(no subject)

[author_by_night]

 I was posting this to tumblr, and thought some of you might be able to relate. 

It's interesting to me that people can move so quickly from one fandom to the next. Especially when it comes to fanworks.

I was in my last active fandom for seventeen years. I wrote for other fandoms here and there during that time, and a little bit after, but nothing really stuck the way that fandom did. Then I got into my current fandom in 2021, which I still write for, although not with the same frequency.

I still read and write the occasional fic for various shows and books, but I haven't really been grabbed by anything to the same extent as I was the last two fandoms. I do think I may have gotten into one fandom, were it not for the fact that some ship ugliness ensued right around the time I was finally getting into it. That unfortunately killed my interest in even touching said fandom, which is actually a shame. I may give it a second chance, thinking about it.

With regards to my last two fandoms, I do think it helped that in both cases, I started out just wanting more. I wanted future speculation, backstory, then branched out into AUs and the like. I'm not sure I've felt that strongly about the other fandoms I've tried  getting into. But I don't think that's all of it. I'm just not sure what else it is.

What about you guys? Do any of you also have long lapses between consuming/creating transformative works for particular fandoms? Do any of you stick to fandoms for a long time? What gets you into transformative works in the first place?

(I'm trying to distinguish between being in a fandom and creating transformative works - in my case, fanfic - because you can be in a fandom without creating transformative works. I worry I now sound very pretentious. I just don't know how else to word it.)
 

Comments

[sholio]

I've kind of done the reverse. I used to jump fandoms rapidly - I'd stay in a fandom for a few months, maybe a year, write everything I was interested in writing for it, and then feel my enthusiasm waning as something new came on the horizon.

Then I started getting into fandoms of longer duration - two years, three years. And then I started getting into fandoms that I just never really left. At the moment, my longest-running fandom has been going on since 2015, and while it's not my main thing, I just requested it in a currently running exchange and I could definitely still write for it. And there also are some book fandoms that I've been dipping in and out of since the 90s, though more in a passively consuming way (but active flare-ups of urge to read and write fic happen to me now and then).

I would say there are two big things that get me to crave fic, either reading it or writing it myself:

- Having something in the canon that feels incomplete, broken, or just so sad that I want a do-over. So I either want to fix it myself, or read someone else's take on fixing it.
- A character relationship that I'm dying to have more of, usually in the form of h/c.

You can get both in the same canon, but they're also somewhat separable. Sometimes I just want more of certain character relationships when the canon itself is perfectly fine, especially in an open canon. The reverse is less common - wanting to fix/explore canon when there's not a particular relationship that I'm dying to have more of - but it does happen; I'd say Torchwood was one of the uncommon examples where it's got #1 (wanting to fix/explore canon) but it doesn't really have #2 (a relationship that trampled all over my id).

Those are the ones where I'm not that likely to stick around - I'll fix whatever I need to fix, or explore whatever parts of the world I'm interested in, and then move on to something that hits me in a more emotionally compelling way.

But with the emotionally resonant ones, I do need to keep the emotions high, so new installments of canon or new fic (mine or others) or simply refreshing myself on my favorite parts of canon are needed to keep me feeling things for those characters. I think this is at least part of why I tended to move on so quickly in my early fandom days, because I hadn't yet learned techniques for keeping myself emotionally engaged, especially in closed canons, after the initial surge of high-running fandom feelings starts to fade.

[majoukoufu]

I have about three durations of being "in" a fandom, and no way to tell which something is going to be until it gets there:

- 2 weeks to half a year after I finish it, it plummets out of my brain. It probably felt like a long-runner before that, and then it just turned out not to be.

- 6 months to 2 years, and then it quietly fades. Esp. the things that persisted as my main fandom for over a year are likely to stick around as a long-term boomerang fandom that can come back for another 2-weeks-to-6-months of intensity sometimes.

- over 2 years of consistent main fandom = sorry, this is just a permanent fixture of my brain now! I may occasionally need to deliberately avoid something in this tier for a little while so as not to burn out on it, but for the most part it's always there. I look for fanworks regularly, though I'll only have one or two fave fandoms for drawing myself at any given time. Ask me "what would your OTP do if..." and I'll be sorting through this fandom drawer in my mind even if I haven't touched some of the canons in a long time. I don't have a lot of these, but once something gets here it does not leave.

