#my fics/me as a writer aren't that well known or popular in the fandom

[firsttraintovictoriaville]

holy shit just realized I published my 60th fic for WTTT :0 i can't believe it's been 60 fics!! definitely the most i ever wrote and published for one fandom

[olderthannetfic]

Just curious, is Astolat fine with often being brought up in these talks and arguments about AO3's reason for existing? Just as a general thing, not like "talking about her being the origin for AO3" but more the focus on her works and her as a creator-expanding towards her work as a person in fandom.

I mean, I guess if things came down to it she could just dive down and make a new account for full anonymity for her fics again, but her Astolat name will still be THE ASTOLAT". I'm just interested from a perspective of interest I guess. Not to shame, or be like "How dare you drag someone into your arguments", and I'm not trying to make it sound like that! I genuinely I'm just curious about her stance on it, and since you apparently know her in a way I thought it was a simple way to ask. I know some creators, writers, artists try to distance themselves from certain things, and people parroting that to anyone who asks, so it's interesting to see someone not seemingly have a problem with it at first glance?

--

LOL.

Dude, astolat is a fellow fan. If you want to know how she feels about things, you should ask her.

I used to go to cons further from the West Coast, including ones she went to. I know her generally, just like a hell of a lot of LJ Olds know each other generally. We aren't, like, bosom buddies or anything, and IDK where she's actually hanging out these days. Her tumblr's pretty dead most of the time.

But as for whether she minds people bringing up Thorki... why would she mind?

Astolat is a bit older than I am, so she's, what, around 50? Why would she ~distance~ herself from perfectly good fic like a craven child?

Anyone who's a fandom old used to get flamed for liking m/m and had to build spaces that deterred the haters. AO3 is one of those spaces. We would no more take "Boo hoo, fictional incest turns people into perverts!" seriously than we would any of the other accusations we've gotten over the decades.

Anonymity isn't really a thing for that kind of fandom either. Sure, many people do hide their wallet name from the internet (though at this point, astolat's wallet name is extremely well known and she has openly connected her names online a few times), but I don't mean this.

I mean that for people of the LJ era or 90s slash zine era or whathaveyou, you pick one fannish handle and you stick with it. You're the same you forever and the people around you know you even if you aren't a BNF. I've had friends of friends of friends from LJ recognize me by my old LJ icon. It's a very small world.

It's a type of fandom that discusses. To write fic anyone at all bothered to read is to be discussed. Astolat has written more fic that more people have liked over a long period of time, so she's more discussed, but it's just a question of degree.

I assume she rolls her eyes when people treat her like an alien or a celebrity instead of a more-popular peer, but I've never actually asked her.

[btr-rewatch]

hii, you mentioned you were around during the fandom's heyday, i was wondering if you had any favorite fics from back in the day you'd like to share? <3

Hello! Yes, BTR was actually my official "introduction" to online fandom when I was younger :) I spent so much time here on tumblr and fanfiction.net, which was a lot of fun because the fandom was at its biggest and most active.

Good timing with this ask, because I was actually thinking about making a post with some of the fics that were popular (or that I personally enjoyed) back when the show was on. I still have them bookmarked on my old laptop! I'll select a handful and put them under a read more.

Quick disclaimer that I cannot attest for the quality of any of these fics now. I haven't revisited most of these since I originally read them, though the main details have cemented themselves in my brain on account of my past self having read them over and over and over. Still, I don't know if my older, adult self would find them any good in regards to writing quality or the actual content.

• Ok. So, I have to start out by mentioning Laura (known as Miss Fenway), who I wrote briefly about in my BTF Fandom Lore post. When I tell you that she was the "Queen" of the fandom for the years the show ran, I'm not kidding. Everybody knew her. She churned out fanfics like it was her job. She was responsible for a lot of the headcanons that ended up being adopted by the rest of the fandom. And she wrote "Little Hollow," the 55-chapter, 160,000-word fic that had a profound effect on the fandom. Basic premise is: Logan gets cancer, and from there, everything spirals into tragedy and heartbreak. She then wrote a fic based off an alternate ending to "Little Hollow" called "Three" that absolutely destroyed my younger self when I first read it. Like. It was just too much for me.

Back in the day, Logan was the character who was tormented the most by fic writers, and nobody tormented him quite like Miss Fenway. In some of her other fics, he loses an arm in a shark attack, becomes a drug addict, gets kidnapped, is in a car accident that leaves him brain-damaged, is in a hockey accident that leaves him with amnesia, and so on.

