What I love about fandom?- Things like
Sweet Charity and
help_haiti.
- The joy in writing our silliest stories. John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis as a Dragonrider? Sure! Coming right up.
- The help we offer each other so freely. Editing each other's work. Providing specialized info such as translation, Latin, Czech history, choreography, military details. You name it, anything you need for your writing, it's all here and available.
- The personal support in our community/ies. Offering a couch to crash on, or a pat on the shoulder after a rough day.
- The truly excellent writing out here in the cow patch hiding under a cloverleaf.
- The intelligent analysis and scholarly awareness of what we have in this subculture and in our stories. Fandom is not being discovered after the fact but is being well documented as we go.
- The online structure we've built to make these stories available: archives and online comms and rec-lists and challenges and storyfinder comms and newsletters and ... I want a 3D model of this. It's constantly evolving, taking advantage of new technology.
- The enthusiasm and responsiveness of our readership. Other writers, unless they've made it big, don't get this kind of attention and eager encouragement.
- That fandom makes it fun to write.