[comm] dear genex author:

Dear GenEx author,

Thank you for writing something for me! I have enjoyed this exchange for a couple of years, and I always find that it's much easier to write gen than I remember. I think that, even when I participate in shippy exchanges, a lot of my requests could be read as gen if one really wanted to. What I love in fanfiction, really, is the development of relationships and the exploration and resolution of conflict. It doesn't really matter how characters love each other, as long as they do. And I also love reading about characters who, maybe, couldn't really be said to love each other but who are important in one another's lives no less. My likes and dislikes are slightly adapted from my usual copy-paste to help them illuminate my gen-specific likes more, but you can see my other letters if, for some reason, you want to. Please take my prompts as helpful suggestions and not demands. If you have an idea, please go with it, whether or not it meets one of my prompts or not; as long as we stay away from my very short dislikes list, I'll be very happy with whatever you give me!

Dislikes: character bashing towards anybody, explicit gore, nihilism, hopeless endings (but sad is okay)

Likes: canon-typical violence, missing scenes, emotional ambiguity, friendly enemies, belligerent friendships, found families, time travel, pre-canon, post-canon, bedsharing (even nonromantic/sexy kind), loyalty, worldbuilding, epistolary/journal/log fiction, monster-of-the-week / slice of ordinary life adventures, earned second chances, dealing with consequences, "what if" / canon divergent AUs, earned happy endings, holidays, casefic, groundhog day trope, mysteries, healing, survival (wilderness, zombie apocalypse, etc.), last stands, trying against impossible odds, succeeding against impossible odds, heartfelt goodbyes, unexpected reunions, foils

( Fandom Specifics )

A Fannish Autobiography in Parts (Part 0)

This is probably the fourth or fifth time I've tried to use Dreamwidth as a personal and fannish outlet. However, none of these efforts has ever been wildly successful. I think the main reasons for this have been bad timing, lack of real thought about anything in particular to say, and the fact that I would most feel the need to come back to a place like this when I was especially hurt and depressed by another fannish outlet. None of those factors really led to a functioning journal, and now when I go to communities to be added as a friend the only thing I have to show are my feeble attempts at self-deprecating, mopey blogging and dozens and dozens of Dear Author letters.

In an attempt to remedy several issues at once, I have decided to outline and write a fandom autobiography. In doing this, I hope to reflect on the good, bad, and silly of my fannish past and its tremendous impact on my life and personal development. It will give me a core reason to come on and make posts regularly for a while, and it will also give any new friends a mix of nostalgia and information. It's a journal, so if you friend me you're hopefully looking for personal connection and something to read.

Here are the parts I hope to divide this autobiography into, subject to change as I see the need:

I. The Wonder Years (when I achieved setience-2000/2001)
II. GeoSites, because I swear that's how you say it (2002-2004?)
III. A Contributing Member of Something (2006-2009)
IV. The Smouldering of a Dying World (2010-2011)
V. Everybody is Doing It (2011-2014)
VI. Nobody is Doing Anything and Lots of Headcanon (2015)
VII. The Dark Year (2016)
VII. This is a Real Journal Now

Stay tuned for Part I.

A Fannish Autobiography: Part I

Part I: The Wonder Years

Yes, I have seen the TV show The Wonder Years. No, it was not my first fandom. I'm not quite old enough for that. I was born in 1991 to parents already in their 30s. We lived in a river valley in the Appalachian South but within two minutes of a city. We did not have cable. We had this large, cabinet-contained TV as I recall, and a bunny-ear antenna. We also had a black and white TV - my parents' first TV - that sat on top of the refrigerator which, very occasionally, picked up blurry PBS signal in addition to the big three networks we picked up in the living room. Given this situation, I didn't really get a strong saturation of a lot of whatever it was children in the early 90s watched if they had cable.

( Read more... )

A Fannish Autobiography: Part II

Part II: GeoSites, because I swear that's how you say it

When I was in third grade, several fateful things happened. The most solemn of these was that the shooting at Columbine High School happened. Between this new fear about the conditions teenagers faced in public school, my parents perception of my early-adolescent symptoms of depression, and other concerns about my education itself, my parents decided to home-school me. This had pros and cons, and to this day, I will argue with my fellow proponents of public school that home-schooling isn't all bad. When it is done by a caring, intelligent parent or individual, it can be a very rewarding experience that allows an individual child to pursue his or her own interests and strengths, academically and otherwise. I got to volunteer in the community and to participate in programs to get me around kids my age and other things like that, so I wasn't all alone. I wouldn't say that I wasn't lonely quite a bit of the time, though, and envious of my peers who got to see their friends every day. Like I said, there were pros and cons.

( Read more... )