Personally, I was partial to "All These Lives" & its sequel "September." To THIS DAY, I cannot hear either of those Chris Daughtry songs without thinking of those fics.

• If you're into AUs, "Mania" was hands-down one of my favorite BTR fics (maybe even one of my favorite fics period). It's like...an edgier version of the boys? They're a gang of sorts, formed out of necessity in order to keep their neighborhood safe from a rival gang. They carry weapons, get into fist-fights daily, and will go to the ends of the Earth to keep Katie safe. Listen. It sounds off the rails, but read it. Trust me. Even now, years later, this fic occasionally pops into my head out of nowhere because I loved it so much.

• Fics that focused on the guys as little kids were very hit or miss (and sometimes could be weird), but I've got to include two of my favorites, "The Petting Zoo" and "Trouble." They both capture the personalities of the boys so well, and I have to imagine this is a lot what they were like as kids. Chaos all the time. Idk, I thought both of these were so funny. Worth a read, in my opinion.

• Alrighty, last fic on this list is a doozy. It's called "Another Reason." This was my absolute favorite BTR fic, and it was one that I read and literally needed several days to digest because it was such an emotional ride. This is a DARK ONE, guys. It's gritty and depressing and hard to read, to the point I only ever read it once because I was never quite ready to return to it. Kendall is kidnapped and tortured for days by someone associated with Hawk (I think??) so it def treads into AU territory because it's nowhere near the lighthearted, goofy feel of the showverse rivalry between Hawk and Rocque Records. Feeling like the police aren't doing all they can to find Kendall, the remaining three boys steal Mrs. Knight's car and take off in search of Kendall.

Like I said, I haven't reread it because it was a tough read, but I remember it being well-written and rambling at length about it to a family member.

And that's where I'll leave it for now! If anyone checks any of these out, I'd love to hear thoughts (my ask box is always open). I also welcome your own fic suggestions, since I really haven't ventured back into the BTR fanfic world yet. Also, thanks to everyone who read the fic I posted the other day!

[wajjs]

Do you have any tips or advice for how to find friends or a community in DC fandom when your blorbos are less well-known characters? I’d love to start writing and interacting, but everyone else seems to already have their friend groups with lots of private in-jokes, and any discords I can find seem exclusively Batfam-focused. I’d love to start participating, but I’m never the person who anyone in fandom reaches out to or wants to have around, and I’m worried DC fandom is just going end up being lonely and miserable for me. So far I’ve tried posting a couple of writing snippets, but no one cared, which I don’t think bodes all that well. But is there anything I can do to make sure it goes better and that I actually find people to connect with?

This is kind of an unpopular opinion, but if you ask me, writing is perhaps THE LEAST successful way to get people to talk to you. Writers aren't usually popular to begin with, unless you hit the fandom jackpot and become a BNF (big name fan) via having a super super popular fic. It's simply not something that happens often.

Leaving that aside, don't be discouraged. Tumblr in general is extremely Bat - centric to the point that unrelated DC character tags are regularly spammed with annoying Batman content; I know this is disappointing and disheartening, but it's not all there is to DC comics fandom.

When I started making the transition and slowly getting more into DC, my go to step was to... openly and honestly interact with the people that seemed to be equally as open, and friendly. I would leave lots of comments on ao3, follow them on tumblr, send asks off anon, interact in the notes, tag people in tag games. Everything that I could use to make friends, I used.

We all start as newbies and "breaking in" when you notice all these groups and cliques is hard. It is really hard. It took me a long time to form the friend group I have now (my polycule 💚) and that I wouldn't give up for anything.

My best advice is that, you gotta make yourself known to others by engaging with others. Starting things out by asking people to engage with you first is only going to make things feel harder and lonelier.

There ARE smaller groups of fans that are adamant about NOT being Bat exclusive. You gotta find your niche and go at it with love and respect, of course.

(There is the issue that DC comics fandom as a whole has a bit of a problem with puritanical/anti shipping fans, and these fans are more vocal in these smaller groups. Be on the lookout for that if that's not something you like.)

