sholio | Obstinately cheerful

I am in my own fandom bubbles, in both House and SGA, and I am very, very happy here. I don't have time to wade into much meta and/or forum-type places where shipper wars and weirdness happens, so I pretty much stick to fic and writing what I can, which happens when I have spare moments/am inspired.

SO. *extends fandom bubble to encompass your puddlejumper* All you gotta do is open the door! :)

*g* I think I used to be much better at doing the fandom bubble thing, because I spent so much time in fandoms where I had to ignore the majority of fandom in order to be happy, and some where I was really just my own little fandom of one. I'm starting to think that I've lost those defensive skills and gotten complacent, since for so much time I happened to hit not just the rising wave of popularity of SGA, but I was also in tune with the characters, pairings and writers that were popular in the fandom. And the fandoms in which I've dabbled since I've been in SGA (SPN, Life on Mars, etc) have been ones in which I didn't have a whole lot of trouble finding fic and/or meta that was pleasing to me. But ... I think I'm ready for the bubble now.

*opens door* ^_^

Answering the "too complex". Truth be told, I've basically stopped producing and writing, but it's more from my fandom butterfly tendencies than from what's been happening with the fandom. And, as is the case with the flitting, I will most likely return someday, and hope to do so. But saying the absence is "temporary" isn't entirely accurate. It's more the case that I'll have temporary, random returns.

Also, poor DBZ ^_-. I mean, the anime dragged and dragged, but the manga was quite fun. Long, but such a classic. ^__^ (My DBZ love has been a little revived recently, due to it being Shonen Jump's 40th anniversary, and there's been this huge One Piece/DBZ mix thing going on, with lots of adorable merchandise filling the convenient stores and such...^_^)

I'm sorry to hear you've wandered out of the fandom, more or less. But unless you have a really bad fandom breakup (and sometimes even then), you're never truly gone ...

DBZ ... I bought one of the last volumes of the manga not too long ago (it wasn't all out in English when I fell out of love with it) and was reminded how cute it was, though I was also reminded that the art takes a lot of getting used to. XD

It definitely had its moments. But I think it's worth reminding myself that what actually got me into DBZ, for some inexplicable reason, was the gaddawful English dub of the end of the Freeza arc, which is possibly the worst part of the whole series other than GT -- from characters powering up for an entire episode, to some of the most pointless (and temporary) deaths in the series. And all of this in a butchered, bastardized version with lackluster voice acting ... and yet I remember getting up at 6 a.m. every morning before work so that I could binge on it. XD SGA has got nothin' on that!

Hee. I fell immediately in love with Toriyama's art, long before I ever read or watched the series (this was years before it was available in English and I neither knew Japanese at the time, nor knew where to even get Japanese volumes that I could look at, even if I couldn't read). There's just something about his style, especially the coloring. He'll always be one of my favorite artists.

I definitely agree about his coloring -- I have a couple of his art books, and the Dragon Ball era, in particular, has some really gorgeous stuff (nifty vehicles and monsters, too ... and I love all his Bulma art, but I'm a big Bulma fan). As the series went on, I started finding his art style hard to take ... I think I like his cartoonier stuff better than the style he uses for gritty battle scenes.

the gaddawful English dub of the end of the Freeza arc, which is possibly the worst part of the whole series other than GT

LOL, ah yes...well...THAT. Too true, SGA has NOTHING on it! ^_- As neechan remarked when I read your comment to her, we have this tendency to sorta forget the dub exists. Oops ^_- And even so, still so much joy, ne?

So glad to see you bringing on the cheerful! Yay! *huggles*

And no, fandoms never really go away (even some of the ones I had not-so-happy endings with, still, looking back, have a soft spot in my heart ^_- And SGA, despite everything, I still feel on very good terms with, so...)

As for question one...I still read the occasional SGA fic. I haven't written straight SGA fic in a long time, but I've been playing around with SGA/SG-1 crossovers (both "recently" posted fic and works in progress). So...I'm sorta both reading and writing, but not exactly.

