OTW Guest Post: Lindsay Ellis
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | OTW Guest Post: Lindsay Ellis |
| Interviewer: | Claudia Rebaza |
| Interviewee: | Lindsay Ellis |
| Date(s): | 10 July 2020 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | OTW Guest Post: Lindsay Ellis; Wayback link; archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
OTW Guest Post: Lindsay Ellis is a 2020 interview done as part of a series. See OTW Guest Post.
Some Topics Discussed
- Fandom and fannish activities
- Fan and academic analysis
- Fair use and copyright takedowns
- Organization for Transformative Works
Some Excerpts
How did you first find out about fandom and fanworks?
The year was 2001. I was a rather apathetic atheist in high school in South Tennessee, and I had several classmates who made trying to save my soul into an extracurricular activity. Between my sophomore and junior year, a local youth group paid for me to go on a trip with them to New York for a week of soul-saving fun. I did not find Jesus on that trip, but I did find the Original Broadway Recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera at the now-defunct Virgin Megastore in Times Square. As soon as I got home, I spent the rest of the summer reading Phantom fanfiction, (or, “Phanfiction” har har). The rest was history.
How did you hear about the OTW and what do you see its role as?
I remember first hearing about it as an advocacy group that came about in the late 2000’s, and at the time AO3 was invite-only. I had left public-facing fandom because of my online video job by the time AO3 was a bit more open, so I never established much of a presence there, but currently I see it as an advocacy group for better understanding of transformative works, fair use and fandom’s place within it, as well as a high quality website where people can host their own works. I suppose my current biggest connection to OTW is losing a Hugo Award to you guys. I’m not salty about that, though. I’m fine. Really.
What fandom things have inspired you the most?
I feel like in fandom there’s something for everyone, and it’s often where I’ve found the most interesting and reliable communities. The truth is, getting a start in fanfiction during and after college is the only reason I decided to become a novelist. Having fanfiction as my playground was what made me realize that this was something I was even capable of doing, and through that I began to develop the tools that would eventually lead me to getting published. Took a couple decades, but I got there eventually.