I wish I knew what tended to sort things into a particular bucket, but I don't. Shipping is what gets me into a fandom at all, though - even if I like gen relationships in the canon and even if I'm up for talking about a lot of other things, I won't actively look for fanworks or people to talk with if I don't have a (probably very non-canon) OTP too.

[mxcatmoon]

I average around one fandom per decade. I have to be creative about it to consider it a major interest, have to be reading and writing as that's part of the whole experience for me. I do also have what I call 'side fandoms' where I will be peripherally involved, but it takes a lot to grab me enough for me to immerse myself in the experience - and it doesn't happen often.

I used to be almost entirely a one-fandom fan, but then I was away for a while and when I returned, my last one was old and dead and nothing new grabbed me. I became more multi-fandom after all, and now I write a bit for different shows, mostly old stuff. I never give up on something I love, so I still occasionally write for shows I was into ages ago. Luckily recently (over a year ago!) I got into a current show that grabbed me.

Definitely wanting to know more and explore things the canon doesn't is a big draw. There's a show I love to death... but it's so good that I honestly can't think of anything to write for it, even though I'd like to!

[caramarie]

I feel like, for fandoms I've come to as an adult at least, if I'm seriously into them then I never really drop out. (Although I'm like you where I have other more 'occasional' fandoms that I don't expect to return to in the same way.) My main fandom is one I have been into for over ten years, and I was gonna say I've had long lapses where I don't produce anything for it, but when I look back, those periods were months not years :p But ones I'm less active in, I still wouldn't be surprised to write/vid something new after a long gap.

I think it takes me longer to 'warm up' to a fandom than a lot of people, in a creative sense. Like I have to percolate on it a while. I'm mostly driven by having particular character dynamics that I'm really into, so that dynamic will be the thing I want more of. And maybe the fandoms I'm less involved in are ones that I might enjoy, but don't have that dynamic for me to become obsessed by.

[axolotls]

The fandoms are in are basically my special interests and hyperfixations (special interests are hyperfixations but I use both terms for myself in slightly different ways), so the length of time I spend on them tends to depend on what my brain wants to be focusing on. Special interest fandoms, I'm usually in for years, often 5+, but during that period, I get briefer hyperfixations that I focus on in parallel (could be two weeks, could be months, and there are a few that are recurring so I get really into them for a period every now and then), but the special interest fandom is always there. There was one time where I had two at once for a few years (MLP and Doctor Who, helped by the many crossovers!), that was fun. I also struggle to relate to people who jump from main interest to main interest so frequently!

[author_by_night]

It might come down to differences in why you write fic. It seems like we're very similar in that we become hyperfixated on a media, so we want to live in that world as long as it's with us, which may be 5+ years. Whereas some people might love that media, but their drive for fanfic is fixing it in some way or exploring a particular ship. Which would make it much easier to move on rather quickly. And like you, I've had those brief obsessions as well.

It's always nice when there are lots of crossovers. :) I find that can also be a way of discovering new hyperfixations! Or media, at least.

[axolotls]

Interesting idea! I don't quite know why my brain latches onto things, aside from interesting character dynamics being a driving factor (but then, my interest in MLP ended up drifting more and more towards OCs, I think because my favourite aspect of it is the world), but it's definitely true that I have a greater drive to create for it when it feels somehow incomplete (and even more so when there's room to insert scenes and events! Nothing like a timeskip within which to explore a new status quo!).

[badwrongmrss]

hey! i dont think you sound pretentious at all, this is also a distinction i tend to make for myself since i like a lot of art and fic for things but i dont consider myself "in the fandom" if im not making works (usually fic and fanart) for it.

and yes! i do experience long gaps between things that really grab me in a way that inspires me to create. my longest fandom that i float away from and come back to, is naruto (not really boruto anymore). for naruto its because the world is so big and some of the characters could use more thought, fleshing out, etc and thats a space that fanfic and fanart can fill. there are a lot of threads to pull that can be really fun! a person can also make any dynamic work (well nearly any dynamic) which makes things really fun imo (obviously not counting all the hate, arguing, etc but i ignore that). so i keep coming back, mostly in the form of fanart. tho in truth i spend a lot of time thinking about a next gen au.

im in the mcu/marvel comics fandom, tho ive been away for a while. but thats mostly cause the ppl in the fandom have been getting on my nerves so it had stopped being fun for me in a while. but, much like naruto, i like that it world is big and expansive and that people can look at one side character or someone who didnt get much air time in the mcu, and people can make many different dynamics work. i dont mind mixing mcu and comic canon together tho i prefer people be explicit about it so i know what im getting into. but its another big sandbox to play in!