And I'm not reading as much fic as I used to in general, but a lot of that is tighter constraints on my time.

Yeah, now that I'm feeling a bit more cheerful about the show, I ought to go read your fic! I was hiding from, well, everything for awhile there ...

Hee. Well, I'm *still* working on that replific. Um. If working means "thinking I really should work on it more."

(the "recently" was the apocafic I wrote last October. Though I did do a Sam/Daniel/Rodney for the porn battle. That was weird)

I am glad you're feeling more cheerful though!

(I get hiding. I'm...vaguely...doing that right now a little)

I am still reading and writing, just not very much... I am currently (very slowly) reading a fic for the current discussion at

sga_talk, and I'm currently (very slowly) writing something for

show_goes_on. I'm just not that interested in fanfic at the moment, period, not just SGA.

As for whether I'd be more excited if people were writing and discussing my kind of fic...I chose probably not, but I really don't know. It is never going to happen because it would involve a radical change in basically everything fanfic is about for most people, and I just don't see that happening.

Yeah, I don't know if I've had this conversation with you, but I know I have with other people, that there is a surprising lack of diversity in SGA fic for the size of the fandom -- not just in terms of what characters people write about, but the kinds of stories and themes and so forth, as well. This fandom really goes for fluffy romance with happy endings. I do like that kind of story when I'm in the mood, but one of the reasons why I think your stories are really cool is because they're not like that.

Thanks. :)

It's not just SGA fandom, though. I don't think you're going to find a fandom where the majority of fic is anything but "id fic". Which is disappointing to me, and maybe one reason I'm finding published fiction so much more appealing at the moment, idk.

This fandom really goes for fluffy romance with happy endings.

I think that's one of the things that held me back from posting fic, actually. My brain doesn't really *do* happy. As a writer, I'd much rather write the emotionally honest ending than the one that's going to get readers, but I got the impression that it wasn't something people wanted to see. Now I'm just writing it anyway, for the sheer fun of producing something; having a co-writer has done wonders for my confidence.

Oh, I hope you do go ahead and write and post! I think this fandom desperately needs a wider range of fic. There might be a lot of people who feel stifled by the general lack of dark or unhappy or generally outside-the-mainstream fic in the fandom; I know one fan who used to be on my f'list left the fandom because of it.

*snort* I definitely will. I'm working on a Rodney/Brendan Gall (from The Defiant One) fic, so it's going to be sad. The way it's shaping up it's going to be unresolved McShep, which is kind of exciting. I don't see the point of tacking on a happy ending if it messes up the characters. I'm finding the fandom divide liberating this time around (compared to SG-1), because you know some people are going to be unhappy no matter what you do, so why care?

I'm the awkward one on the middle poll, since I'm a terribly random reader/writer. I go through stages of doing each obsessively, but rarely do both at the same time. Add to that that I basically read from my flist and SGAGenRec and my reading habits are kind of hard to define. As you and

kyuuketsukirui are saying above, SGA tends to one type of fic, which I like when I'm in the mood, but I get overloaded with a bit too quickly to be able to read much.

But my Plot Bunny adoption appeal has yielded some good ideas, so assuming I find something I still want to say about these characters, I might get back to writing them yet. After all, I never *really* gave up Torchwood...

*nods* I think I'm actually more inclined to be drawn back into old fandoms these days than I used to be, maybe just because I have accumulated so many of them, but I think it's also got something to do with the social climate of LJ, where there's always someone on my f'list getting into something that I used to be into and abandoned. I got drawn back into SG1 that way, and even wrote a little for it, years after deciding that I never wanted anything to do with it again. So there's just no telling...

It's a little complex, because while I'm neither nor writing SGA fic and probably won't any more, I'm currently writing my third Word page of comments for

kassrachel's latest AU :-) So there are exceptions, definitely -- if authors I particularly like write a new fic that I want to read, or the subject is interesting, of the fic is well-recced, I'll probably read it -- I'm not the kind of person who abandons fandoms altogether. And there are always crossovers with other fandoms.

