Read Only Fandoms?

[krait]

Today I've been reading a lot of fic in a number of my favourite tiny fandoms, and being bunnied for the most ridiculous things (Valdemar fic? Why do I suddenly have a bunny for Valdemar fic?!), and traipsing in and out of Yuletide archives both old and new, and I noticed a trend: These small fandoms are fandoms where I yearn for more fic, but am convinced that I absolutely cannot write it. I need it, but I just can't produce! It seems unfair from both ends -- as a reader, and as a writer. Alas.

Does anyone else have this problem? I propose we call these Read Only Fandoms. :D What are yours? (All mine seem to be both small and book-based; anyone have a large or media-based ROF?)

Comments

[parhelion]

Is it bizarre of me to note I have the exact reverse problem? All my read only fandoms are well-known ones.

I mean, Leverage, for example. I should be well-equipped to write in that fandom (US popular culture! Snappy! Plotty! Capers!) and yet I can't get a word onto paper. Sherlock, and White Collar: the same story. It is to weep.

"It is to weep" is an oddly accurate summary of my reaction!

[krait]

Actually...? I guess Harry Potter sort of counts for me. I produced perhaps three drabbles, now lost to the mists of journal-change and time. I read voraciously in that fandom, and I have reams of fic starts in a document on my hard drive, but none of it ever got finished and I never wrote anything that anyone will remember (I can't even remember how many drabbles there were, just that it was a tiny number)!

Really, Loveless is the only fandom I've produced actual fiction for, and I don't know how "well-known" or large Loveless should really be considered; I hung out in such a small, selective part of it. (Parts where I wouldn't be faced with fics presenting Seimei as a sane and sympathetic human being.)

Re: "It is to weep" is an oddly accurate summary of my reaction!

[parhelion]

Yeah, Nero Wolfe isn't exactly a huge fandom, either. It's almost as if, when a whole bunch of other fans are writing, my subconscious thinks my efforts aren't needed. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a freeloader.

[feuervogel]

All of them ;) I don't write much fanfic anymore.

[krait]

Huh.

Is that because your novel has taken over your energy? :D Or just not feeling the fannish love, regardless of novel?

And what about when you were active -- did you still have fandoms where you just couldn't get your head around the idea of writing for them?

[feuervogel]

Well, I started out in Gundam Wing a dozen years ago, and I've written some Tekken and Last Exile fic, and occasional prompt-meme fics for ATLA, Macross, and FF 10 & 12, but writing elaborate fanfic isn't something I've ever really done. (I mostly wrote short things, vignettes, etc.) But I love reading other people's well-plotted Bujold fic, and the occasional Harry Potter.

I don't know; I just don't feel involved in fandom qua fandom, if that makes sense? I don't feel moved to write fanfic outside certain circumstances, and I find it hard to elucidate what those exactly are.

[krait]

Haha, wow, Gundam Wing? That's where I started out!

Can I ask what pairing(s)? If any? :D I started out a 2x5 fangirl, but pretty quickly ended up a 6x13 fan -- unfortunately, since there's so little of it. D: (There's even less when you discount all the 6x5x13, which I can't stand.) Bah.

well-plotted Bujold fic

Ooooh! Have you read that Aral/Cordelia/Jole series by, uh, hangonaminute, Dira? And Philomytha's awesome fic with Simon's POV? And the awesome WIP where Cordelia stays on Beta, and refugee!Aral shows up at her door? And...

You know what? I should probably make a post for all this. :D Project for tomorrow: acquired!

[feuervogel]

6x2! I have a Thing for long hair ;)

Dira has an Aral/Cordelia/Jole? I missed that! I read the stuff that gets linked in the comms :) And anything by Philomytha, because I love her Cordelia.

I think what makes me want to fic something is whether the canon feels incomplete. Weiss Kreuz, for example, is such crap, but the characters are fun to play with, and Tekken is a fighting game, so there's a little bit of canon and a whole lot of wiggle room to get Jin and Hwoarang into bed.

[krait]

Those two really do win the Pretty Hair contest, don't they? :D

Dira has an Aral/Cordelia/Jole?

Yes, she does! A long one! Enjoy! :D

what makes me want to fic something is whether the canon feels incomplete.

I think that's a big part of it! Look at how even Harry Potter fandom tapered off (okay, the Snape-focused section I was in, anyway) as the canon became more constrictive...

Weiss Kreuz! One day I will watch that. I have known about it forever, but never managed to lay hands on the actual series, despite my fangirl love for it. I discovered it via fic written by someone I started reading for, uh, probably Gundam Wing. (That happens to me a lot!) I adore Youji. :D He is so pretty!

Don't know Tekken, but Final Fantasy 12 has lots of unexplained backstories my brain wants to fill in. Or at least it does now, at the stage of the game I'm at... I'm completely addicted to Balthier+Fran (or Balthier/Fran) how-they-met-and-became-partners stories!