[rollercoasterwords]

Yes yes yes to all of your points about jegulus and the capitalism of fandom as a whole. I find the whole thing so interesting in a mildly terrifying way lmao

One thing I’ve noticed with jegulus on TikTok that I’ve never really registered seeing with another ship (tho I could obviously be wrong, thx algorithm) is that people advertise their fics in a way I’ve not really seen before in forms of countdowns and trailers pre posting. And yes be proud of what you’ve created, I am the biggest supporter of tooting your own horn but sometimes it feels a little… off to me. Like almost like people are viewing fic writing as becoming ‘content creators’ and trying to go viral with these pieces of work in the same way that art and TikToks goes viral. And with the marauders and jegulus in particular being such a TikTok heavy fandom (as you pointed out in your essay) maybe that’s why it’s more apparent, because a lot more people interacting with this subsection of the fandom have been ‘raised’ (for lack of a better word) to view the internet as a place where the point is to go viral and become well known, so to create art for the sake of creation is an entirely alien concept. So why would you not make a trailer for your story and post it half a dozen times to TikTok?

And then pair that with jegulus having fewer works than bigger ships which means that the ‘bigger’ fics are known and read by the majority, which ultimately means that people have a better chance of going ‘viral’ if they post a story with that pairing compared to wolfstar where the competition is higher.

I’ve never really kept a track of these fics that are advertised and hyped up before chapters are posted, but I would be interested in how many are abandoned if and when the author doesn’t get a barrage of kudos and comments, and the subsequent serotonin boost with it.

Sorry this ask doesn’t really have much of a point or direction, (and I’m not even sure if it even made much sense ☠️) it’s just something I’ve been noticing with increasing frequency recently and I was wondering if you had any thoughts, as you write your points and arguments so well!!

anon i literally want to kiss u on the mouth u brought up sooooo many good points!! yes i have so so so many thoughts about this maybe i need to make a separate post bc like....ive talked so much about the way that like. people interact as readers with the like tiktok/social media/influencer mindset but ive definitely seen it crop up with people who write fanfic too. and the thing is bc there aren't really cleanly delineated boundaries between readers + writers of fanfic (like....most of the writers are also readers, and many of the readers are also writers) it definitely comes from both sides.

i think for anyone who has like. internalized this mentality that art must be validated by an audience to be worthwhile and that you can only be Seen by turning urself into content for consumption it's very easy to approach fanfiction with a mindset stuck in a consumer economy. and like. that isn't a moral failing, because we are literally all being conditioned to think of any creative pursuit as something that is only worthwhile if it can be turned into Profitable Content. but i DO think it's important to recognize when we're falling into that mindset, because fanfiction is so antithetical to it. and also just like....i don't think any of these people who are approaching fanfiction with this underlying idea that they need to curate an audience for validation will be able to find deep or lasting joy, because if your primary motivation in writing is just to get as many eyes on it as possible, then like....idk. it will never be enough. there will always be someone with a more popular story, with more people reading it.

and like. i actually mentioned this in my little tiktokification essay that escaped confinement, and i got a bunch of responses of people in the tags or reblogs going "there is NOTHING WRONG with wanting to share your work and wanting people to read it!!!" and i was like...i didn't say there was anything wrong with it?? i said if your primary motivation in creating art is just to get as many eyes on it as possible, you probably will not find lasting joy in the creation of that art. so :/

anyway now i think i want to write another essay so thank u for that anon lmao

[greyeyedmonster-18]

8 and/or 9

thank you for the ask!

8. How often do you reblog/comment on fics that you like?

so like, im a notorious non-commenter. sorry about it. i usually read on an incognito browser, so even my kudos are left as GUEST. i can count on one hand the amount of times I've actually commented on a fic and yeah that probably makes me an asshole. but here we are! usually, if i have read your fic and I've enjoyed it, I'll just hop straight into your DM's and scream at you politely and then leave.

i am more likely to reblog or rec fics here on tumblr! and i just want to say-- i am particular, i am picky. i only reblog the things that i would rec with my whole chest. and that's not to say the other things I've read that i haven't reblogged aren't enjoyable or dont have merit, but sometimes things dont...come with a glowing rec and that's okay! for me and for anyone who is there like "Grey didn't reblog my fic :(" I suck! i don't matter!

i wish i could be one of those people who just commented and reblogged and was a grand old cheerleader but i am not.

9. Tag 3 fic writers you think are underrated/unknown in the fandom/fanfiction community.

lol, im not immersed enough into the fanfic world to know....who...is well-known and popular? and who isn't? and i know you're all like bullshit, but i really couldn't tell ya.

but i will say that @dykesiriusblack is probably one of my favorites ever and deserves all the awards and accolades imaginable.

send me an ask from this game!

