Intentions, Actions, Results.

[browngirl]

[You'd never guess it from the first paragraph, but this is as much about hobbits as it is about superheroes. Really.]

I should probably keep that title for a Batfamily story. Maybe one involving Cass. (I love Cass. I'm going to have to be careful with her, though: she and Steph tempt me to write about my issues with my parents, and I must remember to temper experience well with art, because the point is to write about *them*, not about myself.) OK, I just *hugely* digressed, but this digression illustrates my point. ()

I've been in Tolkien fandom for well over a year now, and I have written about characters I intended to, as well as ones I didn't. I've written about themes I wanted to see elucidated, and ones that have surprised me. It's been a satisfying experience.

My experience with the DC Comics fandom has, so far, been different, and yet no less .satisfying.

I arrived at the Teen Titans via the cartoon (and one day I'm going to write the Slade/Robin Slade/Terra story I haven't yet seen) and I fell in love with both the current lineup and the second one. (Not so much with the first: sorry, Speedy and Aqualad and Kid Flash I) So I figured I'd write about Robin III and Superboy and Kid Flash II, right? And maybe about Starfire and Wonder Girl and Cyborg and Beast Boy?

Well, except that Robin III led me to the Batfamily (via research for my TimFinity stories, no less) and I fell in love. My fandom loves Dick, and so do I. My fandom also loves Jason, and so do I (though I haven't written about him much--- I hope to change that soon.) So while people such as (but not limited to!) girl_starfish write the sort of OT3 story I thought I'd be writing (and do better at it than I would have, and write lots of others besides) and others are writing the various couples in that threesome, I find myself writing Dick/Tim. Which pairing has other writers as well, but it's colonized my imagination.

Where does that leave the hobbits? I have so much left to say about them (Rosie waiting for Sam to return from the Havens! Frodo, Merry, and Sam settling out their intertwined relationships! Pervinca! Elanor and Frodo Gamgee coming to grips with their heritage! Annuminas and Breredon! Fire, death, and love!), and so much more playing to do in Middle-Earth, which I love. Writing in DC requires a really different narrative voice, beneath the different character voices, from writing hobbitfic, so I've been finding it a little difficult to switch back and forth. Also, I want to post at least as many Tolkien fandom stories as I do DC Comics fandom stories, and drabbles don't count. (ironically, I have several DC drabbleoids sitting on ice, waiting for a day when I need to post something.)

Also, I don't want to overload the DC fandom people with my stories. I know I'm writing a lot because of NRE, and I don't want them to get sick of me before most of them even know me. And I want to make myself make the stories sufficiently different. I still remember that on Fanfic_hate they called me repetitious, and I still remember a comment I read about writers whose stories in one fandom too closely resemble those in another. I don't intend to deserve either of those.

Even so....I have to write what's in my heart and head, and trust my friends to trust me not to leave one love for another. Right?

And I should post this before I chicken out. :)

Comments

[sharpest_rose.livejournal.com]

Having also been called repetitious (which, much like 'she writes borderline Mary-Sues out of very minor canon characters!' and 'she writes pairings for the sake of pairings!' is an insult which makes me go *blinkity* and say 'Uh, yeah, I thought that was pretty evident, one might even say intentional on my part, but thanks for pointing it out for tedium's sake!'), all I have to say is that

- Hobbits and Robins have both been around since the thirties, so -- what with postmodernism and movieverses and the like -- I don't think you're actually going to end up against the firing-squad wall if you don't have something startling and new to say every time.

- It is a big jump from Hobbiton to Gotham, and I imagine that if I were shuttling between the two with regularity my head would probably hurt a lot. So even if you were risking death by stoning by writing a similar story in both fandoms (obviously nobody in the world of fanfic ever gets stupidly worked up over ridiculous things; I would never imply such a thing about boring cranky killjoys), the difference in character and place would make the story a very different beast. Because, like, if you just wanted to tell the same story again, why would you have switched to a different fandom to tell it?

I know I'm repeating myself a bit, but Tolkien repeated himself all the time (amputation, eagles, what's not to like?) and comics repeat themselves all the time (Batman has issues! Batman needs to trust people! Batman has trouble trusting people! Batman hurts those who love him, due to trust issues!), and the sad fact is that there will always be whiny dickheads who want to piss in other people's corn flakes. I'm sure there's some sort of universal law stating as such.

Write what you want to write, be it Dick/Tim or hobbits or whatever else. Your readers (of which I'm one, but I'm so behind that I haven't gotten through the pile and left comments in, like, ever) don't just read you because of what you write (because hey, know what? Fandom's repetitive, too. Try typing 'pleasure slave' into a star wars archive search sometime), they read you because of how you write.

I'll stop blithering now.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

*beaming, incoherent joy* Oh, wow. Thank you, a lot, for writing me. (Back and forth between Hobbiton and Gotham. Now I'm trying to decide if one would take a Supercycle or a boom tube...) *hugs you joyfully*

(And wow, yes, the pleasure slave trope is rather thriving in SW prequel fandom, isn't it?)

[danachan.livejournal.com]

Mary, I don't think I say it often enough these days, but I do love you, so. You fill my world with sparkles -- yep.

And now I think I'll stop spamming poor Ruby and go take my nap.