That Fandom Feeling

[enchantedsleeper]

What does it mean to be "in the fandom" for something? I think everyone has a different personal answer to this question. I've spent a lot of time mulling over the question of which fandoms, past and present, I can say that I was "in"; in a way I think it's easier to define in hindsight, because the fandoms I distinctly remember spending a lot of time interacting with are definitely fandoms I would count. But if I could go back and ask my past self at the time, would I give a different answer? (More likely I'd just be confused by the question, because I feel like it's something I didn't think to define until I'd been in fandom for some time).

My personal criteria that I've alighted on usually involves creating fanworks, because that's how I know that I'm definitely Fandoming, but at the same time, there are fandoms I would say I was in that I never published a single work for, but I was interacting with a lot of fanworks and thinking fannish thoughts and generally engaging with the fandom for a solid block of time. There are also fandoms I've published at least one work for that I wouldn't necessarily count as one of my fandoms.

But what about fandoms where there aren't a lot of works to interact with? I'm a big fan of the webcomic Questionable Content, but it has an absolutely tiny amount of fic; I think there's more fanart for it, but it's sort of dispersed around and I don't really stumble across it casually. I even wrote a QC fic for Yuletide in 2019, but at that time I definitely didn't consider it to be one of my fandoms, just a comic that I liked and was happy to write for.

Then last Yuletide I was gifted a QC work of my own about a pair of characters I really wanted to read more about, and I went on a prolonged binge of the comic archives and had all sorts of thoughts and feelings about the characters and I started coming up with ideas and I realised: I am fannish about this, actually! I had an idea for another DW post I was going to write about "slow-burn fandoms", where you're into the canon for a long time and you're kiiind of adjacent to the actual fandom but you're not in it, but then you suddenly realise you have Fannish Feelings for this fandom after all 😂

That's what happened to me with QC. Even though there's not a lot of capital-F fandom to interact with or consume, I still get this sense that I'm fannish about it. But I can't explain what it is exactly; it's a kind of excitement, I guess, and a realisation that the canon/fandom has become a kind of brain-happy-place that I'll go to during an idle moment and be like ":3 :3 thinking about Those Guys :3 :3"

It's interesting to pinpoint the moment that I tip over into a fandom. I feel like I fall in and out of fandoms a lot these days, but maybe I'm just paying closer attention to it now than I was in the past? Last month I started reading and reblogging a bunch of Tumblr posts about the D&D movie but I was going, 'I don't know if I'm fannish about this, I just liked the film', but in my heart I knew that I was already in a new fandom. I'm reblogging a load of stuff and I'm interacting with fanworks and even sort of making friends because I want to try being social in a fandom for once instead of just making fanworks (not that there's anything wrong with "just" making fanworks!). And of course, the big tell, I've published 4 fics so far. But even without that, I just have this... feeling. The brain-happy feeling. I think about Them and I am 😊

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> What does it mean to be "in the fandom" for something? <<

I think there's a range.

* Being a fan of something. You might not even interact with anything other than the canon, but you love the hell out of it.

* Playing with the material in private. You might write fanfic or dress up in a costume, but if you interact with other people they're your friends and family rather than "a fandom" of a canon.

----

* Hanging around with other people who like the same thing. You interact with the fandom of the thing. You enjoy talking about it together. You might consume fanworks by other people.

* Creating fanworks. You write stories, make fanmixes, draw fanwart, sew costumes, etc. -- and a big part of your enjoyment is sharing these things with your fellow fans to make them go squee.

* Fan host / denmother / big name fan / etc. You create and support spaces where your fandom gathers. You might build a website, make extensive lists of fanworks, draft manifestos to introduce new fans to your favorite canon, host events, etc. You either take time to encourage new fans or find other volunteers for that. If the author breaks an arm, you are right there with a fundraiser and a get-well card.

All of that is fan love of canon, but people are less inclined to think of the first two as being "in" the fandom, compared to the later ones. And a fandom that has people at all levels is more eclectic and welcoming than one which might seem too demanding to new folks.

>>My personal criteria that I've alighted on usually involves creating fanworks, because that's how I know that I'm definitely Fandoming, but at the same time, there are fandoms I would say I was in that I never published a single work for, but I was interacting with a lot of fanworks and thinking fannish thoughts and generally engaging with the fandom for a solid block of time. There are also fandoms I've published at least one work for that I wouldn't necessarily count as one of my fandoms.<<

There are only a handful of fandoms where I wrote substantial amounts, although I have oopsed a book more than once. There are lots of fandoms where I enjoy the canon, the fanfic, and talking about it but haven't felt inspired to write. It's not rare for me to write in a fandom I don't actually know, because people give me prompts -- even in the fishbowl, I can use fanwork as the session's freebie -- so then I just ask for a reference. And there are even a few fandoms where I love the fanfic but wasn't at all interested in the canon! If it's just me consuming, I'm more likely to say "a fan of" than "in the fandom."

