A poll + free swag. Best post ever!

[pauraque_bk]

I've noticed a tendency for people to assume that when there's a poll, the creator of the poll must consider its subject Deeply Meaningful. That's weird. And not true.

Anyway, here's something I was wonderin' about.

[Poll #652946]


Additionally and unrelatedly, I have in my posession a Gryffindor scarf. I don't remember buying it, but here it is. It's about four feet long, has the old-style stripe pattern (ie, first two movies) and a Hogwarts crest near one end (Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus). It also has a Warner Bros tag, so it is Official Swag.

Who wants? Free to first asker.

Comments

[woolf.livejournal.com]

Unless we're talking the sweet-ass Mary Sues I created in my head for the hell of it (which will never again be spoken of)--I didn't get fanfic till I found fandom.

And I've got my Slyth scarf, so I'm all good. :P

[pauraque]

I have a Slytherin scarf too, which I do recall buying! I wouldn't mind a Ravenclaw scarf either, but I don't have much use for a Gryff one.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Do you mean "making up stories about characters in your head, smut optional"? ('Younger than 13' is my answer there.) Or as in "writing it down and posting it on the Internet?" (Early 30s, in that case.)

[noria.livejournal.com]

Erm ... well ... I'm over here, in good ol' Europe, in Germany to be more precise ... but well, I'd like a Gryffindor scarf. Although I'd prefer Ravenclaw, too, I don't mind a Gryffindor one.

Would you even sent it to Germany? O.O
If it's too expensive, well, forget that I ever applied for it. If it's not too expensive, just contact me at noria_ric at yahoo dot de.

Thank you. :)

[0x.livejournal.com]

*scarf desire* I am canada, if location makes a difference.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

If an unfinished story written at the age of fifteen about the life of Baron Scarpia prior to the events of TOSCA counts as fanfic... It does, doesn't it. *cringe* I wrote Spoletta as hopelessly devoted to Scarpia, too. OperaSlash before I even knew such a thing existed!

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

My answers are sort of a cheat. I was writing fanfic from seven but I didn't know that it was fanfic until I was ... oh God, how old was I? I'm too stupid to do maths right now but it was back in 1998 anyway when I got into Buffy. Then I knew it was fanfiction and actually started writing stuff that I put on-line - but that was only really in ... well, 2000 actually ...

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I answered 13-19 and post-discovery, but I suppose it depends what you mean. I've daydreamed fanfic for as long as I can remember, usually starring me as a blatantly obvious Mary Sue, or else blatantly putting myself as the main character. The first time I remember attempting to write actual fanfic was shortly after I discovered it, in the Forever Knight fandom, when I was 19. (I still haven't written much, and have *finished* far less; it doesn't transfer well from my head to the page.)

However, I was recently startled to come across a blatant exception. Remember the "Young Author" stories most elementary school kids write? I was shuffling through some things in my parents' basement and came across what was, I think, my first-grade story -- which was fanfic, (unsurprisingly) starring me as a blatant Mary Sue. The fandom? The Berenstein Bears.

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

Actually, I probably wrote a fic or two where I was a member of the Baby-Sitters Club when I was 10 or 11, but I have no actual proof of that. So I just went with when I started writing in HP, which was long after I first got involved in any fandom.

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

My experience is the same as some of the other folk commenting here. I've been making up stories in my head from different sources for as long as I can remember. I just didn't write them down and posted them to the internet until I discovered lots of people apparently did this and called it fanfiction. ;-)

[hilarita.livejournal.com]

I shall skew your poll a little ;) I started writing fanfiction at age 4 1/2, when requested to write my first compositions in primary school. They featured Bilbo, usually doing something OOC with flowers. I had no knowledge of fandom or copyright. I branched into original fiction aged 7 or 8, with a carload of people with some bodies on the roofrack, and blood running down the rear windscreen. There was also a burial, which word I was completely unable to spell.
There were offically sanctioned forays into fanfic at school, where one was meant to write 'missing scenes' for things like Shakespeare, Sebastian Faulkes, etc. Again, I didn't know about fandom. ;)

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I didn't start writing fic when I thought I did (once I was within an XF discussion group and got frustrated with the OOC feel of the start of Season 6.) While packing to move, I came across a notepad on which I'd started to elaborate on a scene from the XF movie. Which surprised me, because I hadn't remembered doing that. It was before I found fandom.

