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mindcrackloveI hope you’ll forgive the pseudo-academic title; I have a tendency to go into pretentious scholar mode when presented with the opportunity to analyze something, and if there’s one thing I do best, it’s rambling way too long about things that may or may not deserve the attention. But there’s a point to this, probably.
Since taking an interest in this community and by extension, the realm of Mindcrack fanfic, I’ve become fascinated with the meta ideas surrounding its existence in relationship to the actual Mindcrackers. Until joining this community, I had never been involved in the fan fiction side of fandom, much less “real person fiction,” so this was all very new to me and I was curious to know more. “The first rule of RPF” or “the golden rule of RPF” was something I heard a lot of from members who did have experience in those realms. Basically, don’t tell celebrities (or whomever it may concern) about fan fiction involving them. Okay, fair enough. This was sort of the base line status quo that no one questioned from my impressions of it, but being the curious newbie, I wanted to know more. Why was this the number one rule above all others? Were there any exceptions to the rule? What happened if the people in question found out about it anyway? How often does this happen?
Unfortunately, initial attempts at research into the topic didn’t yield very much. It seemed the rest of fandom wasn’t as interested in these meta musings as I was. Or maybe I needed to focus my research on a specific fandom and learn from that. But RPF seemed to mainly apply to traditional celebrities, and that didn’t feel like a good comparison point to Mindcrack. After all, how much Mindcrack fanfic can apply as RPF is a topic of some debate to begin with. We try to make tenuous lines between person and persona, though these lines tend to be different depending on the person and situation and would likely be refuted by many of the Mindcrackers themselves who say they “don’t play a character.” I’ll assume you’re familiar with the arguments, because that’s not the point of my writing this. But the fact remained that being a fandom somewhere between RPF and outright fiction made Mindcrack difficult to place in the wider world of fandom.
But then I remembered. I do know of a fandom that is similar on many levels to that of Mindcrack. With that, I present: That Guy with the Glasses.
That Guy with the Glasses (or more broadly, Channel Awesome, which is the company that sponsors TGWTG and associated websites) is something that I have been following for several years now, so I was decently familiar with it to be able to readily draw some comparisons. The site is composed of several different contributors who produce internet based videos and make money from the ad revenue. The content of the videos are usually reviews of some kind, usually with a comedic slant, and each member of the site has their own area of expertise, either film or comics or video games or anime or music or anything else. And one could reasonably argue that they occupy that weird in between space of person versus persona, though this is potentially the weakest part of my comparison. In general, the producers of TGWTG and Channel Awesome maintain that they are playing a character in their videos, which puts them on the opposite end of the spectrum as the Mindcrackers, who generally maintain that they don’t play a character. However, as with Mindcrack, I’m of the opinion that this is a blurred line for many of the producers. While some producers are very gimmicky in their shows and are very clearly playing a fabricated character, many come off as more real, voicing what could reasonably be seen as honest opinions of whatever material they’re reviewing, if sometimes exaggerated for the sake of humor. Naturally it varies from reviewer to reviewer, and sometimes it even varies within a specific show. I could write a whole other essay about where the person ends and the character begins for many of them, but again, that’s not the main point here.
And most importantly for my purposes, they have a fandom. Oh yes, they’ve got LJ groups and kink memes and their own fanfic recs page on TV Tropes. They even have their own version of fandom secrets. It’s perfect.
I wanted to start my main discussion here with the thing that first alerted me to the existence of the TGWTG fandom, and the first thing I thought of that made it a compelling comparison point when it comes to how internet based video producers relate to their fans. It was something called Live Action Fanfic.
Live. Action. Fanfic. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
Yes, sometime in 2011, some producers found some fanfic involving them, got together, and acted it out. This is either bewildering, hilarious, or mortifying depending on which side of the equation you’re on. The first example of Live Action Fanfic was clearly done for amusement purposes. The fic chosen for this treatment was poorly written with many misspellings that were preserved in the narration, complete with over-the-top interpretations from the actors (e.g., trying to act out “starring” instead of “staring”).
About a year later, Live Action Fanfic returned with a new installment. Like the previous one, the chosen fic was shippy in nature, though the writing this time was free of mistakes, and the acting was played surprisingly straight (well, more so than the previous one). The fic was originally posted anonymously as part of the kink meme, and though the author was rather mortified at finding out it was made real, other posters in the fandom were congratulating her for getting the two characters involved cuddling in a bed.
