Status and Influence in Fanfic
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| Title: | Status and Influence in Fanfic |
| Creator: | Andraste |
| Date(s): | September 18, 2002 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | X-Men focused |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | "Status and Influence in Fanfic". Archived from the original on 2018-08-08. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Status and Influence in Fanfic is 2002 essay by Andraste.
Some Topics Discussed
- LiveJournal and the ability to find and influence fans
- X-Men
- fiction by Alara Rogers
- BNFs and fan status: definition and function
- fans waiting a long time for more canon turn to writing "disgusting slash" out of frustration and boredom
- Charles Xavier and the characterization of
- most comments are about X-Men characters and not so much about the essay
Excerpts from the Essay
I'm always pleasantly surprised when I find out that I've got a reputation, especially when that reputation is 'that woman who's obsessed with Charles Xavier.' I'm always flattered when people praise my grasp of the character.
This sets me to pondering the question of fan status. Most of us have some personal investment, of one variety or another, in our status within the fanfic community. Caring about your status in the community isn't the same as caring about whether people like you. There are those who seem to go out of their way to antagonise their fellow writers who still want their respect. Personally, I deal with people disliking me a lot better than I deal with a lack of respect.
Status isn't just a means of propping up a fan's ego, though - it's a means of accomplishing things. If you've got status, people will listen to what you say. This also ties into the question of how authors influence the writing of others, which is a slightly differnt process.
I've got some status in X-Men fanfic. I think this is a very good thing. Do I want people to pay attention when I talk about Charles Xavier? You bet I do. Without any false modesty whatsoever, I think I've got a very good handle on the character. I certainly know more about him than most people do, and canon is always a good place to start. Essentially, it comes down to 'if more people listened to me, there would be less bad Xavierfic in the world, and perhaps more good Xavierfic.' I would like that. All of which to say, status and influence is a means of getting good fanfic out of people, not just feedback and lj comments and other kinds of attention.
So how do we get status and influence? Often, I hear people say that you have to do particular things in a fandom in order to get people to listen - you have to go in chat, be friends with the right people, write certain types of fanfic ... In my experience, this seldom turns out to be true in all cases. Although doing the accepted thing may get people to pay attention to you faster, it can also be easier to slide into a niche that no-one's filled yet. If you're loud and talented and persistent enough, people are going to notice you sooner or later. For three years, I lurked and listened to people talk about how comic fanfiction was a clique, and all the dinos were so mean to the newbies ... and then I made my first post and strolled right in. The glass ceiling is only there if you choose to see it.
The most influential people in any given fandom tend to be those who are willing to do things - run archives or mailing lists, review stories in public or (in comic fanfic) organise big cons in Toronto. They also tend to be people who are willing to say something. There are people who get status by quietly sitting and writing brilliant fanfic (Amanda and Benway, I'm looking at you) but to do that you need to be scary good. (Just plain scary helps, too.)
You won't find legions of fanwriters imitating Alara Roger's prose style - not because there's anything wrong with, but because in nine stories out of ten its transparent and unspectacular. You'll find her characterisation everywhere. People accept her Magneto as gospel, and I had to grin when I found The Melting Man recced with a note that said 'this makes so much sense, it's hard to accept it as canon.' I felt like dropping the reviewer a note saying 'hey, why don't fight it?' :-). Alara has a trick of making characters breath - she makes it look easy, she makes it look real, she makes it look like it should be true.
The bigger a fandom is the more difficult it is to make a mark on it, of course, and sometimes people ... just don't hear you, for some reason. It's also significant, though, that people tend to seriously underestimate their own status and influence (I've read of research by psychologists that says this is true in all kinds of communities, not just fanfic.) Some people assume they have none at all. When I posted the query about people's opinions on the Holiday Fanfiction Project, I had writers decline to express what they thought because they were 'just newbies'. This kind of thinking can easily become self-destructive. If you don't talk, no-one's going to listen to you. If you want into the in crowd, better let 'em know you're there.