However, I've found that Merlin has replaced my not-awesome-canon-but-amazing-fic needs at the moment :-) I've actually been jumping between a lot of new shows over the past year or two, and Merlin is the first since... probably since SGA that has sucked me so deeply into fic reading, because there's so much and it's so good.

I'm currently avoiding Merlin. *g* It has that cracky, "all my f'list will be sucked in sooner or later" feeling that I got from SPN when that one first came along, but I'm currently full-up on my quota of "cute but not-so-well-written" shows and not really looking for another one.

Hopefully we'll continue to wander in and out of the same fandoms, though! :D And there are always multifandom fests like Purimgifts (which I eventually opted out of writing for, because I just wasn't in a happy enough brainspace to feel like doing it ... but it looks like it's growing nicely, and there's always next year!).

Since I'm not a writer I can only answer "still reading fic" and would like to add a "with great pleasure". *G* As for the question of perhaps reading more if more people were writing and discussing the kind of fic you like I have to say that this is not a matter of "would I like to do it" but entirely a matter of time.

I guess I would try to read more and fail miserably 'cause the day wouldn't be long enough for that. So, to be realistic, no, I don't think I would read more but it's possible that I would chose different stories - if they were written. *g* I like what SGA has to offer but there's always that craving for a certain kind of fic that seems to be rare and seldom in every fandom I've been which means I fall back on other kind of stories which I also like very much but which are not always my "dream"-story. The fact that I read them anyway tells you that I like them well enough to prefer fanfic reading to watching TV (if it's not SGA that's on). *G*

Does this make sense to you?

Hee! Well, I'm glad you're still into it -- and I know what you mean about "good, but not quite there". Most fanfic (for me, anyway) means settling or compromising on some of it -- it's very rare to find a story that fits what I'm looking for just perfectly (though it's always nice when it happens!).

>>I'm glad you're still into it

*g* I just got back from Chevron 7.2. I'm *more* into it as I've ever been so far. :-)

*Than* - I guess that should read "...than I've ever been..." *sigh* Sorry.

I wrote over 200,000 words of Dragonball Z fanfic

What? Where?

Also, I'm reading slightly less than I used to, but that's due to RL stuff. Also, if there's half an hour left till bedtime and I have to choose between SGA and Merlin fic? I pick SGA any time.

And I'm writing. I've been planning a shitload of sequels for this year. We'll see how well that goes. :)

ahahaha ... it's on ff.net, although some of it isn't online anywhere anymore; I got something like 70,000 words into a long story (which was supposed to be the first part in a trilogy, some of the rest of which is also written) and then defaulted on it because I genuinely, seriously couldn't motivate myself to finish it. It's the only time I've ever done so -- and I hated being that WIP author everyone hates; I never post anything now if it's not complete, or at least has the ending written.

tipper_green and I were talking last year about doing some kind of sequel ficathon or something, challenging people to go back and write sequels to their earlier stories. We both got busy with RL and, at least in my case, distracted by fannish apathy, but I'm kinda tempted to pick it back up again ...

Oooh, that sequel ficathon idea might be the kick that I need to write one of the sequels I'd like to write but can't seem to get around to!!

Hmm, I might have to stalk you there, then. *g* I was a huge Bulma/Vegeta shipper back in the day (in fact, I cut my fanfic teeth on DBZ), but then I lost two or three stories when ff.net declared war on NC-17 and couldn't be bothered anymore.

That would be a pretty nifty challenge. I'd sign up! Though, can you sign up for a dozen stories at once? ;)

Feel free to stalk -- my ff.net page is here (http://www.fanfiction.net/~sholio) (and, oh god, my old DBZ pages (http://sholio.laylalawlor.com/dbz/dbz.html) is still up ... I haven't looked at that in years). XD I'm a little bit afraid to look at those old stories for fear of how well they've held up over the years, but I certainly did have fun writing them!

