Finding my People (and Trying to Fit In!)

     For the past month, I have been focusing on the "Experience" branch of my thesis project. This part of my research is meant to be case study of my own involvement in certain fandoms.
     By participating/ writing in certain fandoms, I hope to gain insight into the experience of  possibly writing with a beta/ writing collaboratively; I want to learn more about how reader feedback and response affects a writer and their writing process; and I want to personally experience the process of writing a novel/ fan fiction with reader feedback and response.

     I am writing an AU (Alternate Universe) fic, which means that I am using existing characters and their personalities, but I am writing something that exists outside of the canon universe. In order to get a real sense of how reader feedback affects process, I have decided to publish chapters as I write them. At this time, I have no real direction of where this story may lead; I have no outline or plan. I also published on two fanfiction sites in order to compare response. On December 1, I published the first two chapters of Stay the Course here, and on December 6, I also published the same two chapters here.

Here is what I learned so far:

• You have to find your people. Once you find your people, you are afforded a potentially large audience, possible feedback, advice, and encouragement. But first you have to find your people. In order for this to happen,  some exploration and experimentation may be necessary.

     Not every fandom prefers the same site for posting/ reading fic. (Stay the Course is posted in The 100 fandom.) I knew, because I was a member of this fandom (read fics but never posted one) before I started this, that AO3 was the preferred platform for posting/ reading in this fandom. But, since I had only previously used the site to read fic, and had never posted a fic here before, I had to wait for an invite to join in order to do so. I submitted my email address and ended up waiting 6 days for an invite to join.

     The 12/01 posting was on fanfiction.net. I posted here while I waited for my invite to join Archive of Our Own. Note: there is a smaller audience for The 100 fics here. Also, guests (readers who have not made an account) can read and comment as a guest, but cannot follow (receive emailed updates about a fic).

After 7 days, here were my stats:
252 views
12 followers
1 favorite
2 reviews:

Two Reviews for Stay the Course on ff.net

     On 12/06, I posted the same two chapters on AO3.

Here were my stats after just 2 days:

 287 views
11 bookmarks (equivalent to follows on ff.net)
24 kudos (equivalent to favorites on ff.net)
3 comments

     I noticed that along with a larger audience, I also had reviews that were more constructive:

• Not knowing enough/ failing to "fit in" can affect reader response when writing for a fandom. Feeling doubt can impact writing process.

    For some reason, even though I have an interest in The 100 and The 100 fandom, I misspelled the main character's name in my fan fic.  The first time that I published (12/01 on ff.net), the character of Clarke was spelled Clark every time I wrote it. I only realized after I saw that I was getting views, but no response from readers. I immediately deleted the fic, fixed it, and republished. It was then that I got more of a response. It was a small-ish mistake, but as a first-time writer in this fandom, it made me feel like an outsider.

     My plan for the upcoming week is to continue to monitor feedback on both sites in order to collect data. I will also try to write Chapter 3.

    

 

Creating and Curating

I met with Dr. Zamora and my group last Thursday, so this week has been much more productive than the past few weeks. I always feel this renewed sense of direction and motivation after our thesis meetings.

At this past meeting, I brought up my concerns about moving forward, as I had not been producing as much as I felt was needed in order to meet my goals for this semester. Dr. Zamora and I went through my tentative outline for the project and rearranged the timeline and the order for producing the pieces for the thesis.

Instead of focusing on the research, I am now pivoting my attention toward the experience of participating in fan writing communities. The background, or introduction, part of my research will be due at the end of Winter break.

This week, I began curating my experiences with fan communities. I had previously been re-blogging thesis themed "stuff" to my personal Tumblr, but Dr. Zamora encouraged me to start a new "thesis only" Tumblr blog. This helps with organization and will allow me to more easily find what I need later. It is still a work in progress (there is a ton of stuff from my personal blog that still needs to be re-blogged to it), but my new thesis Tumblr blog can be found at: http://fanfictionandcollaboration.tumblr.com/

My second accomplishment this week has been creating a website to curate everything thesis related. I did this using Wix. It is not published yet, but when I get to that point, I will share the site info. I created a tab to store all of my fanfiction and also have a tab that links to the new Tumblr account.

Having one place to store and access a lot of my thesis components has helped motivate me to work on it. Previously, I felt that everything was all over the place and completely unorganized. And like they say: out of sight, out of mind...

Thoughts...

So, I don't have much to report.

I haven't been doing any writing towards my thesis, but I have been doing a lot of reading, thinking, and planning. After our last thesis meeting, because I was going through some personal issues, Dr. Zamora advised me to take a break from trying to produce and simply read and take notes. Now that some time has passed, I feel that I am ready to start putting more work into my thesis project.

On my agenda for the upcoming weeks:
1. Start compiling all of my sources into a Lit Review.
2. Begin to consider how my thesis will be take shape (I am thinking that I should come up with some sections/ chapters so that I can organize my thoughts and look for holes in my research).

My first and (hopefully) last despair blog...

To say that it has been a difficult week would be an understatement. I feel like I  keep being hit with one thing after another, and I can't seem to move forward or get anything done.

I would like to share that last Monday my father passed away. We did not have a typical relationship, and have been estranged for many years, so I have been sorting through some difficult emotions. I haven't been sleeping well; but for the past few days, I have been better about not thinking about it all the time.

When I met with Dr. Zamora about my thesis project last week, she advised that I concentrate on gathering information and reading, and to save the writing/ proposal development for later. I agree. So I spent some time this past week looking into possible sources, printing articles, and highlighting.

I was feeling more optimistic about making progress, but yesterday I was hit with more bad news (not nearly as bad, but still.. at this point, I really can't take anymore stress). The Independent Study that I needed this semester in order to meet the credit requirement for my Grad Assistantship was denied. Twice.

I don't really know what my options are at this point... It's almost October. And I already denied my student loan at the beginning of the semester. Can you even get a student loan with only 6 credits?

Anyway, I'm going to end my despair blog. I need to think about what I can do to possibly resolve this situation. And then hopefully I can get back to thinking about research.
    

Week One: New Ideas

This past summer, I thought a lot about what direction I want my thesis to take. I also thought about how all of these new ideas that I was coming up with would either harmonize or clash with the thesis concept that I came away with last semester.

I know that I definitely want to study fanfiction and fanfiction writers. Initially, my proposal leaned toward juxtaposing fanfiction with the source material that inspired it: the young adult novels that would serve as my source texts. One of the major goals of my project was to demonstrate the ways in which these fan writers are able to transform and authenticate the published stories that they write about.

Now, I am leaning more towards studying the fan writers themselves. I am interested in the ways in which collaboration occurs in these fan communities. I am also interested in how reader input influences the way that these writers write. These communities are tightly woven, and the writers and readers form relationships that I think are unique and worth studying.