I have come across one more example of Live Action Fanfic, which was filmed independently of the people behind the first two by Kyle Kallgren/“Oancitizen,” who chose a fic that had a decidedly surreal tone much different from the shippy ones filmed by Lindsay. This is actually appropriate given Oancitizen’s billing as the guy who reviews pretentious art house films. In the opening text of the video, Kyle has this to say: “To answer some questions you will no doubt ask… 1) Yes, this is real. 2) Yes, this is kind of a ‘thing.’ 3) Yeah, I’m surprisingly okay with it.”
In another example of Channel Awesome producers being aware of their fandom, there was another series called “Masterpiece Fanfic Theater” that actually predates the Live Action Fanfic by quite a long time, though it had flown under my radar while the series was running. It features Bennett the Sage sitting in a chair reading “the very best in the very worst of fan fiction,” with the occasional snide comment in text overlay or cuts to visual accompaniment. Sometimes the fic is related to TGWTG and sometimes not. I’m not going to go through the entire archives, but I have identified at least three episodes that involve TGWTG producers. Of those, only one heavily features Bennett himself, which he facetiously lauded as being the greatest story ever written. The other two were quite slashy, and as such, garnered quite different reactions. The first, which was the very first episode of the series, featured a rather explicit slash fic that was generally regarded as troll fic within the fandom, and the comments on the episode were unsurprisingly filled with disgust. The most interesting example, titled “TGWTG Slashy Extravaganza,” is a 40 minute reading of a fairly elaborate story that, yes, occasionally features some non-explicit slashy bits. What I love about this one is that the story is, I thought, quite well written, and the comments alternate between automatic rejection of the fic and actually being interested in it save for “the gay parts.” I think the best part may be the author of the fic, who goes by “aunt_zelda” (whose name I’ve come across many times in my research of the fandom, so she’s a prominent member of that community, and she reminds me a lot of us in her level of fangirl-ism from my stalking of her LJ) responding to many of the comments about her writing and discussing the double standards in the reactions to male on male pairings versus female on female pairings.
What do we make of all this? What does this have to do with Mindcrack? When am I going to get to the damnland point? My reasoning is this: being a group of internet savvy video producers with quite a healthy fanbase, the contributors of TGWTG are about as similar as you can get to the Mindcrackers, and the state of their fandom and the way the producers regard and interact with the ficcy parts of their fanbase may give us insight into how we may be viewed by the Mindcrackers and the rest of the community as popularity and exposure increases. We may be a mostly underground community that no one really talks about for now, but we’ve already had a few instances where wider scale exposure was possible. Not just for us as a community, but the wider realm of Mindcrack fan fiction. Pause has at one point mentioned seeing a pony crossover fic involving him. A couple Mindcrackers have directly responded to the mindcrack_love reddit account. Several other Mindcrackers responded to the thread linking the Baj/Pyro shippy fanfic. We have received explicit approval from MC Gamer himself. Whatever rules exist to not tell these people about fanfic involving them, they’re finding out about it anyway, one way or another.
And I don’t think it’s a big deal.
I don’t think it’s a big deal for us because it doesn’t seem to be a big deal on TGWTG. Of the examples I have given of producers’ interactions with fanfic, what can we conclude? One way or another, they discovered the phenomenon of fan fiction about them and were amused enough to dedicate their own time making videos about it. Granted, the underlying attitudes toward the fanfic involved may be a mixed bag: at worst, it’s a mockery; at best, a celebration. But at no point do I believe the producers of Channel Awesome wish any ill will toward the fanfic writers, nor think that this particular form of fan expression should not exist. Some are even kind of supportive of it.
Before I go on, I have to tell you about the Matilda commentary, because it’s awesome when the topic of fanfic comes up in normal videos. A few months ago, Lindsay Ellis as the “Nostalgia Chick” and Mara Wilson (yes, that Mara Wilson. It’s a long story, but she’s friends with people at TGWTG, though not directly affiliated) did a joint review of Matilda. In the ensuing commentary of this review, they joke near the beginning that they should watch what they say because there’s going to be slash fic about them because of this. Near the middle of the video, the topic comes up again when Mara says she can’t wait for the day she publishes something and people write slash fic about it, going further to say that any fic about her would “be hilarious.” Lindsay eventually brings up the That Guy with the Glasses fic community, saying that “There was a very odd moment in my life when you first kinda realize people are writing slash fanfic about me and my college roommate.” I think Lindsay’s one of the most aware of the fanficcy side of the internet (she was directly involved in making two of the Live Action Fanfic videos), and she seems pretty accepting that this is a thing that happens. She even said it was “like gravity” that people just write this stuff without invitation.