People also have different levels of status in different fandoms (if they're in more than one, of course.) I've got a pretty good reputation in X-Men fanfic, and some day I intend to make a name for myself in 'Farscape' circles too. In BtVS or LotR or anime or Trek (and yes, I will write Picard fic some day) by contrast, I can't really see myself caring if I have influence or not. There are plenty of good authors in those fandoms who have the right idea - Gandalf isn't written about much, but nor is he egregiously messed up even by competent authors as Charles too often is. I'm never going to read and write enough fanfic in those universes to make a serious impact. Nor do I care to. I'll write the fanfic that I have to write, and be pleased when people read it.
Then, of course, there's the question of metafandom, especially in the Age of the Journal. I know a *lot* more fans, and especially a lot more fans from genres I don't write or even read, since I've had one of these things. Status in metafandom is a whole different question, I think ... and probably one for another time.
Some Fan Comments at the Post
neva:I absolutely agree with you about the difference between an ego boost and influence. I get an ego boost every time someone leaves a review more subsantial than "This is really good; keep going!" (Even though I like those, too.) Comments on character development, demands to know what happens next, and connections to issues in real life -- things they've noticed, things they want to see -- are what make me preen. (Since you don't really write long fics, except the forthcoming Coalescence, maybe you don't know what I'm talking about with the what-happens-next thing. You'll just have to trust me on that one.)
I don't know about comic fanfic, but the authors who I think have left their mark on the Evo category are Morwen O'Connor (who originated the Scott/Lance pairing), Red Witch (grand majestrix of the humorous Brotherhood fic), InterNutter (who dominates the Kurt/Kitty ship), Myranda Wright (who wrote one of the best original-character stories in Evo history, but hasn't been heard from in at least a year), and me. (Never let it be said that I think too much of myself.)
Keep in mind that I've only searched Fanfiction.Net, but there seem to be very few anti-Xavier stories in the comic and movie sections (with the exception of "Enquiring Minds" and AU fics like "A Confession."). It's an Evolution industry only, mostly because he is barely even a character in that universe, and writers have a LOT more to work with.
You know why I started writing anti-Xavier, but I think I was the most surprised of all when it caught on. I was pretty much the first, so I knew that it would gain me status (especially if I kept at it). I even hoped that it would get a few people to think about how the things that happened in my stories might happen in canon. But influence, especially ton this degree? Never. It's still just as much a mystery to me as it is to you. (A favorite theory seems to be because writers think authority-bashing is Cool. Which makes just as much sense as anything else.)
"The bigger a fandom is the more difficult it is to make a mark on it." Bullseye. Case in point? Harry Potter. As people wait for the publication of the fifth book, they're becoming more and more inclined to just write their own endings to the saga. You cannot --absolutely CANNOT -- make a name for yourself in that category unless you do something BIG. (Unfortunately, for most people, that means farfetched and often disgusting slash.) The X-Movie is the same way, what with all the Logan/Rogue floating around.
Alara Rogers:It's hard to read Evo sometimes
Mainly *because* all the writers that feel like giving Xavier a personality at all make him evil, and Magneto, well, *is* pretty damn evil in that universe. So if you're primarily a fan of Xavier and Magneto, there's not much *to* read.
I do, however, read the works of Red Witch and I've read Gale's Toadfic, and some very angsty stuff about Lance and Pietro.
I'd be interested in knowing if there are any Evo lists; I only read it on ff.net, so I don't really have another source for it. I do also have a back-brain notion of writing a pro-Xavier fic in the universe, since Andraste can't, not having seen the show. :-) Trouble is I'm a staunch Magneto fan, and Magneto in Evo is just *so* damn irredeemable... he's not as bad as Ultimate Mags (which BTW is the only universe where anti-Xavier makes any sense to me; if you really want to write a convincing story about Xavier being a rat bastard, that's the universe to do it in), but it's hard to get much out of a guy who abandons his son to die, locks up his daughter in a mental institution, and is responsible for his second-in-command losing her child. (Literally losing, not miscarrying, but still.)