusion, time in Star Wars canon doubly so.

Re: common fandom threads, this is very similar to an exercise I did on Tumblr a few years ago, so I'll just link to that, because my answers have not changed significantly in the intervening years.

[yourlibrarian]

I have definitely updated or even started new meta from looking at old posts too.

Haha, nothing new under the sun it seems! I thought I was coming up with that on my own but clearly I was just following a well trod path.

That's a really good essay on the topic. I particularly like your discussion about duality and the exploration of one’s soul through another world. Although you didn't mention Empire there is still that moment of Luke and the tree on Dagobah. Within the film it's a foreshadowing but it's also represented as a duality.

[atamascolily]

It's a great question, one well worth asking! That particular post is very special to me because it marked a turning point where I was able to finally articulate what and why certain things appealed to me--and then deliberately invoke those tropes and themes in my writing. Powerful stuff! I especially liked using GIFs, because it brought home a number of visual parallels I might have otherwise missed.

I also notice that I write in a more informal and relaxed tone on tumblr or DW, because I'm in "my" personal space, but I can also be more combative and prone to sweeping generalizations. Stuff I post to AO3 tends to be more formal and structured, and I tone down some of my stronger statements and aim for more objectivity and references/citations. I'm not sure how much of it is that I've changed in the intervening years and how much of it is the platform I'm using (probably some of both).

[yourlibrarian]

I'm glad you mention both these things. I have definitely discovered things through trying to write about them, and sometimes via other people's writing as well. That was a great discovery and not one everyone makes.

The issue of place is also quite relevant. For many years I only posted my more formal essays at AO3, perhaps because I was both aware of the large potential audience but also because, being an archive, I perhaps felt those were more deserving of being preserved. I'm glad now though, that I've got a lot of the more informal stuff on SquidgeWorld. There's also something about all those ideas and thoughts being collected together in a more organized fashion that I find useful to see.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Are there common threads among the fandoms you've been involved in? This could be:

* certain types of characters <<

I love fish out of water and tight friendships.

>> * particular genres or formats <<

Most of what I enjoy is science fiction or fantasy. I like a lot of animation.

>> * themes or moods <<

I enjoy hurt/comfort, but it's easier to find in fanfic than original canons. Plenty of people read Tolkien but not that many can handle the ratchet as well as he could. I tend to prefer a hopeful tone, even if the challenges are big. I hate it when the whole world is just a shithole or the characters get railroaded.

>> * stories that connect to elements in your life <<

Magic, writing, and trying to save the world all come readily to mind.

Currently I'm working on a character guide for Wednesday Addams. I started out with a few lines of notes and now have ... uh, 57 pages. Some of that is actual prose paragraphs, but a lot of it is reference links. It just keeps getting bigger because I keep thinking of more stuff. Wednesday is one of the few characters I can relate to very strongly, because I also had a daily writing custom at that age, mine was just poetry rather than fiction. Hopefully I'll manage to get it posted this month.

You can see my Wednesday series posts here, now with a list of fanfic to read.

Re: Thoughts

[yourlibrarian]

One of the things your responses made me think of is how fandom increasingly gives people a language to describe what appeals to them. I'm sure a lot of readers were aware of tropes and character archetypes in the past, but I wonder how easily most could articulate that. Whereas, especially with tagging if not things like fests that focus on specific things, I think fandom focuses on them all the time.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well, I learned some terminology from reading on my own and some from college literature classes. But fandom names things that I don't think scholars have bothered to name, because fans are looking for a somewhat different set of things.

A lot of people still can't articulate things. Hell, there are people in charge of canons that are a mythos or cycle instead of a single-author canon, but they don't understand why those things are different, so they make stupid mistakes in handling the storylines.

But it's nice that the terminology is out there for people who want it, and that fandom helps more people learn words for what they want.