my fandom journey: timeline

[cimorene]

2000: Introduced to NSYNC het on Geocities/Angelfire, wrote some.

I stumbled upon nsync slash in 2001 and read as much as I could as fast as possible. When I started telling my mom, a science fiction convention regular since the 1970s, about the existence of it, she said, "Oh, you mean like people used to write about Kirk and Spock?"

"What?" I said.

She told me about Kirk/Spock zine fandom. I was like, 'I've never watched the original Star Trek before, but I have to check this out!'

2001: Reading: Popslash & Star Trek (all varieties). Writing: Star Trek and popslash.

2002: Reading: LOTR & LOTR RPS; some Harry Potter (mostly Sirius/Remus); Due South (F/K); Sentinel; Star Wars TPM. Writing: LOTR & LOTR RPS, Star Trek, a bit of Harry Potter.
2003: Reading: Stargate: SG-1; Harry/Snape and Harry/Draco; Smallville. Writing: Trek; LOTR[RPS]; HP.
2004: Reading: Pirates of the Caribbean; Good Omens; Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. Writing: Good Omens; LOTR[RPS]; Tomb Raider; Finding Nemo.
2005: Reading: Stargate: Atlantis; CSI: NY; Highlander. Writing: SGA
2006: Reading & writing: Prince of Tennis
2007: Reading: bandom; The Professionals. SGA continues. Writing: Arashi, MCR
2008: Reading: bandom; Batman/Gordon. Writing: MCR

After 2008 I have basically just been full-time writer's block, with just a handful of isolated fics - mostly for fests like Yuletide.

2009: Reading: bandom; SPN Dean/Castiel; The Devil Wears Prada; Die Hard; NCIS; Criminal Minds
2010: Reading: Adam Lambert; Sherlock; The Social Network (haha); Merlin; Star Trek AOS & RPF
2011: Reading: XMFC; early MCU fic - Barton/Coulson, Loki/Thor, +Steve/Tony in anticipation of Avengers; also SPN, Die Hard, Merlin
2012: Reading: Teen Wolf; MCU, SPN
2013: Reading: The Hobbit/LOTR; Teen Wolf
2014: Reading: Bond/Q; Homestuck
2015: Reading: Kingsman; Hannibal; Man from UNCLE (vintage); Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2016: Reading: Star Wars TFA; hockey RPF; MCU. (Writing: hockey rpf, but I never posted any.)
2017: Reading: Hockey RPF, MCU, HP, Black Sails
2018: Reading: MCU, Pacific Rim, Star Trek TOS & AOS, Venom



I've only carried repeat mentions into later years than the first year I read them a few times. Mostly the date is just the date of first appearance.

But as a multifannish reader, I do a lot of rereading and a lot of periodically revisiting old fandoms. The repeat mentions are usually meant to indicate that fandom was the main thing I was reading for a good chunk of time that year.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I first noticed your amazing Lotrips fic and enjoyed that immensely. Did I read your LOTR? Is it available anywhere? LOTR is, as they say, my Forever Fandom.

[cimorene]

I don't know if you read it, but it's all at AO3 here.

[hlagol]

Lord, but we do have a lot in common over the decades! I never did write fic, but the variety is so interesting to look at, even as predominantly a consumer.

[cimorene]

I've always been multi-fannish! I think that most of the time a new fandom started to get popular within a few degrees of acquaintance of me, I went and checked it out sooner or later... with some exceptions of course. But it's probably half or more of the new ~trendy fandoms as they appeared in the "Hot Right Now In Fandom" algorithm page (if we'd had such a page that worked reliably all that time, which we didn't).

It's super rare that I already have a primary fandom source to read with such a high fic output that I can't keep up with it! (A few blissful months early in SGA and Teen Wolf, maybe? That's probably the only times.) And if there's not that much, in the gaps I'm always alert for other sources.

[hlagol]

Yeah, the LJ/DW format (and I guess Tumblr too) does lend itself to people's secondary interests bleeding over. I always gave it a shot, though they didn't always stick (mostly I cannot get behind procedurals and law enforcement, no matter how much fandom loves it)

I love rereading, and I love Yuletide, because there are so many small old things that I still enjoy, and I like getting those little ao3 alerts.

[cimorene]

Yeah, as a reader I could happily read just Yuletides all year... but that format is really hard on writers, of course, since they have much less other fanfic to look at and much less of a community to support them, both actually and just ... psychologically... during the process.

[hlagol]

Part of my love is definitely appreciation - it seems like a tough process (and a tight schedule)

[pensnest]

Star Trek:TNG was my gateway fandom, and after I lost that one there were a few years of wandering before I (belatedly) discovered popslash, which gave me so much—friends, readers, LiveJournal, and stories to write. I'm always late to stuff, but at least in 2005 there was still quite a bit of activity in popslash, and it was so much livelier on LJ than on newsgroups.

Sadly for me, although I read in other fandoms, unless I actually write in a fandom I don't consider myself part of it unless I actually produce stories, which means that I'm now in that bereft state of not really having one at all. *woe* My reading has overlapped quite a bit with yours, though.

[cimorene]

I wouldn't say this is a list of fandoms I've been really a part of so much as a list of fannish bodies of work I've been mentally engaged in as a writer or reader (which entails exploring a large part of the body of writing, as opposed to just the occasional peek which would qualify only as dabbling, and wouldn't appear in this list).

But also, I never really feel like I'm part of a social group - psychologically, I mean. Even if I know I am, like I've paid fifteen bucks and own a tshirt.

I'll still feel I have a valid interest in the fandom's future if I've been reading and writing, though, even if I don't feel like a fully integrated member of society. And among the list of fandoms that I've only read there's some variation - the more I invest in reading and writing recommendations or meta, or the more familiar I am with the fandom's communities and informal discourse, the more connected I feel, even if I haven't talked back.