Fanfic documentary and other stuff

[selenay]

First order of business, BBC Radio 4 did a short (thirty minute) thing on fanfic and it didn't make me want to stab someone. Go that researcher! Take a listen on the iPlayer if you're interested. And feel free to chastise me in comments if you hated it, everyone feels differently about these things.

After the terrible articles in mainstream newspapers lately (one in the Guardian make me highly stabbity because so much of it was just wrong), it's nice to see a mainstream article that doesn't make us sound like a bunch of depraved lunatics.

It's even got Ika sounding very academic and brilliant! Note to self: book plane tickets for Redemption this week. No kidding around, get those plane tickets bought.

Mum went back to England on Saturday night and I've been reveling in my lovely empty house. It's so awesome! I'd got so used to enduring Mum's need to talk over breakfast that I'd forgotten how beautiful a quiet, no talking breakfast could be. Getting out to work has been so much easier as well without the talking and the necessity of sacrificing valuable eating and coffee drinking time to respond to Mum's questions. Much as I love my mother, I also love it when I get a nice long break from her.

As I'm now entering the frantic writing point in my year due to seasonal fics and Yuletide (I've got one big standalone and two Damage Limitation fics planned in addition to Yuletide, although the standalone is nearly done), not having Mum here is particularly handy. If I want to spend two hours madly typing after supper, I don't need to justify it or get interrupted constantly because she's got stuff she needs to talk to me about. I got so much done yesterday evening it's unreal.

Long may this continue!

At some stage this week I need to sit down and start writing lists of what needs doing when to be ready for Christmas. Mostly it's figuring out timelines for the mince pie production line :-D

Comments

[jhava.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link to the BBC Radio 4 segment on fanfic. I quite enjoyed it and thought it was reasonably balanced -- and great interviewees!

I still don't think the rest of the world knows how *good* fanfic can be. These days most fanfic that I read (being a bit selective about what I choose) is better than most commercial works out there. :).

[selenay]

I quite enjoyed it and thought it was reasonably balanced -- and great interviewees!

Yup! They got a really good mix and the interviewees knew their stuff due to being involved :-D

These days most fanfic that I read (being a bit selective about what I choose) is better than most commercial works out there. :).

Even trying to be selective, I find some really bad stuff. But when the fanfic is really good it's definitely as good as some of the best pro work. It's why I get irritated when people dismiss fanfic as entirely worthless. There's brilliant stuff out there if you know how/where to look.

[davidbrider.livejournal.com]

I think it helps that Naomi is a bit of a fangirl. But yes, I enjoyed the documentary, although I was less than enamoured of that writing group guy who seemed pretty dismissive of fanfic's quality.

What was the Guardian article? I know, I'll probably regret asking...

You're going to be at Redemption? Yay!

[selenay]

Naomi being part of the community definitely helped! There's always going to be people dismissing the quality of fic out there and I agree that there is a large percentage of terrible stuff. But the same can be said of pro work and when fanfic is good it's very, very good. The problem can be finding the really good stuff, which is possibly one of the sources of the dismissal.

The Guardian article was a few months ago and it induced me to such levels of rage that I deleted the bookmark :-( It was filled with errors as well as being badly written, which is what induced the rage.

I'm going to be at Redemption! Yay! Just got to get those plane tickets sorted...

[nic]

You're describing all of the wonderful benefits of living alone. Most of my former roommates have driven me nuts the way your mum did you!

[selenay]

I'm kind of impressed with myself for making it through six months without killing her. I really do love living alone.

It's not something my Mum really understands :-(

Still, I've got seven glorious months of solo living now! :-D