[disdaidal]

😈🍆🎨🧠🤩🤯

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Well, I love to write angst and torture my boys a little bit, so would that count? 😇

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what’s your most popular nsfw fic?

I do, in fact, write spicy stuff. XD I have some in the works atm. I just haven't published anything on AO3 yet. I wrote some for my old fandom, on LJ, many years ago though.

I think this Harringrove fic comes closest to the spiciest stuff I've published on ao3, but it's pretty mellow. :D

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

No one's made fanart of my stories yet. XD A couple of people have written stories of my edits, however, and it makes my heart go boom. <3

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

Should I pick a character here or? Anyway, one of my favorite (and unpopular) headcanons for Billy is that he hates reading but does well at math and physics. (Why? I've known a few guys act exactly like him and they hated reading but were good at math/chemistry/physics. A couple of them in fact bullied me at school jdjhghg. So I'm projecting here I guess?)

So, because physics and chemistry are for nerds, and being good at school is for losers, Billy's an underachiever and allows his grades to drop on purpose because he's trying to fit in with "the cool guys", and because he's desperately trying to please his piece of a shit dad who wants him to excel at sports, not in academics.

Billy's frustrated because he knows he could do better, and he knows that he could have a future in science but his low grades aren't doing him any favors. He cares too much about other people's opinions of him, and it's about to ruin his future plans.

(But of course, someone who cares about him will step up and encourage him to do better. Any character of your choice, heh.)

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

I already answered this in another ask but while I like writing Billy, I also like to headcanon stuff for Steve because we only know bits and bits about his family and childhood. I also relate to some of Eddie's problems, and I could easily picture myself projecting onto him. So writing them, along with Billy, is (going to be) a journey itself. :)

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

I think anything that requires me to do a lot of studying and planning beforehand to make it sound more realistic. For example, a few people have been requesting me to write something for my Harringrove Rich Boy x Detective AU here. But I know absolutely nothing about the American police work or how business works etc. (and yeah I know, it's fiction we can do whatever we like yadda yadda), but I'm serious. XD I just don't think I can do it (but maybe someone else can *wink wink*).

Another AU of mine, which is actually one of the first Harringrove AU plots I ever came up with, was a nurse x mental patient AU. I could honestly even write something for this and I did start writing it (because I have personal experience from this kind of thing). But because it's also a heavy subject for me and a heavy topic overall, writing it has been giving me a lot of trouble.

Also, smut? I read smut all the time. I get inspiration for that from different things. But why is writing it so goddamn hard?!?!? I don't get it. 😂

fanfic writer emoji ask

[shezzaspeare]

Pilot/Episode 1: Patching Things Up With Pastiche & Fanfiction

Hi, hello, and the wait is finally over! My name is Blessie, and welcome to the first episode webisode log installation I've decided to call these things an episode for now because why not also let me know what do you actually call these things episode of The Science of Fanfiction, where we take a closer look into our beloved works of fanon because we've all got plenty of time to spare till Season 5. Before I continue, I would like to thank everyone who's liked and reblogged the last few posts before this one. It means a lot for a small and growing Tumblr user like me, and your support is something I cherish more than my modules. You guys rock!

Anyways, like with most things, we have to talk about the boring and bland stuff before we proceed with the fun stuff. For today, we are going to settle the difference between a couple of things: first being the confusion between pastiche and fanfiction; then the distinctions between tropes, clichés, and stereotypes, which we'll tackle the next time. It's important for us to establish their true meanings in order for us to really understand what fanfiction truly is, even if it's merely just a work done for the fandom. I know – it's boring, it's something that shouldn't be expounded that much, but I believe that all forms of writing (unless it's plagiarised) is a work of art — and fanfiction is not something we always talk about. I hope that by the end of this, you'll learn about what they really are as much as I did. Let's begin to talk about the—

[Image ID: A flashback of John (left) and Sherlock (right) finding an elephant (not in the screen) in a room in The Sign of Three. End ID]

. . . I did say that this GIF will always have to make an appearance here, didn't I?

So, just as with Sherlock Holmes, all other works of fiction have their own pastiches and fanfiction, and many more original works out there have taken inspiration from them to create their own books. Although they've gained popular attention, this will not be possible if they did not have taken inspiration from the materials their writers had at the time.