In a meta (?) example, in an episode of Doug Walker’s show Demo Reel, which is probably the most obviously fictional series on the site due to it having a traditional story structure instead of the typical “person talking at a camera while reviewing something” format, Doug’s character Donnie Dupre talks about slash fic with another character and says he’s always wanted for there to be slash fic about him. I find this endlessly hilarious, because I’m pretty much certain Doug is more than aware of the slash fic that exists about him (mostly as the Nostalgia Critic, his longest and most popular show), and he was aware enough of the slash fic internet culture to have written that into the script. He’s certainly made his share of homoerotic jokes in the past, and when the episode title in this case includes the addendum “Bromance Version,” you already know it’s going to be good.
But let’s get back to the fandom. According to the rules of the Live Journal kink meme where much of the “controversial” fan fiction is located, only one producer has asked that no shippy or sexual fics be written about him, though gen fic is still allowed. There are a few other caveats about certain pairings or certain types of fics about certain characters, but for the most part, it’s pretty free reign. This is assuming that, by this point, most if not all of the contributors to Channel Awesome are aware of this community and have had the opportunity to speak out against anything written about them, but I’m under the impression that the majority of producers are indifferent to this fanfic, even when they don’t necessarily like the content. In the comments of the Masterpiece Fanfic Theater about her fic, aunt_zelda revealed this while responding to a question: “Linkara and Marzgurl found it in July, and both have said that while they're not crazy about the subject matter, they're not bent on hunting me down and killing me. Linkara's even defended an artist on dA who drew a slashy picture of him and Insano.” Kyle stated in his Live Action Fanfic video that he’s “surprisingly okay with it,” and Bennet said in a comment that he’s “beyond caring if someone wrote a story where I do something gay.” All these examples seem to be good news for us, as there seems to be an underlying fear sometimes that a Mindcracker may not want there to be fanfic about them, and while we should be prepared to honor those wishes, I don’t think we will be hugely affected by it.
So even though the realm of TGWTG fandom has crossed streams with its source material, it seems to more or less continue to exist quite peacefully in its own areas of the internet. And yes, the more “mainstream” community often looks down on the idea of fan fiction in a very knee jerk way (especially when it involves slash), as seen in many of the video comments to the Live Action Fanfic or Masterpiece Fanfic Theater. It’s no different from the many negative comments seen in the reddit thread linking the Baj/Pyro fic. Many of us found that discouraging, but I think it’s to be expected. I don’t expect that to be everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean we can’t gain a sort of acceptance when/if the floodgates open and suddenly everyone knows we exist and sometimes write stories of the Mindcrackers kissing or whatever. There may be trolls. I don’t know how often the TGWTG fandom has had to deal with haters, but there have been instances. But we don’t try to force ourselves on anyone who doesn’t want to see it (a la “first rule of RPF”). I think we’ll be okay.
Phew, finally got that ramble out. Congrats if you got through all that. ^_^;
Since taking an interest in this community and by extension, the realm of Mindcrack fanfic, I’ve become fascinated with the meta ideas surrounding its existence in relationship to the actual Mindcrackers. Until joining this community, I had never been involved in the fan fiction side of fandom, much less “real person fiction,” so this was all very new to me and I was curious to know more. “The first rule of RPF” or “the golden rule of RPF” was something I heard a lot of from members who did have experience in those realms. Basically, don’t tell celebrities (or whomever it may concern) about fan fiction involving them. Okay, fair enough. This was sort of the base line status quo that no one questioned from my impressions of it, but being the curious newbie, I wanted to know more. Why was this the number one rule above all others? Were there any exceptions to the rule? What happened if the people in question found out about it anyway? How often does this happen?
Unfortunately, initial attempts at research into the topic didn’t yield very much. It seemed the rest of fandom wasn’t as interested in these meta musings as I was. Or maybe I needed to focus my research on a specific fandom and learn from that. But RPF seemed to mainly apply to traditional celebrities, and that didn’t feel like a good comparison point to Mindcrack. After all, how much Mindcrack fanfic can apply as RPF is a topic of some debate to begin with. We try to make tenuous lines between person and persona, though these lines tend to be different depending on the person and situation and would likely be refuted by many of the Mindcrackers themselves who say they “don’t play a character.” I’ll assume you’re familiar with the arguments, because that’s not the point of my writing this. But the fact remained that being a fandom somewhere between RPF and outright fiction made Mindcrack difficult to place in the wider world of fandom.
