Hello!
So, I wanted to talk about fandoms today. This is something I don’t see many “serious” authors indulge in. It’s a big deal among authors of fan fic, for obvious reasons, but there seems to be an attitude that people who write original works in their own worlds shouldn’t, I dunno, indulge in playing make believe in the worlds of others? I’m not saying this because I *agree* with that attitude, mind you. Just that it seems to be a thing.
To be clear upfront; I do not write fanfic. This is mainly (maybe entirely) because I have too many ideas for my own world and just don’t feel like I have time to indulge in writing things I can’t try to sell for money or that don’t at least further the goal of getting this stuff out of my head and onto the page. I also don’t generally *read* fanfic, and that’s primarily because I’m intimidated by the sheer volume of what’s out there, quite frankly. Again with the limited time and all. So just clarifying that I’m not really part of the fanfic community, from either side, but that I nonetheless think it’s a seriously awesome thing. 🙂
Anyway, while I don’t read or write fanfic, I am nonetheless a die hard follower of multiple fandoms. Like, super hard. My three big ones are The Magicians (primarily the show, but the books are good too), Shadowhunters (primarily the books, but the show is OK too) and Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts (strictly the books in the case of Harry; I just can’t get into the movies, though I’m quite the Daniel Radcliffe fan in general.)
I love my fandoms. I get a lot of joy from them, as well as a sense of community. I’m sure a lot of people consider me too old for such silliness, but frankly I feel sorry for people who believe we have to limit ourselves that way. Assuming there’s an age at which you’re too old for fun and creativity must be a terrible way to live.
For a long time, I really did think my fandoms were just fun indulgences. Not in a bad way, mind you, but I did see them as just fun. And I dig *deep* into these things. I’ve mentioned before that I have a long commute to work. It’s an hour in the morning, usually longer than that in the evening. And I have a desk job that allows me to have earbuds in for much of my workday, too. I don’t have a ton of time for what I call “eye reading,” but I’ve been a devourer of audiobooks since long before they were trendy. I had an Audible account long before you probably ever heard of Audible. (When my Audible account was new, you literally had to download the book files and *burn them to CDs* I did tell you I’m old lol!)
Anyway, my point is, I have lots of time for audiobooks, and I tend to listen to them over and over and over. Re-listens are especially useful at work, when I have to have half my brain on work while the other half listens. Many of my friends are Harry Potter fans, serious ones, but I’m the one who can quote from the books verbatim, and tell you who said what, in which book, and where they were standing at the time.
I’m not *quite* as good as that with Shadowhunters, but there are way more of those books! I’ve listened to all of them books multiple times as well, right up to and including the newest which, at the time of this writing, is The Red Scrolls of Magic. Listened to that twice in the first week it was out.
And The Magicians? I’m currently on my 3rd trip through the books (round one was an eye-read, the next 2 audio,) and I have no idea how many times I’ve seen the episodes. I don’t delete episodes from my DVR until I’ve pre-ordered the DVDs. I also have all four seasons purchased from Amazon streaming so I can carry the downloads around with me on my phone. (I might occasionally watch those at my desk at work, too, but don’t tell anybody! 😉 ) Every season, the number of times I watch an episode before the next week increases.
And in case you’re familiar with this show, I am every bit as unhappy with the season 4 finale as the rest of the outraged internet, but I’m not giving up on my favorite show ever because of it. I’m giving them a chance to win my trust back in season 5, and even if they don’t they’ve given us 3 3/4 seasons of the most amazing writing I’ve ever seen.
Which brings me to the point I really wanted to make here. I’ve often said to friends “I treat my fandoms like PhD programs.” I didn’t realize until recently, however, just how accurate that was. Because I’ve come to realize how much I’ve learned about building my own fictional world and plotting out stories in it by diving deep into these other worlds. The fact that these worlds and stories go deep enough for me to be *able* to treat them like PhD programs has shown me how deep a *really good* fictional world can go. I used to think I was kind of on the crazy side with how deeply I knew my own characters and fictional world, but now I know better.
Something I’ve done a little of, but plan to do in much more depth, is to go through The Magicians episodes and reverse-engineer episode-by-episode outlines, so I can really see how things are laid out. Every time I watch the first episode of Season 1 I’m amazed by how much they fit into that one episode. Literally every time, by the time it ends I think “Oh, I must have lost track and let two episodes play!” But nope, just episode one. Sometimes then I think “Oh, was episode one a 2-hour?” Nope, standard 43 minutes after commercials are removed. I still don’t know how they did it. And I intend to figure it out.
I have no desire to write for TV, but I have to admit that format is extremely appealing to me. Not the teleplay/visual aspect, but the concept of a season-wide plot broken down into multiple short episodes with their own story-level plots. That was actually my original plan for the 9-book series I’m working on right now, but the books decided they wanted to snowball on me when I started outlining. I have another series I’ll be starting after I get book 1 of the 9 books done, and that one really *will* follow that format, and I’m super excited about it!
Expect to hear a lot about my favorite fandoms on this blog. It won’t always be so writerly-relevant. Sometimes I’ll be showing off pictures of my latest craft project, or gushing about the latest installment in a series, or sharing my outage when someone does something like what they did in the Magicians season 4 finale that I’m not going to say here just in case you’ve never watched it and this post has made you curious.
The three I listed are my *main* ones, but there are others. I’m sure they’ll make appearances from time to time as well. I’m not much for writing formal book reviews, but I’ll talk about them. And movies, tv shows, whatever. I’m a fangirl through and through—glad to have you along for the ride!
~Sara