[Image ID: Various actors as Dracula. Jeremy Brett in 'Dracula' (1978) (upper left), Adam Sandler in a voice role for 'Hotel Transylvania' (2012) (upper right), Gary Oldman in 'Dracula' (1992) (lower left), and Bela Lugosi in 'Dracula' (1933) (lower right). End ID]

For instance, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' (the second most adapted literary character, next to the consulting detective himself) has been portrayed on the screen over 200 times — from Gary Oldman to Adam Sandler — and has spawned off numerous books and pastiches of its own such as Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot'. Its cultural impact served as a basis of how we see vampires today, since some characteristics of the Count were made by Stoker himself. Stoker's creation is the brainchild of his predecessors and inspirations.

[Image ID: Vlad the Impaler (left) and a book cover of 'Carmilla' by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (right). End ID]

Other than the ongoing hysteria over dead back then and the existing vampire folklore, Stoker also took his inspirations from the published books on vampires he had at hand. He is said to have taken inspiration from Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian national hero known allegedly for having impalement as his favourite method of torture. He is also said to have been inspired by the J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla', a Gothic lesbian vampire novella that predates Dracula by 26 years. I could go on, but hey, we're going back to Sherlock Holmes now before I deviate any further. However, if you want to know about Dracula's literary origins, I suggest you watch Ted-ED's videos about the subject matter such as this one or this one.

Very much like Stoker, ACD didn't just conceive Holmes on his own. He took his own inspirations from what he had available at the time.

[Image ID: Dr Joseph Bell (left) and Edgar Allan Poe (right). End ID]

As we all know, ACD's biggest inspiration for Sherlock Holmes was one of his teachers at the Edinburgh University, Joseph Bell. He was famous for his powers of deduction, and he was also interested in forensic science — both characteristics which Holmes is greatly known for. He also drew inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's sleuth, C. Auguste Dupin ('The Purloined Letter' & 'Murders in Rue Morgue'). As ACD himself has said at the 1909 Poe Centennial Dinner: "Where was the detective story until Poe breathed life into it?" Some other writers he took after are Wilkie Collins, Émile Gaboriau, and Oscar Wilde.

Now, what does this say about us Sherlockians/Holmesians (depending if you're the coloniser or the one that was colonised)? Basically, ACD laid the groundwork for us with Sherlock Holmes: his humble abode 221B that he shares with his flatmate Dr. John Watson, his adventures, memoirs, return, casebook, last vow, and all that. Now that we have this material at hand, we can now make our own versions, takes, or even original stories featuring the characters of the Canon. Our inspiration comes from ACD's Sherlock Holmes, and we now get the chance to make our very own stories/conspiracy theories about them.

As I have mentioned earlier, Sherlock Holmes is the most adapted literary character in history. He has been adapted in over 200 films, more than 750 radio adaptations, a ballet, 2 musicals; and he's become a mouse, a woman, a dog, even a bloody cucumber. On top of all that are numerous pastiches and fanfics, and finally, we have arrived at the main topic of our post!

Fanfiction and pastiche are often confused together since they have three common elements: they take after the original work, they usually use the characters in that original work, and more often than not do are they set in that same time frame/period or not long after that. The common misconception is that pastiche are printed fanfiction, which is only partly true. While pastiche is definitely fanfiction in some ways and vice versa, there are fanfictions out there that aren't necessarily classified as pastiche that have been published.

Let's get on with our definition of terms to clear up the confusion a little more. Pastiche, according to Literary Terms, is:

. . . a creative work that imitates another author or genre. It’s a way of paying respect, or honor, to great works of the past. Pastiche differs from parody in that pastiche isn’t making fun of the works it imitates – however, the tone of pastiche is often humorous.

A good example of a pastiche is Sophie Hannah's 'The Monogram Murders', which is her take from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.

[Image ID: A book cover of 'The Monogram Murders' by Sophie Hannah. End ID.]

Although this was a commission from Christie's estate, it's still considered as a pastiche as:

It's takes after Christie's writing style;

It is set in the early years of Poirot's career (1929), which is still within the time frame that the author wrote him in;

It features Poirot and;

It pays respect to Christie in a sense that it stays true to her (Christie) characters and way of storytelling.

Meanwhile, our good and slightly unreliable friend Wikipedia defines fanfiction as:

. . . is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual property from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing. [It] ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel, and fans can both keep the creator's characters and settings and/or add their own. [ . . . ] [It] can be based on any fictional (and sometimes non-fictional) subject. Common bases for fanfiction include novels, movies, bands, and video games.