another long fandom is star wars tho its been hard the last few years but i cant escape! star wars is very similar to naruto in a lot of ways and i think, when i get into creating for fandoms, i like big expansive ones, where you can dig in to side characters, and even have the crackiest crackships. but i think i also like a lot of potential for alternate universe potential as well.

but i also think (from looking at my two longest fandoms) i think i like things with gaps in them and leave me wanting more, but in a...sad way. maybe not so much with the mcu (well maybe lately but whatever). when things feel complete or when i feel...completely satisfied with something, either the whole story or even a certain dynamic, i dont feel much inspiration or desire to create. i may think about it a lot, or write one off post, or a meta or two, but that doesnt push to create things. the sense of completeness doesnt leave a lot of room for me, i feel. it doesnt push me to anything. tho sometimes things feel too complex and i dont feel like i can adequately write or draw things even if i want to create things. i feel that way with the recent arcane/league of legends show. i want to make something for it one day but not right now.

i do tend to check out fanfic when something catches my interest. not in terms of reading, but i scroll ao3 just to see whats out there. and i reblog/share fanart when i think its cool/pretty/etc but its all pretty up in the air.

[tarlanx]

I'm one of those multi-fandom writers/creators but although I do create works in lots of different fandoms I tend to have ONE fandom at a time that sends me diving head first into AO3, Tumblr etc to read and check out art/vids etc. Anything I can find.

Sometimes that feeling will stay for years and I'll write quite a few stories, sometimes only a few months but I never leave those fandoms behind completely even once I have a new obsession. I still go back to them and re-watch favorite episodes/scenes/movies/fanfic... or add to those fandoms.

Sometimes I find myself coasting with no particular obsession and wondering if I'll ever get that same excited feeling again only for a new (to me) show to suddenly fill that void. I love that feeling :)

[gibbles]

Omg yes, when you get into something and you're like, "this is the best thing ON EARTH and nothing else will EVER BE BETTER THAN THIS" so when interest starts to wane it feels like you'll never find anything else again. And then suddenly you find the next best thing on earth that nothing will ever be better than lol. If nothing else it really makes me appreciate how many amazing things there are out there that people have made.

(My most surprising switch was being in the Black Sails fandom for a while, which is just genuinely an amazing piece of television, and feeling like there would never be anything else as interesting. And then getting Special Interest Cupid's arrow in the back of my head about Spongebob on Broadway, of all things lol. You just never know!)

[tarlanx]

I find I am often late to a fandom, finding it when everyone else's OMG! is waning :) That has good and bad... good as it means there are so many wonderful fanworks for me to discover and bad because, as a writer, I have no idea if the stories in my head are already 'out there'. If there is so much to read already then I find it hard to add my own 'voice' to the fandom... if that makes sense!

Black Sails was excellent from start to end! I loved the back story too, of James|Flint and Thomas, given such a satisfying ending in seeing them reunited.

Yeah... Black Sails to Spongebob... that is some switch :D

[yourlibrarian]

I remember when I first got into online fandom it surprised me how many fannish butterflies there were. I was basically a 1 fandom person for a number of years, and then became a 2 fannish person when the first canon ended.

While I feel fannish about a number of fandoms now, I have to say I haven't been part of a fandom since those early days. I think part of it is just the briefness of a lot of canon and the quantity of new stuff coming along all the time. It makes it difficult for a lot of things to keep going like discussions, meta, fanon, etc.

I have actually not been reading fanfic lately. I'm sure I will continue to do so but I feel really over a lot of the typical topics for works and the focus on ships. I mostly want to read to spend more time with characters in a more group, gen sort of way, and a focus on friendship or plots. And there tends to be a lot less of that written and often not easy to find because it doesn't tend to get recced.

[author_by_night]

Yeah, I agree. The fandom I'm in had a mixture of "group" fics with focus on plots, but as it's gotten much smaller, there's less of that. In general, I don't really care for romance as the main plot. It's funny, I actually LOVE romantic pairings in and of themselves, but I don't really enjoy smut or pure fluff, and I also prefer when other characters are present, if there's room for it.

In any case, that does make it hard for me to get into fic for new fandoms as well. I'm sure people do write the things I want to read, they're just harder to find.

I was nervous going into a new fandom too. Not so much my first fandom, maybe because I was younger?

It bothers me that gen rarely gets recced, honestly, as well as rarepairs. I've noticed it in a few fandoms.