But then I remembered. I do know of a fandom that is similar on many levels to that of Mindcrack. With that, I present: That Guy with the Glasses.
That Guy with the Glasses (or more broadly, Channel Awesome, which is the company that sponsors TGWTG and associated websites) is something that I have been following for several years now, so I was decently familiar with it to be able to readily draw some comparisons. The site is composed of several different contributors who produce internet based videos and make money from the ad revenue. The content of the videos are usually reviews of some kind, usually with a comedic slant, and each member of the site has their own area of expertise, either film or comics or video games or anime or music or anything else. And one could reasonably argue that they occupy that weird in between space of person versus persona, though this is potentially the weakest part of my comparison. In general, the producers of TGWTG and Channel Awesome maintain that they are playing a character in their videos, which puts them on the opposite end of the spectrum as the Mindcrackers, who generally maintain that they don’t play a character. However, as with Mindcrack, I’m of the opinion that this is a blurred line for many of the producers. While some producers are very gimmicky in their shows and are very clearly playing a fabricated character, many come off as more real, voicing what could reasonably be seen as honest opinions of whatever material they’re reviewing, if sometimes exaggerated for the sake of humor. Naturally it varies from reviewer to reviewer, and sometimes it even varies within a specific show. I could write a whole other essay about where the person ends and the character begins for many of them, but again, that’s not the main point here.
And most importantly for my purposes, they have a fandom. Oh yes, they’ve got LJ groups and kink memes and their own fanfic recs page on TV Tropes. They even have their own version of fandom secrets. It’s perfect.
I wanted to start my main discussion here with the thing that first alerted me to the existence of the TGWTG fandom, and the first thing I thought of that made it a compelling comparison point when it comes to how internet based video producers relate to their fans. It was something called Live Action Fanfic.
Live. Action. Fanfic. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
Yes, sometime in 2011, some producers found some fanfic involving them, got together, and acted it out. This is either bewildering, hilarious, or mortifying depending on which side of the equation you’re on. The first example of Live Action Fanfic was clearly done for amusement purposes. The fic chosen for this treatment was poorly written with many misspellings that were preserved in the narration, complete with over-the-top interpretations from the actors (e.g., trying to act out “starring” instead of “staring”).
About a year later, Live Action Fanfic returned with a new installment. Like the previous one, the chosen fic was shippy in nature, though the writing this time was free of mistakes, and the acting was played surprisingly straight (well, more so than the previous one). The fic was originally posted anonymously as part of the kink meme, and though the author was rather mortified at finding out it was made real, other posters in the fandom were congratulating her for getting the two characters involved cuddling in a bed.
I have come across one more example of Live Action Fanfic, which was filmed independently of the people behind the first two by Kyle Kallgren/“Oancitizen,” who chose a fic that had a decidedly surreal tone much different from the shippy ones filmed by Lindsay. This is actually appropriate given Oancitizen’s billing as the guy who reviews pretentious art house films. In the opening text of the video, Kyle has this to say: “To answer some questions you will no doubt ask… 1) Yes, this is real. 2) Yes, this is kind of a ‘thing.’ 3) Yeah, I’m surprisingly okay with it.”
In another example of Channel Awesome producers being aware of their fandom, there was another series called “Masterpiece Fanfic Theater” that actually predates the Live Action Fanfic by quite a long time, though it had flown under my radar while the series was running. It features Bennett the Sage sitting in a chair reading “the very best in the very worst of fan fiction,” with the occasional snide comment in text overlay or cuts to visual accompaniment. Sometimes the fic is related to TGWTG and sometimes not. I’m not going to go through the entire archives, but I have identified at least three episodes that involve TGWTG producers. Of those, only one heavily features Bennett himself, which he facetiously lauded as being the greatest story ever written. The other two were quite slashy, and as such, garnered quite different reactions. The first, which was the very first episode of the series, featured a rather explicit slash fic that was generally regarded as troll fic within the fandom, and the comments on the episode were unsurprisingly filled with disgust. The most interesting example, titled “TGWTG Slashy Extravaganza,” is a 40 minute reading of a fairly elaborate story that, yes, occasionally features some non-explicit slashy bits. What I love about this one is that the story is, I thought, quite well written, and the comments alternate between automatic rejection of the fic and actually being interested in it save for “the gay parts.” I think the best part may be the author of the fic, who goes by “aunt_zelda” (whose name I’ve come across many times in my research of the fandom, so she’s a prominent member of that community, and she reminds me a lot of us in her level of fangirl-ism from my stalking of her LJ) responding to many of the comments about her writing and discussing the double standards in the reactions to male on male pairings versus female on female pairings.