To avoid any copyright infringement issues if I ever use a popular fanfic in the fandom, we'll use my (unfinished and unpopular) Sherlock Wattpad fic, 'Play Pretend'. You can read it here.

[Image ID: The second self-made book cover of Blessie/shezzaspeare's 'Play Pretend'. End ID]

Why is it considered a fanfiction and not a pastiche?

It takes after an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock) which is a TV show, not the ACD canon itself;

The author (in this case myself) uses her own writing style and does not take after the original story's style;

Although it is set well in modern-day London and after Season 4, it also features scenes decades before the actual fanfic is set and outside of London;

I added a considerable number of characters, i.e. siblings to canon characters;

I had my own take some of the canon characters' personality especially after the events of Sherrinford;

It is written by a fan – myself. It is a work of fan labour and;

It is only a work of fanon, and isn't likely going to be considered by the show as its writing style is different from the actual show.

To put it simply, you can have more freedom in a fanfiction as it does not necessarily restrict you to follow or take after the original stories. Alternate universes (AUs) such as Unilock and Teenlock are perfect examples of this thing.

So can a pastiche be classified as fanfiction? Yes.

Can a fanfiction be classified as pastiche? Not all the time.

What's the difference? While yes, they share the basics, pastiche is technically leans more onto the original work's fundamental elements whereas fanfiction is a broader range of works inspired by the original work but doesn't necessarily follow all or any of its fundamental elements.

In order for us to understand it more, I'll give another example.

[Image ID: The 'Enola Holmes' title card (upper left) and Henry Cavill as its Sherlock holmes (upper right). Underneath it is a a scene from the opening titles of BBC Sherlock (lower left) and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal In Belgravia. (lower right) End ID]

Most of you are familiar with these 21st-century adaptations of Holmes: the 2020 adaptation of Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books and BBC Sherlock, which needs no further explanation – but for those who don't know, it's basically Holmes and the gang if they were alive today. I specifically chose these two as they are the ones that I believe would get my points across best. Though both are considered as wonderful pastiches with a well-rounded cast and awesome visuals, if we break them down bit by bit, we'll see which one is more of a pastiche and which one is more of a fanfic. (Yes, I know they're both screen adaptations. However, as Enola Holmes was based on the books and BBC Sherlock's fanfiction has the show's scenes written out in most fanfics, hear me out.)

They share these characteristics of a pastiche:

They feature characters from the Canon (Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, and Lestrade);

They have additional characters added by the writers (Including but not limited to Molly Hooper, Eurus Holmes, and Philip Anderson for BBC Sherlock while Enola Holmes has Lord Tewkesbury, Eudoria Holmes, and Enola herself) and;

They pay respect to the original Canon as their stories are based on the cases (BBC Sherlock) or simply what was going on around them (Enola Holmes).

They also share these characteristics of a fanfic:

They are made by enthusiasts of Sherlock Holmes (Moffat has called himself and Mark Gatiss 'Sherlock Holmes geeks', while Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books are not just one or two but six);

They follow a common trope (we'll discuss these tropes in the following episodes) that goes on in the fandom (Sherlock's Sister & Modern AU)

They are based on a fictional subject (Sherlock Holmes);

They used characters and story elements that are copyrighted by the author/author's estate (fun fact: prior to the production of Enola Holmes, the Conan Doyle Estate filed a lawsuit against Springer & Netflix over Sherlock's emotions since he was more 'sympathetic' than he was portrayed in the Canon – this was later dismissed by both parties) and;

Their writing styles don't necessarily follow ACD's.

Despite these similarities, there are very obvious differences between the two that separates them from being a pastiche and a fanfiction.

Enola Holmes embodies pastiche more as it doesn't stray far away from the original elements of the Canon. It's still set in Victorian England. While Springer added characters of her own and definitely twisted the Canon to suit her series, she didn't necessarily place them out of the social construct that was going on around the characters. It follows ACD's writing style more as Enola Holmes' setting still remains within the Canon's original setting.

Meanwhile, we can safely say that BBC Sherlock is a work of fanfiction. While it did give us The Abominable Bride, the main series focused on Holmes and Watson in 21st-century England, which is drastically different from Victorian England. There are phones, black cabs, and cellphones — things which ACD Sherlock Holmes doesn't have. It also diverted from the Canon in the characters themselves, which is mostly seen in the names: Henry Baskerville became Henry Knight, Charles Augustus Milverton became Charles Augustus Magnussen, the H in Dr Watson's name stood for Hamish and Sherlock's full name is actually William Sherlock Scott Holmes. They also changed the personalities of some Canon characters: Mary was actually an ex-assassin, Mrs Hudson was an exotic dancer who drove a kick-ass sports car, Irene Adler is a dominatrix, to name a few. Moffat and Gatiss created a world of their own featuring the characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is really what most of us fanfic writers do with Mofftiss' rendition of Holmes.

