{"id":137429,"date":"2015-09-09T06:48:01","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T06:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/09\/09\/its-just-fan-fic-2\/"},"modified":"2015-09-09T06:48:01","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T06:48:01","slug":"its-just-fan-fic-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/09\/09\/its-just-fan-fic-2\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Just Fan Fic…"},"content":{"rendered":"

dsudis<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

batik96<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

hedwig-dordt<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

cleverwholigan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

itsnotgonnareaditselfpeople<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

itsnotgonnareaditselfpeople<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I got an email from a reader earlier. \u00a0The sender was a lovely young woman who had just re-read my first published fic<\/a> and wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed it\u2014how it made her feel, how it made her smile, how it made her cry, how it made her excited to get home each night and curl up in bed with it, how it helped ease the pain of a difficult patch in her life, and how much she misses it now that it\u2019s over. \u00a0It was a beautiful letter, and my reaction to it must have been visible enough to make my saner half take notice from across the room. \u00a0He shot me a questioning look, and I turned the laptop around and gestured to the screen.<\/p>\n

I followed his eyes as they scanned each line, saw his lips tip up in a smile that grew broader as he read, then braced myself for the good natured snark I\u2019ve come to expect when my little literary hobby comes up in conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow.\u201d He said. \u201cThat was kind of amazing. \u00a0How does it feel to be someone\u2019s favorite author?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be a dick,\u201d I said, slapping him on the shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m serious,\u201d he replied, gesturing to the screen. \u00a0"That\u2019s what she said\u2014right there: You\u2019re my favorite author<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she means favorite fic author. \u00a0Not real author.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a difference?\u201d He asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes<\/em>,\u201d I said, rolling my eyes. \u00a0\u201dOf course there is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause, as someone in this room who isn\u2019t ME is fond of pointing out, self published gay mystery romance novels aren\u2019t exactly eligible for the pulitzer.\u201d I said, turning the computer back around.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what?\u201d he shrugged, \u201cSomething you wrote inspired a stranger to sit down write what it meant to them and send it to you. \u00a0A lot of total strangers, as a matter of fact. \u00a0You write, people read it and react. \u00a0That makes you an author.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuh.\u201d I said, very eloquently, then got up and went into the kitchen to start dinner.<\/p>\n

Hours later, sitting down to reply to the letter in question I find myself writing this post instead. \u00a0Because here\u2019s the thing: That wonderfully crazy man who lives in my house is right<\/em>. \u00a0(But please don\u2019t tell him I said that)<\/p>\n

From the moment I realized that letters made up words and words made up sentences and sentences made up worlds that were mine to explore any time I wanted to I\u2019ve been a reader<\/em>. \u00a0I have fallen in love with perfect phrases and epic stories and countless characters pressed between the pages of the thousands of books I\u2019ve read in my life so far\u2014and sitting down to string together those same 26 letters into tens of thousands of words of stories I felt needed telling? \u00a0That makes me an\u00a0author.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have adored the work of countless authors in numerous genres, and the world of fan fic is no exception. \u00a0I have admired and cherished and savored the words of talented writers whose work is no less legitimate for the fact that their names include random keyboard characters and their words don\u2019t live on bound paper on a shelf. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not JUST fan fic. \u00a0It\u2019s literature<\/em>. \u00a0It\u2019s published. \u00a0It\u2019s read. \u00a0It\u2019s loved.<\/p>\n

It matters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to all of my favorite authors for every word on every page on every screen that I\u2019ve ever loved.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Reblog for the sweet anon who asked me if I thought fanfic was as important as \u201creal\u201d fiction. Hope this answers your question. \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

Thanks for reading my work, so happy you\u2019re enjoying In The Library<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read this. Take it to heart. REMEMBER IT.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Comments are the best<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They really are. Anything that manages to touch another person, make their life \u2013 their day, a particular minute \u2013 better is invaluable.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cLet us not desert one another; we are an injured body. \u00a0Although our
\nproductions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than
\nany other literary corporation in this world, no species of composition
\nhas been so much decried. \u2026 There seems almost a general wish of
\ndecrying the capacity and under-valuing the labour of the novelist, and
\nof slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to
\nrecommend them.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u2013Jane Austen, defending that most reviled of genres: the novel.<\/p>\n

As Joanna Russ says in How to Suppress Women\u2019s Writing<\/i>, \u201cJane Austen \u2026 worked (as some critics tend to forget) in a genre that had been dominated by women for a century and<\/i> one that was looked down upon as trash, a position that may have given her considerable artistic freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is us, now. This is fanfic. <\/p>\n

Russ also writes that \u201cwomen always write in the vernacular<\/i>. \u00a0Not
\nstrictly true, and yet it explains a lot. \u00a0It certainly explains letters
\n and diaries. \u2026 It explains why so many wrote ghost stories in the
\nnineteenth century and still write them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said before<\/a>, what is more vernacular in the 21st century than ephemeral, fannish internet porn? This is us. We are part of the long tradition of women writing and being told their writing is not real and does not matter, that the things we love and value are worthless and foolish, for so long that we even begin to believe it.<\/p>\n

Our work is real work. Our writing is real writing. Our stories matter. Our community matters. We are here, together, doing this thing. This is real life. This counts. If you write something on the internet, you write it in real life.<\/i><\/p>\n

Fanfic matters. Fanfic is literature. Fanfic is literature that breaks the bounds printing technology and capitalism once imposed on the wide distribution of the written word. Copyright law, royalties, the logistics of producing and selling paperback books, none of those can touch the heart of what a story is. None of those make your story any less a real story that can really touch another person.<\/p>\n

If anyone tries to tell you different, you can tell them Jane Austen begs to differ.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

dsudis: batik96: hedwig-dordt: cleverwholigan: itsnotgonnareaditselfpeople: itsnotgonnareaditselfpeople: I got an email from a reader earlier. \u00a0The sender was a lovely young woman who had just re-read my first published fic and wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed it\u2014how it made her feel, how it made her smile, how it made her cry, how it … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “It’s Just Fan Fic…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[247,338,4,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}