What do we make of all this? What does this have to do with Mindcrack? When am I going to get to the damn
And I don’t think it’s a big deal.
I don’t think it’s a big deal for us because it doesn’t seem to be a big deal on TGWTG. Of the examples I have given of producers’ interactions with fanfic, what can we conclude? One way or another, they discovered the phenomenon of fan fiction about them and were amused enough to dedicate their own time making videos about it. Granted, the underlying attitudes toward the fanfic involved may be a mixed bag: at worst, it’s a mockery; at best, a celebration. But at no point do I believe the producers of Channel Awesome wish any ill will toward the fanfic writers, nor think that this particular form of fan expression should not exist. Some are even kind of supportive of it.
Before I go on, I have to tell you about the Matilda commentary, because it’s awesome when the topic of fanfic comes up in normal videos. A few months ago, Lindsay Ellis as the “Nostalgia Chick” and Mara Wilson (yes, that Mara Wilson. It’s a long story, but she’s friends with people at TGWTG, though not directly affiliated) did a joint review of Matilda. In the ensuing commentary of this review, they joke near the beginning that they should watch what they say because there’s going to be slash fic about them because of this. Near the middle of the video, the topic comes up again when Mara says she can’t wait for the day she publishes something and people write slash fic about it, going further to say that any fic about her would “be hilarious.” Lindsay eventually brings up the That Guy with the Glasses fic community, saying that “There was a very odd moment in my life when you first kinda realize people are writing slash fanfic about me and my college roommate.” I think Lindsay’s one of the most aware of the fanficcy side of the internet (she was directly involved in making two of the Live Action Fanfic videos), and she seems pretty accepting that this is a thing that happens. She even said it was “like gravity” that people just write this stuff without invitation.
In a meta (?) example, in an episode of Doug Walker’s show Demo Reel, which is probably the most obviously fictional series on the site due to it having a traditional story structure instead of the typical “person talking at a camera while reviewing something” format, Doug’s character Donnie Dupre talks about slash fic with another character and says he’s always wanted for there to be slash fic about him. I find this endlessly hilarious, because I’m pretty much certain Doug is more than aware of the slash fic that exists about him (mostly as the Nostalgia Critic, his longest and most popular show), and he was aware enough of the slash fic internet culture to have written that into the script. He’s certainly made his share of homoerotic jokes in the past, and when the episode title in this case includes the addendum “Bromance Version,” you already know it’s going to be good.
But let’s get back to the fandom. According to the rules of the Live Journal kink meme where much of the “controversial” fan fiction is located, only one producer has asked that no shippy or sexual fics be written about him, though gen fic is still allowed. There are a few other caveats about certain pairings or certain types of fics about certain characters, but for the most part, it’s pretty free reign. This is assuming that, by this point, most if not all of the contributors to Channel Awesome are aware of this community and have had the opportunity to speak out against anything written about them, but I’m under the impression that the majority of producers are indifferent to this fanfic, even when they don’t necessarily like the content. In the comments of the Masterpiece Fanfic Theater about her fic, aunt_zelda revealed this while responding to a question: “Linkara and Marzgurl found it in July, and both have said that while they're not crazy about the subject matter, they're not bent on hunting me down and killing me. Linkara's even defended an artist on dA who drew a slashy picture of him and Insano.” Kyle stated in his Live Action Fanfic video that he’s “surprisingly okay with it,” and Bennet said in a comment that he’s “beyond caring if someone wrote a story where I do something gay.” All these examples seem to be good news for us, as there seems to be an underlying fear sometimes that a Mindcracker may not want there to be fanfic about them, and while we should be prepared to honor those wishes, I don’t think we will be hugely affected by it.
So even though the realm of TGWTG fandom has crossed streams with its source material, it seems to more or less continue to exist quite peacefully in its own areas of the internet. And yes, the more “mainstream” community often looks down on the idea of fan fiction in a very knee jerk way (especially when it involves slash), as seen in many of the video comments to the Live Action Fanfic or Masterpiece Fanfic Theater. It’s no different from the many negative comments seen in the reddit thread linking the Baj/Pyro fic. Many of us found that discouraging, but I think it’s to be expected. I don’t expect that to be everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean we can’t gain a sort of acceptance when/if the floodgates open and suddenly everyone knows we exist and sometimes write stories of the Mindcrackers kissing or whatever. There may be trolls. I don’t know how often the TGWTG fandom has had to deal with haters, but there have been instances. But we don’t try to force ourselves on anyone who doesn’t want to see it (a la “first rule of RPF”). I think we’ll be okay.
