News for the day

[aadler]

 
I went out running again today. My time was target plus 11:15 (which was actually the time I reported yesterday, but I was wrong and I’ve corrected it). So, I’ve cut 28 seconds, which is good but nowhere near good enough. At that rate it would take me more than three weeks to get up to speed, and I need to do better than that. On the bright side, I’ve dropped a few pounds as well; I need to lose another seven before time for the APFT, and I’m on track for that.

***

I’ve posted end notes here for my first-ever fic, “Point of Focus”. I’ll be doing that for other stories as the mood strikes me.

***

My daughter sroni, from whom I’ve heard next to nothing since she moved to Ireland, posted on Facebook the other day that her laptop had deleted the files for the stories she’d been working on, including the back-ups. I have a really bad feeling that this means she’s lost the most pertinent work on the segments she still owes me for our joint story “Reversible Error”. I seriously want to finish that one — my own segments were completed by November of last year — and I seriously don’t like the thought of another several months’ delay.

***

The original owner of the pit bull my wife ‘rescued’ thinks she might be in a position soon to take him back. That’s good. Not so good? her idea of ‘soon’ is something like three months. He’s a sweetie, but we have to lock up the other dogs whenever we leave the house (because we don’t want them to die the way the cats did), and I’d really like to get that put behind us.

***

I can’t keep writing Buffyfic forever; five or six years ago, I wondered how much longer I could continue to care that much about a show which had been canceled years before. I’m still getting ideas, though, and I still love the writing. The audience seems to be dwindling, however, or maybe I’ve just fallen outside the ‘mainstream’; my last fic garnered practically no notice, and I don’t think my story quality has fallen off that far that fast. Originally I wrote purely for my own enjoyment, and I’m still far more concerned with pleasing myself than anyone else. Still, it was nice to have feedback, and if I have to do without that, I’ll miss it.

***

Done for now, I guess.

Comments

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Everyone keeps saying the fandom is dwindling (probably true) or dying (probably not true), but I think many of us are hanging in there. I think there are fewer places to post fic, and many of the award sites have gone away (which is where I first read something of yours and why I recognized the name), so readers may have to work harder to find stuff. And so many people hate the comics that they aren't providing the new readers that the show would have added every season.

There's no question that numbers have gone way down, though. Sad, but true and inevitable I guess. *sigh*

[aadler]

I don’t doubt that the fandom is dwindling. Those same years ago, I wondered if the reduction would actually improve the quality of fanfic: as the 13-year-old trend-followers fell away, and only the dedicated remained, might that remainder produce more focused, better-constructed fic?

Maybe that’s happened to some extent. But, as you noted, the venues have also shrunk (and, perhaps, altered as well). Nearly half of my mutual LJ friends — most of whom I friended because of a shared interest in Buffy fandom — haven’t posted anything in the past two years, more for some of them …

I’ve let myself fall off. I got lazy. I need to be habitually reading the stories nominated (and winning) at the various award sites; I used to do that all the time, and told myself I’d got too busy to check up on new names. And, honestly, so much of the new stuff is dedicated to slash and kink and other sub-categories that utterly uninterest me. If I want to stay part of what’s going on, though, apart from continuing to write and post, I have to actually involve myself.

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

*nods* I do think there are fewer 13-yr-olds posting fic now. And there are some very good writers who are fairly new (to me, anyway). However, even some of the new ones, who made me so happy because they were good, seem have drifted away to other fandoms. I think the pairings are hanging in there (although also in lower numbers), but (as far as I know) you write more gen fic which probably has fewer hardcore fans?

And yes, slash sometimes seems to be taking over fandom (all fandoms!). I've noticed that on my flist. I find myself sliding past much of the fic posted in comms because it's all slash or kink of one sort or another.

On the plus side, I'm getting more RL reading done and making a dent in the pile of books on my nightstand. :)

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed as all get out that you can increase stamina and drop weight at that rate. since I passed 40 it's been much slower going on both fronts for me.

I'm sorry sroni lost her stories. I know first hand what a terrible thing that can be. Even when you rewrite you know you're not remembering it all.

The Buffy fandom has died down considerably. Many have wandered off to more current fandoms and a lot of those who remain only focus on certain ships or authors. While I still read Buffyfic I had told all the stories I had for the fandom. I never have read the comics, and from what I hear I don't want to.

[aadler]

The first big wake-up call for me, I think, was Doctor Who, the sudden interest in the new Who by so many people who used to be solid Buffy fans. (Supernatural started earlier, but didn’t make itself so obtrusive at the beginning.) Now everything seems to be Avengers-focused … and, damn, it’s all character-exploration stuff, with next to no action. (Showing the downtime of the members of a fighting team is legitimate in itself, but they are a fighting team, and you’d really think more of the fic about them would follow that out.)

I don’t think Buffy’s gone away; the fandom is smaller, but still active. It seems to have drifted away from me, though, and I kinda need to do something about that.

I’ll agree that the so-called ‘canonical’ Season 8 doesn’t seem to have done much for revitalization. Apparently the people who still love Buffy, don’t much care for the comic-book attempt at continuing her story. I still follow it, but I stopped binding myself to it as canon years ago.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

As a very long time fan of the Doctor I can't help being a little pleased that Who fandom has picked up so much. I'm really enjoying the writing on the revitalized series and the fact that the current showrunner (Stephen Moffat) is a writer I like a great deal doesn't hurt.

Most fanfic writers, in my admittedly limited experience, write what they feel was lacking in canon. For instance, Xander fans tend to write stories with Xander as a competent main character as we often feel we got very little of that in canon. One of my favorite fandoms (Stargate) likes to explore the fallout of situations as the show tended to have great action but lacked the emotional follow through on major events. All this to merely say that Avengers fic writers are probably very satisfied with the action/fighting they get in canon and are putting their energy into the little explored downtime aspect.

You are very right that Buffy hasn't gone away, but it has definitely gotten smaller.