I love Bulma/Vegeta, as a couple or as individual characters; unfortunately the story that never got finished was a long, action-adventury B/V story (Dark Prince Saga, sadly defunct forevermore).

I'm kinda tempted to pick it back up again ...

Ooh, yes! I've got a sequel that I've been trying to get out for a while...

I feel as if I'm skewing your poll because I'm very new to fandom at all and have published only one story (though I have like six? seven? WIPs). The fandom, the fanfic, and the writing are all new to me since November, even though I've been watching SGA for years. It's my cool new toy. Then again, I haven't much run into the drama that a lot of folk have.

I know I've done my share of "character X/show sucks!" TWoP postings and LJ comments, though I've tried to keep it respectful of the fans and to be mindful of the forum. (That is, I like to think I haven't contributed to harshing any squee or squeeing any harsh, at least in LJ.) Someone over in

xparrot's post talked about the therapeutic value of harshing, as a form of validation, and that's what it's been for me -- I think finding other people who saw things the same way I did was what really got me interested in exploring fandom/fanfic more thoroughly. (And it has eaten my life.) So, I'm still in the rush of that "hey, other people!" glow.

Then again, I work hard at letting stuff go, not letting the McKay haters at TWoP get to me, and watching for fic that I think gets right what I think the showrunners got wrong. Since fandom is the cure for what ails my squee, and I haven't run into -- and run screaming from -- flamewars, it's currently all good for me. I highly recommend that approach for those who can manage it (and I get not everybody can -- it took me two months to get over a sockpuppeting troll who attacked one of my RL journal posts).

So I hope you do find the right balance to keep you happy in fandom. You have great fic, and I've found your postings interesting, and I just don't like seeing people stressed out anyway. Good luck! ::Thinks virtual hugs your direction::

*nods* I do understand about finding comfort in shared frustration/anger with canon; I've definitely done that, too (comics fandom is ALL ABOUT the anger! *g*). I think it just took me awhile to realize that it didn't really work for me in SGA ... but I'm glad you're still squeeful about the show!

Fanfiction has definately had a major role in my life, so I don't think I'll ever STOP reading/writing it. Although I hardly ever actually finish/post anything on the web, I have many short stories of SGA that I have on my laptop that I always go back to read every now and then. There's many ideas that I have playing in my head, but I don't really think of of posting it because I'm afraid of the kind of reaction I'll get...

But I'll definately go on reading fanfiction, and reviewing it. It's played such a major role in my life that it's hard to just stop doing so...and I think within reading that fanfiction, there's always going to be the voice in your head that says 'don't stop, because if you do, then fanfiction will stop', and it's always kept me going with my own writing, if you know what I mean. Fanfiction is more fun to write because it brings together a sense of...completion, I guess you'd say. It brings out the best in all of us when we write it, because it's based off a show you love, or a book you've read a thousand times that you feel you've got to express yourself in...there's just so many reasons that you read fanfiction, that it's to hard to list them all!

But I think there's more to just writing fanfiction...it the fact that there's all the other people out there who do the same thing that you do, have the same feelings that you have and wish to get into that world, create new friends and such.

I think that if I'm ever going to stop reading/writing fanfics...it'll probably be because I'm old and can't write any more because my hands shake so, or because I'm no longer around to put my words down. :D

Yeah; there's just so much joy in fandom -- writing the fic, and sharing it, and finding other people's fic; I never would want to stop, and I know that even if I did leave SGA fandom, I would still be reading/writing somewhere else (but I hope I don't leave soon).

Still reading, still writing (even though I keep getting periods where I can't write!) and still enjoying the fandom (and looking for those team fics and Rodney-centric fics that I love so much...!).

*g* Here's hoping you find lots of them!

