snowflake challenge #5

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Challenge #5:
Talk about what has improved in your life thanks to fandom.

Where to even begin? I don't know if I can say in so many words exactly what fandom has improved in my life, but it definitely has. It's exposed me to so much more than I would've ever seen or experienced, having grown up a little sheltered. It allowed me to connect with all types of people that I may have gotten a chance to interact with otherwise and those interactions, big and small, brightened my life.

I also learned skills I wouldn't have thought to. Being in fandom and writing fanfic made me a better writer, thanks to practice, and I got to learn more graphic skills, which has made things more fun. It's also given me a sense of comfort, knowing that even if I can't always give it my all or have to back off for a while, it will still be there, even if it may look a little different than when I left it.

These are the kind of questions that always leave me blanking out so I will leave it short and simple by saying that I don't know exactly how it has improved my life. It just has. I'm grateful to still be around and have a chance to be apart of it.

Comments

[kitarella_imagines]

Writing a lot definitely improves our style doesn't it. I look back at some old fics of mine and think, OMG what was I thinking? What did I mean by that? What terrible dialogue. etc. 😅

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It really does! And I can totally relate to cringing when reading my old fanfiction. At least it's proof that we've gotten better. :D

[kitarella_imagines]

Yes it's great to feel good about our improving style isn't it. I've often re-edited my old fics because some parts don't make sense.

The no. 1 thing that bugs me about fics is when writers don't start a new line for each new person who speaks or acts. Then I don't know who is saying and doing what and it gets confusing.

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It does. Sometimes, growth is so gradual that you don't really feel or realize it but it's nice to have visual proof. I get that. I think did that once when an older fic was bothering me, with characterization.

Yeah, I am not a fan when it's all clumped together either. That, and when people don't know how to punctuate dialogue. It is just too distracting.

[kitarella_imagines]

That is a good point- we can look back on our collection of fics and see our progress. That's probably a major reason I like putting them on AO3 or SW- it's like my library. I'm a bit of an obsessive re-editor, I go back every so often and make a few changes. Like chiselling at a sculpture.

Yes, things that make us stop and re-read paragraphs to work out what is going on, are not good are they 😕

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There's something comforting about having tangible proof like that, even if you do never go back to look at where you began. And yes, I can get that. Haha well, that's what the edit function is there for. I only use it if I find a typo but I can understand the temptation.

Nope. I know we all start somewhere, but there are just too many fanfics out there and not enough time for me to wade through the ones I need a little extra patience for.

[kitarella_imagines]

Yes it's like 'I made this.' And if the worst came to the worst, we could download the PDFs or whatever, like our bookshelf. I obviously have copies of all my fics in Word but the downloaded ones would be like actual books. I think you can download them onto Kindle as well.

That's a good and bad thing isn't it- there's a wide choice of fics, but also there are so many that some of the best fics don't get read. And there's definitely no time for wading through badly written ones, even if the story is brilliant.

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For sure, it is always good to have backups. I don't know about the kindle aspect but I wouldn't be surprised if you can do that there too.

True, there's something for almost everyone at least! And popularity doesn't always quality and vice versa but it really depends what people are drawn to. Unfortunately true. I sometimes am really intrigued by the plot but I just can't bring myself to scroll through it.

[kitarella_imagines]

yes I think there's an option to download in a Kindle-friendly version.

There's a fic I'm bracing myself to read because it's a Choose Your Own Adventure, and I know some of the options are sad/ violent so I can't bring myself to read it, although I want to compliment the author. I'll get there in the end 😅

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Now that you mention it, I have heard people downloading fics to Kindle in the past. I just didn't remember.

Well, good luck! Those are pretty cool, but you don't have to pressure yourself to read all the options. That's why there are choices.

[kitarella_imagines]

Good point about the choices. I know some of the paths are awful, but some are cute. Maybe I'll stick to the nice, cute ones 😅

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That's a good idea! Fanfic is supposed to be fun and if you don't enjoy the darker themes, there's no need to force yourself. I'm sure the author isn't expecting everyone to read all of them anyway. :)

[kitarella_imagines]

So what I did was quickly read the awful paths because I was curious, then rush to find the cute, nice paths where the characters end up in love and married 💞

It is a great story though, I left a lovely comment for the clever author, I hope they return some time to read it.

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I get the temptation to just find out, even if you know you won't like it. Sounds like your plan worked out!

That's good you enjoyed it. And I am sure the author will appreciate the feedback.

[kitarella_imagines]

It did work out, thanks. I just got a reply to a comment I wrote one year ago, so hopefully the Choose Your Own Adventure author will return soon too😊

[svgurl]

Good! I know from experience what it is like to get backed up on replying to comments so hopefully they come back too. :)

[kitarella_imagines]

Hopefully! 😊