In conclusion: while pastiche and fanfiction could have been the same thing, they're actually not. There's more to them that just printed fanfiction or pastiche e-books, and we all should take some time to see and observe them in a closer perspective.

And that's it for our first episode! I hope you enjoyed it. It was a lot fun for me to write this, especially now that I'm only starting. I would also like to note that while intensive research has been done on this series, some parts of this comes from my own observation and opinion, which may vary from yours. I am very much open to criticism, as long as it is said in a polite and civil manner. I'm still young, and to be educated as I go is something that could really help me with this series.

Like and reblog this you like it. It helps out a lot. Be sure to follow me as well and the tags underneath if you want to see more of TSoF.

See you soon!

Blessie presents – The Science of Fanfiction: A Study In Sherlock (2021) • Next

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SOURCES • Pinterest, Google Images, Wikipedia, Literary Terms, Conan Doyle Estate, Definitions, The Sherlock Holmes Book, and Google

[bex-pendragon]

Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by @odakota-rose - thank you!

name: ReginaPendragon on AO3.

fandoms i write for: I'm probably best known for my OUAT stuff, but I've been dabbling in some new fandoms lately. I also wrote for HP waaaayyy back in the day, as well as Merlin and Star Trek.

two-shot: Technically my Shadow and Bone skating AU is a two-shot right now, but it's going to end up being longer. The next chapter will be about Zoya. I also wrote a short thing from Ace's POV after the Nancy Drew finale. I haven't posted it yet, but if I get any traction, it might be nice to do a response from Nancy's POV because damn, did they ever hit me in the feels!

most popular multi-chapter: Fire and Ice. This was my big contribution to the Outlaw Queen fandom. It was a hell of an undertaking, but it helped me grow a lot as a writer.

actual worst part of writing: Not knowing if I'm doing it right. Sometimes I'll write something and think it's the best thing I've ever done. Then the next day I think it's garbage. There is no in between. Wishing I could download the words directly from my brain. Envisioning the perfect scene and not being able to make it as epic on the page as it is in my head.

how you choose your titles: For fanfic, I mostly steal from song lyrics/titles, or quote something from the source material. For my original work, it's a lot harder. I try to pick a recurring theme or word and work from there.

do you outline: I've come around to the concept of outlining in the last few years, especially for my original stories. I've always been a plantser and I still consider myself one. I always know how the story ends and I make a chronological list of things that need to happen along the way. But it's a loose plan. I deliberately leave room in the plan for creativity and adjust accordingly. As long as I'm working toward the intended ending, it doesn't matter if I take a more scenic route to get there. Getting there is what matters. So I'd say my original stories are more planned these days, but my fanfics tend to be less planned.

ideas I probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: I'll probably never finish that Newtina thing I started years ago due to... reasons. Part of me is like, do it to spite the original author and her terrible opinions! But another part is like, no, leave it be. The time for this has passed. I feel guilty about leaving people hanging, though. I wrote a one-shot for them that was super popular.

I also had another figure skating AU idea after watching the Loki finale and... ok, that might still happen. The world needs more Sylvie. But does the world need more skating AUs? Probably not. That's just my weird thing.

callouts @ me:

Commas and ellipsis and m dashes as far as the eye can see

Putting the same 5 artists on every story playlist

Not enough conflict! Lack of villain motivation! Weird pacing and tangents! Too niche!

I'm terrible at writing descriptions.

best writing traits: I'm actually really good at dialogue. I often have to go back and pad out the rest of the story because it's 90% dialogue.

spicy tangential opinion(s):

Songfics should've never gone out of fashion.

Sometimes you need to write a cringe-y self-insert first in order to grow as a writer (me @ myself 12 years ago)

Genfic should be more popular

Tropes and archetypes aren't bad! It's all in how you use/combine/subvert them!