>>But what about fandoms where there aren't a lot of works to interact with? <<

People could still talk about it or create new works. Some of the canons I like are pretty obscure. This is where it's super useful to have general-purpose fandom or event communities. You can boost a fest for anything on fandomcalendar. You can host a bingo for any theme in allbingo. So then you don't need a big fandom for your canon -- you can draw on the breadth of fandom and get a big audience, where a handful of people might be really excited about your activity. fandomcalendar will take pretty much anything fandom-related. I'm always interested in getting a new fandom featured in allbingo because many members have seen all our regular (like Valentines) bingos many times. I don't care if the fandom is some obscure thing, it'll give us fresh prompts.

>> I started reading and reblogging a bunch of Tumblr posts about the D&D movie <<

*laugh* I haven't even seen it yet, but they had me at "holy shit, that's a black dragon spitting acid instead of fire!"

>> But even without that, I just have this... feeling. The brain-happy feeling. I think about Them and I am 😊

Sense of wonder is what fandom is all about.

[solovei]

Oh boy, I was thinking about this when I was writing my sticky post - what am I even *in* these days? I've never been a mono-fandom kind of person, and my levels of engagement with stuff have varied over time and across fandoms. I feel like probably my casual "I liked this thing and will reblog/save fanart if I see it" might not make a lot of people's threshold for what counts as being *in* a fandom?

You're right that sometimes there just isn't much to interact with on terms of fandom. There is a book I absolutely adore ("The Devourers", by Indra Das) which I have read about 4 times. My copy has dozens of sticky notes and tabs with my observations and thoughts and reactions. I heard about it from a friend and have gone on to rec it to other people as well. But, there is literally one work for it on Ao3 and it's mine. I've never seen fanart, or meta, or anything -- so is that a fandom? (Sometimes I wonder if maybe I imagined it, but then it occasionally shows up on those "sff books not by white men" lists, so my sanity is preserved). So in cases like that I think it's really nice to adopt your framework of "fandom" being like a happy brain space feeling that doesn't necessarily have to be defined by creating works. It's nebulous and shifting but that's okay!

[enchantedsleeper]

You feel me!! A lot of my thought processes for this post came from reflecting on, for example, which fandoms to add to my 'uber list' on Fanlore 😆 I often wait a bit before adding new ones so that I'm not being over-eager, although later I often go "Wait, I'm sure I had some other fandoms that year..." xD

I've seen people who make huuuuge lists of fandoms they're in, so that makes me feel like I'm not too overzealous with mine, although another thing I find challenging is deciding whether I'm still active in a fandom or not. I might not be actively making fanworks any more, but I engage with a lot of fandoms if the content crosses my dash on Tumblr (and some that I've never been in, to be fair xD), and it feels like I could easily dip back in if the mood took me. So that one is also kind of ambiguous.

I have definitely heard of The Devourers! 😄 I will take this as a rec to check it out, since I haven't read it myself :3 And wow, kudos to you for being the sole fanwork creator on AO3 - I hope you found some readers for it, maybe? Have you ever considered nominating and/or requesting it for Yuletide?

[solovei]

Oh my gosh YES on the "being too eager" bit - it's definitely really easy to get swept up in a fandom when it takes off on Tumblr or ao3, but then I wonder if it counts as still being "in it" when it quiets down? Though I know that the wax-and-wane of fandoms is also a fairly new thing, you often see stuff on Fanlore about fandoms from the 80s and earlier still going strong 10-15 years after the fact! (Something something the internet is more ephemeral...)

I vaguely remember nominating it for Yuletide one year (don't remember which one sadly) but I don't think it made it into the final tagset, or nobody requested it... I would definitely recommend, especially if you like darker fantasy works :) Hit me up on Slack if you want specific content warnings, like I said I have read it... four times now, I basically know it by heart XD

Also, here is proof of my rather obsessive note-taking!

[enchantedsleeper]

Holy Post-It notes, Batman!! That's amazing! I bet you would ace any course/class on the book 😂 Also, what a gorgeous cover!

Yeah, that's a very good question about fandoms quieting down. My main fandom for several years was The Strange Case of Starship Iris, and it's a super small fandom whose activity is very driven by whether there are episodes currently being released. (At the moment, it's in a lull between seasons 2 and 3, and has been since 2021). I was still happy to be fannish about it in the 'quiet periods' - if anything it was nice to focus on fanworks during that time and have the space to develop some headcanons - but I know a lot of people found the feast-or-famine activity levels to be tough. Especially if you're trying to run, like, an event and people aren't engaged enough to take part, you know?

I see Tumblr posts about how we have really short attention spans as fans these days and people just kind of descend on a fandom, CONSUUUUUME and then leave, which makes me feel guilty about moving from fandom enthusiasm to fandom enthusiasm ^^; But then, given that media is available on demand these days in a way it wasn't decades ago (at least unless the streaming platforms take it down...), shouldn't fandoms be longer-lasting? 🤔 I guess it depends on how much critical mass you have - since fandom activity kind of begets fandom activity. But also some fandoms just seem to go and go - the Inception fandom has been really long-lived considering it's one film!