I've been a busy girl lately. This essay is from the AMAZING author,
dreaming_in_black_and_white, and it's on her experiences in the Twilight Fandom.
One year ago, I was still blissfully ignorant of the existence of Twilight fanfiction. I knew fanfiction itself existed, of course – thanks to the insistence of a friend who managed to somehow come across a Teletubby fic and was highly amused by the antics of Tinky Winky – but I never took it seriously.
One year ago, I had nonetheless started my own story using Stephenie Meyer's characters. Clichéd as it may sound, I'd had an idea in a dream which continued to plague me for several weeks before I finally gave in and decided to write it down. Naturally, as I was supposed to be revising for a number of fairly important exams, I had plenty of time. (Note: Do not try this yourself. Fanfiction as revision doesn't work terribly well.)
When I eventually did discover that I wasn't alone in hearing Bella and Edward's voices in my head, I still didn't quite understand just how big a fanbase the series had. Honestly, if I had, I don't know if I'd have ever plucked up the courage to take the plunge of publishing my first chapter. One year on, I'm immeasurably grateful that I did.
Beside an obscene amount of American slang, innuendo, and probably far too much about Robert Pattinson, I've genuinely learnt an amazingly wide range of things which would never have come up otherwise. To a girl who never fangirled over anything – who didn't even know 'fangirl' was a word, much less a verb – I couldn't have anticipated the depth of an online community brought together by shared love of a book. The site I personally stalk is Twilighted – the sense of community is staggering, the amount of talent awe-inspiring, and the people I met there absolutely amazing. It took me about an hour to log off the first time I really talked to anyone on there, being half-afraid that they wouldn't remember me the next time I logged in. I was, of course, completely wrong, and several months down the line...
Yes, they know enough about me for my parents to be utterly horrified if they knew. They know things about me my best school-friends don't. There's a reason for that, besides their obvious awesomeness. One of the things which finally drew me out of my shell and into the fanfiction community was the lure of anonymity – of being able to be myself without actually having to face anyone. I'm shy. (Cue laughter from anyone I've spoken to on Twilighted...) But seriously, being able to interact with new people, without any interference of sometimes overbearing Real Life friends, without the prejudice of what you look like or what you wear...it's something you really can't do anywhere but the internet, and I think I picked one of the best places. Everybody I've met is just brilliant and it's opened my eyes to people and cultures I'd otherwise have had no contact with. Age and nationality have absolutely no bearing in the fandom, and it's so refreshing.
I think I realised I was obsessed about the time I hit several hundred posts on the forums and was genuinely excited about it. My suspicions were confirmed when something happened at school and my first reaction was that I had to go and rant about it in the General Complaint Box. Then there was the online gathering on Christmas day when we'd all had enough of 'spending time with the family'... Obviously, I'm not the person to talk to about maintaining any sort of balance between fandom and real life. Do as I say, not what I do. I'm a hypocrite.
I honestly think that joining a fandom is something which every teen should do at some point. School life is actually fairly sheltered – mine more than most perhaps – and there are so many things which lessons in a classroom really can't teach you. On Twilighted I've had conversations about everything from grammar issues and cooking to Heroes and shoes; my taste in music has been exponentially widened, and there have been shoulders to metaphorically sob on. Any question you have may be answered by anyone ranging from fourteen to forty, advice from people who seem to have done and seen everything – or if they don't they've got some pretty good advice about it anyway. Even better, you don't have to worry about it getting back to your parents or that girl at school you don't like and would tease you mercilessly about it. I may be biased, but it's pretty great.
For those lurkers who feel they're too nervous to take that first step? Whether it's posting your first story, introducing yourself to a website of total strangers, or even leaving your first review on a story – just do it. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? Someone might leave you an angry message or call you a loser for spending time talking about a book? I haven't met one of those yet. Instead, the first to talk to me were parawhore and Quirkyalice, and now I've got a whole bunch of other 'virtual' friends – who are only virtual because I've never met them.
I can't really think of anything more to say. If this article had a theme or any continuous thread of thought at all, please let me know. I think that the gist of it was that fandom life is fun...don't start a story when you're supposed to be revising...and make sure you leave enough time to do your schoolwork around fandom life. Speaking of which, I'll be off to finish my history essay now.
dreaming_in_black_and_white is a fan fiction author who has written one full length story, and several more one-shots. If she is found on the Twilight forums (her name over there is dreaming), please tell her that she has A-Level exams in a week or so.
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