This is one of the reasons I've ended up sort of glad that I didn't delurk into fandom until after canon closed. I read fic and followed some journals but didn't really form any really solid fanon ideas until after I came out and started interacting with others, even though I had been reading fic for a good long while before that.
I think you point out something interesting here, which is that it's often interaction with others that fuels investment in one's interpretations of characters and events. Which in turn can motivate the need to create, to put your own version of events out there. The process of articulating your thoughts to others can clarify in your own mind what you believe and want to see happen, and responding to others' questions (or even criticisms) about your ideas can strengthen and add detail to them.
I mean, to some extent this is like — duh, we know fandom feeds on interaction, that's what fandom is. But it's endlessly fascinating to me how that arises, how when you are lurking you can feel like you aren't sure what to write or that you might want to write one or two things, but once you start talking to others your creativity can go in directions you never expected. I know this has always been my experience in every fandom I've been in.
it'll be eight years since HP's canon closed
Get out, no way. *counts on fingers*
Well, shit. The years I've spent in closed-canon HP now outnumber the years I spent in open-canon HP. I had no idea it had been that long since DH!
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Date: 2015-05-20 01:54 pm (UTC)I think you point out something interesting here, which is that it's often interaction with others that fuels investment in one's interpretations of characters and events. Which in turn can motivate the need to create, to put your own version of events out there. The process of articulating your thoughts to others can clarify in your own mind what you believe and want to see happen, and responding to others' questions (or even criticisms) about your ideas can strengthen and add detail to them.
I mean, to some extent this is like — duh, we know fandom feeds on interaction, that's what fandom is. But it's endlessly fascinating to me how that arises, how when you are lurking you can feel like you aren't sure what to write or that you might want to write one or two things, but once you start talking to others your creativity can go in directions you never expected. I know this has always been my experience in every fandom I've been in.
it'll be eight years since HP's canon closed
Get out, no way. *counts on fingers*
Well, shit. The years I've spent in closed-canon HP now outnumber the years I spent in open-canon HP. I had no idea it had been that long since DH!