Tagging: whoever wants to do it! *side-eyes writer friends*

[olderthannetfic]

Re: /post/680262789053448192 - I'm feeling torn about this because when does OC theft not become OC theft? Like, for published creators (books, TV, comics, games, etc) - I feel like then yeah, Death of the Author and fandom do as fandom does; however, I follow a lot of artists who aren't published or anything, but might be Really Well Known For Their Art/OCs because people liked their style/fanart... and I've never seen it as bad in those circumstances when an artist asked for people not to make specific types of fanart of their OCs or complained when people used their OCs for roleplay or fanfics (i.e. from "popular artist's OC" to "The Fandom's OC")

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When the creator is perceived as a "content creator" and not a fanfic peer, generally.

I don't think there's any hard cutoff, and most of this is about the social backlash you'll face, not whether you ought to be allowed on other ethical grounds.

For me personally, the big question is whether they're on AO3 or posting in the same fannish coms on DW that the RPers and fic writers are. If they're outside of that space, they're not a fanfic peer. I don't hang out in art or RP spaces, so I don't have as strong of an opinion on what constitutes a peer there.

Whether they take money for this part of their art is another big question. Even if you don't make much, the minute you're paid, you're a pro. If they're a pro with their OCs, they can quit crying. If they have a separate pro art career under their legal name and their OCs under a pseud on DA or something, I'd see that as more of a peer situation.

Present yourself as a professional, even smalltime, like youtubers and artists seeking commissions do, and you're a content creator.

--

Now, would I care if someone "stole" my own fic OCs for another fic? Probably not. I'd be annoyed if they had an interpretation I hated that got popular, but I'd hate that with my pro work too. I don't really subscribe to this idea of theft. If they wrote something they knew I'd hate on purpose to hurt my feelings, I might be hurt or annoyed, but I don't think that has much to do with whether this is "theft".

Reposting my actual work as your own is theft. Having a crappy interpretation of my art and liking it the wrong way is just something all artists have to put up with.

I also straight up don't care about "clip theft" in vids. (Sacrilege! Sacrilege!)

[olderthannetfic]

hello. why is sorting by kudos objectively useless? it's not what i usually sort by, but it's only because i like longfics and just go by word count. but when i wanted to have an overview of the most liked fics on a tag, i sorted by kudos and it seemed to give me that back just fine. i'm just asking because i legitimately don't understand how that's useless and i am mostly unfamiliar with it, but i would like to understand.

--

IME, sorting a fandom by kudos tends to find you things like:

crossovers with a more popular fandom where the normal kudos number is way higher across the board

fics for the most popular ship (which you can already tell from the sidebar, so this is not useful info)

fic by a BNF people know from a different fandom

fics by people who self-promote well on other platforms

fics tagged with a popular trope that people will read in any fandom

fics posted a long time ago

fics by people who post regularly and perhaps regularly in the same fandom

fics that aren't so long that people download them and then forget to come back and kudos

Et cetera. It generally gets taken as a measure of popularity in the "fandom thought this was well-written" sense, but I think it's more a measure of popularity in the "this was easy to find and lots of people clicked on it" sense.

The thing is, info about what is more likely to get clicked on is something we already know. It's pretty obvious that MCU is bigger than some tiny fandom or that ship A is the juggernaut and ship B is a rarepair.

Kudos ratio isn't completely reliable either, but it comes closer to approximating what people think kudos number tells them. Out of people who clicked, what percentage of them went on to kudos?

So sorting by kudos might be useful if you're trying to answer an anthropological question about what fandom is getting up to on AO3, but in hunting for fic to read, I find it much less helpful.

Let's say I want to dip my toe into Taekook. I'm not hugely into that ship because I don't like the common fanon, so I already know most-kudosed will not be to my taste by definition. Several of the problems above won't be too bad here: BTS is a very active fandom, so MCU crossovers may not dominate the search results. I'm already looking at a specific ship, and it's the biggest in the fandom, so other juggernaut ships won't be an issue. It's a huge fandom, so a lot of the BNFs are probably known for this fandom rather than popularity from another radically changing the results, etc.

But even with many of these factors greatly reduced, I'm still going to come across a fundamental problem: the fics with tons of kudos are likely to be ones posted a long time ago (more time to accumulate kudos + got big when there was less competition) and they're more likely to be by writers who've stuck around because each new work those people post is an advertisement for their older work.

If what I want is to know the "classics" so I can talk to other fans, great. If I want to find writers with 70 other BTS fics, possibly great. If I want to find fic I personally think is the best and I don't care whether it's their only fic, this may not be so helpful.

So basically, I find kudos to be very similar to hits in terms of what they indicate. I don't find them to be very similar to recs, which is how many people treat them.