Phew, finally got that ramble out. Congrats if you got through all that. ^_^;
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:26 am (UTC)Reddit is "too close" now because it is the chosen forum the Mindcrackers use to really interact with their fans. I don't think people should post (graphically shippy, at least) fanfic to Reddit. Shippy art like Sixelona does (or the fanfic equivalent) seems fair game since we have some general knowledge that the majority of the guys don't mind/are amused by it, but there's a line.
I certainly wouldn't, for example, photoshop Jason and John's heads onto gay porn stars and post that to the Reddit (or give it to them at a con or meet up).
And, with written media, there is also sometimes a general "Don't let them know we are doing this because it's moderately illegal" too. There are a handful of popular writers out there who frown on people writing fanfic of their stories. (Anne Rice, for example.) You never know when an author is going to flip out from reading you "butching" their characters by writing Hagrid raping Harry (or some other definitely-not-what-JKR-wanted story) and ask fans to not write it.
That's my thoughts on the subject. Mindcrack and other online groups are definitely a different beast than something huge like Harry Potter, so the lines are definitely blurred and we know that at least some of the guys find the stuff amusing. Having said that, I wouldn't go posting certain stories to the Reddit. If they come here and find it, then they have only themselves to blame for seeking it out if they end up disliking it.
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 12:35 pm (UTC)Very interesting, though I got lost at some points as I am too a total and absolute noob at fanfic and writing.
You make a good point but the main thing I agree with is the whole Reddit thing.. The fanfic posted there got a fair going a lot of people liked and disliked it. Tough it can't of been too bad as it was forgot quickly... Though Pyro didn't seem too impressed.
But the good humoured guys like Pause and mc know its there and I honestly think they find it funny and take it as a joke. We know it will never happen its kind of just like another dimension it could :L most f the guys I think know this is about, and they just choose not to look and kind of ignore it.
It's like reading a book. But it's just audio with some video over it and wondering "what if"
It's not like at mine-con I'm going to run up to him and Bdubs and show him my fanfic and if they do look it up they are probably prepared for the worst. Though the worst I found was the bound one with Guude and Pause... And I've see. Worse in other fanfic places for Harry potter like place blocks says.
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 07:51 pm (UTC)Fandom really is amazing sometimes.
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:01 pm (UTC)I just think its your acceptance to it, I know Pause took the x,as one as a joke but I suppose to funnier seeing someone else's fic than one that's about you.. I can only imagine his reaction to the bound one xD
The guy you mentioned. I've never herd of him but he sounds cool - I imagine he is viewing it as the joke it kind f is as a fantasy we all live in :p I like to think of it being in a sub deletion where it's just filled with 'what ifs'...
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:23 pm (UTC)Linkara is pretty cool. From what I know about him as a person, he seems pretty open minded. I tracked down his actual comments on the fic, and he was really good natured about it. He even used several anime smiley faces.
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:26 pm (UTC)Kurt I think would just crawl into a dark hole and never come out o.O
Yeah I guess it jut depends on how you view it most people would be abit weirded but if you see it for the fort time like Pyro while people like Pause/mc take it as a joke and they don't have a problem with it. Though I'm not sure how they would take it if it was about them... *oh dears my fic* v.v"
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 03:12 pm (UTC)I'm probably never going to show anything ficwise to the guys if I ever get a chance, nope. I'll just let them see it themselves and hope they don't put out a call for my head.
Loved the essay though.
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:04 pm (UTC)Harry potter for example.. Wow that's,,,, descriptive... I cringed to read even a few sentences... That is the one fic I would have been interested in if everyone hadn't totally over sexualised it :(
What's wrong with romance these days ;(
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Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 11:10 pm (UTC)As for writing, I used to be very involved in writing communities like NaNoWriMo and smaller, close knit forums. And though I know a handful of people from those places who are fanfic writers, most of us focused on original stories, either as a hobby or with professional goals in mind. And sometimes, there's this assumption from outsiders that if you're not writing to get published, there's no point, which simply isn't true. That assumption would apply doubly to fanfic writers, since, hello, copyright; you couldn't publish that if you wanted to (unless you're the author of 50 Shades of Grey, but I digress). That was even as assumption I held for a long time, back when I was anti-fanfic. I had this thinking that, even though I wasn't bent on publishing my annual crappy NaNo novels, at least it was original and I could potentially clean it up into something I could send to agents if I wanted to.