my cousin's daughter has always had this wild misconception that i am cool. now, i'll be the first person to say how awesome i am (sometimes), but i have never been "cool." ever. i am way too practical and way too apathetic and way too antisocial to ever be cool. it is a fact that causes me no sleepless nights, let me assure you, but because of this false image she's created, she thinks that anything i do comes pre-stamped with coolness. (and by coolness, i am obviously referring to having my finger on the pulse of society's fads and always doing whatever thing is popular at the moment and nothing stereotypically nerdy or geeky or whatever. if you know me at all, you know that this is not true. you should also know that i have nothing against liking what no one else likes or liking what everyone likes, as long as you actually like it).
anyway, this summer she fell in love with glee in the way that only a fifteen year old girl that has found her first obsession can. after catching up on all the episodes and watching/reading everything the internet had to offer on the show and its cast, she found this youtube user who was basically making fanfiction in videos. (and no, not the fan made videos with a story, but actually just typing out scenes and putting them as slideshows.) but each video would only have like three sentences, and, no offense to whoever made it, they were really annoying. while she was gushing about how awesome and creative an idea it was, i mentioned that it was basically fanfiction on youtube. she had never heard of fanfiction, but after a brief description of what it was, promptly fell in love with it.
i am not ashamed to admit that i once spent hours and hours reading fanfiction. (okay, maybe i'm a little ashamed, but just a smidge.) i also spent some time writing fanfiction (even more than people thought i did). and i may have even posted fanfiction online a few times (and here is where that smidge starts to grow). and though fanfiction can be awesomely amazing, i never thought it was "cool." simply because, well... it wasn't, isn't, and probably never will be. (a fact that doesn't detract from its entertainment value in the least.)
but while i know it is uncool, she does not. she has even introduced others to it as if it is the coolest thing since that headphone jack extension that can hold two pairs of headphones. and while i love the fact that spending hours reading this stuff has significantly increased her vocabulary and given her the ability to distinguish between good and bad writing, i still find it hilarious that she thinks it's cool just because i used to do it.
(that was supposed to be a short paragraph leading into what i actually wanted to write, but it grew out of control and now i've forgotten my other point, so... i guess this is a post all about fanfiction.)
*Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) - The Offspring
anyway, this summer she fell in love with glee in the way that only a fifteen year old girl that has found her first obsession can. after catching up on all the episodes and watching/reading everything the internet had to offer on the show and its cast, she found this youtube user who was basically making fanfiction in videos. (and no, not the fan made videos with a story, but actually just typing out scenes and putting them as slideshows.) but each video would only have like three sentences, and, no offense to whoever made it, they were really annoying. while she was gushing about how awesome and creative an idea it was, i mentioned that it was basically fanfiction on youtube. she had never heard of fanfiction, but after a brief description of what it was, promptly fell in love with it.
i am not ashamed to admit that i once spent hours and hours reading fanfiction. (okay, maybe i'm a little ashamed, but just a smidge.) i also spent some time writing fanfiction (even more than people thought i did). and i may have even posted fanfiction online a few times (and here is where that smidge starts to grow). and though fanfiction can be awesomely amazing, i never thought it was "cool." simply because, well... it wasn't, isn't, and probably never will be. (a fact that doesn't detract from its entertainment value in the least.)
but while i know it is uncool, she does not. she has even introduced others to it as if it is the coolest thing since that headphone jack extension that can hold two pairs of headphones. and while i love the fact that spending hours reading this stuff has significantly increased her vocabulary and given her the ability to distinguish between good and bad writing, i still find it hilarious that she thinks it's cool just because i used to do it.
(that was supposed to be a short paragraph leading into what i actually wanted to write, but it grew out of control and now i've forgotten my other point, so... i guess this is a post all about fanfiction.)
*Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) - The Offspring
:)
ReplyDeletei spent hours as well. hours and hours and hours and hours of reading/writing. and still do. my computer has a folder of 4-10 page half-stories. recently i emailed all these to myself and started rereading them for entertainment on my iphone on the metro.
i've accepted that i will probably never stop. I'm sure of that now. and i think I am ashamed of fanfiction, sort of, but only because it consumes a part of my creativity that should make up new characters and worlds, but is just piggy-backing on someone else's brilliancy.
i go through phases of reading/writing fanfiction. i haven't even looked at any for a year, but i know i'll probably go back to it sooner or later. i honestly think writing fanfiction made me a better writer. some of the feedback i got on stuff that i posted online was pretty helpful, and when you don't have to create everything on your own, it allows you to focus more on either developing characters or structuring plot or whatever else.
Deleteif fifty shades of grey taught me anything, it was that you can take your fanfiction and publish it and make tons of money. change your character's names, take out or change the magic, and you have yourself an original novel. especially since, from what i know of, you write about characters that were not super developed in the books, and about times that were barely even touched upon. honestly i think most of your writing is completely original. you just took the first grain of inspiration from a published work.