I think I've always been in some sort of fandom bubble - I never read the episode meta until I'd seen the eps, which was up to a week late and so I didn't participate in the side of things where it was easy to become soured on either the show or fandom interactions. I may have missed out on some fresh squee, but it let me stay detached from any upsets too.

I've faced up to the fact I'm still writing SGA, mostly because I have no urge to write in any other fandom, but I think it will be all au all the time from now on. But with quantum mirrors and alternate universes in the show, that can still be technically canon compliant.

Yeah ... I think that I ended up getting too involved in the ups and downs of fandom; I think I'm happier when I stay a bit detached, especially from the major kerfluffles.

Like I said in a comment to

xparrot last night, I think that SGA has a fairly unique combination of factors that makes it really easy (and tempting) to write fic for -- the epic scope and sense of wonder, the wide variety of possible stories that can be told (including canon AUs) combined with the fact that most of this wasn't explored in canon, leaving it wide-open for the fans. There's enough material to keep us going for years and years, I think ...

Me, my only real frustration with SGA fandom (since that's the only fandom I'm sort of active in as opposed to just occasionally writing in) is the lack of diversity in fic--as I think was mentioned above. And that's one reason why I'm determined to finish the ever-growing number of fics I've got in progress: I want to offer an alternative to all the shippiness and h/c. My current reading list is very short and consists of writers who don't follow that trend.

But no matter what everyone else does, I'll probably stay here in my corner for a long while, dreaming up AU after AU and all the conversations that might have happened while the cameras weren't watching. There's so many possibilities, and so few of them ever get explored.

Yeah; there is a terrible dearth of fic that doesn't hit one of the two big id-buttons -- ship/romance/porn, or h/c, which I suspect is the gen equivalent thereof (and I say that as someone who does like it -- but I completely recognize the pornographic and self-indulgent aspects). There are many other areas to explore and I'm delighted that there are a few authors doing so!

I'm only just getting started. It's a combination of being more comfortable with closed canon and finally finding a writing partner I click with - I've discovered when I don't have a co-writer it's impossible to keep my motivation up enough to finish anything. I've had literally dozens of ideas, but now I feel like I'm actually making progress.

It's heady and exciting and all new-shiny for me, which is weird because I've been in Stargate fandom for *years*.

I already said this above, more or less, but good luck with your writing; I'll be interested to see what you come up with!

I think that SGA is the first time I've actually written in an open canon, aside from a few small one-shots or unfinished fics. It's interesting to adjust my brain to being in a closed canon now ...

I am still reading fic, but not nearly as much as I used to. I have a hard time finding fic that is 1) not slash or 2) some sort of odd AU - the two things that I have to really like an author before I'll read it.

I, too, am tired of whining/angry fandom. But, since I am one of those obnoxious glass-half-full people, I remain hopeful that peoples' tempers will even out again.

There just hasn't been all that much fic coming out lately ... though admittedly I haven't been reading much lately, either. I signed up to rec for stargateficrec this coming month, and also need to start reccing for genrec again, now that I'm reading again ...

I'll read the occasional fic by my favorite authors or if the summary truly grabs me, but I used to read so much everyday... and I don't write at all anymore. (But I think that has more to do with the fact that I don't write much period anymore.) And I am into reading a new fandom so that could be part of it. But I'll never truly leave SGA, have too many fond memories and was the first one I truly engaged in. And my sort of leaving had nothing to do with negative fan reactions or anything, I just lost interest.

Yeah, I've wandered in and out of a lot of fandoms in my time, so I totally understand about just losing interest....

I never got caught up in the meta because we always watched things at least a week behind everyone else. I enjoy a lot of the gen team fic and I'm happy to read meta from trusted lj's like yours (no suckage here, really not :D) because they are safe environmaents. I don't really look for outside meta sources BECAUSE I know they can get weird.

Glad you've looked the funkster in the eye and said "Enough!" You sound happier too.

Heh! Well, I hope to avoid the suckage. :D

Obstinately cheerful

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