Fannish Friday

[phantomtomato]

1. I decided to join in Write Every Day, being hosted this month by regshoe. I haven’t done one since November of last year, so I’m excited to take it on again! I’m hoping for a little more focus and building towards a single fic this time around, or at least multiple projects intended for publication. Five days deep, I think I’m starting to get excited about the project. It wasn’t working great for me for a few of them, but I think what I needed was a tense change (though, fuck, I don’t look forward to revising the stuff written earlier for tense mismatch!). Last night, after I made that decision, I started fantasizing about what I would write next—that’s usually a good sign.


2. Before that this week, I wrote my first fic just for me, not for a fandom event, since January! I really fell out of the habit after some personal and fandom stress last fall, and multifandom events were the thing that kept me writing—I love making gifts for people, and I needed inspiration for looking past my main fandom, which was causing all the heartache. Events served me well! But I’m really happy to have finally had a burst of interest in creating something without that incentive.


3. I was part of a faculty and staff reading group this term, focused on the poems of Emily Dickinson. I didn’t know anything about Dickinson or poetry, really, before this experience—nor do I feel like I know all that much now—but it was absolutely lovely to begin to see just how much there is to learn. My main takeaways are her use of imagery and her style; if you catch me ending more lines in a hanging dash —
   For our last meeting, we engaged in a very fannish bit of role-play which involved the gifting of a poem and (fake) dead bees and coconut cake made from a Dickinson recipe. She was renowned for her baking during her lifetime! I have no idea whether my colleague would define himself fannishly in this familiar way, but one of my greatest joys is witnessing that same spark that drives me to write fic or meta or seek community in someone offline, going about their own interests. This definitely delivered.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Interesting about the baking! I just finished S3 of Dickinson yesterday and one thing mentioned was how she couldn't do anything women normally did around the house. There may have been something about baking in earlier seasons but it's been too long since I've seen them to remember.

[regshoe]

Oh, good that the writing is going so well :D

I don't know Emily Dickinson at all, but I do like lines ending in a hanging dash—a good thing to pick up.