[yourlibrarian]

I think another factor may be fests and exchanges. They tend to center on or produce a lot of shipfic, whereas some of the more open ones tend to focus on shorter stories or even drabbles. So there's content out there, but it doesn't tend to be long and plotty. I do often see people reccing stuff from a recent fest, which is great in general but not helpful to me in particular.

[givemeyourhonor]

It really depends. My current fandom I've been in for about four to five years (been creating fanworks for it about as long.)

The previous fandom I was in for a long time, but I ended up only creating one work for it and ended up dropping it because I got tired of the canon. I didn't produce fanworks for a few years after dropping that fandom.

I tend to stick around with one main canon for a long time. I'll enjoy other fandoms casually, but if I find a nice home fandom I'll stick around, especially if it's on going.

[author_by_night]

I tend to stick around with one main canon for a long time. I'll enjoy other fandoms casually, but if I find a nice home fandom I'll stick around, especially if it's on going.

Sounds somewhat familiar!

[givemeyourhonor]

I think it's probably the most common way to enjoy fandom yeah.

[arcanetrivia]

I had a long gap where I thought I likely was never going to write fanfic again after the last one I wrote for Harry Potter in 2011. (Although I was still meaningfully in the fandom for several years, and lingered with one or two fingers in the pie for quite some time after that, but I digress.) It was a little more than ten years before I got into Monkey Island and suddenly had words coming out of me again. In between that I had gotten into Doctor Who in the autumn of 2014, but never felt confident enough to try to write any fic. Part of that was that I really fell hard for David Tennant, and of course by 2014-2015, he'd been off the show for quite some time, so I missed the boat somewhat. Certainly I was never going to attempt any fic for the classic Doctors. I read a lot of stuff and collected a lot of fanart, but in a way I was never as deep into DW as I was into Harry Potter, and I've kind of reached a point where I don't have enough energy to keep caring about it that much when it doesn't seem to emerge from me organically (although I still like it). In a sort of spin-off from becoming a DT fangirl, I got into a little-known show of his from the mid-90s called Takin' Over the Asylum, for BBC Scotland. So even less likely I was ever going to write fic there as there was NO way I could get it right, lol. Again I have read fic and collected art, and did some other things like rec lists and still track the related tags on Tumblr, but by now have reached a point where I'm a pretty casual fan rather than obsessed. Monkey Island rather took me by surprise when it happened, especially since I had played some of the games before back in 2013 and they didn't really leave an impression on me at the time. (I am old enough to have played OG Secret and Revenge in the early 1990s, but didn't.) So I wasn't expecting to really get struck with a fever when I picked up new-to-me Curse of Monkey island that one day. And now here I am with, if not a word count surpassing my entire oeuvre of Harry Potter (yet), at least a number of fics that has equalled it and is still growing.

The common element in all of these is that the thing that spurs me to actually get really into a fandom, rather than just sort of skimming it, is falling ass over teakettle in love with a specific character. So while I read occasional Star Trek and LotR fic plus a handful of other things, the four things I've really dug into were because of Severus Snape, Ten, Campbell Bain, and Guybrush Threepwood. I get devoted to the blorbo and tend to stick around for a long time, even in the absence of much active fandom. I can get hit quickly by surprise and fall fast, but it doesn't happen in rapid cycling, I guess is what I mean. I'm devoted like a puppy 🤣

[author_by_night]

. (Although I was still meaningfully in the fandom for several years, and lingered with one or two fingers in the pie for quite some time after that, but I digress.

Same here.

. I get devoted to the blorbo and tend to stick around for a long time, even in the absence of much active fandom. I can get hit quickly by surprise and fall fast, but it doesn't happen in rapid cycling, I guess is what I mean. I'm devoted like a puppy

Interesting! I like that.

[fabrisse]

I started my fanfic journey with Buffy and started writing because I was hearing entire conversations among characters in my head. In those days of lists, challenges would come along and I would try to write to the challenge. This helped me much later with Yuletide.

Other fandoms, and I generally stay with them a couple of years, come along when a movie, show, or other medium is pretty good but missing something. If the movie, show, book, etc., is perfect, I tend not to read or write fanfiction in it. It doesn't need anything more. It's perfect.

If it's terrible, I tend not to want to pursue anything further because it's terrible, and I have no interest in pursuing it further.