Actually, I can remember first reading the kids' storybook that accompanied Return of the Jedi and immediately wanting to rewrite it, since it seemed to be no more than a chronology that missed the human element of the story entirely. I didn't, but I thought about it. Of course, that was long before I knew there was any such thing as fanfic.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Okay, I can't answer the poll because it doesn't have a category for "I've been writing fanfic for as long as I've known how to read and write, but I didn't *know* I was writing fanfic until I was in my 30's"

*g*

[mondegreen.livejournal.com]

I'm going to comment as a fanartist since the written word eludes me (hur hur). I was younger than thirteen when I started drawing what could be considered "fanart" (the first picture I was ever really proud of was one of Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid). I would regularly draw characters from books I read -- namely the female characters, depicted with huge eyes, huge lips, and huge breasts (almost like fish with boobs). I ... had issues.

I didn't start drawing HP fanart until I discovered the HP fandom, though.

You're right: I do like talking about myself!

[pauraque]

Yes it does, silly. That's where you answer that you started before you found fandom! (Your description of yourself also matches me, incidentally, except for the part about being in your 30s.)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Oops!

*goes to fill in poll* :)

[aithopa.livejournal.com]

La, I was 13 when I startedwriting the stuff down. (I think this was the exact age when I started loving things in a fannish way, as opposed to a...childish-obsession way. I don't know if that is much of a difference, but it is some. Also the age I started watching Trek. Coincidence? :o)

I've noticed a tendency for people to assume that when there's a poll, the creator of the poll must consider its subject Deeply Meaningful.

In my experience polls are mostly for purposes of frivolity!

[aithopa.livejournal.com]

Your first fanfic was Tosca fanfic? Scarpia fic no less? Awesome. :D

[spican.livejournal.com]

The first thing I recall is when I was 13-14 and wrote a fanfic scene in longhand from a Czech fairy-tale adaptation that's always shown on televison here at Christmas.

I also remember Mary Sue'ing it with Robin Hood, from a British TV series that ran in the late '70's, I think, and with Ivan Strogoff from a TV adaptation of Jules Verne's novel. All of it scattered scenes in longhand and deepest secrecy. Of course I had no idea that there was such a thing as 'fanfic'.

pornish_pixies question

[tiredofwired.livejournal.com]

Hi. I hate to bother you on your personal journal. but I didn't really know where I should comment. I draw Harry Potter fanart, mostly really smutty and rated R or above and I would like to join pornish_pixies. But the sommunity seems to be closed to new members, so I was wondering if I could join. If not, just say so, I'll friend the community and be on my merry way.

Thanks!

Re: pornish_pixies question

[pauraque]

Nope, it's by invitation only. You're not the only one who's had a hard time understanding the userinfo; I've actually been working on a way to phrase it more clearly. No worries!

[pauraque]

Neither. I meant "writing it, posting it on the Internet optional".

[pauraque]

Oh, that actually might be rather expensive. I'm sorry, I wasn't even thinking about the cost of shipping overseas, I should have mentioned that. I hope you don't mind if I send it to someone a little closer. :)

[pauraque]

Email me at pauraqueo@yahoo.com with your snail mail address, and I think you've got yourself a scarf. :)

[pauraque]

Sure, that counts! I ficced all kinds of things when I was little, from cartoons to musicals.

[pauraque]

I was about eight, but I don't think I knew what I was doing was called "fanfic" until I was about twelve.

[pauraque]

Aw, that's so cute! Arclevel the Duck visits the bears' house. :D

[pauraque]

A lot of people's first stabs at fanfic seems to have been Mary-Sue-ish, but I don't think I ever wrote one... at least, not that I recall!

[noria.livejournal.com]

No, I don't mind at all. I thought the big pond between us might be a problem, especially after I saw the applicant from Canada. ;-)
But I thought it was worth a try.

Noria
*who still prefers a Ravenclaw scarf but in the true colours but is unable to produce one of her own*

[0x.livejournal.com]

WOOHOO! :D

Re: pornish_pixies question

[tiredofwired.livejournal.com]

ok! thanks!

[0x.livejournal.com]

I got it! :D It's wonderful, I am 100% in love with it. *pets* Thank You!

[pauraque]

Hurray! You're welcome.