But the pretty good which encompassed early Smallville, the Stargate series, Sherlock (for reading, not writing), X-Men (same as Sherlock), Kingsman, etc. have sweet spot where you can improve the flaws. There might be a relationship that isn't sufficiently explored, or possibilities for outside looking in stories, or just something that niggles at me until I start hearing the characters talk to me. Kingsman has a series of over 200,000 words that began with "well, what happened to this organization after the disaster of Valentine's rage waves?" I ended up with backstory for some characters, but mostly this is an 'after the end' story that just kept going. The first story was begun 23 February 2015, and the most recent story was completed 30 November 2023.

Yuletide and other exchanges are a different animal. The key there is to try to fulfill the request perfectly. I never succeed, but I've written some excellent stories for Yuletide. And some, meh stories, too. But I'm always aiming to fulfill the request.

[author_by_night]

I started my fanfic journey with Buffy and started writing because I was hearing entire conversations among characters in my head.

I love when that happens.


I started my fanfic journey with Buffy and started writing because I was hearing entire conversations among characters in my head. In those days of lists, challenges would come along and I would try to write to the challenge.

Ooh, right! That does make it easier.

. Kingsman has a series of over 200,000 words that began with "well, what happened to this organization after the disaster of Valentine's rage waves?" I ended up with backstory for some characters, but mostly this is an 'after the end' story that just kept going.

That makes sense. I love "after the end" stories.


Yuletide and other exchanges are a different animal. The key there is to try to fulfill the request perfectly. I never succeed, but I've written some excellent stories for Yuletide. And some, meh stories, too. But I'm always aiming to fulfill the request.

I've never done Yuletide, but I find it can be challenging to fulfill a request perfectly. Everyone has different ideas. I'm actually doing a fest now where the idea is to write something you think the other person would like, rather than filling a specific prompt. (It's a small enough fandom/exchange that that's doable. This would not work with something like Yuletide. We all know each other.)

[bannedbookweek]

I used to jump from fandom to fandom but with the one I'm in now, I feel very stubborn and tired. There was the rush of hyperfixation when I got into it back in 2021 which has since faded (which is normal and fine.) But now that I'm at a point where I know a lot more, I feel comfortable and don't want to go anywhere. It's because I'm getting old I think lol 34 now and I just don't want to move on. I want to stay with my old stuff, revisit older fandoms. I don't really want to move on, just can't put the effort in. Happy to let my current fandom lie fallow for a bit and give it a rest but I don't want to leave it, in my own little corner with my own little chair.

[author_by_night]

Happy to let my current fandom lie fallow for a bit and give it a rest but I don't want to leave it, in my own little corner with my own little chair.

I know that feeling.

[gibbles]

For quite a while my brain would completely dump old fandoms when I got into new stuff, which is always very frustrating when I have WIPs or fandom-specific friends. But as I get older things are blending into each other a bit more. Even if I have a new "main" fandom I talk about a lot, I still circle back around to the last couple interests sometimes. But overall I am the sort of person who has a new fandom every year or so, my brain just latches onto things and I can't let go lol. It's starting to be more like 2~3 years now, which is a bit frustrating considering it feels like the online fandom spaces I'm in have shorter and shorter life cycles? So it's hard to continue to engage in it with other people :( (hence trying to get started on dreamwidth)

It's also hard to measure my involvement since 1. I'm dealing with overall life burnout, and my creative output more or less flatlined and is only now starting to poke its head out of the dirt again, 2. It's gotten so much harder to find people I want to engage in fandom with! I'm like, am I out of touch with where fandom has moved, or have I just become tired with most fandom spaces being full of teenagers? Or both??

I am hoping that my making a conscious effort to find fandom spaces that are slower burning and more thoughtful will help me enjoy the fandom headspace I get myself stuck in, even if it doesn't necessarily stick around any longer :P

[author_by_night]

. It's gotten so much harder to find people I want to engage in fandom with! I'm like, am I out of touch with where fandom has moved, or have I just become tired with most fandom spaces being full of teenagers? Or both??

I think that can be part of it? My fandom is completely absent on LJ/DW, but it actually had a fairly large Ao3 and tumblr presence for a long time. Actually, it still does. It skews older, so even though it's on tumblr, it's not teens. I'd say most of us are in our 30's-50's. So you don't have as many teens.

So it's hard to continue to engage in it with other people :( (

I hear you. I had that problem, actually. My current fandom was pretty big for about 3-4 years, and that's really not much time, especially if you get into it a little later (which I did). I remember following a lot of people on tumblr, but almost as soon as I did, they had new fandoms.